Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro Review: It’s Great At Just About Everything

October 11, 2022 Off By Rowena Cletus

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Type: Wireless
Functionally: Bluetooth v5.3, wireless charging
Colour: Graphite, Bora purple, White
Battery Life: 5h Talk-Time 18(ANC ON) / 8h Talk-Time 29h (ANC OFF)
Active Noise Cancelling: Yes
Weight: 5.5g (43.4g case)
Rate: 9/10
Price: RM899.00

Samsung’s Buds2 Pro is the second iteration of it’s best wireless earbuds that the company makes. They pick up where the original left off by offering a more refined look and even better features. For starters, it’s considerably smaller despite sporting a similar pear-shaped look. Instead of a glossy “look at me” demeanor it features a more subdued matte color scheme.

Surprisingly, this understated look helps boost the overall appeal. This coupled with its compact size make it suitable for just about anyone, present company included. Where the original Buds Pro gave off a “joie de vivre” appeal that was aimed toward fashion-minded individuals, deuxième acte however, feels more grown up, but tastefully so.

In stark contrast to last year’s theme, this year’s Fold4, Flip4 and Buds2 Pro feature a less glossy look. This makes sense because they are priced to appeal to a demographic that doesn’t ask for attention but commands it. I’m talking about professionals who want something tasteful without being too obvious about it.

Samsung offers these earbuds in three different colours: Bora Purple, Graphite (black) and white. Though each option has its own appeal, the Graphite option feels most suited to the majority of buyers. It looks extremely cool and because of the natural hue, appeals to both men and women. Bora purple is a great option for people who like to match them with their outfits.

Both the casing and the Buds2 Pro feature a textured, rubbery feel that makes them look a little more expensive than their predecessor. The included silicone ear tips are color matched to earbuds themselves, which in the case of the black finish, gives it a cool, sinister look to it.

If you would like to know what comes inside the box of the Buds2 Pro take a look at our unboxing and first impressions article here Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro: Unboxing & First Impressions

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Setup is fairly easy. First, you’ll need to download the Samsung Wearable app. When you open the case for the first time, it almost instantly picks this up and asks if you’d like to pair it with the newly found device. Tap Yes and the earbuds are brought into the fold. That said, the app offers so much more than just a way to set up your device.

It allows you to access touch controls and toggle various options on or off. Sadly, the only customizable part is the touch-and-hold one. You can decide to swap it to a number of options like enabling noise canceling/ambient sound, volume, Bixby and Spotify.

The entire outer surface of each earbud is touch sensitive. Tap once to start or pause a track. Double tap to skip to the next track and triple tap to go back to the previous track. Due to the earbuds being so small, trying to reseat an earbud can trigger an accidental gesture that either pauses your music or enables/disables ANC/ambient sound.

It’s a bit of a bugbear for me because I had to constantly tap the earbuds to resume playing whatever I was listening to at that particular moment. On the plus side, its miniaturized look makes the earbuds feel far more comfortable to use. Make sure you choose the right sized ear tip to ensure a perfect fit.

Samsung provides you with four different sizes, so make sure you’ve chosen the ones that best fit your ears. The Wearables app has a test that you can run to determine if you’ve got a good fit. Just tap on the option and let it do its thing. It’s imperative that you have a good seal between your ears and the earbuds themselves, else the hardware can’t do much to deliver good audio.

Since the shape hasn’t changed much, the Buds2 Pro offers the same snug fit that its predecessor delivered. And because each earbud is far lighter, they remain planted on your ears throughout the day. Sudden head movements from side to side or tilting left and right don’t cause much of a problem.

How Does It Sound?
Despite being 15% smaller than their predecessor, they somehow offer a much better acoustic delivery. Each earbud’s hardware consists of 2-way speakers, 10mm woofer and 5.3mm tweeter. As such, the soundscape on offer is impressive. Since all three components are tasked with different work, you hear every note with a good amount of clarity and precision.

Though not as pin sharp as audiophile-certified offerings, it does come quite close. The lows, mids and highs feel equally represented. The crescendo of most music tracks sound perfectly clear and devoid of distortion. This speaks volumes of what the Buds2 Pro are capable of. Keep in mind that they are significantly cheaper than actual pro level earphones.

You are definitely getting your money’s worth here. The experience is akin to having a band playing between your ears. It’s a surreal experience to say the least. In addition to this, stereo delivery means that music hits you from multiple directions. Then there’s the intonations. They don’t sound muddled or distorted in any way.

