Galaxy Buds 3 Pro is COMING - My Thoughts 🤔
Samsung has finally gone with stems! Recent rumors and leaks about the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and Buds 3 have surfaced. These include screengrabs of their specs as well as high-res images, showing that the new products will have a stem type design versus the earplug style one, with a black line running down its length. It’s a pretty radical change, as the new design will likely fit differently from the current models, which have a light fit but still plugs in, staying in better than most stem types, because stem types do shift around with jaw movement.
That being said, the upsides of adopting Apple’s design scheme, is that more electronics can be built into the earbuds without actually making them larger. For example, you can put the battery and control sensors in the stems, freeing up the enclosure for additional components like microphones, or possibly bigger drivers which could mean better sound quality, perhaps? I’m sure many of you are also curious about their noise canceling, mic pickup and features compared to the previous Galaxy Buds. Once I get my hands on some review units, I’ll be back with comparisons and reviews.
From the leaks, we know that the stems will have a squeeze type control scheme just like the AirPods, and they will have dedicated blue and orange indicator lights for the left and right earbuds. These lights are visible on the buds and also in the case, even when the case is closed, because the lid is transparent.
The flagship model, of course, is the Buds 3 Pro. It boasts active noise cancelling, transparency mode, and ear tips for a noise isolating seal. The specs sheet also mentions ‘Blade Lights’ which I suspect is these black strips on its stem possibly lighting up as LED prompts. If that’s indeed the case, I hope they can be customised to be less obvious. The Buds 3 Pro also has a dual-driver design, which I hope is a Knowles Balance Armature and Dynamic Driver setup (I love the sound of those, but we’ll see) and battery life of up to 6 hours in the earbuds, and up to 30 hours with its charging case.
The Buds 3 has a single driver design, and lacks noise isolation, which means it doesn’t have a transparency mode. Its battery life is listed as up to 5 hours for the buds and 24 hours with the case with ANC. But without ear tips, how can it have ANC? Well, I suspect it will have ANC similar to the Galaxy Buds Live, though not as effective as the Buds 3 Pro.
Both models will operate on the latest Bluetooth 5.4, and support streaming what they call Ultra high quality 24-Bit/96KHz audio, most probably via Samsung’s own SSC, or Samsung Seamless Codec. As before, you can only access their features and fully customise them through the Samsung Wearables app available on Android. Both the Buds3 Pro and Buds3 are rated IP57 for water resistance.
If the leaks are legit, this marks a radical departure from the distinct shape and size of Samsung’s earbuds. Some people will like the change, while some people may prefer the previous earplug design. But, at the end of the day, the key question is whether this change result in better sound quality and performs better in terms of mic pickup and noise canceling? Once I can get some units, I’ll come back with a full review, so stay tuned!
