It's been over a year since the Google Pixel Buds Pro arrived, giving us proper ANC and fit while not suffering the Bluetooth issues of its 2020 predecessor. They've more than earned their spot among the best wireless earbuds, but before you bring a pair home to enjoy those lovely touch controls, the multipoint audio, and the new Feature Drop that brings Clear Calling, gaming mode, and aural wellness, you need to make a very, very important decision. What color are you bringing home?

Alongside the four original colorways, Google is now offering two new colors to coordinate with the Google Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel Watch 2: Bay and Porcelain. These new colors steal the show — and put one of the original colorways to shame — but you can only wear one color Pixel Buds Pro at a time. So, let's get colorful, shall we?

Bay Google Pixel Buds Pro

The only thing I really need to say here is where has this color been for the last year?! Bay is a bold blue colorway to perfectly match the Pixel 8 Pro — and to match my heart, because I'm blue (da ba dee da ba die). Bay's blue puts the Fog's baby blue to shame, in my humble opinion, and is only matched in boldness by the Coral colorway. Even if you're not buying the new Pixel 8 Pro or Pixel Watch 2 — which has a matching Bay watch band — this new option was almost certainly worth waiting a year for.

(Well, it's the one I wish I'd waited for instead of buying Fog.)

Porcelain Google Pixel Buds Pro

Just as the Fog was too pale a blue to really look striking, it was also just a little too dim to really come off as a clean, proper white. That's where Porcelain comes in. Aptly named for the famous shade of Chinese-born ceramics, this colorway is as fancy as it is functional. Much like the Pixel 2 XL, this black-and-white colorway is dapper and dashing, and it's the only color option besides Charcoal where the case and the buds properly match.

These tuxedo buds are ready to rock whether you're at home in your extra-puffy slippers or all gussied up at a convention, and like Charcoal black, Porcelain white goes with just about everything, blending in while giving off an air of sophistication.

Coral Google Pixel Buds Pro

This fiery flex of color exists somewhere between red and orange, kind of like that Oh So Orange Pixel 4 or the much more recent "Red" Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. It's vibrant, it's bold, and it will absolutely brighten up your day. It's not a perfect fit for the Pink Pixel 8 — this was made to match the Kinda Coral Pixel 6 — but it's close enough. Having a bright, popping color for your earbuds does call attention to them, for better or worse. Bright side of bright colors: if a bud drops, you'll be able to find it pretty quickly compared to the Charcoal. Dark side: if you wear your buds all the time and just use Transparency mode or the new Conversation detection to talk to people, they're more likely to notice the buds and judge you for it.

Forget them, though; if they knew how comfortable these buds were, they'd wear them all day, too.

Charcoal Google Pixel Buds Pro

These matte black buds are tailor-made for the MKBHD crowd because matte black has all the slimming sexiness of the abyss without the yucky, messy look of glossy, shiny, or metallic black seen on the Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Buds Pro, and the new Sony WF-1000XM5. Granted, the tips of these buds aren't technically hex black; to quote Lego Batman, they're more of a very, very, very dark gray, but once the buds are seated in your ears, black is what they look like.

Charcoal is the most unassuming colorway for the Pixel Buds Pro and the set most likely to go with any hats, glasses, scarves, or masks you're wearing simply because they'll blend into the background rather than clashing the way Coral and Lemongrass likely will. They're less fun but more functional.

Lemongrass Google Pixel Buds Pro

Is it yellow? It is lime green? I don't quite know, but it's a choice Google made. It sorta matched the Sorta Seafoam Pixel 6 and definitely matched the Lemongrass Pixel 7, but it doesn't quite play nice with the Hazel Pixel 8. They're not quite bold enough to feel like the high-visibility "sport" colors earbuds often come in, and like the Fog colorway, the lighter color is more prone is discoloration over time. That said, this color has quite a following among Pixel 7 and Pixel Watch owners, so maybe it just tickles a different fancy than mine.

There is one secret benefit to this color, at least, it's that earwax or dead skin from your ears is less likely to actually be visible on these earbuds and make them look gross. I'm all for color, but I'd even take Charcoal over this Lemongrass oddity.

Fog Google Pixel Buds Pro

When we only had the original four colors, Fog didn't seem so bad. It's somewhat reminiscent of the Barely Blue Pixel 4a, or the Sky remote for the Google Chromecast with Google TV, if maybe a few shades lighter. This is the Pixel Buds Pro colorway I own — because it was the only blue available at launch. But now, in the face of an actual blue and actual white, Fog feels like someone stuck Porcelain, Bay, and a tiny piece of Lemongrass in a blender and then baked it in an Easy-Bake Oven for about half the time it needed.

I was initially worried about these pale buds discoloring over time, but one year on, they're still clean — well, the Fog-colored touchpads are, at least.

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Spoiled for (color) choice

Two new color choices on top of the existing four feels like a dream, especially when previous Pixel Buds series were quite limited in color until recently. While the Pixel Buds (2020) had serious connectivity issues, you can't deny the "Quite Mint" and "Oh So Orange" were fabulous. The paler Fog blue and Lemongrass yellow here don't mesh as well as the Coral, but at least now we have Bay and Porcelain to help round things out a little more.