A new bar for affordable headphones

To some extent, all new gadgets are an evolution of the devices that came before them, improving on existing technology while adding new features at a lower cost. With the Galaxy Buds 2’s active noise cancellation, solid audio and voice quality, and a price tag of $ 150, Samsung sets a new standard for what we should expect from affordable wireless headphones.

In years past, prioritizing ANC in a pair of wireless headphones has meant giving up $ 200 to $ 300 or more. But with the Galaxy Buds 2 equipped with the ANC, which join others new arrivals like Nothing’s $ 99 Ear (1), ANC feels less like a luxury inclusion and more like a standard feature that should be available on all but the cheapest earbuds. And using the Galaxy Buds Pro as a model, Samsung has created affordable headphones that offer almost the same experience as Samsung’s high-end headphones, but for $ 50 less.

Elegant design

As with the previous one Galaxy buds, the Galaxy buds 2 come in a compact wireless charging case, with the only distinguishing feature on the outside being a USB-C port for wired charging. The main difference on this model is that the case features a glossy finish instead of the more matte texture that Samsung has favored before, with the inside of the case sporting the same color (olive, white, lavender, and black) as the buds for a little matchy -the matching goodness.

Samsung seems to have looked entirely at function rather than form for the design of the headphones itself, with the Buds 2 being almost completely devoid of any distinctive or branding features. All you get are two plastic shells with a few holes for the microphones and silicone tips on the end. The whole setup is super minimalistic, almost like the kind of generic headphones you might see in a sci-fi movie.

You will not see any marks, but the Galaxy buds 2 always come with built-in touch controls, so you can pause your current track with a single tap, skip forward with a double tap, or go back to a previous track with three taps on the sides of the buttons. And by default, if you want to turn ANC on or off, you just need to long press. The only downside is that while you can customize some of the touch controls, if you want to reserve the touch and hold control for something like volume, there’s no way to set the ANC toggle to a different gesture.

The Galaxy Buds 2 lack the more in-depth ANC settings found on the Galaxy Buds Pro, so there is no parameter to adjust the strength of the ANC – it is on or off. The Galaxy Buds 2 case comes with a few little lights that let you know how much extra juice it has left (which ranges from green to yellow to red depending on charge levels). Samsung added a total of three sets of silicone eartips (small, medium, and large) and a spare USB-C cable (but no power supply).

Simple setup

Setting up the Galaxy Buds 2 couldn’t be much easier. Those with Samsung phones should receive a pop-up notification the first time you open the case, which will quickly guide you through the pairing process. And for those on other Android phones or even iOS, you can just download the Galaxy Wearable app and go from there. It’s important to note that some of Samsung’s more experimental features, such as the Low Latency Gaming Mode in Samsung Labs, are only available on Samsung devices.

Once paired, Samsung created a new earbud fit test to help you determine which size eartip you should use, which for me made me switch to wide eartips, even though the medium and large eartips were just as comfortable. If you ever need to pair your headphones with another device, all you have to do is open the case, and before removing the headphones, press and hold the headphones for about three seconds until the lights on the case begin to flash.

All in all, everything is extremely simple and works as expected, that’s all I’m really looking for in an affordable headset.

Sound and ANC

When it comes to sound quality, the Galaxy Buds 2 really match the audio you get with Samsung’s higher-end headphones, which probably says more about the Buds Pro than the Galaxy Buds 2. In some situations like on “The Lady of Modjo”, the Galaxy Buds Pro makes the highs brighter and clearer while maintaining a slightly rounder tone on the bassline compared to the Galaxy Buds 2. But it’s extremely close, and for most lossy music you get from major streaming services, unless you are doing direct side-by-side compositions, the difference seems pretty negligible.

The real eye-opener is when you compare the Galaxy Buds 2 to the standard Apple AirPods, also at $ 150, which not only don’t have the same acoustic range as the Galaxy Buds 2, but the lack of real ear tips to help seal it in. outside noise means you are more likely to suffer from distractions. The Galaxy Buds 2 just make Apple’s AirPods look a bit dated, and while there are rumors that Apple is already working on a follow-up in the near future, the Galaxy Buds 2 gives me the impression that the new AirPods can’t come soon enough.

The ANC on the Galaxy Buds 2 isn’t bad, although the Galaxy Buds Pro have a distinct advantage. On the Galaxy Buds 2, high-pitched sounds like squealing brakes in the subway or police sirens are more common, as are low rumbles like the tires of an 18-wheeler. For $ 150 I don’t think it’s a break, but for people looking for the type of ANC that offers a cocoon of silence, you’ll probably want to upgrade to more expensive headphones like the Buds Pro or Sony’s WF-1000XM4.

The Buds 2 have three built-in mics, which use beamforming and a new machine-learning-based algorithm to filter out annoying sounds. And while no one will ever mistake the Buds 2 mics for a desktop mic, the voice quality is more than fixable. If you need extra help hearing things (or just don’t want to take the headphones off when ordering coffee or whatever), the Galaxy Buds 2 also supports Samsung’s Ambient Sound feature, which can be set to three different sound amplification levels.

Disappointing battery life

The total battery life of the Galaxy Buds 2 is perhaps the weakest part of its kit, not because it’s bad, but because previous Samsung headphones like the Galaxy Buds + claimed a whopping 11 hours of battery life on a single charge. Galaxy Buds 2 have virtually the same battery life as Galaxy Buds Pro, Buds 2 last around five hours with ANC on (7.5 hours with ANC off), or around three hours of talk time if you’re on a call. It’s not quite enough to stay powered on for a whole day’s work, but as always, you can quickly charge the heads by throwing them into their case, which holds around three to four additional full charges.

Final result

Time to talk seriously: there is nothing about the Galaxy Buds 2 that we haven’t seen before. They have pretty much the same wireless charging case that Samsung has been using for years, and their design is more an exercise in minimalism than an object meant to grab your attention (although that’s not necessarily a bad thing). And ANC has been a quantity known for years on high-end headphones and more expensive headphones.

Where the Galaxy Buds 2 excels is in combining all of these things with solid audio quality and easy-to-use controls in a pair of wireless headphones that cost just $ 150, which makes the Galaxy Buds. 2 one of the first headphones to really bring ANC into the mainstream. Of course, the battery life could be a bit longer and I would like a bit more customization compared to ANC strength or volume settings. But for $ 150, the Galaxy Buds 2 are just good little headphones, and that’s the kind of simplicity I can appreciate.