While Samsung believes its fourth-generation foldable smartphones are the ones that consumers will finally actually care about, the true wireless earbud market segment finds way more acceptance overall than the total "foldable" smartphone segment combined. With its new Galaxy Z smartphones, Samsung essentially is trying to improve on a concept that it believes at least will help differentiate its products in a segment that is highly mature and continues to squash margins for all the players.
What cannot be denied is that Samsung is a really large manufacturing conglomerate with strong competences in semiconductors, displays and other key technologies, which it supplies to its competitors with much larger margins and profit than it makes from selling me-too finished products. Still, compared with the relentless Chinese copycats, at least Samsung tries hard to find its own path and demonstrate superior craftsmanship with unique form factors. While in smartphones it cannot compete given that its software is basically the same Android mashup that anyone can have, at least in the audio category it can play to its advantages with large volume economies of scale.
Of course, the new Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro are not much different from previous attempts in the category, including its obvious marketing, packaging and PoS design elements (including choice of fonts) that always "pay tribute" to Apple. As differentiators, Samsung uses all the tools in its arsenal, including battery and charging technology, which are the standout points on its new Galaxy Z Flip4 phones with Super Fast Charging (50 percent total capacity in around 30 minutes). The new earbuds offer up to 5 hours with ANC activated (up to 18 hours on the case) and 8 hours / 29 hours with ANC off.
Joining the updated Galaxy Z series smartphones, the new Galaxy Buds2 Pro introduce a new, more compact design with improved connectivity with Android devices. The new IPX7 ergonomic design is 15 percent smaller, with a secure fit that is engineered to prevent rotation, making it adequate for fitness activities, while the active noise cancellation implementation is combined with a powerful processing and microphone system that eliminates outside noise during calls and provides a silent environment to enjoy music listening.
And like every other major mobile and consumer tech company these days, also Samsung is not happy with the state of affairs in terms of Bluetooth connectivity. The new LE Audio specifications that have been published will arrive only in next year's products at best, and so for this year's models there needs to be something else. To compensate for the lack of audio quality, and even though Samsung is also using Qualcomm's chips, it opted to implement high resolution audio streaming using a new Samsung-proprietary 24-bit codec that the company says offers higher dynamic range, when combined with the new 2-way coaxial drivers. Obviously, this new Samsung Seamless Codec HiFi is not lossless and requires using the Samsung Galaxy phones as the streaming source to the Galaxy Buds2 Pro earbuds. Otherwise the earbuds support AAC codec for general Bluetooth audio streaming use.
And detailing the audio qualities, the new Galaxy earbuds also support some kid of binaural rendering of multichannel sources. Samsung calls it 360 Audio with Direct Multi-Channel, but since the company doesn't offer any content guidance, this is still basically a marketing pitch (no mention of Dolby Atmos or head tracking).
The ANC implementation - updated Intelligent Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) - is supposed to be 40% improved (50-1kHz average) compared to the previous Galaxy Buds Pro, with the three microphones (one inside and two outside) being 3dB higher SNR devices. The built-in processor is able distinguish between noise and human voices, but again no mention of AI processors or trained ML models.
Otherwise, the Buds2 Pro support multipoint connectivity, and can seamlessly switch between audio sources, such as from a Samsung TV to a Samsung smartphone, with a touch of a finger on the earbuds, with Auto Switch in the case of calls. As always, this is not standard Bluetooth but proprietary implementations that require specific Samsung and Android devices. Another similar proprietary implementation that in this case emulates Apple's Find My is what Samsung calls SmartThings Find, enabling users to locate their devices, including the separate earbuds outside the charging case (no mention of UWB - its Bluetooth location-based only).
And obviously, all the new Samsung products use recycled materials not just in the packaging, but also in the hardware. In fact, Samsung says that more than 90 percent of the new Galaxy Buds2 Pro is made with recycled materials.
The new Galaxy Buds2 Pro earbuds come in three all-new soft and neutral hues that complement the announced new foldables, with Graphite, White and Bora Purple color schemes. All will be available from August 26 in select countries.
www.samsung.com
