Samsung has confirmed our worst fear: "Beans"989? ??? ??? ??officially notprofessional.
That's the takeaway from Samsung's design departure for its latest earbuds. At Unpacked 2021, Samsung unveiled the new Galaxy Buds Pro, the latest in its line of wireless earbuds and the first since last year's memorably bean-shaped Galaxy Buds Live. They launch today on Samsung's website and everywhere else on Friday for $199.99.
As the name suggests, Galaxy Buds Pro seem to be a higher-end option with a form factor not unlike Apple's AirPods Pro. You won't have a white protrusion dangling out of your ear, but there is a rubber ear tip that sits inside the ear and a rounded outer panel with touch controls. Like the Galaxy Buds Live, the Buds Pro have active noise cancellation, with some extra bells and whistles this time.
For example, there's an ambient sound mode (present in some previous Samsung earbuds, just not the Buds Live) that will amplify noise happening around you in situations where you might want to hear that stuff. Samsung also touted a feature that will automatically (and temporarily) turn on the ambient sound mode when the Buds Pro detect that you're speaking.
Last but certainly not least, Samsung says the Buds Pro's batteries can withstand five hours of playtime with ANC enabled, with an additional 13 hours in a fully juiced-up charging case. Those numbers jump to eight hours of playtime and 20 hours of reserve power without ANC enabled.
With a price point only $30 higher than the Galaxy Buds Live, the Galaxy Buds Pro should, at the very least, pique the interest of Samsung devotees in need of wireless earbuds. And if no amount of extra features can justify Samsung abandoning the bean shape for you, we respect that.