At this level, Samsung has quite a lot of expertise making true wi-fi earbuds. While the corporate flexed its design muscle early with the Galaxy Buds line, it hasn’t all the time nailed the main points. It rebounded rapidly with its second installment, the Galaxy Buds+, and since then Samsung has continued to refine its aesthetic, enhance sound high quality and add useful options. It even discovered time for a polarizing open-wear mannequin with the Galaxy Buds Live.

While the leguminous Live had been the primary of Samsung’s earbuds to incorporate lively noise cancellation (ANC), the open design rendered the function ineffective. With the Galaxy Buds Pro that debuted early final yr, the corporate lastly delivered true ANC, however there was room for enchancment when it comes to each noise blocking and total audio high quality. Now Samsung is again with model 2.0 of its flagship earbuds, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro ($230). This set isn’t solely smaller and extra comfy, however they showcase the large good points the corporate has made during the last yr and a half. However, probably the most enticing options are reserved for the Samsung trustworthy.

Pros

• Great sound
• Better match
• Improved ANC

Cons

• Samsung-exclusive options
• Battery life
• Call high quality
• Touch controls make match changes difficult

Design

Overall, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro have the same design to final yr’s Buds Pro, however there are just a few notable modifications. First, this new mannequin is 15-percent smaller than the 2021 model, which implies they match higher in your ear and are extra comfy for longer intervals of time. What’s extra, Samsung added a vent on the within of every earbud to assist relieve stress. Of course, the tiny stature means they tuck properly into your ear, leaving little or no protruding from the aspect of your head. It’s a design Samsung adopted early on for its earbuds and subsequent fashions have continued to be satisfyingly svelte.

The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro have a soft-touch matte coating the place the Galaxy Buds Pro was a shiny affair. I favor the previous because it’s extra nice to the contact and isn’t a fingerprint magnet. However, it doesn’t essentially supply extra grip and neither floor impacted the contact controls. The included charging case for the Buds 2 Pro is roofed in the identical matte end, so it too is pleasantly tactile. Like the Buds Pro, this mannequin is IPX7 rated, which can mean you can submerge the earbuds in as much as three toes of “fresh water” for as much as half-hour, based on Samsung.

Touch controls are mirrored on each earbuds for probably the most half. There’s single faucet for play/pause, double faucet to skip forward, triple faucet to return and a customizable contact and maintain gesture. That lengthy press can be utilized to vary noise controls – ANC/ambient sound, ANC/off or ambient sound/off – or to summon Bixby, activate Spotify or management quantity (down on left, up on proper). If you don’t need to sacrifice a few of these different options for quantity, there’s a further Labs choice that may mean you can double faucet the entrance fringe of the earbuds to regulate audio ranges.

It’s slightly difficult to grasp, however I didn’t have any critical issues with edge tapping as soon as I bought the grasp of it. The actual annoyance with the contact controls comes once you attempt to modify the match of the earbuds. The Buds 2 Pro match properly, however as is the case with all true wi-fi fashions, it’s important to often reposition them in your ears. Due to the sensitivity of these contact panels, and the small measurement of the buds, it’s simple to make an errant faucet once you’re simply making an attempt to readjust. It occurred usually sufficient to turn out to be very irritating during the last two weeks.

Software and options

Like earlier Samsung earbuds, the entire options and settings for the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are accessible via the Galaxy Wearable app on Android gadgets. Unfortunately, the corporate is staying according to current fashions by not providing an iOS model. Samsung used to have onr, which made its buds an amazing choice for each working programs, however that hasn’t been the case for some time now. You can nonetheless use the earbuds with Apple gear, however you’ll lose a number of the extra enticing options by doing so.

Inside the app, you’ll get battery percentages for each the earbuds and the case proper up prime. The fundamental display additionally provides you entry to noise controls, so you’ll be able to see which mode is lively (ANC, off or ambient sound) and make a change with the software program if wanted. Just beneath, there are alternatives for enabling/disabling Voice Detect, 360 audio, contact controls and discovering misplaced earbuds. Voice Detect is Samsung’s new function that may inform once you’re talking and routinely activate ambient sound whereas decreasing the audio quantity for fast conversations.

By default, the instrument will return to common ranges 10 seconds after you cease speaking, however you’ll be able to set that point to 5 or 15 seconds too. During my exams, Voice Detect labored properly, and it doesn’t appear to be as simply tricked by coughs as Sony’s model of the function. It additionally continues to work after I’m linked to my MacBook Pro, not solely with a Samsung or Android system. However, I favor Sony’s technique of absolutely pausing the audio relatively than simply decreasing the quantity with its Speak-to-Chat instrument. So whereas it’s useful, Samsung’s co-opting of Sony’s function isn’t as nice to make use of regardless of its extra correct speech detection.

The Galaxy Wearables app additionally presents extra detailed settings like EQ presets, an earbud match check, learn notifications, hands-free Bixby, ambient sound throughout calls, in-ear detection for calls, seamless reference to some Samsung gadgets, neck stretch reminders and Labs options. There is rather a lot packed into this software program. Everything is fairly self-explanatory, however I’ll be aware {that a} second Labs instrument is a Gaming Mode designed to attenuate latency.

There’s additionally an Accessibility part that allows you to modify the left/proper stability. Here, you may also select to maintain ANC lively once you take away one earbud (the Buds 2 Pro turns it off by default) and you may modify ambient sound quantity and tone on your listening to. Some help with amplifying environmental audio isn’t new for earbuds, however it’s good that Samsung presents a level of customization right here.

One merchandise that’s nonetheless within the works is LE Audio. Samsung talked about this throughout its current occasion, explaining that the function will mean you can seize 360 environmental sounds whilst you’re streaming or recording. For instance, in the event you’re livestreaming. There weren’t a ton of particulars shared, aside from the function will arrive later this yr. The Buds 2 Pro will even assist Bluetooth LE, the next-gen wi-fi audio commonplace that’s on the way in which after being first launched in 2020.

Sound high quality

Samsung’s earbuds have by no means actually impressed me with sound high quality. They’ve ranged from simply tremendous to good, however by no means really nice. Well, for the primary time, the corporate has wowed this jaded headphone reviewer. The Buds 2 Pro pack loads of bassy punch with a pleasantly open sound that’s each full and full of particulars and readability. The low-end can be deep and nuanced, not only a heavy dose of thundering growth.

Plenty of earbuds supply balanced sound with good bass. What separates the good from the great is often within the refined particulars that may be tough for one thing so small to copy. Samsung does this with a mix of a 10mm woofer for the low-end and a 5.3mm tweeter so the treble cuts via. Across a spread of genres, that setup allows stellar readability and depth, maintaining songs layered and immersive relatively than compressed and messy. Amanda Shires’ vocals, for instance, appear to drift on prime over each track all through her newest album Take It Like A Man.

An enormous piece of the upgraded audio high quality is 24-bit/48kHz Hi-Fi sound processing. Samsung’s new Seamless Codec (SSC) permits 256 instances extra sound knowledge to be transmitted out of your system to the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. On the earlier mannequin, 24-bit audio was transformed to 16 bit by the point it reached the earbuds. Swiping over to the Android developer settings confirmed that 24-bit/48kHz was certainly coming from the Galaxy S21 FE 5G I used to check the Buds 2 Pro, however there’s no point out of bitrate. That quantity can be a sign of total high quality.