**Galaxy Buds 2 Pro: A Step Up in Sound Quality**

If your audio setup meets the list of requirements, be using the Samsung Seamless Hifi codec which transmits in 24 bit assuming your audio files support it. I found it irritating that there's no way to tell what bit rate you're streaming at but I'll have to take Samsung's word that I was getting 24 bit audio. I did notice a small difference when streaming tracks from Qobuz with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 however using the iPhone 13 Pro, the sound quality was also very good with an amp-wide sound stage. I went back and forth with different tracks and the Flip 3 sound came across slightly more accurately, with the touch of more detailed depth and clarity. The base is punchy and well defined, and I didn't experience any noticeable distortion at higher volumes.

In short, they're excellent sounding buds but I'm not sure they're superior to other top earbuds in their price range including the PixelBuds Pro, BeatsFit Pro, and Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3. But their sound is a noticeable step up from the sound of the standard Galaxy Buds 2 particularly in terms of clarity. Mostly, I went with the default sound setting though you can tweak the signature profile in the Galaxy Wearable app with some preset equalizer settings including a bass boost setting.

**A Noticeable Upgrade**

The truth is that a lot of these premium-priced earbuds are starting to sound pretty similar and it's really the fit and how they fit your particular ears that's going to make you like one more than another. Once again, Samsung has delivered a set of Galaxy buttons that work well as a headset for making calls. They have good voice pickup from the beam-forming microphones while providing good background noise reduction. Callers can hear me relatively clearly in the noisy streets of New York and the buds did a decent job reducing wind noise.

I'm in the streets of New York City here, and I'm talking to John Falcone, a fellow editor, how do I sound? There's a little bit of wind in the background here and some traffic is going by. Well, if you're on a fairly noisy city street, I'd have to rate the experience on my end as very good to excellent. Just hear a very slight kind of hiss that we sometimes get with noise cancelling but your voice is coming over loud and clear no artifacts or distractions.

**A Samsung Exclusive**

Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are an accessory for Galaxy smartphones and as a result, more geared towards the owners of Galaxy devices. The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are no exception; they're excellent earbuds but you do lose some of their key features if you're not a Galaxy device owner. For that reason, it's easy to see them as the Samsung equivalent of the AirPods Pro which may very well get some sort of high-resolution wireless streaming option with the arrival of the AirPods Pro 2 that will likely use proprietary Apple technology that only works with their devices.

By comparison, the PixelBuds Pro have fewer features geared exclusively toward Pixel owners and such features as hands-free Google Assistant and true multi-point Bluetooth pairing are available across all Android devices. However, the PixelBuds Pro have no enhanced audio codec support which may be important if you're convinced it makes a big difference. I personally think it only makes a slight difference with this class of earbuds that may have a premium price tag but aren't really high-end.

**The Verdict**

The bigger question will be whether it's worth upgrading to the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro if you already own a pair of Galaxy Buds particularly the original Galaxy Buds Pro. I think that will largely depend on what price you can get the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro for while their list price is $230, Samsung is currently offering trade-in deals of any Galaxy Buds in any condition that bring their price down to around $155 and you can often get deals on them as part of a bundle with a new Galaxy phone.

For me, anyway, while the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro offers some legitimate performance improvements over their predecessor, their design is the biggest upgrade that makes them the best Galaxy Buds yet. Let me know what you guys think if you're a current Galaxy Buds Pro owner are you going to upgrade to the Buds 2 Pro and would you still consider getting them even if you're not a Samsung device owner?

