A prettier, cheaper take on AirPods Pro

First came the “beans,” then came something a bit more “professional.” Now, after a year of Samsung tweaking its wireless earbud designs, it’s finally nailed it. And the result is eggsemplary.

(I’m so sorry.)

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 are its third iteration on the wireless earbud formula in a year’s time, and thankfully, there isn’t a major caveat. While the company’s recent Galaxy Buds Live (late 2020) and Galaxy Buds Pro (early 2021) were quite good pairs of wireless earbuds, both still had real drawbacks. The Buds Live suffered from problematic long-term comfort thanks to their goofy bean shape, and the Buds Pro didn’t deliver enough active noise cancelation to justify the high $200 price tag.

Between an attractive egg-like design, excellent noise cancelation, and relatively robust app-based customization (on Android devices), the Galaxy Buds 2 largely deliver the goods at a reasonable $150.

Beans are out, eggs are in

The lavender color option is particularly attractive.
Credit: molly flores / mashable

It’s frankly a little tedious for Samsung to release so many different pairs of wireless earbuds in such a short period of time (a habit it also has with smartphones). But, to its credit, the Galaxy Buds 2 aren’t just a light refresh of a previous product. Gone is the distinctive bean shape of the Buds Live, replaced now by something slightly more akin to the Buds Pro, with enough of an identity of its own to stand apart.

Put simply, the Buds 2 look like little robin eggs on the outside that give way to a traditional rubber tip that goes in your ear canal. If someone looked at you while you wore them, they’d just see small ovals protruding out of your ears. It’s a tiny bit silly, sure, but I dig it.

The color options here are also decent: graphite, white, olive, and lavender.

The Buds Pro had a somewhat similar shape, except the outer edge was flatter to accommodate touch controls. That suite of tap-and-hold-based controls exists here, too, but the touch-sensitive panel is now curved instead of flat.

Most comfortable yet

These can sit in your ears for hours.
Credit: molly flores

Samsung is touting “all-day comfort” with the Galaxy Buds 2 and it’s an example of marketing being pretty accurate. I’ve worn them for hours at a time while barely noticing they were there. The default tip size was pretty much perfect for me, but there are three alternative sizes that come in the box if you need to swap them out for something bigger or smaller. And despite the fact that the only thing keeping them in the ear is a rubber tip, they held up pretty nicely when I took them on a morning run. I had to gently push one of them back in a couple of times to ensure a proper seal for noise cancelation, but the bud wasn’t ever actually in danger of falling out.

One way to make sure they fit properly is to use the fit test feature in the Galaxy Wearable Android app, which is pre-installed on Samsung phones (Note: Samsung provided a Galaxy A24 5G phone for testing purposes). Otherwise, you can grab it on the Play Store if you have a different Android device.

The fit test takes a few seconds to sense the buds’ positions within your ears and tells you if it’s right or not. If not, simply readjust and try again. I found this helpful as I was first learning how to properly wear the Buds 2, and the lack of any kind of wing tip or other stabilizing feature means it can be a little tough to nail the correct position on your first try.

Great app settings…for Android owners

The Galaxy Wearable app gives you most of the same customization options that I liked so much about the Buds Live and Buds Pro. There are a handful of equalizer options like “Bass Boost” as well as a slider for the three different ANC settings: on, off, and ambient mode. The latter uses the on-board mics to amplify noise around you, and is pretty useful for briefly pausing music to order a sandwich at the deli or to chat with a coworker. Sometimes those modes don’t make that much of a difference, but I was pleased with the results here.

Galaxy Wearable works the same here as it did for the previous two pairs of earbuds.
Credit: screenshot: samsung

Beyond that, you can customize what touch commands do on each earbud, though the default commands (i.e., one tap for play/pause, two taps to skip forward, three taps to rewind, hold to change ANC mode) are ideal as far as I’m concerned.

The Galaxy Wearable app also gives a straightforward readout of the battery level in each earbud, which you can helpfully add to your phone’s home screen as a widget.

Last but certainly not least, the SmartThings Find feature Samsung launched last year is available for the Galaxy Buds 2 from the Wearable app. Whether you need a GPS location or just to “ring” the earbuds to find them behind a couch cushion, you can do that here.

