The Verge praises the Galaxy Buds Pro: the perfect balance

Besides the first flagship line of the year, the Galaxy S21, during the recent Unpacked event, Samsung also introduced another product, the Galaxy Buds Pro wireless headset. Surprisingly, the $ 200 price tag is even higher than last year’s Galaxy Buds Plus, but tech news site The Verge thinks it’s totally worth it and considers the Galaxy Buds Pro as a headset. The company’s best wireless ever.

The translation below shows the reason for The Verge’s judgment on this Samsung product.

Neat design, fit the user’s ear

From left to right, Galaxy Buds Plus, Galaxy Buds Pro and Galaxy Buds Live

In short, the Galaxy Buds Pro are Samsung’s best wireless earbuds ever. At $ 200, you get a comfortable fit, active noise cancellation and strong, solid sound. In addition, this headset is also favored by Samsung for smart features such as conversation detection mode to automatically lower the music volume, helping you hear the sound from the conversation.

But like Apple, these features bring Samsung closer to a closed ecosystem where the best experiences will be for users of the company’s devices only. Some features like 3D sound and auto switch will only work when you’re using it with a Samsung phone or tablet. But even those who are not in this ecosystem, the Galaxy Buds Pro is still good enough for them.

The appearance of Buds Pro is a mix between the ear-in-ear design of Galaxy Buds Plus with the open design of the Galaxy Buds Live “pea”. Furthermore, Samsung also showed how well it listened to user complaints. The wing-shaped tip design on the Buds Plus that some people feel entangled has been replaced by a rounded shape on the Buds Pro.

The Verge reporter Chris Welch really liked the design. They were so snug and sturdy in her ears that she didn’t feel too strong. But what makes her interesting with the Buds Pro’s design is the ability to hide it on her ear, instead of sticking out and out like other competitors.

Outstanding water resistance

Another advantage of the Buds Pro lies in the IPX7 rating for water and sweat resistance. This means they can survive a half hour of drowning in the water as well as after running training sessions and sweaty exercises without problems. This is only the highest score for the earbuds from Samsung as well as any other competitor, like the AirPods Pro, Jabra Elite 85t and Bose Sport Earbuds, all with only IPX4.

Focus on bass, noise-canceling enough

The most important thing with a headset is the sound and the Galaxy Buds Pro are doing just fine. Equipped with up to 2 speakers per ear, an 11mm woofer and a 6.5mm tweeter, the Buds Pro shows that Samsung is focused on creating a pleasing bass on its open headphones.

For those who want to hear more bass can look to the “bass boost” section in the EQ settings of the headset. While the tweeters sometimes produce overly dull tones in some songs, overall, the Buds Pro is worth it for everyday use.

The active noise canceling (ANC mode) on the Buds Pro has been a lot better than the Buds Live, with Samsung claims that it is possible to reduce noise levels by up to 99% “at 118.43 Hz”. These specs will confuse many people, but with Welch’s experience of noise canceling on Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds, Sony’s WF-1000XM3, and Apple’s AirPods Pro show they all surpass Samsung’s headphones. .

Still, the Buds Pro are perfect for helping you avoid being distracted by the noisy streets or in your home. You can even choose the noise canceling level if you are too sensitive to the quietness around you.

Among the features of the Buds Pro, the most interesting is its “sound detection” capability, which automatically reduces the volume of music listening and switches from ANC to Ambient Mode when you start a conversation. . Even though Sony’s 1000XM4 headset also has that capability, The Verge has to admit that no earphones have yet to do the same as on the Galaxy Buds Pro. However, if you usually sing along while listening to music or talking to yourself, you may want to turn the feature off and assign it to be turned on with a long press on the headset.

For voice calls, Samsung has a 3-microphone system and radio wave direction (beamforming) to separate your voice from your surroundings. Buds Pro’s low-surface design and mesh-covered sound chamber not only limit wind noise, but also can filter out any hissing wind when talking on the street.

Battery life is above average

If there is something that The Verge is not satisfied with the Galaxy Buds Pro, it is battery life.

Even if Samsung promises the Galaxy Buds Pro is capable of playing music for up to 5 hours in ANC mode (and 8 hours if it turns it off), it still can’t match up to 11 hours of music playback on the Galaxy Buds Plus. before. This is unavoidable when the Buds Pro only contains a 61mAh battery, much smaller than the 85mAh battery on the Buds Plus. Either way, the Buds Pro’s case will add a significant amount of battery life to this headset with a total battery life that can reach 18 hours in ANC mode and 28 hours if it is turned off.

There’s also no denying that some of the Buds Pro features are being learned from the AirPods Pro. 3D sound technology, for example, puts the user in the center of a movie or TV show scene. However, it’s hard to test this as it requires OneUI 3.1, which is currently only available on the Galaxy S21 series.

Another feature learning from competitors is the ability to switch automatically between devices. Even though the Buds Pro can automatically switch between a Galaxy smartphone and tablet, the laptop is a weak spot in the Samsung ecosystem – something that makes the feature less attractive than the competition.

Despite the stiff competition the Galaxy Buds Pro faces on the active noise-canceling headphone playground, Samsung is still making a separate foothold when it comes to combining the best of the Buds Plus and Buds Live along with the features. appealing exclusively for its branded equipment. Battery life may be just average, but the Buds Pro is a great balanced choice for your ears for everyday use.

Refer to The Verge