Galaxy Buds3 Pro and Buds3 First Impressions… 🤔

I’ve had the chance to try the STEM TYPE Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and the Buds 3. This time, they’re all about sound optimisation. With Adaptive mode, the microphones in the earbuds monitor the ambient noise and provide optimized sound and noise cancelling. They can even auto-switch into Ambient mode so you can hear important sounds around you, like the sound of sirens. You activate this in the Samsung Wearables app under “Auto-turn on Ambient Mode’.

I know many of you are curious about their performance, so I’m sharing my first impressions after testing their sound quality, active noise cancelling, transparency and mic pickup. I’ve even recorded some microphones samples to give you an idea of their performance. I will come back with a full review and with in depth analysis soon.

Features and specs?

Yes, the leaks were accurate. The new range does come with a stem now, featuring squeeze controls similar to those on AirPods. However, only the squeeze and slide gestures are performed with the thumb, which I find more intuitive. The charging case has a transparent lid, as seen in the leaks. Both models use the Samsung Wearables app, which is only available on Android. If you’re using a Samsung device, you can access the settings directly from the Bluetooth pairing menu.

Both models support ‘ultra high quality’ audio over SSC codec, streaming up to 24-bit 96kHz audio on recent Samsung devices. This suggests an improvement in the hardware of the Galaxy Buds3 Pro, since the previous version only supported up to 48kHZ streaming over SSC.

The main difference between the Buds 3 Pro and the Buds3 is that the 3 Pro has the blade light indicator on the stem, which indicates power and pairing status as well as assist in finding the earbuds in the dark. Additionally, the Buds 3 Pro features 2-way drivers and noise isolating eartips, which the Buds 3 doesn’t. This difference significantly affects noise cancelling and sound quality.

Active Noise Cancelling

In terms of noise cancelling, I found the Buds 3 Pro quite effective at reducing human chatter. I tested them in a crowded room with background music, and they lowered the noise level down to the point where, when I’m playing music, there’s very little background noise. It’s noticeable improvement over the Buds2 Pro.

The Buds3, which lacks noise isolating eartips, also has active noise cancelling, but it was overall very mild and ineffective. It felt similar to the Galaxy Buds Live, requiring me to bring up the volume of my music to try and beat the surrounding noise.

Sound Quality

In terms of sound quality, the Buds 3 Pro features a 2-way driver setup with one Planar Magnetic Tweeter, and one low frequency driver, each driven by their own amp. This setup can achieve a frequency range up to 40kHz. It’s not a Knowles BA and Dynamic driver configuration, but nonetheless, it made a very strong first impression.

The sound had thick, juicy bass, smooth vocals, clean track separation, and realistic timbre for wind and string sound. Most importantly, it didn’t have the sibilance in the upper mids that I disliked about the Buds2 Pro. Instead, the vocals sounded rich and smooth. I check the app and confirmed it’s default setting. Therefore, I’m pretty hyped about the sound of the Buds 3 Pro.

The Buds 3, on the other hand, had thinner bass and require higher volume to beat the background noise. However, during my brief listening session, I notice a similar tuning to the Pro model in terms of the mids and highs. I’m looking forward to running a frequency sweep to see how it actually performs.

If there is one thing about the Buds 3 Pro that truly impressed me, it’s the Transparency mode. From my experience, it has one of the best, if not THE BEST transparency. It was clear, bright and clean, with no hissing, making it sound very natural. When I took one earbud out, there was very little difference compared to wearing it, except for a bit more brightness in the upper mids and highs, making voices sound slightly amplified. Overall, I’m more impressed by its transparency than its noise cancelling or sound quality.

I’m impressed by its transparency mode.

Now let’s talk about their mic pickup. I found the Buds3 Pro and the Buds3 to be very comparable. Both applied heavy noise gating, but I still sounded intelligible, which is challenging to achieve for TWS earbuds. If there is a difference, the Buds3’s noise gating is a little more aggressive, making my voice sound slightly less bassy and more nasal than the Buds3 Pro.

👉 Have a listen to the microphone sound samples.

Conclusion

Overall from my first encounter with the Buds3 Pro, they seem to be a huge improvement over the previous version in terms of sound, Transparency, and mic pickup. While some people feel that stem type earbuds don’t fit as well, but there are also people who prefer stem types because of the lighter fit, or they fit better for them. I haven’t really decided if they’re worth the upgrade yet, I’ll have to do an in depth analysis and use them for some time to get a clearer picture. That will be my focus on next review. Subscribe to the main channel so you don’t miss out on future coverage of the latest Galaxy Buds.

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