It was only last year that Samsung became a real competitor in the market for True Wireless Stereo (TWS) earbuds. It’s been making these for years, but the 2021 Galaxy Buds Pro marked a decisive shift for the company. With the 2022 Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, it has refined the earbuds, making them more comfortable to wear and offering better sound quality. They also have much better active noise cancellation (ANC).
Last year I was one of the users who complained that the fit was not ideal. I got a good close, but the tops weren’t comfortable for long stretches. So when I received the Buds 2 Pro for review, I was curious about the fit. For me, the fit is about 60% of the game with TWS earbuds.
Wear them all day long
The Buds 2 Pro, which was launched together with the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4, has a fantastic design. They are 15% smaller than their predecessors, according to Samsung. They’ve been given a matte finish – both on the buttons and on the case – that feels nice, even though it can scratch easily. At just 5.5g per earbud, this year’s Buds 2 Pro are more comfortable to hold and much more grippy.
The rubberized plastic housing has a rounded compact square shape that can be easily stored in your pocket. It has magnets to keep the lid closed and a solid build quality. It may take a few tries to fit the earbuds into their recesses, but after that you shouldn’t have any problems.
The Buds 2 Pro are water and sweat resistant and have an IPX7 rating. They are good for all kinds of activities – walking, jogging, running or just sitting at a desk all day – provided you find the ideal fit. It didn’t take me long to find a fit that was comfortable for long periods of time, but I had two minor issues. First, for some reason, I couldn’t pass the Fit test on the companion app. Second, the earbuds felt extremely lightweight; for a long time I didn’t even feel like they were there. This is both a blessing and a curse.
The only downside to making smaller earbuds is that you can’t cram a bigger battery into them. There were times when the earbuds deflated before I could take them out. Samsung estimates battery life at five hours with ANC on and eight hours with off. I achieved similar results during my testing phase.
The case (charges via USB-C and wirelessly) offers three additional charges. It also has a fast charging feature. This gives you an hour of use with a five-minute charge. You get two hours of use with a quick 10-minute charge.
The Bora Purple color I got to try was a standout. People on the subway and in cafes loved it!
Listening to music
The Buds 2 Pro comes with dual drivers and tuning by AKG, a subsidiary of Samsung. While streaming audio from Spotify and YouTube sounds great, what you’ll notice almost immediately about the buttons is the near-next instrument separation. Whether it was Dave Brubeck’s Take Five, a song by Red Baraat, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lady Gaga or Billie Eilish, the knobs gave a full, lively sound that wasn’t too bass-heavy and instead focused on the midrange and a wider soundstage. It may not have the bass-y kick of some of the other tops on the market, but the clarity and distortion-free sound was incredible. Even more so was the separation between the vocals and the instruments.
No noise pollution
Forty percent — yes, that’s the kind of improvement Samsung claims to have achieved in noise cancellation (“Intelligent ANC”) technology. If you come from the Buds Pro or other, older buds, you will definitely hear a significant difference. The ANC levels automatically adjust to the environment. I also really liked the smarter transparency mode. The earbuds automatically switch from ANC to transparency mode as soon as you speak, thanks to Samsung’s “intelligent voice detection” (in true wireless earphones, transparency mode lets outside noise in so you can hear what’s going on around you). The Buds 2 Pro will reject noise quite well during a call, but your sound may be a bit muffled compared to other buds. I tried to call a number of people and none of them had any complaints.
Ecosystem game, exclusive features
Like Apple’s AirPods, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are focused on ecosystem play. So many of the features are exclusive to Galaxy smartphone users. If you own a Galaxy S-series smartphone or one of the company’s latest foldable smartphones, you can take advantage of seamless codec, spatial audio, high-bitrate audio, and other similar features.
At the top of the list is support for high-resolution 24-bit audio. To experience this, you’ll need a Galaxy device that rocks the company’s One UI 4.0 and a music streaming service like Amazon Music. Spatial audio, or “360 Audio,” as Samsung calls it, is similar to Apple’s spatial audio format.
“Feel the immersive, realistic sound coming at you from every direction,” reads the website. This makes for a more immersive viewing experience as you are now front and center of the individual sound source. Whether this is a gimmick or not remains to be seen.
Sahil Bhalla is a Delhi based journalist
