Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro emerge as strongest earbud yet with noise cancellation

Samsung's new Galaxy Buds Pro arrived in January 2021 with a promise that had been leaking out for months: a set of wireless earbuds that could finally match the noise-cancellation prowess of Apple's AirPods Pro. At $199, they slot themselves into the premium tier of the market, undercutting Apple but commanding a premium over Samsung's own earlier attempts.

The company released these earbuds alongside the Galaxy S21 at its Unpacked event, and the specs suggest Samsung learned from its recent missteps. The Galaxy Buds Live, which arrived just five months earlier, had been a design gamble—bean-shaped, tipless, semi-open. The approach sounded innovative on paper. In practice, it meant weak noise cancellation and sound that leaked everywhere. The Galaxy Buds Plus, released earlier in 2020, had solid battery life but no active noise cancellation at all. The Pro model abandons both experiments and returns to a conventional form: round housings with silicone tips, much like the Buds Plus, but substantially refined.

The physical improvements are meaningful. Samsung upgraded the water-resistance rating from IPX2 to IPX7, which means these earbuds can survive workouts and rain without the inner mechanisms failing. The earbud itself has been reshaped—the part that sits in your ear canal is now more convex with vents designed to reduce pressure buildup, a small detail that matters during long listening sessions. The cushions are longer and less rounded. There are no rubber earfins like the Buds Plus had, which could be a drawback for intense exercise, but early testing suggests they sit comfortably enough. The charging case is smaller than the Buds Plus case but slightly thicker, with USB-C charging and wireless charging support. LED indicators on both the case and its interior show battery levels at a glance. The earbuds come in three colors—Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, and Phantom Violet—matching the new Galaxy S21 lineup.

The audio architecture is where Samsung has made its boldest move. Instead of the single-driver design used in both the Live and Plus models, the Pro earbuds pack a dual-driver setup: an 11mm woofer for low frequencies and a 6.5mm tweeter for highs, inspired by Hi-Fi speaker design. In early listening, the clarity and balance across the frequency spectrum impressed, though a full assessment would require extended testing. Samsung has also added 360 Audio, a feature that uses Dolby Head Tracking to create an immersive, spatially aware listening experience—though it only works with Galaxy devices. For gamers, there's a Game Mode that reduces audio latency on the Galaxy S21.

But the headline feature is noise cancellation. The Galaxy Buds Pro claim to block up to 99 percent of unwanted outside noise, a dramatic leap from the Buds Live's limited capabilities and the Buds Plus' complete absence of ANC. Users can adjust the cancellation level through the Galaxy Wearables app, choosing from multiple strengths. There's also an ambient mode that lets external sounds through when needed. What sets the Pro model apart is its intelligence: the earbuds can automatically adjust noise cancellation and ambient settings based on what you're doing and where you are. An Intelligent Active Noise Control feature detects when you're speaking and automatically lowers the music, then brings it back up when it senses the conversation has ended. This kind of contextual awareness is the sort of thing that separates a feature from something genuinely useful.

Call quality should be solid. Each earbud contains three microphones—two inner, one outer—designed to filter environmental noise during calls. The outer microphone has a high signal-to-noise ratio. Samsung has also engineered the fit, mesh, and internal chamber to minimize wind noise, a practical consideration for anyone taking calls outdoors. The Galaxy Buds Live had introduced bone-conduction voice pickup using an accelerometer to sense jaw movement, and that feature worked well; the Pro model builds on this foundation with additional microphone sophistication.

Battery life presents a trade-off. The earbuds themselves offer five hours of playback, with the case providing an additional 13 hours—or 20 hours if you disable noise cancellation. That's less on-board time than the Buds Plus, which squeezed 11 hours from the earbuds alone. However, the Pro's total lifespan of 25 hours without ANC edges out the Buds Plus' 22-hour total. For connectivity, Samsung kept Bluetooth 5 and support for AAC, SBC, and SSC codecs, which adjust bit-rate based on signal strength to prevent audio dropout. A new feature called Auto Switch lets you seamlessly move between Galaxy devices—if you're listening to music on a tablet and receive a call on your phone, the earbuds automatically switch to the call and reconnect to the tablet afterward.

At $199, the Galaxy Buds Pro cost more than their predecessors but less than the AirPods Pro. Samsung is releasing new earbud models at a striking pace—the Buds Plus came out in early 2020, the Buds Live in August, and now the Pro in January 2021. Whether that rapid iteration reflects genuine innovation or market anxiety remains to be seen. What's clear from the specs is that Samsung has addressed the specific failures of its recent models: the Buds Live's poor isolation and sound leakage, the Buds Plus' lack of noise cancellation. The Pro model looks like the strongest Samsung earbud yet, with enough features and refinement to genuinely compete with the best in the market. But specs on paper and real-world performance are different things, and Samsung's track record with these devices suggests caution is warranted until the full review testing is complete.