Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro vs. Apple AirPods Pro

Samsung introduced new Galaxy S21 smartphones in January and, along with the new phones, introduced the $ 200 Galaxy Buds Pro, which offers $ 199 cost and active noise cancellation.

This new Galaxy Buds Pro is 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.

Design-wise, the Galaxy Buds Pro looks nothing like the ‌AirPods Pro‌, with a rounded in-ear design with no more stealing. They do have silicone tips like the ‌AirPods Pro‌, but MacRumors videographer Dan, who tested the Galaxy Buds Pro, found them to be much more uncomfortable than the ‌AirPods Pro‌.

They need to be fitted tightly in the ear to get the right fit and the right seal, both to make sure they stay in the ear and to make the ANC functionality work properly. Without the right fit, the earbuds will not sound good and the sound quality will suffer. Samsung does offer several silicone tips to adjust properly, but these earbuds may not work well for some users.

Like the ‌AirPods Pro‌, the Galaxy Buds Pro offers Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) Active, which is decent, but it’s not as good as the ANC in the ‌AirPods Pro‌. It’s definitely better than the ANC in last year’s Galaxy Buds Live, but it’s still not in line with the AirPods Pro. There is an environment mode that is equivalent to transparency mode to let ambient sounds through, but again, this is just fine and does not work as well as transparency mode.

There is one notable feature that the Galaxy Buds Pro offers, which is not available in the AirPods Pro, and that is Voice Detect. Voice Detect lowers the volume and turns on the environment mode when it hears the sound of your voice, which is useful.

In terms of sound quality, the Galaxy Buds Pro is almost indistinguishable from the sAirPods Pro‌. Sound on both sounds great, and whether you prefer one over the other comes down to individual listening preferences. The Galaxy Buds Pro is hotter and heavier on the bass, which some people prefer. You do need a good in-ear fit for the best sound quality, because if it is not, it does not sound as good.

The Galaxy Buds Pro comes with a small and tangible case, and the case has 18 to 20 hours of extra battery life, depending on ANC usage. The Galaxy Buds themselves have a five-hour battery life with ANC on and an eight-hour battery life with ANC on. By comparison, the ‌AirPods Pro‌ lasts 4.5 hours on a single charge with ANC and five hours off, but the case offers an additional 24 hours of listening time. Apple’s AirPods Pro‌ charges wirelessly or via a Lightning port, while the Galaxy Buds Pro uses USB-C.

There are touch controls on either side of the Galaxy Pro earbuds, and taps play / break, skip tracks and turn the surround sound function on and off. IrAirPods Pro‌ offers similar controls, but on the stem rather than relying on taps, which works better.

Apple designed AirPods Pro to use with Apple devices, and the Galaxy Buds Pro was 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 earbuds models were more agnostic and easily connected to other Android devices or even iPhones, but with the Galaxy Buds Pro you miss features without a Galaxy smartphone.

There is one touch-on-one pairing feature for setting up the Galaxy Buds Pro with a Galaxy smartphone (you need to manually connect to an iPhone), and there is a 360 Audio feature that is equivalent to the spatial audio feature in the AirPods Pro. We were unable to test 360 Audio because the update that enables it on Galaxy devices (other than the S21) is not yet available.

Along with one tap connection, the Galaxy Buds Pro supports devices for automatic detection and quick conversion, but again only Galaxy devices. There is an app to customize the EQ and other settings, but it is Android only and there is no ‌iPhone‌ version available.

All in all, the Galaxy Buds Pro is solid headphones if you have a Galaxy smartphone, but these are not headphones you are going to want to pick up if you have an iPhone because you miss so many features. The price point is also only $ 50 cheaper than ‌AirPods Pro., So it’s better to spend the $ 250 for ‌AirPods Pro spending if you have an Apple device.