Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro review: Excellent ANC, ecosystem limitations

Samsung has been a notable participant within the buds recreation for some time now. Throughout that point, it has dropped two generations of vanilla true wi-fi earbuds, combined it up with Plus and Professional fashions, and even tried out new kind elements just like the bean-tastic Galaxy Buds Stay. These Professional buds are the flagship providing although, and we’re now on spherical two with the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Professional. What have they got to supply this time round and do they do sufficient to warrant an improve from the first-gen Buds Professional? Discover out in our Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Professional assessment.

Who’re the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Professional for?

• Samsung Galaxy machine homeowners: Anybody invested within the Samsung ecosystem will get essentially the most out of the Buds 2 Professional, together with entry to unique options just like the Samsung Seamless Codec and automated machine switching.
• Folks in search of nice ANC: The Galaxy Buds 2 Professional are among the greatest noise-cancelling buds round.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Professional characteristic a matte floor, in distinction to the shiny plastic of their predecessors. They really feel premium, however we discovered that the brand new end is a bit more vulnerable to scratches. And that applies to the case too, which additionally readily attracts mud if left open. Fortuitously, robust magnets retains the case’s lid closed and stow the buds in place, although they don’t do an incredible job of orienting them appropriately. Generally you’ll must shift them round manually to get the whole lot to suit earlier than closing the lid.

The Galaxy Buds 2 Professional characteristic an IPX7 ranking, so rain and sweat shouldn’t be an enormous concern. Every earbud additionally has a useful vent to alleviate the “pressurized” sensation some folks expertise when enabling energetic noise-cancelling (ANC). Nonetheless, the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional won’t be the best selection for individuals who partake in intense exercises as they don’t have ear hooks or stabilizers to assist preserve them in place throughout speedy actions.

Whereas they might not be essentially the most safe buds on the market, the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional proved to be fairly comfy in our testing. The ear suggestions are made out of silicone, and you’ll select 11mm, 13mm, and 15mm suggestions. We discovered that the Match Take a look at within the companion Galaxy Wearable app is useful, and swapping the guidelines out isn’t too tough both.

In the event you’re the form of person who’s at all times on the go, the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional can ease into your schedule by studying out your notifications. Voice detection can be out there when you’ll always be having conversations all through the day. This routinely switches the buds into Ambient mode so you possibly can hear your environment and chat to a different particular person whereas retaining the buds in your ears. This transparency characteristic will deactivate after ten seconds with out speech, therefore Samsung’s “Clever Dialog Mode” moniker. There’s additionally a neck stretch reminder characteristic which, as you may anticipate from the outline, reminds you each ten minutes to stretch when you allow it. Thanks, Samsung!

Samsung’s buds have at all times had a little bit of a difficulty with being a tad too delicate with contact instructions, with minor changes to the buds’ positioning in your ears usually mistaken for faucet enter to pause or skip tracks. Fortunately, the Buds 2 Professional have squashed this explicit bug. Now you can modify the match of the buds all through the day with out too many unintended actions (it nonetheless occurs sometimes). Once you do faucet the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional for a fast command you’ll hear a corresponding tone. It is a good little bit of consumer suggestions so you recognize your buds truly did one thing.

By default, the controls are set to the next:

You possibly can set touch-and-hold to activate your voice assistant of selection, equivalent to Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. Bixby followers pairing their buds to a Galaxy cellphone have the choice of going totally hands-free by activating Samsung’s assistant with a fundamental “Hello, Bixby” wake work. Spotify Faucet is offered to all cellphone customers, although. Spotify subscribers can rapidly begin listening to their favourite tunes with only a single contact.

The Galaxy Buds 2 Professional’s controls are pretty sturdy total, however — and this can be a huge bummer — you don’t get a lot in the best way of customization. You possibly can solely tweak one enter: touch-and-hold. By default, holding on the left bud is about to “quantity down,” and the proper is “quantity up.” You possibly can change these inputs utterly, however there’s no mixing and matching. That’s, if you’d like the proper earbud to be “quantity up” and the left to be ANC controls, for instance, you’re out of luck. For “Professional” buds, it appears odd we are able to’t fine-tune the enter controls on a extra granular stage.

