Has this ever happened to you? You need two wireless earbuds,
but all your cases only have one earbud! So frustrating! Today, we have the answer for you.
Say hello to Samsung’s Galaxy Buds… 2. That’s right, each case comes with two earbuds:
one for each ear. Now you can listen in sweet, sweet stereo.
Seriously though, if, somehow, your wireless earbuds only come with one bud,
get a refund. Don’t buy another pair. Okay! Today I’m looking at
Samsung’s newest addition to their Buds lineup, the Buds2.
Believe it or not, this is not Samsung’s second pair of wireless earbuds… it’s their fifth.
Weird nomenclature aside, Samsung actually has a pretty good track record for making
these things repairable. But earlier this year, the Buds Pro were a bit of
a disappointment to us, with their soldered battery connection and tougher-than-average
glue. Those buds were promising more ingress protection than these though,
so my guess is these will be at least slightly better.
Our trusty green vise deforms the green egg just enough for me to get a pick in and separate the
two halves. That adhesive was definitely less sticky than the Buds Pro—probably thanks to the
lower IP rating. We’re off to a good start! The top comes off cleanly, and inside we are treated
to a nice pink shell with a tiny circuit board resting on top. The board is lightly adhered in
place, and I can fully remove it right away thanks to the connector toward the back of the bud here.
This clump of stuff in the center is the rechargeable button-cell battery,
housed in a plastic shell. I can already tell we’ve got some soldering ahead of us, so let’s get
that out of the way. To get there, I have to take the shell off the battery so I’m not accidentally
melting it with a soldering iron. [potentially mention glue on pink solder joint] Now, over
at our soldering station, two quick pokes liquify the solder holding the battery contacts in place.
We have been such big fans of Galaxy Buds for the last few years precisely because they have
not used soldered connections for their batteries. I hate to say it, but I think
we’ve seen a shift in the Bud team’s design preferences. Soldering doesn’t necessarily make
something impossible to repair—it’s actually pretty easy, like you just saw!
But here at iFixit, when we think about and measure repairability, we’re thinking about DIY
repair, usually done at home. and the simple fact is, for now, most people don’t have a
soldering iron or the know-how to wield one. So, that’s a bummer for these buds’ repairability.
To help us feel better, I’m going to try to dig out Samsung’s dual drivers,
which look more accessible here than they usually do. I’ll start with some heat,
and then begin some careful prying. Where a lot of wireless earbuds have a single speaker,
Samsung, since the Buds+ last year, has been stuffing two speakers into
some of their buds: a tweeter for high frequencies, and a woofer for the low.
Sure enough, they’re in here! Each of these tiny metal boxes is a little speaker.
Not easy to get to or replace, but pretty cool to see and think about
how so much sound comes from such a tiny package.
Finally, let’s do a speed run through the case, which hopefully is just as good as all the other
buds cases. An opening pick and a spudger to pry up the buds’ bed, loosen a few screws,
and woah! Battery comes right out. That’s even better than previous cases.
From here, you could unstick the 1.8 watt-hour cell from its well, or replace them together. On
the back, you can see the contact pads where this meets the springs on the circuit board underneath.
A couple more screws for the lid of the case, which separates with ease,
and I’m actually going to stop there, because the rest of this is pretty familiar!
We’ve got a circuit board with more contact pins to wirelessly charge the buds, charging indicator
LEDs, then around back the USB-C port, solder joints where the wireless charging coils connect
to the circuit board, and a plastic bracket between the main board and the charging coils.
All-in-all, this was an interesting adventure! I’m disappointed that a soldered connection seems to
be the new Bud standard, but these are still very far from the worst wireless earbuds on the market
to fix. Ahem, AirPods. I’m especially glad we were able to get a peek at the dual drivers,
and I love that the case is easier than ever to open and swap a battery in.
The Galaxy Buds2 earn a blank out of 10 on our repairability scale.
Thanks for watching, get subscribed to see teardowns of more new gadgets—we’ve got
new iPhones, AirPods, and an interesting Pixel phone all on the horizon.