We are starting 2021 strong with the new Galaxy Buds Pro. As a pair of everyday carry truly
wireless earbuds the Galaxy Buds Pro have all of the features that you could want in
a very compact package… but what really surprised me is that this things really do
sound great. They sound so good they actually give the Sennheiser Momentum 2’s a real
run for their money. Now I do have some critiques to point out about the Galaxy Buds Pro but
im only pointing them out cause I want to see Samsung continue to refine their earbuds…
But over all, you can believe the hype about the Galaxy Buds Pro.
Now when it comes to pricing… the Galaxy Buds pro retail for $200 which does undercut
a lot of other premium ANC truly wireless earbuds out there like either like lets say
AirPods Pro, Jabra Elite 85T’s, Sennheiser Momentum 2’s, Sony WF-1000XM3 or the Bose
QC earbuds. Now they aren’t under cutting them by a lot… but pound for pound the Galaxy
Buds Pro really do give you the best bang for your buck. So if you want to pick these
earbuds up they’ll be linked down below.
Now first off we have got to talk about the carrying case here cause to me this is one
of the most important things to consider when looking at a pair of everyday carry truly
wireless earbuds. If the case is too big, I don’t want it. So with that being said,
size wise the Galaxy Buds Pro’s case is great. Now it is a little thicker than the
AirPods and AirPods Pro case but the Galaxy Buds Pro still have a very small foot print.
Now the Galaxy’s case is about the same size as the Jabra Elite 85T’s case… but
it is noticeably smaller than the Sennheiser Momentum 2’s case which is the largest case
that I would consider to be actable nowadays. But then there are the Sony WF-1000XM3’s
which have a very large foot print but isn’t too thick… but then there are the Bose QC
earbuds who’s case has both a very large foot print and is super thick and not in a
good way. So definitely the Galaxy buds Pro have a decently small case. Now the Galaxy
Buds Pro’s case is the same size as the Galaxy Buds Live case except is has a matte
finish where as the live has a glossy finish. But personally I do have to admit that I do
prefer the live’s case over the Pro’s case. Specifically it's the tension on these
lids when you open them. With the Pro’s this lid springs opens and springs close…
but to me it feels a little too loose and maybe even a little more unpredictable. Where
as the Live’s lid has a constant tension on it. So when I go to open or close this
lid I feel like I have more control over it. It feels more intentional. Now regardless
the Galaxy Buds Pro case is still great and its super easy to handle… but like I said,
personally I still prefer the Live’s case over the Pro’s cause of the tension on the
lid. But something that both the Pro’s and Live’s case could do better are their magnets.
The magnets on in these cases that attach to the earbuds are okay but they are a little
on the weaker side. Sometimes I wish these magnets had more of a pull to them.
Now when it comes to tech specs just as you’d expect this case charges via a USB C port
but it also has wireless charging which could be a big deal for people who either have a
phone that supports power sharing or for people who have already invested in a few wireless
chargers.
Now when it comes to total battery life these earbuds really do vary depending on how you
use them. If you use them with their Active Noise cancelation and Hi Bixby turned off
then they have a combined battery life of 28 hours. The earbuds themselves can go for
8 straight hours and the case can supply an additional 2 and a half charges. But if you
use them with their Active noise cancellation turned on then the Earbuds themselves can
go for 5 straight hours. And if you were to have Hi Bixby turned on as well than the earbud
themselves would be good for 4 and a half hours.
Now regardless if you’re someone like me that only uses Active Noise cancelation or
the ambient mode on their earbuds when they have too… I feel the Galaxy Buds Pro are
realistically going to be good for around 20 to 24 hours. Which is good for 2021 earbuds.
But now lets talk about the earbuds themselves. Fit wise the Galaxy Buds Pro are between a
pair of standard fitting in ear earbuds like lets say either the Galaxy Buds Plus or Sennheiser
Momentum 2’s which go into your ear canal a decent amount… and a pair of shallow fitting
in ear earbuds like lets say the AirPods Pro or Jabra Elite 85T’s which don’t go in
too deep into your ear canal. The Galaxy Buds pro go in a little deeper than the AirPods
Pro but not as deep as the Galaxy Buds Plus. Personally I really like how these ear buds
fit. Since they don’t go in super deep they don’t get as itchy as your standard pair
of in ear earbuds, but since they aren’t as shallow they don’t wiggle out as much
as the AirPods Pro. Now yeah they still wiggle out and I still gotta readjust them from time
to time… but not as much as the AirPods Pro which I think is a win. Another important
thing to point out here is that the Galaxy Buds Pro now have oval shaped ear tips versus
the circular ear tips that you’ll find one the Galaxy Buds Plus which I feel helps give
you a more natural feeling fit. But another important thing to point out here is that
the Pro’s no longer have adjustable ear fins like the Plus. But if you look closely
at the sculpt of the Pro’s its very similar to sculpt of the Plus with their medium ear
fins attached. Overall the sculpt of the Pro’s provide decent lockdown, but personally I
would still prefer to use something with ear hooks if im looking fo a pair of earbuds to
work out with. But regardless the Galaxy Buds Pro fit great for everyday use and I can wear
these earbuds for hours on end without any problems.
Now when it comes to bluetooth connectivity each earbud establishes a connection with
your phone. So if you want to use one earbud at a time you can use either one it doesn’t
matter. Now at this point I would expect the Galaxy Buds Pro to use this set up cause Samsung
has been using this set up for a while now… and quite frankly earbuds that are still using
a hero and side kick set up these days do feel rather last gen.
Now the Galaxy Buds Pro can only be connected to one bluetooth device at a time. So if you’re
someone like me who daily drives both an iPhone and an android device, you can be connected
to one device and easily switch over to the other device by establishing a connection
by going into your bluetooth menu… but you can’t hot swap from one device to another
like you can with a pair of over ear headphones or the Jabra Elite 85T’s.
However the Galaxy Buds Pro have a very similar set up to AirPods where you can hot swap between
any of your galaxy devices associated to your Samsung account. Now if you’re a power user
thats heavily invested into the Samsung Galaxy Ecosystem this could be great… but if you’re
a power user that uses multiple OS’s like iOS, Android, and or windows then the Galaxy
Buds Pro won’t be able to jump around as seamlessly.
But from a performance standpoint the Galaxy Buds Pro have zero latency across the board
when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android
device… but when it comes to audio codecs these earbuds are strictly using SBC and AAC.
But now lets talk about listening to music with these earbuds cuase quite frankly I really
like how these earbuds sound and they really give the Sennheiser Momentum 2’s a real
run for their money. And for those who may not know the Momentum 2’s are my favorite
sounding earbuds. For starters the Galaxy Buds Pro have a 2 way speaker set up. They
have an 11 millimeter woofer and they have a 6.5 millimeter tweeter that focuses on the
highs. Now with their stock EQ these earbuds sound very AKG in the since that they sound
balanced with tamed bass but they do put a slight emphasis on the vocals. Now even though
while in their normal EQ the bass on these earbuds can be a little tamed… when it has
to come in it comes in hard and resonates a really good amount. But what’s really
impressive about these earbuds is just how open they sound. When compared to the Galaxy
Buds Plus, the Plus sound very narrow with the vocals all up in your face and if the
highs get too much they can get a little fuzzy. But none that is an issue with the Pro’s.
Now even though the Pro’s sound very open… they don’t sound as open as the Momentum
2’s. But quite frankly the sound stage and instrument separation on the Galaxy Buds Pro
isn’t too different from the Momentum 2’s. The difference between the Pro’s and Momentum
2’s is that the Momentum 2’s sound a little more open, they don’t put as much of an
emphasis on the vocals and highs as the Pro’s maybe cause they don’t have a dedicated
tweeter that they want to show off, and the momentum 2’s bass can hit and resonate a
little harder than the Pro’s if you were to go into their EQ settings and up their
bass. But overall I feel that sound quality wise the Galaxy Buds Pro are nipping at the
heels of the Sennheiser Momentum 2’s.
Now the Galaxy Buds pro also have a few EQ settings to choose from, personally I just
like using these earbuds while in normal, but there’s also bass boost which is obviously
going to increase your bass, but since these earbuds do put a slight emphasis on the vocals
and highs they don’t get shallow like some other earbuds which is good. Soft basically
just decreases your bass. Then there’s dynamic which increases both the Vocals and bass,
clear basically just moves your bass back to normal but puts and emphasis on the vocals
and then there’s treble boost which just makes these earbuds sound nasally. So I wouldn’t
use treble boost. But overall I gotta say the Galaxy Buds Plus are a pair of great sounding
earbuds thats going to please people who either like a Bass heavy EQ or vocals focused EQ
cause these things can do it all. While in bass boost the bass on these earbuds is rich
and resonates hard, while in clear the vocals are crisp and hardly ever get fuzzy… and
in general these earbuds sound very open. But for me the Momentum 2’s still manage
to inch out ahead here cause their bass resonates a little harder, they sound just a little
more open, and they don’t put as much of an emphasis on the vocals and highs. But still
the Galaxy Buds Pro are a solid Number 2 when it comes to sound. However one very important
thing to point out here is that if you want to get the best sound out of these earbuds
you gotta use them with their Active noise Cancletion turn Off cuase with their ANC turned
on they do get narrowed up a little and their bass won’t resonate as deep. They still
sound great, but they can sound better with the ANC turned off.
Now before we start talking about the active noise cancelation on these earbuds I do want
to address their touch controls. Just like with all of the other Galaxy Buds, you can
single tap to play or pause your music, you can double tap to skip a track, triple tap
to go back a track and you can press and hold to either cycle between your active noise
cancelation settings, adjust the volume, or activate your voice assistant. But first I
gotta say that I feel that these touch pads are a little too sensitive for my taste. These
things are very quick to receive an input when youre just going to readjust them while
they’re in your ears. And I find this to be very ironic cause I feel the the touch
pads on the Galaxy Buds Live aren’t sensitive enough. Personally I still fee the Galaxy
Buds Plus have the better touch pad here. It istn overly sensitive and the Galaxy Buds
Plus also have a few more options. Specifically with the Plus if you go into their Labs tab
you can select the Double Tap Earbuds edge button so that you can adjust your volume.
