Review: Nomad’s leather case for Google Pixel Buds adds a stylish, subdued look

Ben Schoon | Sep 14 2020 - 2:30 pm PT

Google’s Pixel Buds are really good wireless earbuds and one of the most attractive features is the excellent case. If white isn’t your thing, though, Nomad makes a leather case for the Pixel Buds that is definitely worth considering.

Nomad is no stranger to making excellent accessories for Google’s products. I’m a huge fan of the company’s cases for Pixel phones, and for the past few months, they’ve been my go-to any time I’m using my Pixel 4 XL.

To go along with that, Nomad makes a case out of the same materials for the Pixel Buds! The quality is the same, but there’s an added blue color variant that I’ve been using here and is pictured in this review. As a note on that color, the blue hue is much more apparent in person — it’s very difficult to capture on camera.

Let’s address the question a lot of you may ask: Why would anyone want a case for an earbuds case? If you ask me, I think there are a handful of potential reasons.

One of the biggest reasons someone might want to add a case to Pixel Buds is simply for the sake of style. I really like the white case on Pixel Buds and its soft matte texture, but I have no doubt many others would prefer a black case or really any other color except white. With Nomad’s leather case, Pixel Buds look a lot more subdued when slipping them out of your pocket.

That’s another reason you might want a case on your Pixel Buds in the first place. Earbud cases are notorious for getting scratched up by the other things in your pockets — keys, wallets, etc. Over the past few months, my Pixel Buds have picked up a ton of scratches, even though most of them are only visible in certain lighting because of the matte texture.

After a few months using this case off and on, it’s worn in pretty well. My keys have scraped the leather a few times so there are a bunch of scratches and dents in the leather. I don’t think the blue version wears in as nicely as the brown or black versions do, but scratches on leather look a heck of a lot better than they do on the white plastic.

Nomad claims this is what the brown case looks like after 100 days

Finally, there’s grip. This is more of a niche use case, but the Pixel Buds charging case is relatively slippery! If that’s a cause for concern for you, the Nomad case is way more grippy. A lanyard attachment comes included in the box and helps with this point.

So, with those reasons in mind, is Nomad’s leather case for Pixel Buds worth its $34.95? I’d say so. It looks nice, fits basically perfectly on the case, and pays attention to the details. For example, Nomad uses a special optical light pipe to bring the charging indicator light to the front of the case. The button also works well, and the flipping of the hinge is completely unaffected.

There are only two negatives for me with this case. First, it’s really tight. This means the case needs no adhesive and stays in place only with friction. However, you absolutely cannot take it off without help. On Nomad’s site, the company even mentions that you can use a pencil eraser to help push the Buds out.

The other negative is USB-C. Some cables just will not fit into that cutout. Personally, I’ve been using wireless charging on Nomad’s Base Station, so this didn’t bother me much, but it might be a deal-breaker for some people.

Outside of those, I can’t recommend this case enough! It’s available for $34.95 from Nomad’s site and from the Google Store in the exclusive blue color mentioned above.