Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro :
It’s been six months since I bought a pair of Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, although I don’t think these are the buds that everyone should have, I’ll explain to you who I think these buds are for.
Now, the first thing I like about these headphones is their overall sound quality. Considering that you can now get these headphones for $120 to $170 depending on the retailer.
This is because Samsung uses a proprietary codec called SSC, which stands for Samsung Scalable Codec, to encode and decode 24-bit audio compared to the normal 16-bit audio used by other codecs.
And this technology, combined with the drivers found in these headphones, gives you a really pleasant, well-balanced sound that can sometimes be impactful with a very nice wide soundstage.
The sound of these headphones compared to the brand new Sony WF-1000XM5s, I still prefer the XM5 to the Buds 2 Pro, due to their better bass adjustment and their significantly better battery life, at eight hours of ANC playback, compared to the five hours you get with the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.
When you compare the Sony to these headphones, the Sony ones help to identify two flaws with the sound quality of the Buds 2 Pro: mainly, they lack a little dynamic range compared to the Sony ones, and their bass is also missing a little, but this is probably due to the design of their eartips.
Let me explain: With the Sony WF-1000XM5s and the LinkBuds S, Sony uses eartips that penetrate further into your ear canal, creating a better seal, which often allows you better bass performance.
Overall, I would put the noise cancellation of the Buds 2 Pro, on a par with buds like the LinkBuds S, or the Pixel Buds Pro.
It’s good, but not the best in its class, which is a shame, because I really like the drivers that Samsung has put in these headphones, if they just had a little better sound insulation, I think they would be one of the best buds on the market.
Now, fortunately, you can adjust the equalization of these buds somewhat, but the equalization feature that Samsung implemented for them was not what I expected, samsung only offers you a few selected options.
The dynamics were the closest to the adjustments I wanted to make, but it was still a little too heavy in bass.
I don’t know why Samsung just doesn’t allow you to have a full EQ, like Sony’s buds as well as the Pixel Buds Pro.
Now, as far as audio is concerned, there’s another feature that Samsung has marketed with these headphones, and they have marketed quite heavily, and it’s called 360 audio, which can make it seem like the speakers, are all around you.
And it uses head tracking technology to give the impression that the sound coming from your phone, is actually coming from where your phone is physically located.
For me, this feature, as is the case on many Apple products, is mainly a gadget for headphones.
The only scenario in which I’ve ever found this feature useful is when I use it with my AirPods Max and my Apple TV 4K, when I’m watching content, because in this scenario, the AirPods Max are actually able to reproduce a surround sound environment, and that’s pretty convincing.
For these headphones, would I buy them rather than another brand just for the 360 audio?No. You can still get headphones like the Pixel Buds Pro, or the new Sony Buds, and still get Dolby Music through services like Apple Music.
Although with headphones in particular, I didn’t really find many advantages in using Dolby Atmos music.
Where Dolby Atmos really makes the difference with listening to music, in my experience, it has been with headphones like the AirPods Max, and with speakers, in particular the Sonos Ray, a speaker design signed from A to Z specifically for Atmos and spatial audio.
But in general, with these buds, Atmos sounds great, however, if you turn on 360 audio, and then turn on Dolby Atmos on a service like Apple Music, it actually sounds horrible.
I guess it must be a bug, but with both settings enabled, the songs echo and reverberate.
It’s like someone took your phone, started listening to music on their speaker, and then threw it into the world’s largest bathroom.
Samsung markets the 360 audio function, as being compatible with Dolby Atmos, so I don’t know exactly how it got so messed up.
Now, the next thing, with these buds is their microphone quality.
I can hear my surroundings very well when I use the transparency mode, and when I listen to my voice, the sound is clear.
The only blow I would give to transparency mode is that when I hear my voice, it still sounds a little artificial, it’s almost as if someone had turned the gain up a little too high on the microphones used, on the headphones, and it just doesn’t give the impression that I’m not wearing headphones.
To be fair to Samsung, is quite typical of headphones in this price range, another great thing about these buds is their design and their housing.
Overall, I found them to be quite comfortable, but not as comfortable as the LinkBuds S.
For flights, they have been pretty good, I used them on a short-haul flight, and the noise cancellation was pretty good.
I haven’t used them on a long-haul flight yet, but I don’t really think their battery life would really last the entire flight.
Their autonomy is rated at only five hours, which is low-end when you look at the buds, even the buds in this price range.
The Pixel Buds Pro have a much better battery life, although they are comfortable, because the buds are still a little wide towards the ends of the ears.
Also, although I haven’t had any problems with them on walks or hikes, for running or going to the gym, you may want a bud design with a stabilizer bow, like the ones made by Beats, Bose and Google, for a more secure fit.
These buds are water resistant, they can actually be immersed for up to 30 minutes with their water resistance index, which is better compared to the more expensive Sony WF-1000XM5s.
These only have an IP4X rating, which means that they are simply splash-proof, another thing that I have learned to love about these buds is their case, it is quite thin, can hold 18 hours of battery, and I love the adherent material used by Samsung in the design.
In addition, it has wireless charging.
And because these headphones are made by Samsung, you get Samsung-specific features with them.
Like Samsung SmartThings Find, which will tell you the location and even give you an audible alarm when you move away from them so that you don’t actually leave them in a place you don’t want.
They have other features like the one that can fine-tune the sound of phone calls when you are in a noisy environment, automatic switching between Samsung devices, and a game mode to minimize audio delay.
They also have a recognition function, a conversation function that will reduce the volume when you are talking to someone, which is quite nice.
But if you sing to music, you will probably want to keep this feature disabled, for the playback controls, they are quite simple, you just have to press once to play and pause, twice to advance, three times to go back, then press and hold the left button, to scroll through the transparency mode and noise cancellation.
They have an experimental feature that you can access in the earphone settings, which allows you to turn the volume up and down using the edge of the earphone.
Conclusion :
Do I recommend the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro? Yes, although I don’t think they are the buds for everyone, mainly those who don’t have a Samsung phone. If you don’t have a Samsung phone, I would personally shop around a bit and I would probably only find myself on these headphones if they were on a really good sale.
I would spend more on the Sony WF-1000XM5, if you want better battery life, noise and sound suppression.
If you are an Android user, and in particular a Samsung user, and you want a pair of wireless headphones, with great sound, decent battery life, ergonomic design and decent noise cancellation, I think this is definitely a purchase.
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