We additionally encountered a reasonably critical bug with the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional’s contact controls throughout our testing: they merely refused to register any faucets after some time. Disconnecting and reconnecting the buds fastened this problem, however that’s hardly a everlasting resolution. Hopefully, a future firmware replace will repair this problem.

Whereas you should utilize the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional through Bluetooth with out the Galaxy Wearable app, you’ll have to obtain it and register your buds to achieve entry to the complete suite of the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional’s options. It ought to be famous that the app calls for entry to a good quantity of non-public knowledge via app permissions. You possibly can opt-out of issues like location monitoring initially, however the app received’t run the subsequent time till you allow it. There’s additionally no Galaxy Wearable app for iOS, so don’t anticipate firmware updates or characteristic entry when you’re an iPhone consumer.

The Galaxy Wearable app presents you with EQ presets (no full EQ, boo), shows what listening mode you’re presently in, and allows you to management these aforementioned contact instructions. That is the place Samsung Galaxy machine customers can entry unique options equivalent to spatial audio, which Samsung calls “360 Audio.”

As for the remainder of the app, the aforementioned notification readout capacity, accessibility choices, cellphone name choices, SmartThings Discover, and the ear tip match check are all additionally right here. The SmartThings Discover characteristic is much like choices from Apple and Google, nevertheless it’s tied to Samsung’s ecosystem, so that you’ll must be rocking a Samsung cellphone with Android Oreo or later. It’s clear that current Samsung customers are the core target market right here as a result of many ecosystem-exclusive options.

General, the app is ok and vital for enabling some non-compulsory options. We actually want it had a full equalizer and didn’t ask for as a lot knowledge, although.

Bluetooth connectivity is the place the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Professional totally showcase their ecosystem-focused characteristic set. Particularly, they help the Samsung Seamless Codec on Galaxy gadgets working One UI model 4.0 or increased in apps that help 24-bit audio. Everybody else will get AAC and SBC codecs. The Galaxy Buds 2 Professional additionally help automated switching help when paired with Samsung gadgets underneath the identical Samsung account, although there isn’t a help for Bluetooth multipoint. As a result of they use Bluetooth 5.3, these earbuds ought to help the LE Audio down the road, however we’ll have to attend and see. Samsung might have included aptX for broader low-latency Android help — one other sacrifice for the walled backyard method.

How do you pair Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Professional?

The pairing mild on the inside of the case makes it easy to pair the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional to virtually any machine:

1. Open the case and depart the buds inside.
2. Guarantee Bluetooth is enabled in your machine.
3. Put your fingers on the contact panels of the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional and preserve them there till the sunshine blinks purple, blue, and inexperienced.
4. Select the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Professional in your machine’s Bluetooth settings.

Future connections with the identical machine ought to occur routinely after you’re taking the buds out of their case. For Samsung gadgets, particularly, you may even see a window while you open the case close to your cellphone or pill asking if you wish to pair the buds, even when Bluetooth is off.

We sometimes discovered that reconnecting to Samsung gadgets after a interval of inactivity additionally opened the Galaxy Wearable app. This acquired tiresome fairly rapidly.

In keeping with our checks, the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional hit round 4 hours, 50 minutes of playback time. That’s fairly near the 5 hours Samsung claims they’ll get. This isn’t the longest battery lifetime of any true wi-fi buds on the market, nevertheless it’s fairly typical for ANC earbuds. In spite of everything, it takes loads of computational energy to get good noise-cancelling outcomes.

Relating to complete battery life, Samsung claims that when you drop the buds into the case, you possibly can rise up to 18 hours of battery life total with ANC on. Switching it off permits that to climb to as much as 29 hours.

You possibly can recharge the case and buds with USB-C wired charging or wirelessly with Qi-compatible pads. When you have a Samsung cellphone that helps Wi-fi Powershare (or any machine with robust sufficient reverse wi-fi charging), you may also use that to high them again up.

