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In January, Samsung introduced the new flagship Galaxy S21 smartphones and, alongside the new phones, introduced the $ 200 Galaxy Buds Pro, which are priced at $ 199 and offer active noise cancellation.
These new Galaxy Buds Pro are clearly designed to compete with Apple’s AirPods Pro, so we thought about comparing the two sets of headphones in our latest YouTube video.
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Design-wise, the Galaxy Buds Pro look nothing like the AirPods Pro, with a rounded internal stemless design. They have silicone tips like the AirPods Pro, but MacRumors Cameraman Dan, who tested the Galaxy Buds Pro, found them much more uncomfortable than the AirPods Pro.
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They need to fit tightly inside the ear for the proper fit and seal, both to ensure they remain in the ear and to allow ANC functionality to function properly. Without the correct setting, the headphones will not sound good and the audio quality will suffer. Samsung offers various silicone tips to achieve a decent fit, but these headphones may not work well for some users.
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Like the AirPods Pro, the Galaxy Buds Pro offer active noise cancellation (ANC), which is decent, but not quite as good as the ANC in the AirPods Pro. It’s definitely better than the ANC in last year’s Galaxy Buds Live, but it’s still not up to par with the AirPods Pro. There is an ambient mode that is the equivalent of Transparency mode to allow ambient sounds to be heard, but again, that is fine and doesn’t work as well as Transparency mode.
There is a prominent feature that the Galaxy Buds Pro offer that is not available on the AirPods Pro and that is Voice Detect. Voice Detect lowers the volume and activates ambient mode when you hear the sound of your voice, which is helpful.
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When it comes to sound quality, the Galaxy Buds Pro are almost indistinguishable from the AirPods Pro. The audio on both sounds great, and if you prefer one over the other it will come down to individual listening preferences. The Galaxy Buds Pro are warmer and heavier on the bass, which some people prefer. You need a good fit on the ear to get the best sound quality because if it’s turned off they don’t sound as good.
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The Galaxy Buds Pro come with a small, pocket-sized case, and the case adds 18 to 20 hours of additional battery life based on ANC usage. The Galaxy Buds themselves have a battery life of five hours with ANC on and a battery life of eight hours with ANC off. Comparatively, the AirPods Pro last 4.5 hours on a single charge with ANC on and five hours without it, but the case provides an additional 24 hours of listening time. Apple’s AirPods Pro charge wirelessly or via a Lightning port, while the Galaxy Buds Pro use USB-C.
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There are touch controls on either side of the Galaxy Pro earbuds, and taps allow you to play / pause, skip tracks, and turn the ambient sound feature on and off. The AirPods Pro offer similar controls, but on the stem rather than relying on taps, it works better.
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Apple designs AirPods Pro for use with Apple devices, and the Galaxy Buds Pro are designed to be used primarily with Samsung devices. There are several features that only work when used with a Galaxy device, which is a bit new to Samsung. Earlier hearing aid models were more feature-independent and could be easily paired with other Android devices or even iPhones, but with the Galaxy Buds Pro, you will lose features without a Galaxy smartphone.
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There is a one-touch pairing feature for setting up the Galaxy Buds Pro with a Galaxy smartphone (you will need to manually connect to an iPhone), and there is a 360 audio feature that is the equivalent of the spatial audio feature on the AirPods Pro. We were unable to test 360 Audio because the update that enables it on Galaxy devices (other than the S21) is not yet available.
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Along with one-touch pairing, the Galaxy Buds Pro support auto-detect and quick-switch devices, but again, only Galaxy devices. There is an app to adjust the equalizer and other settings, but it is for Android only and there is no iPhone version available.
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All in all, the Galaxy Buds Pro are solid headphones if you have a Galaxy smartphone, but these are not headphones that you will want to use if you have an iPhone because you will miss out on a lot of features. The price is also only $ 50 cheaper than AirPods Pro, so it is better to spend the $ 250 on AirPods Pro if you have an Apple device.
