They should hold up fine with workouts, runs, and rain.
The Galaxy Buds Pro have an IPX7 rating, which means they’re completely waterproof for up to 30 minutes in up to a meter of water. You can completely disable the touch sensors through the Galaxy Wearables app to avoid this, but then you’re left with no controls on the earpieces. The touch sensors are reasonably responsive and don’t trigger many false positives when the earphones are in, but it’s easy to accidentally misfire when inserting or removing them from your ear. The touch-and-hold control for volume is a bit awkward, and it’s a bummer that the earphones don't allow for the use of more common voice assistants.
You can also use the Galaxy Wearables app to program the touch-and-hold command for either ear to a different action, like volume up, volume down, opening Spotify, toggling between active noise cancellation and ambient sound, and (with Galaxy phones) using Samsung's Bixby voice assistant. Tap once to play or pause a track, double tap to skip forward a track or answer/end a call, triple tap to go back a track, and touch and hold to reject a call. They’re a definite improvement over the awkward bean shape of the Galaxy Buds Live, though you’ll want to make sure to twist the earphones forward when inserting them to ensure the best in-canal seal.Ĭontrols are simple, and the same for each earpiece. The earpieces lack any sort of stabilizing fin, but they fit securely enough in my ears without them, providing a solid seal with the proper eartips. Two ambient microphones, a pinhole voice mic, and a slightly larger grille are built into the touch panel and enable the noise cancellation. Each earpiece is a simple bud with a nozzle on one end for holding a silicone eartip (three pairs of different sizes are included), and a rounded, pearlescent touch panel on the back. The Galaxy Buds Pro look understated and elegant. That said, the noise cancellation here doesn't live up to the standards set by the AirPods Pro or the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds, and you really need a Galaxy phone to get the most out of the experience. They're also completely waterproof, as compared with the merely water-resistant Galaxy Buds Live. The new Galaxy Buds Pro ($199.99) don't look quite as unique, but they allow for an in-ear seal that makes for improved noise cancellation and sound quality. Samsung has had some ups and downs with true wireless earphones, as evidenced by the recent Galaxy Buds Live, which offer a striking bean-like design that works counterintuitively to their active noise cancellation.