Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro Preview Review: The Most Comfortable Wireless Earbuds Yet?

Jason Cipriani/ZDNet

Earlier this week, Samsung announced a handful of new devices, all set to arrive on August 26th. There are the new Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy ZFlip 4 smartphones, the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro, and the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro wireless earbuds. Shortly after the event ended, I received a test copy of the Buds 2 Pro.

In the last 48 hours I’ve been using them as much as possible, listening to music and watching a few YouTube videos on a Z Flip 4. So far, the Buds 2 Pro deliver on the promise of high-end wireless. Headphones, with one exception.

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Comfort is key

After 48 hours I can say that the Buds 2 Pro are possibly the most comfortable wireless headphones I’ve ever worn. I was able to use the standard mid-size earbuds that come attached to the headphones. It comes with small and large tips and a USB-C to USB-C charging cable.

Comparing the Buds 2 Pro to the Pixel Buds Pro and the AirPods Pro, Samsung’s headphones have a unique shape. There’s the ear tip, then a small bump that fits my ear well, with a larger area on the outside where the touchpad resides.

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I was able to wear them for hours at a time without having to take a break because my ears hurt or felt uncomfortable. I also don’t feel like the Buds 2 Pro will fall out of my ear. Maybe that’s because they feel a lot lighter than the Pixel Buds Pro. Each Buds 2 Pro bud weighs 5.5 grams, while the Pixel Buds Pro buds weigh 6.2 grams each. It’s not much, but I can feel the difference (to be clear, I didn’t look at the weight before I started writing this, so it’s not a placebo effect).

Jason Cipriani/ZDNet

Professional sound quality and features

The Buds 2 Pro have all the basic features that now come with Pro wireless headphone nomenclature. That means fast pairing, active noise-cancellation (ANC) to block out background noise, and some sort of ambient or transparency mode that lets background noise through. All of these features work as expected and are comparable to the AirPods Pro or Pixel Buds Pro.

The ANC is strong enough to block my very loud mechanical keyboard and office air conditioner when it’s running, while Ambient mode lets everything through without drowning out the music I’m listening to.

However, the Buds 2 Pro have a speech-recognition feature that activates ambient mode and lowers the volume of whatever you’re listening to once it detects you’re speaking. The assumption is that you are speaking to someone and adjusting the tone will allow you to hear the person better. After 10 seconds in which the headphones no longer recognize your voice, the sound settings will revert to their previous state.

In a few short tests, I found the speech recognition to work well. It responds quickly when I start speaking and lowers the volume enough that I can hear someone across the room. You can adjust the timeout from 10 seconds to 5 or 15 seconds, but no longer. I wouldn’t mind a 20 second option.

Samsung has also added 360 audio to the Buds 2 Pro. It’s a similar feature to Apple’s Spatial Audio that creates the effect of being surrounded by the music you’re listening to or the video you’re watching. Samsung’s 360 Audio isn’t as aggressive as Spatial Audio, but there have been times when I’ve forgotten that 360 Audio was on and turned my head and heard various excellent instruments.

Voice Detect and 360 Audio are features you need to turn on in the Wear app – they’re not turned on by default.

In terms of sound quality, Samsung has added 24-bit Hi-Fi audio to the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, but you’ll need an audio source or streaming service that also supports 24-bit Hi-Fi. I don’t have access to it either, so I can only speak to the default audio experience. As with ANC and Ambient modes, the Buds 2 Pro’s sound quality is on par with other premium wireless earbuds.

So far the battery life has been good, but I need more time to get a real feel for how long the headphones last and how often I have to charge the case myself. More on battery life in the coming weeks, but I’m not worried about that for now.

Jason Cipriani/ZDNet

Autoswitch doesn’t seem to work

Or at least I can’t figure it out. Samsung promises that once you’ve paired the Buds 2 Pro with a Samsung device, the rest of your Samsung devices will automatically switch to the Buds 2 Pro whenever they’re in use and you start playing audio or receive a call. The caveat here is that you need to be signed in to both devices with the same Samsung account.

I did the initial setup and pairing of the Buds 2 Pro with the new Galaxy Z Flip 4 using the only Samsung account I have. A few times I’ve listened to music on the Z Flip 4 and then attempted to stream music or watch a YouTube video on my personal Z Fold 3 and a Z Fold 4 review model. Not once did the sound change from the Flip 4 to either Fold device.

This is similar to my experience of the feature in the past with Samsung’s wireless headphones. Am I doing something wrong?

I have contacted Samsung regarding the apparent lack of automatic switching and will provide an update.

You can use the Buds 2 Pro with non-Samsung devices by pairing them using the traditional Bluetooth method. You need to put both earbuds in the charging case and then long press both touchpads until the status light starts flashing red, green and blue.

The Buds 2 Pro do not support multipoint connections like the Pixel Buds Pro. This means the Buds 2 Pro can only stay connected to one device at a time. For example, if you want to switch from a MacBook Pro to your Galaxy phone, you need to unlock the phone, open the Settings app, go to Connections, then Bluetooth, and select Headphones.

For anyone with multiple devices manufactured by multiple companies, this is a cumbersome and inconvenient process. And that’s a shame.

To be fair, Apple AirPods Pro (and the rest of the AirPods lineup) work the same way when used with non-Apple devices. However, automatic switching between Apple devices works seamlessly.

Conclusion… for now

First impressions are important, but I won’t make a final judgment after a few days of testing. Instead, I plan to update this hands-on/early review over the next two weeks before the full launch on August 26th. I have a few flights beforehand which will be a great test of battery life and how well the active noise cancellation blocks out noise.

There is much more to come.