Many headphone manufacturers used the moniker “Pro”, but very few offered the sound quality along with it. You will pay Apple or Google $200 and up for a sleek design, better mic, and noise cancellation to beat their unprofessional offerings, but both levels of headphones use a single dynamic driver to deliver energy for your tunes. As an audiophile, buying a sports car and then buying a Cadillac is tantamount to shopping. Bells and whistles are great, but sometimes you want maximum performance for the money.
That’s why I’m a fan of Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro (9/10, WIRED Recommend), uses a pair of drivers tuned to deliver deeper bass and clearer highs than California-designed counterparts.
The listening experience continues to outperform the newly released sequel, the Galaxy Buds2 Pro, with new digital signal processing and a more comfortable fit. Samsung phone owners — or really, anyone using modern Android — now have solid reason not to envy their friends’ elephant-shaped AirPods Pro (8/10, recommended wired). They even offer their main competitor, Google’s Pixel Buds Pro (9/10, WIRED Recommend), a race for their money.
What’s new?
Photo: Samsung
The biggest difference between the original Buds Pro and the new model is ergonomics. While I found the previous buds to be comfortable in my rather sore medium ears, many people find it difficult to get a good cushioning, which means they leak bass and other frequencies. .
These new, peanut-shaped buds are even better for me than the previous one (they’re 15% smaller and about a gram lighter per earbud), which means they’ll probably work just fine. more for more people. They all disappeared from my head after a few minutes of distracting listening.
The rubberized finish on the outside of the case and earbuds makes it easy to grip them, unlike the AirPods’ polished white plastic, which tends to avoid my buttery fingers. The three colors offer another glaring difference between the two major brands, with Samsung offering dark gray, off-white, and cute Barney purple (my review unit color).
Touch control improved between generations. My sweaty hair never accidentally activated the play or pause button on the right bud or turned off noise cancellation on the left bud. However, both buttons are super responsive to actual fingers. They will also automatically pause if you remove one or both headphones.
Samsung has built-in new 24-bit audio processing, 360-degree audio options, and support for the Bixby voice assistant. However, you will only be able to use the first two with newer Samsung phones and the last one that you will never want to use.
It’s nice to get some pro features like on the AirPods Pro, which comes with spatial audio support that works with iOS. But limiting those features to only Samsung phones, rather than all Android devices, could upset potential buyers who own a Google Pixel. In any case, the Samsung-specific features worked well during testing, with 24-bit audio supported by Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music and others. I still think spatial audio is only good for movies, so it’s nice to use there, but not necessary for serious music listening.
When compared to the most recent Google Pixel Buds Pro, which can pair with multiple devices made by different manufacturers at once, Samsung’s new multi-point Bluetooth offering feels a bit less professional. . Samsung achieves rapid device-to-device changes through Auto-switch, but it only works on Samsung Galaxy tablets, watches, phones, and TVs. It’s good for serious Samsung users, but not for everyone else. The same goes for the 5-hour battery life from the Buds2 Pro, which is several hours slower than Google’s Pro model. However, it beat Apple by an hour.