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi there i've got samsung's 230 galaxy buds 2 pro here which i keep referring to as the galaxy buds pro 2 because that's what i think the second generation of the galaxy buds pro should be called but hey i don't get to name products i just review them and i will say that these buds have an all-around better design than their predecessor which just didn't fit my ears all that well with the ear tips that were included not only are they 15 smaller but they weigh slightly less 5.5 grams per bud versus 6.3 grams and have a soft to the touch matte finish on both the buzz in case that gives them a nicer feel and makes them a bit more grippy and that finish also makes the compact case a little less likely to slip out of your hand and more importantly it helps keep the buds in your ears a little more securely and thanks to their new shape and smaller size i was able to get a tight seal with the largest set of included ear tips and didn't have to supply my own i can't say they'll fit all ears equally well but they should provide a better fit to more ears than the original galaxy buds pro aside from the revamped design samsung is touting the bud's improved noise cancelling and support for 24-bit high-resolution audio the catch is that to get that 24-bit audio you need a galaxy device equipped with samsung's one ui 4.0 and a music streaming service like qoba's title or amazon music that streams high-res audio tracks on all other devices including android phones and iphones the buds default to the aac audio codec they use bluetooth 5.3 alas they don't support the more common aptx adaptive audio codec for android devices only the new samsung seamless hifi codec which samsung says delivers 256 times more sound data than 16-bit cd quality audio numbers like that are a bit deceptive because based on my experience you're really only going to notice a small difference when streaming higher bitrate tracks but more on that after i ran out the rest of the feature set these have touch controls they work well but don't offer much in the way of customization and galaxy device owners can activate hands-free bixby samsung's voice assistant samsung's 360 audio virtual surround feature with head tracking returns in an enhanced version and now works with a variety of galaxy devices out of the gate though it's not compatible with other android devices it works along the same lines as apple's spatial audio feature for airpods and can enhance your movie and tv watching experience though it doesn't seem to be as pronounced as apple spatial audio which i think is slightly better overall it also works with music or any audio you're listening to the buds 2 pro are ipx7 water resistant which means they can withstand being fully submerged in one meter deep water for up to 30 minutes i had no problem running with them and they didn't slip out of my ears like their predecessor battery life is rated at five hours with noise cancelling on and eight hours with it off at moderate volume levels and you get about three additional charges in the case which charges via usbc and wirelessly some people are complaining that five hours is pretty mediocre and yeah it is but it's hard to shrink buds while increasing battery life and there is a quick charge feature to get you an hour use when you drop the buzz in the case for five minutes or two hours with a 10 minute charge so those battery life numbers weren't a deal breaker for me sensors detect when the buds are in your ears and will pause your music when you take both buds out of your ears but what's a little weird is they won't resume playback when you put them back in your ears without you tapping on one of the butts you can use a single bud while leaving the other one in the case additionally you can opt to activate a voice detect mode in the galaxy wearable companion app that automatically turns off noise canceling and switches to ambient mode when you speak allowing you to hear the outside world and engage in a conversation with someone sony offers a similar feature with this wf-1000x mark iv and link buds s earbuds another new feature worth mentioning has nothing to do with audio you can toggle on the next stretch reminder setting that detects your head position alerts you when you bend your head downward for 10 minutes that's a good one for all of us who stare down at our phones all the time while these have a find my buds feature that samsung calls smartthings fine it doesn't offer the more precise tracking capabilities of apple's enhanced find my in its latest airpods it just tells you the location where the bus last connected to your device you don't get true multi-point bluetooth pairing that allows you to pair the butt simultaneously with any two bluetooth enabled devices such as a phone and a computer but they do offer auto switching between samsung devices logged into your samsung account including samsung tvs built in 2022 or later and samsung's galaxy books laptops built after 2020. i haven't thoroughly tested the auto switching feature with many samsung devices because i just don't own that many samsung devices so i can't confirm exactly how reliably it works but feel free to let me know about any experiences you've had with it in the comments section samsung says it's improved the noise cancelling on the galaxy buds 2 pro by 40 percent it calls it intelligent anc now i have found it an improvement on the original galaxy but pro but noise cancelling performance is affected by how tight a seal you get from the ear tips so your perception of how much is improved may vary by how good a seal you get i thought the noise cancelling was close but not quite there