Two issues might be true directly. Yes, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro have essentially the most by-product design but of any of the corporate’s earbuds. Apart from gimmicky LED strips, there’s nothing notably unique or eye-catching about their stemmed look. But the $249.99 Buds 3 Pro additionally occur to be the best-sounding, most polished earbuds that Samsung has produced. Their audio high quality ranks with a few of my favourite wi-fi earbuds like Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 4 and the Technics AZ80. And the Buds 3 Pro embrace genuinely helpful voice instructions that don’t require saying a wake phrase beforehand.
That’s a sterling begin, however their potential is held again by clumsy design selections, a scarcity of multipoint connectivity, and energetic noise cancellation that’s merely enough at this $250 worth. Over the summer time, Samsung additionally needed to pause shipments of those earbuds to handle high quality management points after early consumers managed to simply rip the silicone ear suggestions. I by no means skilled that drawback with my overview pair, and the Buds 3 Pro at the moment are extensively out there once more.
Samsung’s newest earbuds don’t are available in any enjoyable colours just like the bora purple Buds 2 Pro. Your choices are white — the place the AirPods resemblance will get a bit of uncanny — or gunmetal grey. Samsung has tried to create some visible distance between these earbuds and the AirPods by going with a extra angular stem and placing a seethrough lid on the charging case. And then there are these white LEDs, which you’ll be able to mild up by squeezing each stems when the buds are out of your ears.
You’ll by no means see this contact of aptitude when carrying them, in fact, however different individuals will. The lights might be set both to glow steadily or do a pulsing impact, however what the LEDs can’t do is present useful issues just like the remaining battery stage for every earbud. That looks as if the obvious goal for these and but… nope! The lights do activate once you’re attempting to find the Buds 3 Pro with Samsung’s Find My function, at the very least.
The transfer to a stemmed design would possibly really feel like Samsung lazily becoming a member of the pack, however what issues extra is that it leads to a safer, steady in-ear match. I’ve discovered the Buds 3 Pro to be very comfy, and so they haven’t fatigued my ears even after I maintain them in for many of a day on the workplace. Voice name efficiency can also be fairly spectacular; you possibly can pattern the mic high quality of the Buds 3 Pro (and different current earbuds) in a Vergecast episode from earlier this month.
Speaking of voice, essentially the most handy function of the Buds 3 Pro is their voice controls. At any time, you possibly can say easy instructions like “quantity up” or “subsequent track” and the earbuds will execute these requests by way of your telephone — with out requiring some annoying wake phrase first. It simply works, and also you don’t have to talk notably loudly for the buds to detect voice instructions. They solely cowl the basics, however I’m now utilizing them day by day. If you favor bodily controls, Samsung has mainly lifted the AirPods Pro management scheme, with pinch gestures for play / pause, skipping tracks, or toggling between ANC and transparency modes. You can even slide your finger alongside the stem to regulate quantity. The angular form means the gestures aren’t fairly as foolproof as on the AirPods, however I’ve gotten them down pretty effectively.
The Buds 3 Pro provide terrific sound high quality, with a tuning that carefully follows the Harman goal curve, which most individuals discover pleasing. That means you’ll hear emphasis on bass and treble, however the mids nonetheless come by way of with out sounding recessed. Samsung’s flagship earbuds sound full and detailed, bringing out one of the best within the newest albums from Waxahatchee, Post Malone, and Billy Strings. There is 360-degree / spatial audio with head monitoring for these of you who A) personal a Galaxy telephone and B) get pleasure from that type of factor. I proceed to (largely) ignore it.
I’m often not somebody who will get hung up on Bluetooth codecs, however I swear my ears can inform a distinction when listening to the Buds 3 Pro with a Galaxy S24 Ultra, which may faucet into Samsung’s Seamless Codec Ultra High Quality (SSD UHQ) for richer audio — particularly in case you’re enjoying lossless tracks. There’s simply an additional layer of element and constancy that’s much less pronounced when utilizing these buds with a non-Samsung system. But even with my Pixel 9 Pro XL, they sound nice. The Buds 3 Pro are a punchy, crisp pay attention that ship throughout all genres.
The energetic noise cancellation, nonetheless, has disenchanted me at occasions. It’s simply not fairly as strong or as highly effective because the AirPods Pro, Pixel Buds Pro 2, or Bose earbuds. Can it in the reduction of on a number of the on a regular basis life clamor? Sure, however I hoped for Samsung to have a greater exhibiting on this class. The Buds 3 Pro do have a fantastically clear transparency mode, so I’ve zero complaints there. You can even allow an “adaptive” mode that, like with Apple’s earbuds, will dynamically mix ANC and transparency based mostly in your environment in order that vital sounds (like sirens) can shortly get your consideration.
The Buds 3 Pro don’t assist true multipoint, so you possibly can’t join them to 2 gadgets directly. Just like Apple, Samsung is pushing its personal ecosystem with an “auto-switch” function between its varied Galaxy laptops, tablets, and telephones. But I’ve observed that even when your different gadgets are exterior Samsung’s walled backyard, enabling auto-switch makes it a lot faster to hop between them with out having to disconnect from the present supply each time. Some earbuds are very cussed about holding onto a reference to the last-paired system till you manually disconnect, however with these, you possibly can simply choose them within the Bluetooth settings of the system you wish to use, and so they’ll change over with none fuss.
I’ve had no complaints about battery life over a number of weeks of utilization, and you’ll stretch it additional by disabling some options just like the aforementioned voice controls. The earbuds are rated IP57 mud and water-proof, although the charging case lacks any such protections. That’s unlucky when rivals are more and more making their instances extra sturdy.
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro may not have a novel design id anymore, however with improved consolation and voice name efficiency, they’re an instance of operate dictating kind. I can take or depart the gimmicky lights, and the angular form looks as if Samsung’s taking pains to keep away from these being labeled as AirPods clones. They are, however you might make a case that they sound higher than Apple’s buds. And they’re reliable performers by almost each metric apart from noise cancellation. That’s the place the inevitable Buds 4 Pro have room to enhance — hopefully whereas bringing again some character (or coloration). For anybody with a Samsung telephone, these are the de facto alternative, and so they’re an ideal one. But different Android homeowners must also give the Buds 3 Pro an extended search for their sound constancy and mic readability. Unless multipoint is a must have, there’s not a lot to seek out fault with.
Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge
