The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro offer exceptional audio quality, top-notch ANC, and a premium, albeit derivative, design. There’s so much to love! A few key updates over its predecessors solve a lot of our problems, the other features added don’t really impress, especially when they’re only available to owners of Samsung’s latest Galaxy devices. And there’s another factor at play here: the highest-value label.
Fantastic sound
CPN in depth
Lightweight design
High price
Removing it is a real pain in the ass.
Key features require a Galaxy phone
People are quick to refer to any wireless earbuds with stems as “AirPods clones,” but Samsung rarely does itself a favor by hijacking the term with its Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. They look like what you’d get if you threw in the Apple Earbuds and a Toblerone in a blender. Can we look beyond their familiar design if they are the most productive headphones on the market? Of course. But let’s not move too quickly.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are Samsung’s new premium earbuds for 2024, unveiled alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 on a launch occasion in July this year, and fill a gap in the company’s range. given that the Buds 2 Pro were becoming obsolete.
If you know anything about the Samsung line, you’re probably expecting great things from a product with the Korean tech giant’s callout, along with the word “Pro” thrown in for good measure, and you’re probably not going to be left hanging and hanging out with the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.
Honestly, those headphones sound fantastic, with one of the most productive sounds I’ve ever tried. V-shaped audio means you get meaty bass but also explained highs, so whether you’re listening to the highest opera or the lowest synthesized wave, enjoy your music.
You also don’t want to worry about background noises bothering you, as the headphones’ robust noise cancellation does an incredible job of eliminating noises around you. I was inspired by how the Buds 3 Pro not only made the noises around me less prominent, but also prevented me from noticing many of them.
And I know I’ve been depressed by the design of the AirPods (sorry, the Galaxy Buds), but it’s a popular form in the wireless earbuds industry for a reason. The Buds 3 Pro are comfortable to wear, soft enough to get stuck. in your ear and it also looks slender.
Some issues with our Galaxy Buds 2 Pro have also been resolved, adding my non-public sticking point: poor battery life. The Buds 3 Pro last a little longer, but the battery life of the case has seen more noticeable increases, making the 3 Pro much better suited for longer rides.
That’s high praise, but it’s worth noting that the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro is for everyone. Not only is the premium price prohibitive for those who are die-hard audiophiles (or who buy the Buds as part of an incentive to buy them with a Galaxy phone), but some of the really cool features are locked behind a boring wall.
This wall is owned by a Samsung Galaxy device, not an old Samsung fan, but also a recent Galaxy S, Galaxy Z, or Tab S device, according to our convenient compatibility explanation. If you don’t have such a device, you won’t be able to use Samsung’s new AI features, such as language interpreter, enhanced codec support, voice restorer, or Smart Dynamic ANC. Of course, it makes sense that the translation feature is only available employing AI computation on a Galaxy phone (and the teaser for 24-bit/96kHz streaming over Bluetooth uses Samsung’s new proprietary SSC UHQ codec), but dynamic. The ANC is commonplace. In headphones the value of the Buds 3 Pro starts.
Yes, Apple is also known for its closed ecosystem, which prohibits Android phone users from using the AirPods’ most productive features (Find My, Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos head tracking, etc. ), but Samsung wanted to take inspiration from Apple’s book?
None of those features are a strong point of the Buds either, and the Buds 3 Pro is similarly enjoyable when paired with any other phone. Take it however you want.
Another “scandal” I’m probably worth pointing out in this advent is that many early adopters of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro found that they broke the tips in a variety of dramatic ways. This is because the unique formula that connects the tips to the heads holds them too tightly and the tips themselves are quite fragile, making them easy to break when looking to upgrade to another size. I discovered a way to reliably update them, which you can read about below, but it indicates production. problems that delay the launch of the heads.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro were announced on July 10, 2024 along with other products, adding non-Pro alternatives. At the time of writing, date delays mean you can pre-order them, but at least in the United Kingdom, Samsung Pay informs you “Order now to get it from August 22. “
You can buy the earbuds for $249 / £219 / AU$399, so they are expensive earbuds that also feature a small price increase over their $229 / £219 / AU$349 predecessors. The Buds 3 are less Pricey at $179 / £159 / AU$299, but at a time when the festival is fierce and most brands are saving extra dollars (or pounds) on new deals, a rise by $20 is an ambitious strategy. Samsung. .
Depending on where you live, those earbuds are therefore just as expensive, if not a little cheaper, than the $249/£229/AU$399 AirPods Pro 2; however, keep in mind that the complex age of Apple earbuds means that they are now available for less than the listed costs.
You can find more competition below, but for now you know that these are the most expensive headphones that consumers in general can decide to buy. However, audiophiles with deep pockets have many more options.