with that of the noise cancelling the sony wf1000x mach 4 buds but it did a good job muffling a variety of noise on the streets of new york and in the subway you can turn the noise canceling off or activate ambient mode the equivalent of apple's transparency mode which i thought sounded pretty natural but there's no setting to adjust noise canceling levels it automatically adapts to your environment i appreciate that the buds 2 pro are equipped with two-way drivers a 10 millimeter woofer and 5.3 millimeter tweeter along with three microphones two of which are being forming for voice calls i paired the buds with a galaxy z flip 3 iphone 13 pro and google pixel 4 xl and stream music using quobas i also stream some movies from google play and netflix according to samsung there's no way to check whether you're getting 24 bit audio nothing indicates whether you are or you aren't but if your audio setup meets the list of requirements be using the samsung seamless hifi codec which transmits in 24 bit assuming your audio files support it i found it irritating there's no way to tell what bit rate you're streaming at but i'll have to take samsung's word that i was getting 24 bit audio i did notice a small difference when streaming tracks from quobas with the galaxy z flip 3 however using the iphone 13 pro the sound quality was also very good with an amply wide sound stage i went back and forth with different tracks and the flip 3 sound came across slightly more accurately the touch more detailed depth and clarity the base is punchy and well defined and i didn't experience any noticeable distortion at higher volumes in short they're excellent sounding buds but i'm not sure they're superior to other top earbuds in their price range including the pixelbuds pro beatsfit pro and sennheiser momentum true wireless 3 but their sound is a noticeable step up from the sound of the standard galaxy buds 2 particularly in terms of clarity i mostly went with the default sound setting though you can tweak the signature profile in the galaxy wearable app with some preset equalizer settings including a bass boost setting the truth is a lot of these premium priced earbuds are starting to sound pretty similar and it's really the fit and how they fit your particular ears that's going to make you like one more than another once again samsung has delivered a set of galaxy buttons that work well as a headset for making calls they have good voice pick up from the beam forming microphones while providing good background noise reduction callers so they could hear me relatively clearly in the noisy streets of new york and the buds did a decent job reducing wind noise they're in the upper echelon in terms of voice calling performance i'm in the streets of new york city here and i'm talking to john falcone a fellow editor how do i sound john there's a little bit of wind in the background here and some traffic is going by well if you're on a fairly noisy city street i'd have to rate the experience on my end as very good to excellent just hear a very slight kind of hiss that we sometimes get with noise cancelling but your voice is coming over loud and clear no artifacts or distractions and just a really good experience for the listener on my end all right i'll talk a little bit more now there as the traffic goes by you can see there's a lot of traffic a little bit of wind here big truck going by so hopefully you can hear me for better or worse galaxy butts have always been an accessory for galaxy smartphones and as a result more geared toward the owners of galaxy devices the galaxy buds 2 pro are no exception they're excellent earbuds but you do lose some of their key features if you're not a galaxy device owner for that reason it's easy to see them as the samsung equivalent of the airpods pro which may very well get some sort of high resolution wireless streaming option with the arrival of the airpods pro 2 that will likely use proprietary apple technology that only works with its devices by comparison the pixel buds pro have fewer features geared exclusively toward pixel owners and such features as hands-free google assistant and true multi-point bluetooth pairing are available across all android devices however the pixelbuds pro have no enhanced audio codec support which may be important if you're convinced it makes a big difference i personally think it only makes a slight difference with this class of earbuds which may have a premium price tag but aren't really high end the bigger question will be whether it's worth upgrading to the galaxy buzz 2 pro if you already own a pair of galaxy buds particularly the original galaxy buds pro i think that will largely depend on what price you can get the galaxy butts 2 pro for while their list price is 230 samsung is currently offering trade-in deals of any galaxy buzz in any condition that bring their price down to around 155 and you can often get deals on them as part of a bundle with a new galaxy phone for me anyway while the galaxy buzz 2 pro offers some legitimate performance improvements over their predecessor their design is the biggest upgrade that makes them the best galaxy buds yet but let me know what you guys think if you're a current galaxy buds pro owner are you going to upgrade to the buds 2 pro and would you still consider getting them even if you're not a samsung device owner sound off in the comment section if you're interested in any of the products mentioned check out the description below for links on where to find them and you can get even more details in my text review on cnet lastly if you found this video informative at all hit the like button and subscribe if you haven't already i'm david