The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro feature a drastic change over their predecessors. While the new Galaxy foldables offered incremental upgrades in terms of looks, Samsung has gone all out to change the design and feel of its flagship earbuds.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are a departure from Samsung’s signature design to a new, bolder look. While some might say they look like AirPods Pro clones, I’m glad Samsung shifted to the stem design. They are easier and more intuitive with gesture controls and feel better in the ears for me. I’ve been using the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro for a month now, and here’s what you need to know about these earbuds.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro: Design and Comfort
The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro feature a distinct look, thanks to the transparent top. If you have a habit of misplacing earbuds, this helps because you can see if they’re inside the case or not without opening it. The earbuds are positioned opposite to the AirPods Pro 2 inside the case. Both the earbuds and the case feature blue and orange accents to indicate left and right, respectively.
It’s a design choice that makes the buds’ LEDs nestled together. When you open or close the case, the buds glow, and they wouldn’t have looked as good as they do currently had Samsung gone with the AirPods-like positioning, which is more common. However, the latter is more intuitive because I can pick the earbuds out of the case and put them in my ears without fidgeting or rotating them. It feels more natural than Samsung’s buds positioning.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro feature a sharp-angled stem, which feels great with controls. You can pinch for playback control and noise cancellation/ambient mode, and swipe for volume adjustment. The sensors are located on the backside of the earbuds – also on the opposite side when compared to the AirPods Pro 2. They work 10 out of 10 times and provide good feedback. It took me a few tries to train my muscle memory, but I feel well adjusted to the controls now.
I thought I wouldn’t, but I like the presence of LEDs, although they are limited in functionality. It would have been cool if I could trigger them with the Galaxy Wearable app, so if my earbuds were misplaced in a dark room, I could tap an on-screen button and see if they’re in the room. Although, you can still do so if you choose to keep the LEDs on while the earbuds are out of the case. You can also turn off the blade lights completely by pinching and holding each earbud.
Samsung faced quality-control issues with the ear tips on the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, where several users reported that the tips were damaged when trying to replace them. The company also delayed the sales of the Buds 3 Pro due to this. I haven’t faced the issue, and the silicone ear tips create a good seal in my ears. I prefer these over the Sony WF-1000XM5 ear tips because I don’t need to press them and insert them in my ears to create a vacuum-like seal. You can also use the Galaxy Wearable app to test the seal quality.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro: Features
I used the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6, iPhone 15 Pro, and OnePlus Open. The earbuds feature multipoint Bluetooth connectivity but don’t automatically switch between Android and iOS, though they do so between Android devices. If you have more Galaxy devices like a laptop or tablet, you get automatic pairing and switching between them.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro support Auracast, so you can hear Bluetooth broadcasts in public places like airports. Like the Sony and Apple earbuds, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro lower the volume and activate ambient mode when you’re speaking so you can converse without taking off the earbuds. I love this feature.
Samsung is also advancing it to do the same if it detects an ambulance siren. It does so by constantly collecting and identifying surrounding sounds.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro feature built-in voice controls where you don’t need to say a wake word to trigger the assistant to perform an action. For instance, you can say, “volume up,” or “play music,” without saying “Hey Bixby,” and the earbuds will trigger the function. There are a limited number of voice commands. Currently, you can raise and lower the volume, pause and play your music, skip tracks forward and back, and answer and end calls with built-in voice controls. They work 100% of the time, and I have found it to be my favorite feature on these earbuds.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro sport three microphones on each earbud, and I’ve been impressed by the call quality. The listeners said that my voice was clear, despite me being on the streets with a lot of ambient noise. These offer solid voice-calling performance.
The new Samsung earbuds are rated to last up to 6 hours with ANC on (26 hours more with the case) and 7 hours with it off (30 hours more with the case). I didn’t face an occasion where I wanted them to last longer or I ran out of battery. They lasted me almost five hours at 70%-80% volume and ANC on. It’s not the best, but it’s good enough battery life. Though, I would’ve liked it if the LEDs were used to indicate the battery levels on the earbuds.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro: Sound and ANC
The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro come equipped with dual amps and dual drivers where you get a 10mm dynamic driver and a planar tweeter. They support AAC, SBC, and SSC UHQ codecs. The last one is a proprietary codec that supports transmission of up to 24-bit/96kHz music files over Bluetooth on the latest and previous generations of the Galaxy Z and Galaxy S series, alongside the Galaxy Tab S9 lineup.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro sound much better than the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, throughout the frequency spectrum. They sound cleaner and have more energy to them. These are on the brighter side with more sparkle to their treble. But the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro do so without giving up the depth of the bass.
I didn’t have any issues with the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro sound. They are cleaner, brighter, and offer well-defined bass. I like them better than the Apple AirPods Pro 2 and Sony WF-1000XM5 sometimes. If the default setting isn’t for you, you can tweak the equalizer on Android phones with the Galaxy Wear app.
The Samsung 360 audio (only works with Galaxy phones) is unreliable, but when it works, I like it. I wouldn’t listen to music on it, but it is great with action movies. It’s unreliable because it feels like the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro forget that I have the feature turned on, and the sound doesn’t move with my head. For music, keep it off to get a more dynamic experience. Apple’s spatial audio remains a better experience.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro offer good noise-canceling performance. I would rank them just below the Sony WF-1000XM5 and Apple AirPods Pro 2. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra remains the best earbuds for noise-canceling.
The Samsung buds were able to drown out the ambient noise of the streets when commuting and flight engines when on the airplane to a good extent. The Ambient mode is very good, too. It doesn’t downplay the music quality to exert dominance over the ambient sound. The songs still felt energetic but with ambient noise coming in.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Review: Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro were dismissed by many as AirPods ripoffs, but that isn’t true. The move to a stem design has done wonders for Samsung, and the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are my new favorite earbuds (when using a Galaxy phone). They sound better than their Apple rival.
If you are looking for a pair of earbuds for your Samsung phone, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are an easy recommendation at $250/20,000 Indian Rupees. They are feature-rich, offer great sound and ANC performance, excellent voice calling capabilities, and good battery life.
Pros:
- Comfortable to wear
- Great sound
- Excellent call quality
- No wake word required for basic voice commands
- Stem design better for controls
- IP57 rating for sweat resistance
Cons:
- Blade lights have limited functionality
- Many features limited to Samsung phones