It’s something that is true of any music genre you listen to. The Buds2 Pro aren’t biased to any particular one, which means they are great for vocals, instrumentals, country, R&B and funky pop music. And there’s a reason for why it’s this good. The earbuds receive and deliver 24-bit sound, which is far smoother than the regular 16-bit experience of regular devices.

That said you can fine tune the audio delivery to match your taste. This can be done via the Wearable app and under the Equalizer settings menu. There are 6 presets to choose from: Normal, Bass Boost, Soft, Dynamic, Clear and Treble Boost. Each option is self-explanatory but I found only two out of the six to be useful.

Normal offers a toned-down experience, soft and clear favor smoother music and vocals while Bass boost and dynamic offer the best all-around experience. I didn’t understand the appeal of Treble boost because it filters a lot of the mids and highs.

For me, the best experience would be to leave it on Bass boost. It offers punchy yet crystal-clear sounds that the other equalizer settings simply cannot match. It also allows the woofer to work its magic and deliver some thumping great music. It’s a great experience south of actual audiophile-level earphones.

360 Audio
When enabled, the earbuds are able to track your head movements to deliver a full 360-degree soundscape. It contributes to the overall 3D-like experience mentioned earlier. Taking this a step further is the head tracking feature. When your screen is left on, the music is delivered in a direction that is in the line of sight of said smartphone.

Move your head about and the music shifts from one ear to the other, favoring the one that is closest to your phone screen. Samsung says this helps provide for a more immersive experience especially for movies and other action-packed content.

Noise-canceling & Ambient Sound
The inner and outer mics do a great job of keeping out most noises. Assuming you’ve got a good seal, the hardware manages to pick up and cut off most ambient sounds. This is a marked improvement over the already good ANC of the original Buds Pro. It’s effective for moments when you need some peace and quiet or when engaged in a lengthy study session.

It’s only the high-pitched stuff that can cheat their way through. But by the time they reach your ears, the amplitude is dampened significantly. No matter how intrusive the ambient sounds become, the Buds2 Pro do a good enough job that they don’t cause much of a distraction.

Ambient sound mode allows the microphones to pick up what’s happening in the background and deliver them to you in real-time. Sadly, it’s not very impressive. I found it to be a little too metallic and lags by a few milliseconds. This could probably be fixed in a software update, but for now, it’s the only chink in the armor.

Special Functions
The earbuds are constantly listening for your voice. The moment they detect that you’re trying to speak, ambient sound mode is enabled and the music cuts to the background. This is really convenient for times when you need to convey something to someone urgently. I found it most useful when trying to order at coffee shops or restaurants.

It’s fairly effective at its job. Though it might miss out on a word or two, it knows when you’re deliberately trying to speak and acts accordingly. Ambient sounds can also be enabled when taking a call. This is a godsend because it makes you aware of how loudly you’re talking in public.

Overall call quality is quite good. Even in noisy environments, the person on the other end of the line could hear me somewhat clearly. The software does a good enough job that your voice receives priority over everything else.

The Buds2 Pro can also read messages aloud and inform you of call summaries. The delivery is somewhat natural and coherent. You choose which notifications to be read out loud by enabling the corresponding apps within the Wearable app itself.

Neck stretch reminders, when enabled, help you to adjust your posture. They will notify you when you’ve been hunched over at your desk for at least 10 minutes. Keeping a bad posture for too long can result in back and neck issues, so Samsung has you covered.

There are many other helpful features that are baked into the Wearables app. Like a seamless earbud connection that lets the Buds2 Pro connect with other devices that are registered to your Samsung account. Then there’s the Labs feature that improves acoustics for better in game immersion.

On a single charge, these earbuds can deliver close to 5 hours of battery with ANC turned on. When used with the case, you should get close to 18 hours of playback time before having to look for a charger.

Since they have an IPX7 rating, the Buds2 Pro should be able to withstand sweat, dust or a little rain. This makes them all-weather earphones that you can take just about anywhere and not worry about damaging the internal hardware.

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Should You Buy This?
I loved the original Buds Pro. But this second iteration makes its predecessor feel inadequate. The sound quality has better clarity and depth. If you are looking for a single pair of earbuds that can do it all – this is it. Though not meant for audiophiles, the Buds2 Pro does a good enough job at everything to be one of the most versatile offerings on the market today.

Buy these earphones if you want a good music listening experience, great noise canceling and excellent convenience features like voice detection, 360-degree audio and reading notifications aloud. These are really good earphones for the money.