Noise-cancelling might be the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional’s greatest draw to these exterior the Samsung ecosystem. Briefly, they do a wonderful job of it. That’s very true within the low vary of audible frequencies, the place these earbuds knock down undesirable noises considerably. Nonetheless, their efficiency has peaks and valleys, as seen within the chart above. That might result in a less-than-seamless expertise at occasions. Nonetheless, when you pop these buds in whereas on the subway, as an illustration, you’ll rapidly notice simply how nicely they deal with noise and the way loud the world actually is.

The buds’ isolation is alright, too, so higher-frequency noises get amply blocked, although that is very depending on getting match from the included ear suggestions. We didn’t discover it to be too tough, however the Galaxy Wearable app’s ear tip match check is useful for individuals who is perhaps struggling to get a safe match.

The isolation mixed with ANC ought to make your commute a lot quieter and stop you from cranking up the quantity a lot that you simply danger damaging your ears. In the event you don’t need ANC, you possibly can disable it or go for the transparency mode within the app to listen to the whole lot round you. And as talked about, the dialog mode characteristic works fairly nicely if you wish to strike a stability between noise cancellation and situational consciousness.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Professional observe our sister website SoundGuys’ home curve fairly carefully, as you possibly can see within the chart above, however they deviate barely within the lows and highs. They stick near the curve within the mids, so the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional ought to reproduce vocals precisely. We don’t have main complaints in regards to the Buds 2 Professional’s sound high quality on the whole. Principally, we simply have minor quibbles.

A kind of is how these kicked up far ends of the audible frequency spectrum could make the hi-hats sound too loud in comparison with the guitar in a music like Nothing To Be Completed by The Pastel. The bass guitar and kick drum are additionally fairly noticeable which makes the vocals appear just a little quiet, although when you like bassy audio, you may discover this frequency response to your liking. Nonetheless, the whole lot is distinguishable sufficient and nothing will get completely misplaced.

You possibly can experiment with included EQ presets if you want, however none of them will instantly maintain these amped-up ends of the frequency response curve. You’ll have to make use of a third-party equalizer for that. Once more, we want Samsung had included a real customizable EQ for those who wish to tinker with the combo.

Sure, the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional can take and make cellphone calls, and the microphone rejects exterior noise fairly nicely. Nonetheless, your voice could not sound “pure” to listeners. That’s positive for work calls or informal conversations, however remember the mic could create a “lisp-like” sound or make plosives (such because the letter “p”) too emphasised. Anybody with a deep voice could discover this extra in our expertise. General, utilizing these earbuds in an workplace setting or for chats with pals will probably be positive.

You possibly can hearken to pattern recordings from the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Professional beneath. Inform us your ideas within the ballot beneath.

Galaxy cellphone homeowners will completely get essentially the most advantages from the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional, which isn’t an enormous shock. Samsung is clearly concentrating on its walled backyard first by providing unique entry to its Seamless codec, high-bitrate audio, spatial audio, and far more. When you have a Galaxy cellphone already or wish to purchase one quickly, these earbuds will make an incredible companion to it. For everybody else, the scenario is a little more nuanced.

The Galaxy Buds 2 Professional’s stellar ANC efficiency is the large draw for all Android customers, however there are notable drawbacks elsewhere. Essentially the most limiting is that you simply solely get AAC and SBC Bluetooth codecs on non-Galaxy gadgets, which could lead to latency and mismatches between visible and audio content material. Whereas the Galaxy Wearable app works on all Android gadgets and presents useful options, it calls for a lot of private knowledge that’s necessary for it even to work.

Samsung’s omission of a really customizable equalizer at this worth level is disappointing for everybody, nevertheless. And eventually, iPhone homeowners ought to steer clear — there’s no app help for iOS and different buds are much more suited to Apple’s gadgets.

Samsung has been making earbuds for some time, so it’s not shocking the first- and second-generation Galaxy Buds Professional share loads of DNA when put head-to-head. The most important improve is the ANC, which is much extra spectacular on the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional.

Like most of Samsung’s earlier earbuds, the Galaxy Buds Professional characteristic a shiny case and buds, and we discovered that these scratch simply as simply because the matte Galaxy Buds 2 Professional. Each buds use the identical Galaxy Wearables app and provide the identical fundamental options, although 24-bit audio is reserved just for the brand new Galaxy Buds 2 Professional. Battery life is roughly equal — our checks acquired 4 hours, 48 minutes for the first-gen Galaxy Buds Professional, which is only some minutes lower than their successors.

