Introduction
Many times we find ourselves in situations where we need a pair of small, portable, and wireless earbuds to simply put in our ears to listen to music/videos, block out the noise around us, and go for a walk, commute, do exercise, among other daily activities.
That is precisely why I dedicated myself to reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Buds2, a pair of earbuds that can currently be found for $70 and offer excellent portability with noise cancellation (ANC) and a fun and relaxed sound that goes very well with current music genres.
Disclaimers:
- ANC was always on - I found it most appropriate to test them with ANC on since their general use will be more oriented towards people who commute daily and need portability and noise cancellation to enjoy their music
- I bought the product myself.
- Review based on my own opinions formed within a 5-day period of relaxed and analytical listening (2 to 4 hour sessions per day).
- Devices used: Samsung Galaxy A50, PC with Windows 10 Pro.
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Unboxing, build and accessories
The Galaxy Buds2 come in a compact but well-designed box that fits everything while wasting the least amount of cardboard possible. Inside, you'll find the charging case with the earbuds inside, the cable for charging the case (USB-C to USB-A), spare eartips in small, medium, and large sizes, and the user manual.
Regarding their build, both the charging case and the earbuds themselves are made of plastic with a glossy/satin finish. Despite the material they are made of, they do not feel cheap, and the lightweight construction of this material is appreciated.
Each earbud has two microphones that are responsible for filtering external noise (the black dots) and also an microphone for calls and a position sensor. Speaking of the case, on the outside it has a USB-C port and on the inside it has some little holes where the earbuds rest and charge. The magnet that keeps the case closed feels secure as well as the magnets that keep the earbuds in place.
Now onto comfort, the shape of the earbuds fits well with the ergonomics of my ear, but they stick out quite a bit and are not recommended if you want to sleep with them. They fit securely, but when I stretch or tilt my neck to one side, they seem to fall off, meaning they won't fall off unless you try to make them.
Tech and battery performance
As I know that a lot of websites on the Internet provide information about all the technologies that these earbuds have, I'm going to go straight to their functionality based on my experience with them.
To start, both earbuds have touch controls with multiple uses. Here are the functions that each gesture performs:
- Press: Play or pause a song
- Double press: Play next song
- Triple press: Play previous song
- Press and hold (customisable): Bixby/Activate or deactivate ANC/Increase and decrease volume.
During calls:
- Double press: Answer or end call
- Press and hold: Reject call
These touch controls are quite finicky and may activate accidentally when adjusting the earbuds in your ear. However, the controls can be disabled through the Galaxy Wearable app, which provides a great user experience.
Regarding codecs, the Galaxy Buds2 supports AAC, SBC, and Samsung Scalable Codec (SSC). SSC adjusts the bit rate from 88 to 512 kbps to maintain the best possible audio quality and connection, but it is only available for Samsung phones, limiting the capabilities of these earbuds for people who own phones from other brands.
About ANC, it is quite good: it cancelled a lot of traffic noise during a 1-hour SUV ride. The sound of tires against the pavement was still present, but it never bothered me when playing music. Walking on the street with them can be dangerous with ANC on, as they greatly attenuate the noise of motors in general, but like most headphones with this technology, they fail to properly attenuate mid and high frequencies. Also, with ANC on, a hissing sound can be heard when there is no music playing or in music with passages where the volume drops a lot, it is not annoying but somewhat audible.
The noise cancellation modes are: active noise cancellation (ANC on), ambient sound, and off. The ambient sound function is useful when engaging in conversations as it allows voices to pass through transparently, avoiding the need to take off the headphones to chat.
Then, regarding the battery, for sessions of more than 2 hours (approximately 2:30 hours) with ANC on and the earbuds at 40% volume, the battery went down from 100% to 65% (approx), so I would dare to say that if you don't listen to your music at maximum volume, it is most likely that they can last even a little more than the 5 hours of playback that the brand guarantees on its website.
Other important details to consider:
- The Buds2 are not compatible with eartips from other manufacturers, they can only use the ones provided with the product (and I imagine Samsung must also sell replacements).
- They have good compatibility with Windows and the latency is decent (not suitable for competitive gaming but good for watching videos or listening to music).
Frequency response description
Bass boosted (particularly the midbass) that bleeds into the mids
Mids are recessed but not veiled
There is an 8kHz peak but from experience the earbuds never got sibilant at all
Treble does not retain a lot of detail (lacks air)
Subjective sound description
I listened to my usual repertoire of classical music: The Four Seasons (Antonio Vivaldi performed by Fabio Biondi), Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky performed by The Boston Symphony), and Creatures of Prometheus (Beethoven performed by Freiburger Barockorchester) and I really can't recommend the Buds2 for this genre or similar ones. As I have read and now confirmed, Bluetooth transmission causes details to be lost in the high frequencies. This, along with the emphasis on the bass notes in the tuning, makes the violins, cymbals, and bells sound muted in comparison.
I had better luck listening to popular new music. I really enjoyed Caravan Palace and Swedish House Mafia. Speaking about the former, "Aftermath" sounds rich and full (one could say warm), the bass execution is very good, with correct speed and a lot of presence (thanks to the driver's woofer). Another song that retains good qualities with these earbuds is "Wonderland" by the same band, the driver has no problem reproducing all the different sounds (trumpets, autotune vocals, and synthetic sounds) with great transparency. It's very unusual, but despite not performing the best when string instruments are present, these earbuds retain a good level of separation in electronic music. Lastly, "Midnight" is a song that these earbuds make super fun, the bass gets into your head with a lot of impact while that saxophone and background voice create the perfect atmosphere to listen to during some action scene, I love it.
Moving to Heavy Metal, in "2 minutes to midnight" by Iron Maiden (studio album) the bass bleeds into the mids, causing the singer's voice to not sound as clear as it should. Like in other songs with multiple string instruments, separation is not their strong point. However, the electric guitars retain some definition (enough to be acceptable). The same applies to cymbals, they are present and can be heard, but do not have much authority at all.
In the case of "Revelations" by Iron Maiden (Live at Long Beach Arena), the guitars tend to get congested when playing together. There is a good presence of the lead singer despite the elevated bass.
A great song to demonstrate the balance between bass and midrange is "Miss You" by Adele. Drums are playing in the background while Adele and one/two backup singers sing. In this case, Adele's voice is a bit overshadowed by those drums. The cymbals have a correct impact. Her voice sounds organic, but recessed (as shown by the graph).
Lastly, "Vivere" by Bocelli: I know it is a song a use a lot on my reviews but it has a reason behind it. Vivere has it all: male and female vocals, cymbals, strings. In consequence, I am able to analyse each instrument or voice every time I replay it.
As it has been said, midrange is recessed in the mix, that’s why vocals don’t seem so intimate here. The driver retains the cymbal splashes and some drum kicks but fails to separate the instruments from each other, sounding congested at the end of the song, where all the instruments and voices sound in unison.
Conclusion
The Buds2 is a product that leaves me satisfied for situations where portability is strictly necessary, such as commuting or exercising. They have several strong points, such as an ANC that blocks low frequencies well and provides a high level of isolation, their very good battery life, and their relaxed tuning, ideal for travelling and enjoying the scenery without focusing too much on the details. However, as I mentioned, outside of portable situations, I don't see much sense in using them, such as at home, since many wired products have a better price to performance ratio and allow for more faithful reproduction of lossless audio content.
