While they unfortunately became a status symbol through sheer force of Apple branding, AirPods kind of suck. I recently saw a kid lose one on an airplane and only felt bad because of the lost money, not the lost tech. So things don’t always go great when a dominant handset manufacturer also tries to make complementary wireless earphones.
Fortunately, the Samsung Galaxy Buds are in fact a great match for your Samsung Galaxy phone, not an exploding battery or broken Fold level disaster.
Along with coming in a variety of colors, the Samsung Galaxy Buds come with a variety of little sleeves to help them fit more securely in your ear in case they’re too small on their own. Once they are inserted quickly pair them with your Galaxy device or through a simple Bluetooth connection with other phones. Operating them is easy with the outer touch controls that don’t register unwanted inputs and annoying auto-pauses.
The listening experience was stellar across the board, retaining clear sound through low, mid, and high. Solid bass is especially impressive from little earphones like this. The Galaxy Wearable Android app lets ambient sounds come through while listening. And in a quiet room, the audio quality was also some of the best our tester had ever heard.
However, in loud rooms voices tended to get drowned out by the background noise, invalidating Samsung’s dual mic performance claims. Another claim that didn’t hold up was sweaty fitness performance since the earphones aren’t that waterproof. And while the Buds themselves have a fine six hour battery life, only seven extra hours from the battery case is a little low.
For more on the Samsung Galaxy Buds check out the extensive review on our sister site PCMag.com. For more cool audio tech check out the Marshall Stanmore II Voice and these cheaper AirPod alternatives.
More on Geek.com:
