It’s no exaggeration to say that Samsung has had some of the best wireless earbuds you can get for a few years at this point. Whether it’s the Galaxy Buds Pro, Galaxy Buds Live, or (my personal favorite) the Galaxy Buds 2, the company has regularly delivered on audio quality, comfort, and smart features. So you can imagine my excitement when I got the skinny on the new Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, a souped-up version of some of the best earbuds I’ve ever used.
Samsung unveiled the new buds today during its Unpacked event, alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4. They’re priced at $229.99 which is $30 more expensive than the previous version, and they’re up for preorder starting today with orders going out August 26th.
The Buds 2 Pro’s design is a bit of a departure from Samsung’s older design language. These buds are much rounder and softer-looking in comparison, and they’re 15 percent smaller so they’ll have an easier time fitting in your ears. Samsung also says it’s increased the size of the air vent to help with ventilation and improve things like active noise cancellation and transparency mode. The buds are also IPX7 certified for sweat resistance.
Inside, the Buds 2 Pro use a custom coaxial two-way speaker setup with a tweeter and subwoofer. I’ve had nothing short of delightful sound quality with the regular Buds 2 and I imagine that’ll carry over to the Buds 2 Pro. Samsung even takes things up a notch by including 24-bit hi-fi audio support through a custom codec, powered by Bluetooth 5.3. You’ll need a Samsung smartphone running One UI 4.0 or higher to use it, and audio quality will depend on which app you’re using (Spotify users in particular will be left in the dust since the streaming platform doesn’t support hi-fi audio). Nonetheless, it’s exciting to see Bluetooth earbuds begin to focus on pushing hi-fi audio.
Samsung is also including 360-degree audio support with enhanced multichannel immersion, as well as the ability to automatically move your earbuds’ connection to other Galaxy devices once you start using them. Unfortunately, that feature doesn’t extend to third-party devices like other headphones can, so you’ll want to be in the Galaxy ecosystem to enjoy the full experience.
As far as battery life goes, Samsung is promising up to eight hours of use on a full charge and up to five hours if you use ANC. Similarly, with the case, you can expect up to 29 hours with ANC off and up to 18 hours with ANC on. There’s a USB-C port for charging, as well as Qi wireless charging.
Three colors will be offered: Graphite, White, and Bora Purple. I preordered the Graphite model because I’m boring, but the White looks very nice too.
I’ll have a full review of the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro in the coming weeks, so be sure to stay tuned.
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