There is something very different about the new Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. It’s not just the addition of some fancy light effects, or the redesigned case with the see-through flip top. Samsung has redesigned the buds themselves, giving them a stem that hangs down outside your ear.
But never fear: Samsung hasn’t decided to follow the stem-using herd. Instead it has “blades”, which are basically more angular stems than Apple’s AirPods Pro and have the previously mentioned light effects.
It may be semantics to some people who would argue that the design change has moved Samsung closer to its rival and made them fit in more with “the crowd”. But it will capture those who, for some reason, don’t like the stemless design. They do exist.
It also makes using them for voice calls a little easier, with the microphones a little closer to your mouth and no audio issues on the other end.
The new Buds 3 Pro are lightweight and comfortable to wear for long periods of time. It took a little while to get a good fit out of the box, with the left bud failing the ear tip test on the Samsung Wearable app. A bit of adjustment eventually got things sorted.
I did not experience some of the reported issues, such as the tips breaking during changes, even though they required a hard tug to separate from the ear bud body.
That fit is important to get the most out of these buds. A good seal will keep out the worst of the background noise but, as you would expect, the Buds 3 Pro have active noise cancelling to get rid of most of the rest. Samsung offers a few modes: ambient sound, adaptive sound and active noise cancelling.
Ambient sound will allow the world to bleed into your quiet cocoon, with the accompanying app giving you the power to adjust the level of ambient noise you want. Adaptive will adjust the noise control according to your surroundings, switching to ambient sound in quieter settings and kicking up the active noise cancelling when the background noise begins to rise.
You can also enable voice and siren detection, which will switch to ambient mode when the buds detect a voice or an emergency siren, lowering your audio volume so you can hear what is going on. You can switch it back by squeezing the bud, but this feature was a bit hit or miss for me.
I don’t always want to hear a conversation even if it is directed at me. Quite frankly, that defeats the purpose of earbuds; if I want to participate, I’ll remove them.
At €259, these are pitched at the premium customer end of the range
Active noise cancelling works well, especially when turned up to the maximum. In various tests, it worked well to block the majority of unwanted noise in different environments, though it wasn’t perfect.
It did make listening to audio a better experience, however. The Buds 3 Pro have decent audio quality, with small drivers and dual amps, so you should have fewer sound issues. Bass sounded punchier, and trebles were clearer.
You also get Samsung’s sound technology, including the 360 audio and head tracking, to make things more immersive, if you like that sort of thing.
The buds have gesture control, but unlike previous versions, these are now confined to the stem. You have to be quite specific too; a squeeze in the wrong part of the stem – sorry, blade – will produce no results.
Samsung follows similar controls to other buds: swipe up and down to control volume, pinch to answer a call or pinch, and hold to reject it. Pinch and hold every other time to switch between noise-cancelling settings.
You can customise things slightly. For example, the pinch and hold gesture on either bud can be assigned to activate your iPhone’s chosen digital assistant.
More useful were the voice controls. You don’t have to call on Google or Bixby to get the buds to switch to the next song on your playlist, or to answer a call – you just say it out loud. You will have to enable the setting in the Android-only Galaxy Wear app, and the number of commands is limited, but they cover all the common ones.
The blades also have lights built in that glow when in pairing mode or when you open and close the case. That is a nice visual touch but largely pointless; where it comes in useful is if you are trying to use the Find My feature to locate the buds, with the lights flashing to help guide you to their location.
Because these are Bluetooth buds, you can use them with any smartphone regardless of its operating system but the customisation options will only be available on Android. The Samsung Galaxy Wearable app is not available on iOS.
Some of the best features are reserved for use with a Galaxy phone, and one with Galaxy AI built in. For example, you can use the buds in Interpreter mode for languages such as Italian, Spanish and Japanese, turning your buds into mini translator earpieces.
Good
The Buds 3 Pro are a decent set of Bluetooth earbuds, lightweight and easy to get started with out of the box. The audio quality is great, with clear, detailed sound that doesn’t suffer from its size.
The link in with the Galaxy AI features also makes these a no-brainer for existing Galaxy users with compatible devices.
Battery life is also decent, with six hours of listening when active noise cancelling enabled and seven without.
Bad
Not all features will be available to every Android user. While the customisable equaliser and other audio settings can be found through the Samsung Galaxy Wearable app, interpreter mode will be limited to Galaxy AI-supporting phones.
The change to the design means that some of the gesture controls have moved to the stem. If you are already a user of the Galaxy Buds, this means relearning the gestures required to use the buds, for example, and they can be a little finicky.
There is also the price: at €259, they are pitched at the premium customer end of the range.
Everything else
The buds are available in two colours: a very AirPod-esque white, and a silver version.
The case supports wireless charging and the buds are IP57 rated, which means they will stand up to a spray of water.
Verdict
A good choice for Android users, but a little pricey.