carnoy thanks for watchinghi there i've got samsung's 230 galaxy buds 2 pro here which i keep referring to as the galaxy buds pro 2 because that's what i think the second generation of the galaxy buds pro should be called but hey i don't get to name products i just review them and i will say that these buds have an all-around better design than their predecessor which just didn't fit my ears all that well with the ear tips that were included not only are they 15 smaller but they weigh slightly less 5.5 grams per bud versus 6.3 grams and have a soft to the touch matte finish on both the buzz in case that gives them a nicer feel and makes them a bit more grippy and that finish also makes the compact case a little less likely to slip out of your hand and more importantly it helps keep the buds in your ears a little more securely and thanks to their new shape and smaller size i was able to get a tight seal with the largest set of included ear tips and didn't have to supply my own i can't say they'll fit all ears equally well but they should provide a better fit to more ears than the original galaxy buds pro aside from the revamped design samsung is touting the bud's improved noise cancelling and support for 24-bit high-resolution audio the catch is that to get that 24-bit audio you need a galaxy device equipped with samsung's one ui 4.0 and a music streaming service like qoba's title or amazon music that streams high-res audio tracks on all other devices including android phones and iphones the buds default to the aac audio codec they use bluetooth 5.3 alas they don't support the more common aptx adaptive audio codec for android devices only the new samsung seamless hifi codec which samsung says delivers 256 times more sound data than 16-bit cd quality audio numbers like that are a bit deceptive because based on my experience you're really only going to notice a small difference when streaming higher bitrate tracks but more on that after i ran out the rest of the feature set these have touch controls they work well but don't offer much in the way of customization and galaxy device owners can activate hands-free bixby samsung's voice assistant samsung's 360 audio virtual surround feature with head tracking returns in an enhanced version and now works with a variety of galaxy devices out of the gate though it's not compatible with other android devices it works along the same lines as apple's spatial audio feature for airpods and can enhance your movie and tv watching experience though it doesn't seem to be as pronounced as apple spatial audio which i think is slightly better overall it also works with music or any audio you're listening to the buds 2 pro are ipx7 water resistant which means they can withstand being fully submerged in one meter deep water for up to 30 minutes i had no problem running with them and they didn't slip out of my ears like their predecessor battery life is rated at five hours with noise cancelling on and eight hours with it off at moderate volume levels and you get about three additional charges in the case which charges via usbc and wirelessly some people are complaining that five hours is pretty mediocre and yeah it is but it's hard to shrink buds while increasing battery life and there is a quick charge feature to get you an hour use when you drop the buzz in the case for five minutes or two hours with a 10 minute charge so those battery life numbers weren't a deal breaker for me sensors detect when the buds are in your ears and will pause your music when you take both buds out of your ears but what's a little weird is they won't resume playback when you put them back in your ears without you tapping on one of the butts you can use a single bud while leaving the other one in the case additionally you can opt to activate a voice detect mode in the galaxy wearable companion app that automatically turns off noise canceling and switches to ambient mode when you speak allowing you to hear the outside world and engage in a conversation with someone sony offers a similar feature with this wf-1000x mark iv and link buds s earbuds another new feature worth mentioning has nothing to do with audio you can toggle on the next stretch reminder setting that detects your head position alerts you when you bend your head downward for 10 minutes that's a good one for all of us who stare down at our phones all the time while these have a find my buds feature that samsung calls smartthings fine it doesn't offer the more precise tracking capabilities of apple's enhanced find my in its latest airpods it just tells you the location where the bus last connected to your device you don't get true multi-point bluetooth pairing that allows you to pair the butt simultaneously with any two bluetooth enabled devices such as a phone and a computer but they do offer auto switching between samsung devices logged into your samsung account including samsung tvs built in 2022 or later and samsung's galaxy books laptops built after 2020. i haven't thoroughly tested the auto switching feature with many samsung devices because i just don't own that many samsung devices so i can't confirm exactly how reliably it works but feel free to let me know about any experiences you've had with it in the comments section samsung says it's improved the noise cancelling on the galaxy buds 2 pro by 40 percent it calls it intelligent anc now i have found it an improvement on the original galaxy but pro but noise cancelling performance is affected by how tight a seal you get from the ear tips so your perception of how much is improved may vary by how good a seal you get i thought the noise cancelling was close but not quite there with that of the noise