So right now in late 2021, Samsung has a very robust of truly wireless earbuds to choose from. We’ve got the entry level Galaxy Buds 2 which have a very impressive feature stack. There are the Galaxy Buds Live which are a good option for people who don’t like in ear earbuds for long use sessions. And then there are the Galaxy Buds Pro which have the best active noise cancelation here, but more importantly they really sound great. So if you’re trying to choose between any of these earbuds, lets see which ones right for you. 

Regarding pricing, Samsung’s earbuds have a pretty narrow range. The Galaxy Buds 2, which are the newest earbuds here retail for $150. Then there are the Galaxy Buds Live which released in August of 2020 which retail for $170. And then there are the Galaxy Buds Pro which released in January of 2021 which retail for $200. Overall, I expect all of these earbuds to go on sale on a regular basis… so if you want to pick any of these earbuds up they’ll be linked down below. 

Now first lets talk about the cases here. Theyre all the same. Theyre all square, they all open clam shell style, and theyre all relatively small so they aren’t too noticeable when you’ve got them in your pocket. The only difference here is that the Pro’s have a matte case where as these other earbuds have glossy cases. Which isn’t a big deal. But size wise these cases are pretty small. Sure they are a little larger than your AirPods or AirPods Pro cases… but they are smaller than your Jabra Elite 85T’s case and Sony WF-1000XM4’s case. They only critique that that have about Samsung’s cases is that their magnets are pretty weak. So you do have to be careful when taking your earbuds out and putting them back in. But other than that all of these cases are solid. 

Now when it comes to charging these cases, they all charge via a USB C port. However, all of these cases also have wireless charging. And personally I am surprised that even the entry level Galaxy Buds 2 have wireless charging. I would expect this feature to be exclusive to the more premium models. So defenielty that really cool on Samsung’s part. But I guess they have to add it to all of their earbuds because power sharing is a pretty big deal on their phones. 

No when it comes to battery life… these earbuds are basically identical. All of these cases have 472 Milliamp Hour Batteries in them so they can supply the earbuds with about 3 additional charges. Both the Galaxy Buds 2 and Pro’s have 61 Milliamp Hour button cell batteries in them  where as the Live’s have 60 milliamp hour batteries in them which isn’t a huge difference. Overall, all of these earbuds have a combined battery life of about 28 to 29 hours with their active noise cancelation turned off. The earbuds are good for about 7 to 8 hours, plus those 3 charges from the case. 

And with their active noise cancelation turned on all of these earbuds have a combined battery life of around 20 hours. The earbuds themselves can go for 5 hours plus those 3 additional charges. Overall all of these earbuds have good battery lives… but there are other earbuds out there that have longer combined batteries lives. Two great examples are the jabra elite 85t and Sony WF-1000XM4. 

But now lets talk about the earbuds themselves. And we’re going to have to talk about fit because these earbuds fit very differently from one another. First lets address the Galaxy Buds Live. These earbuds don’t actually go into your ear canal like these other two earbuds. They just rest in the bowl of your ear just like AirPods do. And these ear buds are great for long use sessions because they're super comfortable and they never get itchy. You can literally wear these earbuds all day and forget that they're there. The only draw back is that these earbuds don’t block out all the much ambient noise. Which does affect the sound quality of your media. But now lets focus on the Galaxy buds 2 and pro’s which are in ear earbuds. Now the Galaxy Buds 2 fit like your standard pair of in ear earbuds. They go into your ear canals a decent amount, and they have your standard round silicon ear tips. Over all these earbuds fit fine and they're great for casual use. However the Galaxy Buds Pro fit a little differently. For starts the Pro’s are a little more shallow fitting. So they feel a little less intrusive. But also their ear tips are a little different. The ear tips on the Pro’s or more oval so they fit more naturally in your ear canal… and also these ear tips feel more premium than the ones found on the 2’s. They're a little more matte feeling. Overall I prefer how the Pro’s fit over the Galaxy buds 2’s…. But in general all of these earbuds are battery suited for casual use. Personally I wouldn’t use any of these earbuds for working out and I definitely wouldn’t use them for running. 

Now when it comes to connectivity all of these earbuds are the same. All of these earbuds each establish a connection with your phone so if you just want to use one earbud at a time you can use either one. And this is the connection set up that we except to see from our earbuds nowadays. 

Now if you’re a Samsung power user you’re going to be able to hot swap between all of your devices with all of these earbuds thanks to the seamless earbud connection. But even if you’re not galaxy user, lets say you’ve got a pixel device and an iPhone like me, switching devices is also very easy. All you gotta do is go into your devices bluetooth menu and establish a connection. So connectivity wise, these earbuds are good for power users with multiple devices even from different eco systems. 

Now when it comes to performance these earbuds have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you're using an iPhone or an android device… and when it comes to audio codecs these earbuds have support for SBC and AAC.

But now lets talk about actually listening to music with these earbuds. Now like I mentioned earlier since the Galaxy Buds Live don’t actually go into your ear canals to passively block out noise… your music isn’t going to sound as good as with these other earbuds. Now in general the Galaxy Buds Live have a very bass heavy sound signature to them right out of the box. But personally I prefer how these earbuds sound when they're set to their dynamic EQ. While in their Dynamic EQ their bass gets lowered a little bit… but they still have a lot of bass and the mids come out a little bit as well. Making it a little easier to hear vocals and instrumentals. Overall the Galaxy Buds Live sound fine… but I feel that these are better suited for watching videos and consuming podcasts. 

