Samsung unveiled the new flagship Galaxy S21 smartphones in January and introduced the $ 200 Galaxy Buds Pro alongside the new phones, which costs $ 199 and offers active noise cancellation.
These new Galaxy Buds Pro are clearly designed to compete with Apple’s AirPods Pro, so we thought we’d compare the two sets of earbuds in our latest YouTube video.
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In terms of design, the Galaxy Buds Pro is nothing like the AirPods Pro, with a rounded in-ear design without a stem. They have silicone tips like the AirPods Pro, but MacRumors videographer Dan, who tested the Galaxy Buds Pro, found them much more uncomfortable than theAirPods Pro.
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They must be fitted tightly in the ear to get the correct fit and seal, both to ensure they stay in the ear and for the ANC functionality to work properly. Without the correct fit, the earbuds will not sound good and the audio quality will suffer. Samsung offers several silicone tips to get a good fit, but these earbuds may not work well for some users.
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Like the AirPods Pro, the Galaxy Buds Pro offer Active Noise Canceling (ANC), which is decent, but not quite as good as the ANC in AirPods Pro. It’s definitely better than the ANC in last year’s Galaxy Buds Live, but still not up to par with the AirPods Pro. There is an Ambient mode which is the equivalent of Transparency mode to let ambient noise through, but again it’s just okay and doesn’t work as well as Transparency mode.
There is one standout feature that the Galaxy Buds Pro offers that is not available in AirPods Pro and that is Voice Detect. Speech Detection will turn down the volume and turn on Ambient mode when it hears the sound of your voice, which is handy.
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When it comes to sound quality, the Galaxy Buds Pro are almost indistinguishable from the AirPods Pro. Audio on both sounds great, and whether you prefer one over the other depends on individual listening preferences. The Galaxy Buds Pro are warmer and heavier on the bass, which some people prefer. You need a good in-ear fit for the best sound quality because when that is out they don’t sound that good.
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The Galaxy Buds Pro comes with a case that is small and pocket-sized, with the case adding 18 to 20 hours of extra battery life, depending 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. In comparison, the AirPods Pro lasts 4.5 hours on a single charge with ANC on and five hours with off, but the case offers an additional 24 hours of listening time. Apple’s AirPods Pro charges wirelessly or through a Lightning port, while the Galaxy Buds Pro uses USB-C.
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There are touch controls on each side of the Galaxy Pro earbuds and with taps you can play / pause, skip tracks and turn the Ambient Sound feature on and off. AirPods Pro offers similar controls, but on the stem instead of relying on taps, which works better.
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Apple designs AirPods Pro for use with Apple devices and the Galaxy Buds Pro is 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. Previous earbud models were more feature agnostic and were easy to pair with other Android devices or even iPhones, but the Galaxy Buds Pro lets you miss features without a Galaxy smartphone.
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There is a one-tap pairing function to set up the Galaxy Buds Pro with a Galaxy smartphone (you have to manually connect to an iPhone), and there is a 360 audio function which is the equivalent of the spatial audio function in the AirPods Pro . We were unable to test 360 Audio as the update enabling this on Galaxy devices (except the S21) is not yet available.
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In addition to one-tap pairing, the Galaxy Buds Pro supports automatic device discovery and fast switching, but again, only Galaxy devices. There is an app for adjusting the EQ and other settings, but it is Android only and no iPhone version is 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 you want to buy if you have an iPhone because you are missing out on so many features. The price is also only $ 50 cheaper than AirPods Pro, so you’re better off spending the $ 250 for AirPods Pro if you have an Apple device.