One of our most important court cases with the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro for their limited battery life; You will be pleased to know that the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro improves this resistance. It’s not a massive increase, but it’s something.
According to Samsung, the headphones will last 6 hours if ANC is on and an additional hour if it is off. After my tests, I agree with this estimate: When I tried to perform continuous playback tests, the headphones turned off. They turned off when they were out of my ear for 15 minutes, even when auto detection was off. The charging case rounds up those totals to 26 (ANC on) or 30 (ANC off) hours of endurance, and you can rate this case wirelessly and with a USB-C cable.
I can understand why some people still find 6 hours too short for a headset’s battery life, and I’m in the same camp. That’s why the battery life fell from the review’s “cons” list, but didn’t make it to the “pros” list.
So what’s up with this ANC or active noise cancellation? Overall, it’s great – the headphones cover the background noise that occurs when you listen to music. I just moved into an apartment on a railroad track and I may rarely know when the trains are passing when I use headphones. Of course, this was in maximum intensity mode, but the others work fine if you still need some awareness of your surroundings.
The Samsung Wearable application offers two more modes: Ambient and Adaptive (the latter exclusive for Samsung users, we will communicate this later). The former apparently allows some background noise to penetrate the mid-level noise cancellation, while the latter adjusts its ANC based on your environment, but in practice those two seem to have exactly the same result.
Wearable, the Buds’ other major app, is a bit undeniable compared to the broader world of headphone-connecting software. We’ll need to replace the ANC, replace the on-ear controls, replace an equalizer, and do a few other small tasks, but I haven’t used it much. In fact, on the two phones I tested the Galaxy Buds with, on one of them (the non-Galaxy one) I didn’t even download the app and found that the earbuds work fine. GOOD.
So, let’s move on to this Samsung-related issue, which is already indexed in the “cons” segment of the review.
The Galaxy AI’s features, which come with adaptive ANC, a feature that restores low-quality choppy voice calls, and a much-touted live audio translation feature, are exclusive to others with a high-end Samsung smartphone. Users may end your website. . . But this “scam” is rarely as “scam” as you might think, for better or worse.
As I mentioned, the adaptive ANC doesn’t seem to load much and I couldn’t verify the improvement in call quality because I didn’t find any bad phone calls on verification. I tried employing the translation feature, but I couldn’t see how the headphones loaded anything into the app’s equation. The way it works is that you can say anything in one language and it translates into another, so that two other people who speak other languages can carry on a conversation. And that’s true without the headphones, so you don’t want to buy them to use this feature.
All of this is to say that Galaxy AI features are really vital in the overall picture of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, so the lack of a Samsung smartphone shouldn’t deter you from buying the earbuds. Some other exclusive features that are not missing Under Galaxy AI comes with multipoint pairing with only two Galaxy devices, higher audio quality through Samsung’s new UHQ SSC 24-bit/96 kHz codec, and audio streaming through various devices. I’ve only used the Buds with one Samsung device, so I haven’t been able to use the maximum of them.
It’s a shame that Samsung decided to put some of the features you pay for behind a paywall, especially when perks like adaptive ANC and multipoint pairing are common on less expensive headphones, but I can’t believe many Samsung customers use either of those. characteristics.
Some features of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are open to everyone and are very practical. The 360 audio works well for surround sound, the head tracking adds a bit for those who don’t find it puzzling, and the headphones have compatibility checks. helping you with what tricks to use (if you think you can replace them!) Array
The headphones feature Bluetooth 5. 4, which is reliable and can allow you to listen over long distances from your phone. Throughout the testing process, I did not experience any interruptions or connection issues.
One last thing I want to point out is that unlike the vast majority of headphones, wear detection is not enabled by default. After many tests, I thought the headphones did not have it; It does, you just want to activate it in the app.
For the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, Samsung moved away from the pebble-shaped design philosophy of the Buds 2 Pro and adopted a design more like that of the AirPods Pro, with a tip, small body, and upward-pointing stems. floor.
The design is similar in many ways to Apple’s, with the issues pointing downwards, the sleek white design of the default model, and even the silver trim on the edges of the stem. The only main difference is that when it is rounded, the stem is prismatic. like a Toblerone chocolate bar.
White is the only colour option, as there’s also a black one on sale, and each has a little pop of colour in the form of red and blue dots that correspond to the spaces in the charging case, so you know which earbud goes where. . Formation
The stems also have what Samsung calls a “leaf light,” or a small LED strip above the crest that serves as an indicator. That ? I don’t know, and since you can’t see the headphones when they’re in use, I find this a nifty feature. You can also use the stems as controls: slide them up and down to change the volume easily, but because of the prism shape of the stem, it’s tricky to pinch to pause the music.