But then there are the Galaxy Buds 2 and the Galaxy Buds Pro. Now again, I think both of these earbuds sound best when their set to their dynamic EQ’s. Right out fo the box both of these earbuds sound a little bright. But with their Dynamic EQ the bass on both of these earbuds comes out a lot more and vocals are still well defined. Now the Galaxy Buds 2 sound great for a pair of entry level earbuds. They more than get the job done. However the Galaxy Buds Pro do sound noticeably better than the 2’s. Specially the Pro’s sound more open with better instrument separation and their bass resonates deeper and cleaner. For me, the Galaxy buds pro are my third favorite sounding earbuds. Second place going to the Sennheiser Momentum 2’s and first place currently going to the Sennheiser CX’s. But overall, if you’re interested in getting the best sounding earbuds from Samsung’s line up, the simple answer is just go with the Pro’s. 

But now I want to quickly address app compatibility with these earbuds. The Galaxy Buds Live are the only earbud here that play nice with Android and iOS. Now granted I expect the majority of people watching this to be android users… but I still think its important to point out. Where as both the Galaxy Buds 2 and Galaxy Buds Pro only connect to Samsung’s wear app if you’re using an android device. And without this app you’re not going to be able to get the most out of these earbuds. you won’t be able to update your earbuds, you won’t be able to adjust your ambient mode and you won’t be able to customize the layout of your touch pads. 

Now speaking of touch pads… all of these earbuds are using touch pads. Now overall, the touch pads on all of these earbuds are easy enough to use and they are fairly accurate. However the touch pads on the Galaxy Buds live are a little less quick to react. But the main difference here is that both the Galaxy Buds 2 and Galaxy Buds Pro have this tap the edge feature which gives you more control over your media directly from the earbuds them selves than you do with the Galaxy Buds Live. Over all this isn’t a huge deal… but I feel your power user will might lean more toward the Galaxy Buds 2 or Pro’s because of this. 

Now when it comes to always listening voice assistants… all of these earbuds have bixby support. Now since im a pixel user I really don’t have any experience with bixby. And unfortunately none of these earbuds have support for Hey Google. But you can always activate your voice assistant of choice by pressing and holding on the touch pad.  

But now lets talk about the Active noise cancelation on these earbuds. Now Samsung’s Active noise cancelation doesn’t block out all that much noise… even on their Galaxy Buds Pro. Cause when it comes to ranking there’s the Sony WF-1000XM4’s which block out the most amount of noise, under them are the Jabra Elite 85T’s which also block out a ton of noise all while being more comfortable. Under them are the AirPods Pro and Sennheiser Momentum 2’s which I feel are neck and neck. And under them are the Galaxy Buds Pro. 

So like I said, in general Samsung’s ANC is ehh. Now below the Galaxy Buds Pro are the Beats Studio Buds, below them are the Galaxy Buds 2, and in last place here is going to be the Galaxy Buds Live. And thats cause of how the Galaxy Buds Live fit. Since they don’t passively block out any ambient noise their ANC is at a disadvantage here. And simply put, both the Galaxy Buds 2 and Galaxy Buds Pro passively block out more noise than the Galaxy Buds Live when their ANC is turned on. 

So overall, the ANC on all of these earbuds block out some noise. And technically the Pro’s do block out more noise than the 2’s. But all of these earbuds mainly just block out constant low frequency sounds and don’t expect the to block out as much noise as the big boys. 

However like I’ve mentioned in the past, I only use the ANC on my earbuds when I have to. And what’s really important to me is the quality of their ambient mode. Now all of these earbuds have different ambient modes. With the Galaxy Buds Live its under their labs tab and you can’t adjust it to you liking like you can with these other earbuds. 

The Ambient mode on the Galaxy Buds Pro do a better job of blocking out wind noise when walking out doors than the Galaxy Buds 2… but it does have some noticeable hissing in the background. Where as the Galaxy Buds 2 have the most natural sounding ambient mode here… but it can sound a little shallow. So Samsung still has some improving to do when it comes to their ambient mode. 

But finally here’s the microphone test. Now in general all of these earbuds have good sounding microphones for phone calls and in a quite room they all sound about the same 

Except both the Galaxy Buds Live and Galaxy Buds Pro do have a little more amplification to them than the Galaxy Buds 2. 

Because again here are the Galaxy Buds pro in a quiet room and they do have a little more amplification to them than the Galaxy Buds 2.

And when it comes to blocking out noise pollution… all of these earbuds do a good job of blocking out road noise. Because for comparison sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone you can clearly hear all of this road noise. But if we were to switch back over to the Galaxy buds 2. It is reduced. 

However, with the Galaxy buds live my voice does sound a little more natural when theyre blocking out this same road noise. 

And with the Galaxy Buds Pro my voice sounds more amplified. 

And these earbuds also do a decent job of blocking out chatter. Now with the Galaxy buds 2 I’ll might sound a little robotic but you can definitely still under stand me. 

Where as with the Galaxy Buds live my voice does sound a little more natural

And with the Galaxy Buds pro my voice is a little more amplified. So over all all of these earbuds have decent sounding microphone for phone calls. 

So with all that being said. Samsung has a great line up of earbuds to choose from that really won’t break the bank. Honestly you can’t go wrong with the Galaxy Buds 2. They sound good, they have active noise cancellation, they have an ambient mode, they have a good sounding microphone for phone calls and their relatively small case has wireless charging. The Galaxy Buds Live are also great but they are meant for people who aren’t fans of in ear earbuds. But in general, the Galaxy Buds Live are the most comfortable earbuds here. And then there are the Galaxy Buds Pros. They have everything the Galaxy Buds 2 have… but slightly better. But where these earbuds really shine is their sound. These things really sound great.