Samsung simply unleashed its first premium pair of earbuds, the Galaxy Buds Professional, and so they come brimming with options resembling improved water resistance, spatial 3D audio, adjustable lively noise cancellation, a four-step ambient noise mode, and the flexibility to dial down the ANC and up the ambient sound if you begin speaking.
We’ll have a full assessment of the Galaxy Buds Professional as soon as our assessment takes them for a radical check drive, however I couldn’t resist cracking the field and taking them for a fast spin. Learn on for my first impressions.
Design
Contained in the field you’ll discover the Galaxy Buds Professional sitting of their charging case (roughly an inch thicks, and two ounces with the earbuds inside), together with a USB-C to USB-A charging cable and three eartips—small, medium, and enormous—along with the information which can be already on the buds.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Professional include a USB-C-to-USB-A charging cords together with three further pairs of eartips.
The Buds Professional are available three colours: phantom violet, phantom black (the colour of our assessment unit), and phantom silver. Gone is the bean form of the Samsung Galaxy Buds Dwell; as an alternative, we’re speaking extra of a compact, conventional form with a shiny end, akin to the Galaxy Buds Plus. The buds match snugly in my ears, protruding out solely barely, and I by no means feared they have been about to come out.
One of many greatest design adjustments for the Galaxy Buds Professional isn’t seen to the bare eye: It’s rather more proof against water than earlier Galaxy Buds. Whereas the Galaxy Buds Plus and Buds Dwell have an IPX2 score, that means they’re solely proof against water than hits them at a 15-degree angle or much less, the Buds Professional boast an IPX7 score, which suggests they are often submerged in a meter of water for as much as half-hour. In different phrases, you could possibly most likely get away with sporting the Buds Professional in a automobile wash, not that doing so could be an amazing concept.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Professional boast an IPX7 score, which suggests they need to stand up to being submerged in a meter of water for as much as half-hour.
Lively noise cancellation
As soon as I paired the Galaxy Buds Professional with a Samsung Galaxy Notice 20 (the method took lower than a minute, and went and not using a hitch), I fired up the Samsung Wearables app to take the buds’ ANC characteristic for a check drive.
Samsung says the Buds Professional can display out as much as 99 % of background noise, and in my preliminary assessments the buds did a formidable job of quieting the low rumble of my dishwasher and the whir of a ground fan. I might, nonetheless, nonetheless hear higher-range sounds, such because the clickity-clack of my mechanical keyboard and voices from my daughter’s distant studying class. It’s common for noise-cancelling earbuds to primarily block low-frequency sounds, however nonetheless, it’s value noting.

Lively noise cancellation on the Samsung Galaxy Buds Professional comes with “excessive” and “low” settings, with the “low” step advisable for quieter environments.
The Buds Professional additionally has “excessive” and “low” ANC settings, with the “low” setting advisable for quieter environments the place you don’t want the complete—and generally too-full—noise cancelling impact. I didn’t discover a lot of a distinction between the “excessive” and “low” ANC settings, however those that get an uncomfortably clogged-up feeling from noise-cancelling earbuds would possibly respect the choice.
Ambient sounds and voice detect
In addition to screening out ambient noise, the Galaxy Buds Professional also can let it in if you’d reasonably hold an ear in your environment, just like “transparency mode” on the AirPods Professional. You possibly can toggle between ANC and the ambient sound mode by tapping and holding one of many buds.
What units the Buds Professional’s ambient noise isolating is that it presents 4 steps, for a lift of as much as 20dB. Enabling the ambient noise characteristic does, certainly, make the Buds Professional’s audio really feel rather more open to the atmosphere, helpful for after I was ready for FedEx to ring my doorbell or (finally) after I enterprise again onto the New York Metropolis subway.

The Galaxy Buds Professional’s four-step ambient sound characteristic can deliber an audio increase of as much as 20db.
Working hand-in-hand with the Buds Professional’s ambient noise mode is a intelligent “voice detect” characteristic that robotically turns off active-noise cancellation, turns down your music, and cranks up the ambient noise each time it hears your voice.
Having the ability to slide into conversations whereas sporting the Buds Professional with out having to raise a finger was refreshingly liberating, and after I used to be accomplished speaking, the ANC and my tunes would ramp again up inside about 10 seconds. That mentioned, voice detect does take a second or so to kick in after you begin speaking, and it’ll solely activate as soon as you speak, not another person.
SmartThings Discover
One other nifty new characteristic for the Galaxy Buds Professional (and, once more, one which Apple’s AirPods had first) is a “discover my buds” characteristic.
Much like Apple’s “Discover My” app, SmartThings Discover places your supported gadgets, together with the Galaxy Buds Professional, on a map, and you may faucet a button to make the buds emit a quiet chirp that steadily grows louder. If the Buds Professional aren’t related to Bluetooth, SmartThings Discover will report their final identified location.

Simply press the “Ring” button on the SmartThings app to make your misplaced Galaxy Buds Professional emit a delicate beep, which steadily will increase in quantity.
Sound and name high quality
We’ll save the small print on the Galaxy Buds Professional’s audio high quality for our full assessment, however to my (untrained) ears, the two-way audio system on the Buds Professional sounded fairly spectacular. Teeing up the title observe of Bruce Springsteen’s The Ghost of Tom Joad on Tidal (which I used to be capable of stream losslessly, due to Samsung’s Scalable Codec), Bruce’s spare vocals sounded clear and crisp, and there was a pleasant heat to the rising synthesizer, albeit with a considerably slender soundstage. Ciara’s “Degree Up” popped with out heading into too-boomy territory, whereas Carlos Kleiber’s legendary rendition of Beethoven’s Fifth delivered loads of element within the strings and horns.
The Buds Professional’s three mics and redesigned windshield chamber are designed to maintain your name high quality clear throughout windy situations; sadly, the climate has been disappointingly calm throughout my transient testing interval, however callers reported that my voice sounded loud and clear throughout some not-so-windy calls. Hopefully we will scare up some stronger breezes for our full assessment.
360 Audio
Trying to match Apple’s spatial audio on the AirPods Professional, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Professional arrive with 360 Audio, a characteristic that simulates multichannel audio on the buds stereo drivers whereas additionally—with assist from Dolby Head Monitoring know-how—making it sound just like the audio is coming from the path of your telephone or pill, even if you transfer your head.
It’s a cool-sounding characteristic and I can’t wait to strive it, however alas, it’ll—for now, anyway—solely work on Samsung’s newest Galaxy S21 handsets. A firmware replace that may allow 360 Audio for the Galaxy Note20 (which Samsung let me borrow for testing functions) and S20 ought to arrive “quickly,” whereas plans for older Galaxy telephones are up within the air.
Auto Swap
One other characteristic that I wasn’t capable of check drive was Samsung’s new Auto Swap characteristic, which can enable the Galaxy Buds Professional to bounce from a Galaxy pill to a Galaxy telephone and again once more if you’re taking a name or in any other case multitasking. As with 360 Audio, Auto Swap will work at launch with Samsung’s newest Galaxy S21 telephones, whereas the upcoming 360 Audio firmware replace can even allow Auto Swap for Note20 and S20 fashions.
Please stand by
As I discussed earlier than, these are simply first impressions of the Samsung Galaxy Buds Professional following a really transient interval of testing. Maintain your eyes peeled for an in-depth assessment.