Galaxy Buds 2 Pro review: Big sound in a tiny package

At this level, Samsung has numerous expertise making true wi-fi earbuds. Whereas the corporate flexed its design muscle early with the Galaxy Buds line, it hasn’t at all times 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 helpful options. It even discovered time for a polarizing open-wear mannequin with the Galaxy Buds Reside.

Whereas the leguminous Reside have been the primary of Samsung’s earbuds to incorporate energetic noise cancellation (ANC), the open design rendered the function ineffective. With the Galaxy Buds Professional that debuted early final 12 months, the corporate lastly delivered true ANC, however there was room for enchancment when it comes to each noise blocking and general audio high quality. Now Samsung is again with model 2.0 of its flagship earbuds, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro ($230). This set will not be solely smaller and extra snug, however they showcase the huge positive factors the corporate has made during the last 12 months and a half. Nonetheless, essentially the most enticing options are reserved for the Samsung trustworthy.

Design

Total, the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional have an identical design to final 12 months’s Buds Professional, 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 snug for longer durations of time. What’s extra, Samsung added a vent on the within of every earbud to assist relieve strain. In fact, 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 Professional have a soft-touch matte coating the place the Galaxy Buds Professional was a shiny affair. I choose the previous because it’s extra nice to the contact and isn’t a fingerprint magnet. Nonetheless, it doesn’t essentially provide extra grip and neither floor impacted the contact controls. The included charging case for the Buds 2 Professional is roofed in the identical matte end, so it too is pleasantly tactile. Just like the Buds Professional, this mannequin is IPX7 rated, which is able to can help you submerge the earbuds in as much as three toes of “recent water” for as much as half-hour, in keeping with Samsung.

Contact controls are mirrored on each earbuds for essentially 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). In case you don’t need to sacrifice a few of these different options for quantity, there’s an extra Labs choice that can can help you double faucet the entrance fringe of the earbuds to regulate audio ranges.

It’s a little bit difficult to grasp, however I didn’t have any severe issues with edge tapping as soon as I acquired the hold of it. The true annoyance with the contact controls comes if you attempt to regulate the match of the earbuds. The Buds 2 Professional match effectively, however as is the case with all true wi-fi fashions, you must commonly reposition them in your ears. Because of the sensitivity of these contact panels, and the small dimension of the buds, it’s simple to make an errant faucet if you’re simply attempting to readjust. It occurred usually sufficient to grow to be very irritating during the last two weeks.

Software program and options

Like earlier Samsung earbuds, all the options and settings for the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional are accessible via the Galaxy Wearable app on Android gadgets. Sadly, the corporate is staying in keeping with current fashions by not providing an iOS model. Samsung used to have onr, which made its buds a fantastic choice for each working methods, however that hasn’t been the case for some time now. You’ll be able to nonetheless use the earbuds with Apple gear, however you’ll lose among the extra enticing options by doing so.

Contained in the app, you’ll get battery percentages for each the earbuds and the case proper up prime. The principle display additionally offers you entry to noise controls, so you’ll be able to see which mode is energetic (ANC, off or ambient sound) and make a change with the software program if wanted. Slightly below, 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 if you’re talking and routinely activate ambient sound whereas reducing the audio quantity for fast conversations.

By default, the device 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. Throughout my assessments, Voice Detect labored effectively, 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 Professional, not solely with a Samsung or Android system. Nonetheless, I choose Sony’s methodology of totally pausing the audio quite than simply reducing the quantity with its Converse-to-Chat device. So whereas it’s helpful, 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’s a lot packed into this software program. All the pieces is fairly self-explanatory, however I’ll notice {that a} second Labs device is a Gaming Mode designed to attenuate latency.

There’s additionally an Accessibility part that allows you to regulate the left/proper stability. Right here, you can too select to maintain ANC energetic if you take away one earbud (the Buds 2 Professional turns it off by default) and you may regulate ambient sound quantity and tone to 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 can help you seize 360 environmental sounds when you’re streaming or recording. For instance, in the event you’re livestreaming. There weren’t a ton of particulars shared, apart from the function will arrive later this 12 months. The Buds 2 Professional may also help Bluetooth LE, the next-gen wi-fi audio normal that’s on the best way 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 advantageous to good, however by no means really nice. Nicely, for the primary time, the corporate has wowed this jaded headphone reviewer. The Buds 2 Professional pack loads of bassy punch with a pleasantly open sound that’s each full and full of particulars and readability. The low-end can also be deep and nuanced, not only a heavy dose of thundering growth.

Loads of earbuds provide balanced sound with good bass. What separates the nice from the nice is often within the refined particulars that may be troublesome for one thing so small to duplicate. Samsung does this with a mix of a 10mm woofer for the low-end and a 5.3mm tweeter so the treble cuts via. Throughout a variety of genres, that setup allows stellar readability and depth, protecting songs layered and immersive quite than compressed and messy. Amanda Shires’ vocals, for instance, appear to drift on prime over each music all through her newest album Take It Like A Man.

A giant piece of the upgraded audio high quality is 24-bit/48kHz Hello-Fi sound processing. Samsung’s new Seamless Codec (SSC) permits 256 instances extra sound information to be transmitted out of your system to the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional. 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 Professional, however there’s no point out of bitrate. That quantity can be a sign of general high quality.