Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review: no more AirPods envy | Digital Trends (2024)

It’s impossible to ignore the striking similarities between the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and the Apple AirPods Pro. Physically, and with few exceptions, the newest Galaxy wireless earbuds are AirPods Pro clones. Broadly speaking, this is also true of how the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro work. They possess many of the same features that have made the AirPods Pro stand out over the years, like adaptive ANC, adaptive sound, spatial audio, and head tracking. Even the retail price is the same as long as you’re willing to not split hairs over a mere 99 cents.

And yet despite all these blatant acts of mimicry, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro have just enough of their own standout areas of performance that Android users — and especially Samsung Galaxy users — will feel like they’re getting something more than a mere copycat set of wireless earbuds.

Before we dive into the full review, let’s deal with the elephant in the room: Samsung’s production and distribution pause on the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro after early reports that the silicone eartips were ripping. My review model came from that first production batch, and I had the same experience.

The problem, however, is not that the eartips are too fragile. The trouble stems from the hard plastic collar at the base of the eartip that’s used to snap it to the speaker opening on the earbud. The collar creates a very tight connection to the earbud. So tight, in fact, that using the silicone of the eartips to pull it free inevitably causes it to rip. On my review unit, the issue only happened on the left earbud. I ended up using a thin-bladed knife to carefully pry the collar away from the earbud.

Regardless of the reason, it looks like Samsung is taking steps to address the problem, so I won’t be deducting any points in this review.

Comfy, for better or worse

Stem-based earbuds like the AirPods Pro tend to be comfy because there’s less mass in your concha — and less skin contact. There’s no doubt about it — the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are more comfortable for longer periods than most stemless earbuds. However, they’re also less stable for all the same reasons. You may need to adjust them more frequently, particularly when working out or running. For many, the extra comfort will be worth the trade-off. But others may miss the stability of Samsung’s previous designs.

I’m disappointed with the eartips selection: three sizes in total feels miserly, and it may prevent people from getting a good fit — especially those who need an extra-small size.

The Buds 3 Pro take the already excellent IPX7 protection offered by the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and boosts it with dust resistance for a claimed IP57 rating. I’ve always wondered why Apple’s earbuds have never given us anything better than IPX4, and now I’m even more curious.

Pinch to click

The AirPods Pro’s squeezable, swipeable stems are one of the most innovative things we’ve seen of late in the wireless earbuds world. A pinch of the stem produces an audible click, and when you swipe a finger up or down on its flat portion, you can easily adjust the volume. I’m not surprised that Samsung thought these were both worth copying.

The controls work really well, which I wasn’t expecting given the angular shape of the stems. I find that anchoring the bud with your index finger while pinching with your thumb and middle finger keeps the buds from moving around, but you may not feel the need to do so.

In addition to all of the usual controls for playback, volume, call management, ANC, and voice assistant access, you can optionally trigger Spotify Tap or Samsung Health’s Mindfulness app.

Supplementing all of this are wear sensors for auto-pausing music when you remove either earbud and hands-free voice commands like “play music,” “volume down,” etc. They worked well, and I liked not having to preface each one with “Alexa,” “Hey Siri,” or “Hey Bixby.”

Light the way

There’s an argument to be made that any earbuds with stems that drop down from your ears look like AirPods. The key is to find ways to take that basic shape and make it your own. With their trapezoidal stems and the available silver finish, I think the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro look great, and I doubt anyone will mistake them for AirPods (the white finish is a different story).

If you really want to make a statement, you can turn on the “blade lights” — slender white LEDs that run down a portion of the stems. Constant illumination, blinking, or breathing (fade in/out), the choice is yours. Personally, I’d prefer not to draw attention to my ears. But I can see a benefit for those who run, especially at night — there’s no such thing as being too visible.

They also pulse when you use Samsung’s Find My Earbuds feature, though I don’t know how helpful that will be when they’re buried in the couch cushions.

The AirPods-like charging case has wireless and USB-C charging, and I like the transparent lid and the flattened bottom, which lets the case stand upright. However, Samsung should have gone full Apple and included a speaker and a lanyard loop — handy additions to the charging case that Apple introduced on the AirPods Pro Gen 2.

In the box, you get a very generous 3-foot USB-C-to-USB-C charging cable. (Most earbuds ship with tiny, 6-inch cables.)