If you have already got the Galaxy Buds Professional, your most important cause to improve to the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional could be the much-improved noise-cancelling. In the event you’re contemplating each and wish the very best worth, the unique Galaxy Buds Professional are cheaper and may go on sale extra usually and with higher reductions now that they’ve been changed in Samsung’s lineup.

Samsung’s extra budget-oriented earbuds, fall in the course of the pack in comparison with the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional. Curiously, regardless of being older and extra inexpensive, the Galaxy Buds 2 truly block out higher-frequency noises barely higher through isolation than the brand new Galaxy Buds 2 Professional. Nonetheless, their ANC doesn’t do as nicely within the low and mid ranges, which is the place the Buds 2 Professional actually shine.

Moreover, the Galaxy Buds 2 solely have an IPX2 ranking. Which means they’re solely immune to occasional splashes, versus the tighter water resistance of the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional. The older Galaxy Buds 2 even have a shiny case and earbuds. And very like the matte Galaxy Buds 2 Professional, each textures present scratches simply in our expertise.

Each units of earbuds provide AAC and SBC for each non-Samsung machine, however the Galaxy Buds 2 use the Samsung Scalable Codec on Samsung gadgets, whereas the newer Buds 2 Professional use the Samsung Seamless Codec. These two codecs perform equally, however you received’t get 24-bit audio help and different latest-and-greatest options with the previous. Likewise, the Galaxy Buds 2 use Bluetooth 5.2, whereas the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional use Bluetooth 5.3.

Relating to sound high quality, the Galaxy Buds 2 observe the SoundGuys’ home curve extra carefully than the Buds 2 Professional. Nonetheless, each fashions are prone to please most listeners, and the variations are minor at greatest.

With all that mentioned, worth is what’s going to doubtless tip you over to the Galaxy Buds 2 when you’re undecided. They’re a strong selection if you’d like good ANC earbuds with out spending so much.

The opposite producer looming giant within the ANC-equipped earbuds world is Sony. The Sony WF-1000XM4 ($278), nonetheless retain loads of options that make them a dependable decide on the planet of noise-cancelling true wi-fi earbuds. They don’t deal with sub-bass in addition to the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Professional, however they provide good ANC total. Plus, their foam ear suggestions successfully block high-frequencies noises. They’re additionally far more platform-agnostic than Samsung’s earbuds. Crucially, their LDAC Bluetooth codec help is offered on many Android telephones, and iPhone customers nonetheless get AAC. The Sony Headphones app works on each platforms, too. Which means it doesn’t matter what machine you employ them on, you’ll get a clean expertise.

However iPhone at all times customers may at all times fall again on Apple’s trusty AirPods Professional (1st era) and AirPods Professional (2nd era), that are tightly built-in with iOS gadgets proper out of the field. The primary-gen AirPods Professional don’t do ANC in addition to the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional, however they nonetheless work nicely sufficient to drown out distracting noises. The second-gen AirPods Professional enhance on their ANC and are available in at a comparable worth to the Buds 2 Professional.

If you’d like one thing cheaper, the Sony Linkbuds S ($179) — not the doughnut-hole Linkbuds WF-L900 — provide higher battery life at seven hours, 43 minutes with noise-cancelling enabled. They sound good on their very own, and an equalizer within the Sony Headphones app is there, simply in case.

For Google die-hards, the Google Pixel Buds Professional ($199) provide tight Android integration and dependable noise-cancelling. Their case is IPX2 rated, and together with IPX4-rated buds, so sweat and drips shouldn’t be a priority. Plus, the battery life hit seven hours, six minutes in our testing. Oddly sufficient for Android-focused earbuds, they solely help the AAC and SBC Bluetooth codes, although that places them proper in step with the Galaxy Buds 2 Professional on any non-Galaxy machine. Lastly, the app (presently) lacks an equalizer, very like the Buds 2 Professional, although Google says it will arrive in a future replace.