cancelling the sony wf1000x mach 4 buds but it did a good job muffling a variety of noise on the streets of new york and in the subway you can turn the noise canceling off or activate ambient mode the equivalent of apple's transparency mode which i thought sounded pretty natural but there's no setting to adjust noise canceling levels it automatically adapts to your environment i appreciate that the buds 2 pro are equipped with two-way drivers a 10 millimeter woofer and 5.3 millimeter tweeter along with three microphones two of which are being forming for voice calls i paired the buds with a galaxy z flip 3 iphone 13 pro and google pixel 4 xl and stream music using quobas i also stream some movies from google play and netflix according to samsung there's no way to check whether you're getting 24 bit audio nothing indicates whether you are or you aren't but if your audio setup meets the list of requirements be using the samsung seamless hifi codec which transmits in 24 bit assuming your audio files support it i found it irritating there's no way to tell what bit rate you're streaming at but i'll have to take samsung's word that i was getting 24 bit audio i did notice a small difference when streaming tracks from quobas with the galaxy z flip 3 however using the iphone 13 pro the sound quality was also very good with an amply wide sound stage i went back and forth with different tracks and the flip 3 sound came across slightly more accurately the touch more detailed depth and clarity the base is punchy and well defined and i didn't experience any noticeable distortion at higher volumes in short they're excellent sounding buds but i'm not sure they're superior to other top earbuds in their price range including the pixelbuds pro beatsfit pro and sennheiser momentum true wireless 3 but their sound is a noticeable step up from the sound of the standard galaxy buds 2 particularly in terms of clarity i mostly went with the default sound setting though you can tweak the signature profile in the galaxy wearable app with some preset equalizer settings including a bass boost setting the truth is a lot of these premium priced earbuds are starting to sound pretty similar and it's really the fit and how they fit your particular ears that's going to make you like one more than another once again samsung has delivered a set of galaxy buttons that work well as a headset for making calls they have good voice pick up from the beam forming microphones while providing good background noise reduction callers so they could hear me relatively clearly in the noisy streets of new york and the buds did a decent job reducing wind noise they're in the upper echelon in terms of voice calling performance i'm in the streets of new york city here and i'm talking to john falcone a fellow editor how do i sound john there's a little bit of wind in the background here and some traffic is going by well if you're on a fairly noisy city street i'd have to rate the experience on my end as very good to excellent just hear a very slight kind of hiss that we sometimes get with noise cancelling but your voice is coming over loud and clear no artifacts or distractions and just a really good experience for the listener on my end all right i'll talk a little bit more now there as the traffic goes by you can see there's a lot of traffic a little bit of wind here big truck going by so hopefully you can hear me for better or worse galaxy butts have always been an accessory for galaxy smartphones and as a result more geared toward the owners of galaxy devices the galaxy buds 2 pro are no exception they're excellent earbuds but you do lose some of their key features if you're not a galaxy device owner for that reason it's easy to see them as the samsung equivalent of the airpods pro which may very well get some sort of high resolution wireless streaming option with the arrival of the airpods pro 2 that will likely use proprietary apple technology that only works with its devices by comparison the pixel buds pro have fewer features geared exclusively toward pixel owners and such features as hands-free google assistant and true multi-point bluetooth pairing are available across all android devices however the pixelbuds pro have no enhanced audio codec support which may be important if you're convinced it makes a big difference i personally think it only makes a slight difference with this class of earbuds which may have a premium price tag but aren't really high end the bigger question will be whether it's worth upgrading to the galaxy buzz 2 pro if you already own a pair of galaxy buds particularly the original galaxy buds pro i think that will largely depend on what price you can get the galaxy butts 2 pro for while their list price is 230 samsung is currently offering trade-in deals of any galaxy buzz in any condition that bring their price down to around 155 and you can often get deals on them as part of a bundle with a new galaxy phone for me anyway while the galaxy buzz 2 pro offers some legitimate performance improvements over their predecessor their design is the biggest upgrade that makes them the best galaxy buds yet but let me know what you guys think if you're a current galaxy buds pro owner are you going to upgrade to the buds 2 pro and would you still consider getting them even if you're not a samsung device owner sound off in the comment section if you're interested in any of the products mentioned check out the description below for links on where to find them and you can get even more details in my text review on cnet lastly if you found this video informative at all hit the like button and subscribe if you haven't already i'm david carnoy thanks for watching\n"