Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review – Best wireless earbuds

Brand Samsung has been pretty consistent with its efforts in the burgeoning TWS space, mainly aiming at the premium side of the spectrum. Galaxy Buds (review), Galaxy Buds+, and Galaxy Buds Live (review) are the models we have seen from the brand in the past, and alongside the launch of the new S21 series of smartphone flagships, the latest addition to the portfolio comes in the form of the Galaxy Buds Pro. Just like the Buds Live, the Galaxy Buds Pro also feature active noise cancellation (ANC). Samsung has added new features with each new iteration, and the Buds Pro come with some interesting new capabilities too. Well, let’s follow Lifezfood to find out the detail in Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro review!

Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro design

While Samsung’s previous bean-shaped Galaxy Buds Live were objectively cool and personally fit my ears really well, their in-ear fit wasn’t optimal for some users, which could be why Samsung has decided to go back to a safer design here with the Buds Pro.

The Buds Pro earbuds are actually similar in design to last year’s Galaxy Buds Plus and sport traditional rubber eartips, so they should fit perfectly in most users’ ears. And to make sure of it, out of the box Samsung has included three sizes of eartips to choose from – small, medium and large. The outer touch-sensitive part of the earbuds is made out of glossy plastic, while the rest is matte plastic.

The case of the Galaxy Buds Pro itself is virtually identical to the Galaxy Buds Live case, except this time it’s matte all around, which makes it feel nicer to touch. It features smooth curves and opens just like a wedding ring case. For charging, it sports a USB Type-C port on the back. The Galaxy Buds Pro case isn’t heavy, though it isn’t cheap-feelingly light either and fits just fine even in jeans pockets, so no worries when it comes to carrying it around.

Galaxy Buds Pro sound quality and performance

Samsung has focused a lot on improving the sound quality that its latest earbuds provide. It has added two-way speakers that include an 11mm woofer and a 6.5mm tweeter. Obviously, there are a lot of claims of detailed sound and full bass attached to these speakers in Samsung’s marketing materials, but how do they actually perform?

The two-way speakers Samsung is using for the Galaxy Buds Pro do sound much better than all of its previous earbuds. They certainly provide a very enjoyable listening experience. They create a pleasant soundstage with clear treble and surprisingly punchy and well balanced bass. The output from these tiny earbuds is quite impressive.

There are plenty of EQ settings to choose from if you’d like to tweak the sound. Choose “Bass boost” if you’d like more oomph or “Treble boost” if you want the higher frequencies to stand out more. Compared to the Galaxy Buds Live, there’s significantly less sound leakage, so people around you won’t be disturbed even if you’re listing to Drake on full blast, though I’m not sure why anybody wouldn’t like Drake.

To sum it all up, there’s merit in Samsung’s claims. It’s tough competing with more high-end options from the likes of Sony and Bose, but the Galaxy Buds Pro do offer a very enjoyable listening experience.

Galaxy Buds Pro touch gestures and settings

As with previous Galaxy Buds, the outer side of each earbud here is touch-sensitive, allowing for the following touch gestures:

• Tap to play and pause.
• Double tap to play the next song or answer or end a call.
• Triple tap to play the previous song.
• Touch and hold (1 second) to perform a customizable action or reject an incoming call.
• Touch and hold both earbuds (3 seconds) to enter Bluetooth pairing mode.

From the Galaxy Wearable app, you can actually block these touch gestures if you wish to. You can also choose what the “touch and hold” gesture does on each individual earbud. By default, it switches between ANC and Ambient Sound, though it can alternatively trigger a voice assistant, or change the volume.

On non-Samsung phones, the optional voice assistant gesture triggers Google Assistant, while on Samsung phones it triggers the company’s own Bixby assistant. Galaxy phone users also get an additional “Bixby voice wake-up” option, for activating the virtual assistant with a voice command.