ANC, transparency, and calling done right

I’ve reviewed tons of noise-canceling wireless earbuds. The ability to kill off unwanted background sounds will vary from model to model, but we’ve now reached a point where even the cheapest buds can do a halfway decent job. Still, the Buds 3 Pro are among the best. My usual testing environments (busy streets, noisy fans, and my local gym) were all brought under control. Podcasts, which are easily disrupted by noise, were perfectly audible — even as loud dump trucks thundered past.

That was with the standard ANC mode. I also tried Samsung’s AI-driven adaptive ANC mode, but it refused to hush loud sounds as much as I wanted. I returned to regular ANC at its maximum setting and never looked back.

Transparency mode, on the other hand, is a different story. Some earbuds do it well, some don’t, and only three brands do it so well that you can barely tell you’re wearing earbuds at all: Apple, Bose, and Sony. Actually, make that four brands — the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are amazing at transparency too.

The optional auto-switch to transparency mode (or ambient sound as Samsung calls it) when your voice is detected is very handy. It doesn’t always pick up speech instantly, but most of the time, it kicked in after I spoke a word or two, simultaneously dropping the volume of my music so I could have a normal conversation.

There’s also a “siren detect” option within auto-switch. As the name suggests, it will kick into transparency mode if it hears sirens. Surprisingly for my urban setting, I encountered no sirens while using the Buds 3 Pro — but the feature did produce several false positives, usually triggered by similar higher-frequency beeps you may hear when a large vehicle is reversing. Arguably, that’s exactly the kind of sound the feature wants you to hear. But when a truck is s-l-o-w-l-y backing up, half a block from where I’m standing, I think I’m OK with leaving ANC on.

Well-executed transparency on calls is especially valuable — being able to hear your own voice clearly makes all the difference. If you use the Buds 3 Pro with a Samsung phone, your callers will also hear you with hi-definition clarity, thanks to the company’s proprietary Samsung Seamless Codec (SSC). It’s one of the biggest reasons you should use Samsung’s products in tandem. I’ll talk more about SSC in a moment because it also affects audio quality.

Battling Bluetooth

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro don’t do Bluetooth Multipoint (that’s the feature that lets you connect two devices simultaneously), but they do offer Samsung’s seamless switching, which will automatically move the connection between devices that are supported by your Samsung account.

If you don’t sign in, you may find that things get weird. For instance, I paired the Buds 3 Pro with an iPhone 14, Galaxy S23 Ultra, and a Motorola ThinkPhone. Getting them to switch between these devices (and stay switched) was often impossible without shutting down Bluetooth on the two devices I didn’t want. Once the buds were paired with the ThinkPhone, they adamantly refused to leave, even when I told the ThinkPhone to disconnect from them. They simply bounced right back.

After successfully switching from the iPhone to the S23, the buds reverted back to the iPhone moments later.

This ongoing custody battle nothwithstanding, the connection itself was perfectly stable.

While the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro don’t do Multipoint, they do offer compatibility with one of Bluetooth’s most intriguing new features — Auracast. Auracast lets a phone like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra become a Bluetooth radio station of sorts, broadcasting its audio to anyone within receiving distance who also owns an Auracast-capable set of headphones, earbuds, speakers, or hearing aids.

Just as intriguing is that, with the Buds 3 Pro connected, a Samsung phone with One UI version 6.1 or higher can tune into these broadcasts.

I could see these options in the settings of my S23 Ultra, but sadly, without an Auracast broadcast source, I wasn’t able to test them.

Get the Samsung sound

The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro’s audio architecture is a big step up from their predecessors. They combine a planar driver with a dynamic driver and each is independently amplified. It’s the kind of setup that’s rare in the wireless earbuds world, and when you do find it, it’s usually in a set of buds that are aimed squarely at audiophiles, like the PSB M4U TWM.

I think they sound great. Out of the box, without any EQ tweaks, they deliver excellent clarity and a bass-forward sound signature that a lot of people will enjoy. If that’s not your cup of tea, a variety of EQ presets, plus a 9-band equalizer, should help you dial in the kind of tuning you’re looking for.

But just like the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and other Samsung wireless earbuds, you won’t be able to maximize the capabilities of the Buds 3 Pro’s dual drivers and amps unless you own a Samsung phone. To explain why, we need to talk about Bluetooth codecs.