Each earbud weighs 5. 4g and I’ve found that they fit in the ear quite comfortably and reliably, without falling out or causing ear pain from the weight. They are IP57 rated, which means they are protected against dust to some degree and can be submerged in water up to 1 meter deep for a short period.
One main challenge with the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, which we’ve already discussed in detail, is replacing the tips. Samsung uses a homemade locking formula to keep the ear tips in place, which is what Apple does with other brands. Primary headphone manufacturers.
Simply put, the tips stay incredibly firm in position and are quite difficult to remove from the earbuds when sizes need to be repositioned. Some people reported breaking the ends while trying to remove them, and I accidentally tore off a piece with my fingernail while looking to do the same. I’ve found that the most productive way to remove ear tips is to pinch as close to the earbuds as possible when pulling, but honestly, if you’re worried about the threat of breaking your earbuds, you may want to consider checking out the non-Pro features.
The other facet of the Buds 3 Pro’s design is the case, a lightweight 46. 5g plastic container that’s rarely too big. It has LED charging indicator, USB-C charging port, reset button; The same accessories as always. As a fan of clear charging cases, I settled for seeing a small display port on the Buds case.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are some of the wireless earbuds I’ve tested for sound, and they have a complicated tech shopping list to back up that claim.
There’s the Samsung Seamless Codec, which compresses and decodes music up to 24-bit/96kHz when used with the Samsung Galaxy S23 or later, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold five/Z Flip five or later, or the Tab S9 series. The company calls it ultra-high quality audio (note the capital letters!) and that’s it. Then there’s the two-way speaker that includes a woofer and a tweeter, plus an adaptive equalizer that uses AI to stumble on your listening and adjust the equalizer accordingly (another Galaxy-locked device that I curiously couldn’t locate on my Samsung Galaxy S23Ultra ).
No matter what jargon Samsung throws at you, and even if you pick up on it, one thing’s for sure: the Buds 3 Pro sound great.
The Buds have a V-shaped sound, meaning the bass and treble are higher and distinct, while the mids are a bit behind. Some might consider this to be the optimal type of sound signature because it is aimed at bass and treble lovers. When listening to a song, you can enjoy the bass line and drum hits as much as the vocal melody or guitar solo, so the music is dynamic and full of energy. This creates a wide soundstage and you feel like there are actually other tools around you.
If I were pedantic, I’d say that the treble sounds a little louder than the bass, and that you can “feel” the bass a little more than you can “hear” it, but that’s certainly nitpicking.
Like the herbal effect of V-shaped audio, midrange sounds are a bit more in the mix. Personally, I’m a media fanatic (a media fanatic?Or does that make it seem like I’m just a fan in part?), so it was a shame, but I found the EQ to be convenient and allowed myself to take advantage of them. in the mix. Array presets will come in handy here as well.
I was inspired by the maximum volume of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro – many headphones think that an audible output point is optional, but Samsung obviously disagrees. You can get a great, meaty sound if you want, and I didn’t dwell too much on the higher volume spaces for fear of damaging my hearing.
It’s hard to stand head-to-head when considering the price proposition of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, considering they are among the most expensive earbuds made for the masses.
There’s no doubt that they’re premium headphones, especially in the audio quality and noise-cancelling departments, and if cash isn’t an issue, you’re in the right position to buy your new headphones.
But if you need to make sure your money goes as far as possible, there are plenty more features that offer competitive sound, greater diversity of features, and longer battery life. In addition, the maximum allows you to replace the tips without crushing them. . .
Check out our full Apple AirPods Pro 2
See our full Sony WF-1000XM5 review
I used the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro for over two weeks to test them, and in combination, we experienced a wide diversity of trials and tribulations.
Paired (variably) with a Xiaomi Mi Note 10 or a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, I’ve used them in the office, on walks through neighborhoods with different noise levels, in exercises, once running, and also in my new apartment (which overlooks an exercise track and is also a flight path, I know).
They were able to cancel out a lot of noise, so I relied on the top-notch ANC form on the Buds 3 Pro. In terms of EQ, I relied on the default option, but played around a bit for testing purposes.
I typically listened to Tidal, Spotify, Netflix, or YouTube, most commonly relying on the former for music and audiobooks.
My history of technical evaluations for TechRadar now spans over five years and I add countless headphones and other Samsung products; Of course, I attended the first launch event for the original Samsung Galaxy Buds (and the Galaxy S10). So I really enjoy devices like this.
Tom Bedford calls TechRadar deputy editor until the end of 2022, after moving up from editor. Although he has specialized in phones and tablets, he has also ventured into other technologies such as electric scooters, smart watches, fitness, cellular gaming and much more. He is based in London, United Kingdom and now works for the online entertainment website What To Watch.
She holds degrees in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working at TechRadar, he freelanced in the technology, gaming, and entertainment industries, and spent many years working as a mixologist.
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