So this way with the Plus you can cycle between your music by tapping, cycle between your
Active Noise Cancellation Settings by pressing and holding AND still be able to adjust your
volume all from the earbuds themselves. You would think that the Galaxy Buds Pro would
expand on this double tap the edge feature not get rid of it. Cause as of right now there’s
no such feature to be found on the Galaxy Buds Pro.
But now lets move on to the active noise cancelation on these earbuds. Now first I do want to taper
expectations here the active noise cancelation on the Galaxy Buds Pro mostly focuses on constant
low frequency sounds and they aren’t going to block out as much noise as a proper pair
of over ear headphones like lets say either the AirPods Max, Sony 1000XM4 or the Bose
NC 700’s.
Now with that being said the active noise cancellation on the Galaxy Buds Plus does
a decent job of blocking out constant low frequency sounds like road noise or the hum
of an AC unit with barely any cabin pressure which is super important for comfort and their
microphone array does a really good job of blocking out wind noise when walking out doors.
However when it comes to ranking I gotta say the Bose QC earbuds block out way more noise
than the Galaxy Buds Pro, then its the Jabra Elite 85T, followed by both the Momentum 2’s
and AirPods Pro which I feel are neck and neck. Then come the Galaxy Buds Pro, and finally
there’s the Sony WF-1000XM3’s. But personally im not a fan of the ANC on the Bose QC earbuds
cause at least to me do consistently give me headaches. So if active noise cancelation
is very important to you then you’ll might want to look at the jabra Elite 85T’s cause
these don’t cause me headaches.
But like I’ve mentioned in the past, I only use the Active noise cancelation on my earbuds
when I have to and what’s really important to me is the quality of their ambient mode.
Now the ambient mode on the Galaxy Buds Pro is decent and it does sound more natural than
the ambient mode on the Galaxy Buds Plus. However there is a constant hissing in the
background and if you were to set the ambient mode on these earbuds to high or extra high
then you are going to hear that hissing even more.
And if you have the ambient mode set to high or extra high then it does sound like you’re
on the telephone cause you can really hear yourself. But also with the ambient mode turned
on this microphone array does start to pick up some wind noise… now its not A LOT but
it is noticeable and it is considerably more than lets say the AirPods Pro. So the ambient
mode on the Galaxy Buds Pro is okay but there are better ones out there. Namely AirPods
Pro.
However one really cool thing that I like about the ambient mode on the Galaxy Buds
Plus is that its the Active kind. So just like with the Sony 1000XM4 headphones if these
earbuds detect a sudden spike in loud noise they’ll automatically turn their ambient
mode off. And when that loud noise stop they’ll turn their ambient mode back on.
But a new feature the Galaxy Buds Pro have is voice detect which is very similar to speak
to chat on the new Sony 1000XM4’s. With voice detect if you have music playing and
start talking the ear buds will automatically lower the volume of your music and pump in
all of the ambient sound around you so that you can talk to someone without having to
touch your earbuds. Now you’re still going to be able hear your music in the background
but the idea is that you’re going to hear be able to hear whoever you’re talking to
over your music. Now the earbuds will stay in this state as long as youre talking…
and they’ll go back normal either after you’ve been quite for a preset determined
amount of time which you can set through their app or you can always cancel Voice detect
by tapping on either of the touch pads.
But just like with speak to chat on the sony 1000XM4’s personally im not a fan of voice
detect on the Galaxy Buds Pro cause it can get activated even if you’re talking to
yourself very quietly or if you start laughing. And either way it
is a little hard to hear people over your music. So if I am going to talking to someone
im still going to remove at least one of my earbuds.
But finally here’s the microphone test. Now the microphone on the Galaxy Buds Pro
sounds good and I sound noticeably better than the microphone found on the Galaxy Buds
Plus.
Cause with the Galaxy Buds Plus, this microphone does sound a little shallow.
The Microphone on the Galaxy Buds Pro also does a good job of blocking road noise AKA
a constant low frequency sound all while still keeping you voice front and center.
This microphone also does a decent job of blocking chatter AKA a random higher frequency
sound. But over all the microphone on the Galaxy Buds Pro sounds
and perform basically identical to the microphone found on the Galaxy Buds Live.
Now thats not a bad thing cuase the microphone on the Galaxy Buds Live sounds and performs
very well, but don’t just assume that the Pro’s are going to sound better than the
live.
But with all that being said, the Galaxy Buds Pro really are a great pair of every day carry
truly wireless earbuds. They have a small case with wireless charging, they fit very
well and they manage to not get itchy as much when they’re in your ears unlike a pair
of standard fitting in ear ear buds, but don’t wiggle out as much as a pair of shallow fitting
in ear earbuds, they have good battery life, they block out a decent amount of noise and
they have a decent ambient mode. But the stand out characteristic about the Galaxy Buds Pro
is simply just their sound. These things sound great, the 2 way speakers in them are not
hype. The Galaxy Buds Pro sound very open, they have deep resonating base, and they have
very well defined highs. I think right now, the Galaxy Buds Plus are my second favorite
sounding earbuds.