[ad_1]
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – FEBRUARY 11: The new Samsung headphones on display on February 11, 2020 in San … [+]
fake images
Samsung’s upcoming wireless earbuds have gotten the hands-on treatment thanks to a YouTuber who managed to acquire a pair before their official launch.
The Galaxy Buds Pro are scheduled to launch on January 14, but YouTube channel Digital Slang mysteriously managed to get a pair and broke down the latest features. As expected, Samsung has added active noise cancellation (ANC) to the revamped buds to compete with the Apple AirPods Pro. But the sleeker new design is a bit surprising.
The Korean company has abandoned the bulkier and spherical shape of the Galaxy Buds Plus in favor of a more elongated and miniaturized design for the new headphones. They look a bit like Google’s Pixel Buds, which I praised in my review for their reduced and lightweight shape.
That’s a huge improvement because the clunky Galaxy Buds Plus always felt like they were on the verge of falling out of my ears, the new buds seem to address this with a more compact design.
It seems there are some cool new features too. The buttons will now lower the volume if they detect your voice, something Sony’s much more expensive WH-1000XM4 also does. There are also levels of active noise cancellation, like the Jabras Elite 85T, and levels of transparency mode (where the headphones introduce ambient sound). There’s a low latency mode for gaming, similar to the OnePlus Buds and the Galaxy Buds Plus equalizer presets make a comeback.
A long list of functions is quite common for Samsung hardware. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but the in-depth controls option is a clear challenge for Apple’s feature-rich AirPods Pro. We will have to wait and see if Samsung has its own version of spatial audio or other deeper audio enhancements.
However, what really matters is reproduction. Digital Slang didn’t go into much detail about the sound quality, just saying that the buttons sound “fantastic” and that the “highs and mids are crystal clear” with a “powerful base”. The Galaxy Buds Plus and Galaxy Buds Live sound great, so I’m hoping for an improvement from the Korean company. Especially now that you’ve added “pro” to the name.
They are rumored to be priced similarly to the Jabra Elite 85T earbuds and cost around $ 50 cheaper than Apple’s AirPods Pro at $ 199, so they’re clearly a step ahead of the cheaper Galaxy Buds Plus. We’ll know more in two weeks when they officially launch.
More about Forbes
Forget Apple AirPods or Google Pixel Buds, these are my perfect headphones for 2020
Redesigned Airpods Pro 2 will challenge Samsung and Google
