Samsung Galaxy Buds2 have a lot to offer

This little egg-shaped product has a lot to offer but at $219 they might not be cheap enough to beat their $299 superior.

The latest iteration of Galaxy earbuds has been unveiled. It’s time to meet the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 – the little egg shaped earbuds that have a lot to offer.

Unboxing

The Buds2 come in a small box containing the earbuds in their charging case, a USB to USB-C charging cable, ear tips (small, medium and large) and a quick start guide. There are four colour options to choose from – olive, graphite, lavender and white.

Each colour has a charging case that’s white on the outside, with the inside of the charging case reflecting the earbud’s colour. Excitingly, the case now supports wireless charging too.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 2. Picture: Elly Awesome.

Features

Pairing these buds is almost instantaneous when using them with a Samsung phone, such as the Galaxy Z Flip3 or Galaxy S21. You can simply put the Buds2 near a Samsung device, open the charging case and they should pair, even if you haven’t paired your Buds to them before. With other devices you’ll need to have the Buds2 in their case, then press and hold the earbuds for about three seconds to put them into pairing mode.

Touch controls are used for the Buds2 and they’re incredibly intuitive – tap once to play and pause, double tap to skip tracks and triple tap to go to the previous track. To customise these functions, and other features of the buds, you’ll need the Samsung Galaxy Wearable app. This will allow you to test the fit of your buds, tweak the equaliser, adjust ambient sound features, and more.

One of my favourite lesser known features of the Buds2 is the read aloud feature. Instead of just hearing a notification chime in your ears when you receive a message the Buds2 can also read out your message to you.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds2 have an awesome read aloud feature. Picture: Elly Awesome.

Sound quality

When it comes to sound quality on the Buds2 you’re getting a great all round experience. These buds have active noise cancellation but to be honest the passive noise cancellation (ie. how the earbuds block out surrounding sounds without the use of software) is already impressive as the Buds2 block out noise similarly to earplugs.

Ambient sound mode is a complementary feature to this that conversely allows you to hear what’s going on around you. It helps to cut through the innate noise cancellation so that you have the option to easily hold a conversation or hear oncoming traffic while you have these in your ears.

This works by the buds activating the in-built microphone which then amplifies outside sounds and sends it back into your ears. Though audio quality of this feature doesn’t sound super natural in this mode it definitely gets the job done.

the Samsung buds have active noise cancellation. Picture: Elly Awesome.

Overall, I found the Buds2 to provide a well balanced sound that offers a pleasing listening experience with decent bass tones. When using them, even without active noise cancellation activated, almost all outside sounds melt away and it feels like you’re completely in your own world.

Battery life

The battery life is what you’d expect, competing with other well-known brands offering up to 29 hours of battery life while using the case (with active noise cancellation switched off). The Buds2 on their own have around five hours of battery life with active noise cancellation turned on and eight hours with active noise cancellation switched off.

Worth the price?

The Buds2 reminds me of the Galaxy Buds Pro, which have a similar form factor. If you have the money ($299) I would recommend going for the Galaxy Buds Pro as they’re highly rated by Samsung users. However, the Buds2 are a great all rounder at a more affordable price point of $219.

Elly Awesome is an Aussie tech and lifestyle vlogger | @ellyawwesome | YouTube