I used the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro with an iPhone for over two months. They are a brilliant pair of earbuds, but should you buy them over the AirPods 2 Pro?
AirPods Pro 2 are the go-to flagship earbuds for an iPhone user; you get all the ecosystem benefits alongside brilliant sound quality and active noise cancellation (ANC). But what if you use your iPhone with a Windows laptop, or what if you have an Android phone as a secondary device? That’s where you’ll require a second pair of earbuds — unless you can find something that works well with the iPhone as well as Windows and Android. Surprisingly, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are one such product.
I’ve been using the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro with my iPhone 13 Pro Max and Galaxy Z Fold 4. While there are obvious reasons for someone in the Galaxy ecosystem to purchase the flagship Samsung earbuds, they work shockingly well with an iPhone — even if there are a couple of caveats.
Samsung removed the Galaxy Wearables app from the Apple App Store, and as a result, Samsung smartwatches after the Galaxy Watch 3 don’t have support for iPhones. You might think the same can be said about the Samsung earbuds, but the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are different.
Unlike the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 5, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro don’t require an app to pair and work. You can simply open the case and pair it to your iPhone. You can then play your favorite music or podcasts via any app you want on the iPhone. But you don’t get support to fine-tune the controls, and you miss out on some niche features (more on that below).
When you pair and connect the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro with your iPhone, no other setting is required to make full use of the earbuds. While the earbuds support 24-bit audio, it is limited to Galaxy smartphones. That said, the normal 16-bit audio isn’t bad at all. In fact, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are a terrific pair of earbuds.
The Buds 2 Pro feature dual drivers tuned by AKG, which make them very well-rounded The highs are clear with a good amount of bass thrown in. You get great instrument separation with excellent vocals.
