Introduction
This is the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro, the company’s latest flagship wireless earbuds that were launched alongside the Galaxy S21 series. The earbuds are the company’s most premium earbuds offering to date, featuring immersive audio, exceptional call quality, and intelligent ANC. I’ve been using the earbuds for a couple of weeks, and it’s time for the full review!
Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro Specs
- IPX7 water-resistant
- Dimensions & Weight
- Earbud: 20.5 x 19.5 x 20.8mm, 6.3g
- Charging case: 50.0 x 50.2 x 27.8mm, 44.9g
- BCM 43015 chipset
- Speaker: 2 way (11mm Woofer & 6.5mm Tweeter)
- Mic: Main Mic (High SNR), Sub Mic, Inner Mic
- Bluetooth 5.0
- BT Profile : HFP, A2DP, AVRCP
- Codec: Scalable (Samsung proprietary), AAC, SBC
- Sensor: Accelerometer, Gyro, Proximity, Hall, Touch, VPU
- Battery
- Earbud: 61mAh
- Charging case: 472mAh
- Compatibility: Devices running Android 7.0 or higher, with over 1.5GB of RAM
- Colors: Phantom Violet, Phantom Black, Phantom Silver
Unboxing
The overall unboxing experience is pretty much the same, you get the earbuds in the charging case, USB-C cable, extra ear tips in different sizes, and a user guide.
Design
The charging case of the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro is quite similar to the Buds Live. If you put it next to Buds Live, you’ll hardly differentiate which is which. My review unit is the Phantom Black variant and it has a matte finishing, which I prefer a lot.
Opening up the charging case, you’ll see an LED indicator in between the earbuds for indicating the buds’ battery level. It’s actually quite hard to open the charging case with one hand, you’ll need both hands to open it.
The earbuds have an identical design language from the original Buds+ and Buds, which has a triangular touch panel but the overall earbuds are in an oblong shape. The earbuds have a total of six microphones (three on each), which are used for ambient sound mode, active noise cancellation mode, as well as picking up your voice.
The earbuds also have sensors so that they will automatically play/pause when you wear them or take off. Also, when you take off one of the earbuds, the noise cancellation mode will turn off since there is no point to have noise cancellation with one earbud on.
The earbuds fit in my ears quite well and I almost feel like not wearing the earbuds as they are pretty light at 6.3g each. You can change to different ear tip sizes to make sure the earbuds fit in your ears perfectly. However, I do feel that the ear tips will come off quite easily.
User Experience
For Android, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro comes with the Galaxy Wearable app, which allows you to check the exact battery level of the buds and case, as well as customizing the settings such as the audio mode and more. This time around, there’s no app for iOS, but you can still connect like traditional Bluetooth earphones, just that you can’t customize the settings as well as changing the active noise cancellation settings.
The touchpad functions are as below:
- Single tap: Play/Pause
- Double-tap: Next track/Accept or end call
- Triple-tap: Previous track
- Tap and hold: User-set function
The earbuds come with the Voice Detect feature, which will detect your voice and automatically turn on Ambient sound and lower media volume so that you can have a conversation with someone without needing to take off the earbuds. The app allows you to choose between 5 seconds, 10 seconds, and 15 seconds to back to the normal mode when your voice isn’t detected. I find that this feature is quite useful and it works perfectly most of the time.
Audio Quality
This time around, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro has an Intelligent Active Noise Cancellation, which the company claims able to filter up to 99% of background noise. Microphones on the inside and outside monitor noise in real-time. The Active Noise Cancellation works quite well, as good as the 1MORE TWS ANC earbuds, you can set it to High or Low depending on your surrounding. Obviously, it won’t completely cut you off from the outside world since these are just earbuds.
Like the Buds+, the Buds Pro comes with 2-way speakers (sound by AKG), a tweeter for high frequency + a woofer for low frequency. The overall audio quality is quite flat with good enough bass and excellent highs. Vocals are clear, which definitely suits me since I enjoy listening to pop songs.
The earbuds also come with a high SNR mic, which improves the phone call and audio recording experience. The mic mesh and chamber on each earbud did well in minimizing the wind noise.
Additionally, there’s also the 360 Audio feature, which is something like Apple’s spatial audio or Sony’s 360 Reality Audio. With Dolby Head Tracking technology, the intelligent motion-tracking sensor pinpoints the direction of the sound as you move your head, enabling a powerful sense of realism in your listening experience.
Battery Life
Samsung claims the Buds Pro has 5 hours of battery life when ANC is on with 13 more in the case. When ANC is off, you’ll get 8 hours of battery life with 20 more in the case. Based on my usage, I was able to get around 4.5 hours of battery life when ANC is on and 7.5 hours of battery life when ANC is off, not too far off from what Samsung mentioned. In that case, you’ll only need to charge the charging case once a week if you only use the earbuds 3 hours a day. That’s impressive!
To charge the earbuds, you put them in the charging case and charge the case via the USB-C port or wireless charging. It’ll take around 2 hours to charge the case from 0% to full.
Final Words
Retailing at RM799, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro is available in three colors — Phantom Violet, Phantom Black, and Phantom Silver. These are the most premium earbuds Samsung ever launched, but still not priced as high as the AirPods Pro. These are actually a pair of good earbuds with great ANC and they even have the 360 Audio feature, which is a rare feature for wireless earbuds at the moment. I also enjoy using the Voice Detect feature, which works flawlessly most of the time. It is safe to say that these earbuds can really compete with other earbuds from premium audio brands. Plus, they are also IPX7-rated water resistant!
Yay
- Great ANC
- Great features and audio quality
- Impressive battery life
Nay
- Ear tips fall off quite easily
- The app only available on Android
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