In case this wasn’t obvious to you, none of the features outlined in the last few paragraphs are available on an iPhone. There is a Galaxy Buds iOS app, but these particular earbuds aren’t compatible with it. You can still connect the Buds 2 to an iPhone and listen to music and podcasts to your heart’s content, but there’s no way to alter settings without connecting to an Android phone. It’s a slight bummer, but it’s par for the course in the realm of first-party wireless earbuds.

Almost all of these features were also available on the other two Samsung earbuds we’ve talked about, but neither of them were quite as comfortable to wear as the Galaxy Buds 2.

There is one minor compromise you’ll make if you opt for the Buds 2, which are the cheapest of the three earbuds, and it’s a fairly important one: sound quality.

Packing more of a gentle tap than a punch

This isn’t the most powerful earbud speaker in the game, but it’ll do.
Credit: molly flores / mashable

Before you run screaming to the hills, let me assuage your fears by saying the sound quality on the Buds 2 is firmly acceptable. Songs are crisp, sounds that travel between the left and right channels do so admirably, and you can generally track down subtler elements in the mix if you focus hard enough. It’s just that nothing about the sound quality really stands out as a particular strength.

All of it is just…alright.

The bass, for example, is there and noticeable on the default settings, but it never wowed me in my testing. I’ve been in an Outkast mood lately, so naturally I gravitated towards “B.O.B.” for my testing because it’s the greatest song ever written and has a boatload of musical nonsense going on for every second of its five-minute runtime. It’s totally listenable and enjoyable on the Galaxy Buds 2, but no part of the presentation blew me away.

The equalizer settings in the Galaxy Wearable app help alleviate this problem to a degree, especially the “bass boost” setting for hip hop songs. But it’d be preferable if the user didn’t have to switch between different modes depending on what kind of music they’re in the mood for. For what it’s worth, this wasn’t a problem I ever had with the Galaxy Buds 2’s more expensive siblings.

On the flip side, the active noise cancelation here is noticeably better than it was in the Buds Pro and Buds Live. It fell apart in super-noisy environments on the former earbuds and barely worked at all on the latter, but the Buds 2 are able to block out a stunning amount of outside noise. I live a block away from a busy business district settled directly beneath an above-ground train, and I was able to enjoy my music with nary a distraction as I walked through it.

Sure, a little bit of noise will get in here or there, and you might occasionally have to push an earbud back in to get a proper seal, but this is easily the most impressive aspect of the Galaxy Buds 2.

Just to bring the mood back down a little bit, the Buds 2’s battery life isn’t exactly a strength. I got somewhere between 3.5 and 5 hours of listening time on a single charge with ANC turned on. That’s not disastrously low compared to the competition (AirPods Pro are rated for a similar length), but it does mean you might not be able to get through an entire medium-length flight without dropping the buds in the charging case for a little while.

Overall, the Galaxy Buds 2’s performance profile is good enough to make these a better value than the Buds Live or Buds Pro, even if those two deliver stronger sound quality. It’s just really, really hard to beat $150.

Apple can’t compete on price

As a matter of course, wireless earbuds must always be compared to Apple’s AirPods. They are the most well-known buds in the market, mostly because of Apple’s brand reach but also because they’re actually good. I’ve addressed how the Buds 2 beat out Samsung’s other wireless earbuds in terms of value already, but the comparison is even more stark on the Apple side of things.

Apple’s entry-level AirPods, which don’t have noise cancelation of any kind (and I’d argue are far less comfortable than the Buds 2), start at $160 and go up to $200 if you want a wireless charging case. Gross. The AirPods Pro are more comfortable and do block out noise, but you have to pay a whopping $250 for those. Double gross.

When it’s laid out like that, it’s tough to care too much about middling sound quality and battery life.

The best potential alternative would be Amazon’s recent second-gen Echo Buds. At $120, they offer surprisingly good ANC and sound quality if you’re cool with Alexa pestering you a little too often and the general concept of supporting Amazon. I understand those are big ifs, but trust me, those Echo Buds are pretty nice.

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 may not impress audiophiles, but what they lack in elite audio output, they more than make up for in comfort, looks, and terrific ANC. The best part is they do all of that for substantially less than it would cost to get a similar feature set from either Samsung’s other earbud options or from anything Apple sells.

Don’t overthink this. If you’re an Android phone owner who’s been on the lookout for a good pair of wireless earbuds without melting your bank account, you’ve just found it.