For casual listening, I don’t get too hung up on Bluetooth codecs. The standard SBC and AAC codecs that work on 90% of wireless earbuds are perfectly adequate for listening to your music in a huge variety of settings, from commuting to making dinner. These codecs are even less critical when the earbuds in question are of average quality.

However, as I noted above, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro aren’t average. If you use them with an iPhone or a non-Samsung Android phone, they connect using AAC. Again, AAC is fine. But Samsung’s Seamless Codec (SSC) is better. And if you’re listening to lossless audio and/or hi-res audio in a quiet environment using the Buds 3 Pro, it’s a lot better.

It can be hard to describe the difference in words. I think of it as rough versus smooth. With AAC, which uses considerably more compression, higher frequencies like cymbals, trumpets, or the occasional vocal performance can sound abrasive compared to SSC, which lets them sound more natural. Similarly, bass elements can feel bloated and poorly defined under AAC. With SSC, they’re more relaxed and less strident.

There are also big differences in detail — SSC transmits more data, so it’s no surprise that there’s simply more of the original audio that makes its way to your ears.

I tested this in two ways. I connected the Buds 3 Pro and the AirPods Pro to my iPhone 14, and listened to the same lossless audio tracks from Apple Music on each. I preferred the way the Buds 3 Pro sounded, but that had more to do with the tonality of the Galaxy buds. In other words, they were close.

Then I listened to the same Apple Music tracks again, but this time with both models connected to a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. That’s when the Buds 3 Pro demonstrated themselves to be far superior, with a wider, more detailed soundstage and a separation of instruments and elements that revealed much more of the music.

Sadly, the only way to extract this level of performance from the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro is with a Galaxy phone with SSC.

To be fair, the differences I heard might not be exclusively due to SSC. I also had adaptive EQ turned on — one of Samsung’s so-called AI features — which might have been helping out a bit.

Skippable spatial

Spatial audio (or 360 Audio to use Samsung’s name) is another Samsung exclusive, but I’d be OK giving it up. Like other spatially equipped earbuds, you can choose to enable head tracking, which locks the music in space as you turn your head. Apple’s version of this tech is seamless and very realistic. On the Buds 3 Pro, it’s a bit jerky as small head movements can often produce sudden shifts in the apparent location of the audio.

I’m glad Samsung has included it — there are times when spatial audio can sound very cool — but I wouldn’t buy the Buds 3 Pro for it.

AI translation

Another Samsung AI feature is real-time translation. The actual translation is performed by a compatible Samsung Galaxy phone, but if you’re using the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, the earbuds keep your end of the translation private.

It’s not about secrecy (though depending on the conversation, maybe that’s a bonus) as much as it is about making things more natural. Why should your companion have to listen to their words translated into a foreign language when you’re the only one who needs to hear it?

Samsung demoed the feature for me at the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro launch. It was a bit sluggish and at times it seemed to get confused as to who was talking. But the part I couldn’t figure out was why you needed the Buds 3 Pro for any of it. Earbuds are earbuds, right?

According to Samsung, “audio interpretation is only available when wearing Buds and connected to a Samsung Galaxy smartphone. Interpreter feature is not directly provided by Buds themselves. If Buds are unavailable, the interpreted content is provided on the screen of your Samsung Galaxy smartphone.” So the buds don’t do the translation, but if you want to hear the translation, you need the buds? Yeah, I’m still confused.

Battery life

Samsung claims the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro get 6 hours of use on a full charge when ANC is on, with 26 hours of total time when you include the charging case. These numbers rise to 7 and 30, respectively, if you turn ANC off.

Those are perfectly adequate numbers for a set of wireless earbuds. But more important is that the Buds 3 Pro improve considerably compared to their predecessors, which tapped out after 5 hours with ANC on and could barely muster 18 hours in total.

Samsung’s best earbuds by far

It’s fair to say that the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are a major upgrade from the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. They’re comfier and they have better ANC, better transparency, better audio quality, and better battery life. And hey, don’t forget about those futuristic blade lights.

If you own a recent Samsung Galaxy phone, these new earbuds (once Samsung fixes that eartip issue) are absolutely worth the price.

But without the benefits of Samsung’s Seamless Codec, or the option of spatial audio, the value drops off somewhat for non-Samsung Android owners. They’re still a great set of wireless earbuds, but you’ll also find plenty of other great options, and probably for less money.