Comfortable and compact, with a good battery, quality sound provided by AKG and active noise cancellation that isolates practically everything. These are some of the main features of Samsung’s latest wireless headphones, the Galaxy Buds 2 .
Design, case, accessories
The Galaxy Buds 2 box includes the earphones themselves, the charging case, small and large size replacement silicone tips (the medium size ones are the ones that come with the earphones) and a charging cable USB-A to USB-C (can also be charged wirelessly ).
The cover is white with a glossy finish on the outside and the inside will depend on the color chosen for the headphones: white, olive green, black or lavender/purple .
The Buds also have that same shiny finish , which at first contact is a bit weird but soon stops looking like it. And there is no doubt that its colors, especially lavender and olive, are a distinctive plus for those who are tired of finding only black or white headphones. They are light and compact, with the same hollowed-out shape, so to speak, of their predecessors.
battery
the batteryIt is one of its best assets, with real behavior that even exceeds Samsung’s forecasts: with noise cancellation activated, up to five hours of playback (up to 20 with the charging case); with cancelation off, up to seven and a half hours of playback (up to 29 with charging case).
The card also indicates that with five minutes of charging you have a battery for one hour of playback and, with ten minutes plugged in, you reach two and a half hours. In both cases, this estimate is more than met.
Adjustment
As is often the case with this type of headphones, whether they are comfortable or not depends on each user, but in our case we have found them very comfortable, even with the silicone tips that they are wearing, the medium-sized ones.
They fit perfectly and, what is more important, they do not move while they are worn in a normal day-to-day activity, although it is true that we have not practiced sports with them (in principle they are not designed for intense exercise, but their certification IPX7 against splashes would be enough for them not to suffer damage).
Sound
The adjustment of headphones in this product segment is directly related to the sound experience that we will obtain with them on, which is why the brands insist so much that we spend a few minutes trying on the pads included in the boxes to choose the most suitable one for us ( Galaxy Wearable appIt has a section to check if the fit to our ears is correct or not).
Having said that, the sound ( AKG ) of these Galaxy Buds 2 is very good, both in content reproduction and in calls, in which the voice is heard clearly on both sides of the conversation.
Through the Galaxy Wearable application you can change the equalizer between different preset options. You can’t configure it in detail but those presets provide a quality and well balanced sound, so that option is not missing.
When it comes to calls, the Buds 2 have three microphones and a built-in voice pickup unit.. In the software section, they include technology based on machine learning that filters unwanted sound which, together with its design, protects your own voice from wind interruptions, for example.
Active noise cancellation
In the application you can also configure the intensity of the active noise cancellation or, rather, that of the ambient sound that we will receive with the headphones on. Thus, the user has four isolation options: high, medium or low ambient sound plus the cancellation itself.
With the last option activated, the headphones block up to 98%from unwanted external sounds. That’s what the tab says, of course. We have not been able to quantify the extent to which this annulment reaches, but we would even say that it is 100%.
More functions
In addition to selecting the equalizer or configuring noise cancellation and ambient sound (there is an option to activate ambient sound on calls , so that we hear our own voice while we speak), the Galaxy Wearable application has a section dedicated to touch controls .
Unfortunately we cannot establish what happens with each action(one touch, two touches, long press, etc.), but simply activate or deactivate the ones that we are going to use, or deactivate them completely if we are one of those who constantly readjust the headphones (whether we need it or not) and, therefore, candidates to turn on noise cancellation or answer or hang up calls by accident . In that case, better turn off touch controls altogether.
In the app there is also a functionality that users with Galaxy devices can enjoy . Auto-Switch mode is accessed via automatic connection, so that they link with other devices, be they phones, tablets or smart watches in which you are logged in to the same Samsung account. So we can go to listen from one device to another, without the need for linkage or further actions.
In summary
As we have mentioned, the Galaxy Buds 2 get very good marks both in their design, fit and comfort as well as in the sound and the functionalities they offer (active noise cancellation and ambient sound, among others), so they are a very interesting option and, for the owners of other Galaxy devices, it would be said that the first one to consider.
(*The device was provided by Samsung for a one-month trial)
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