So in 2021 samsung has a very robust lineup of truly wireless earbuds to choose from.
The Galaxy Buds plus are very budget friendly and have all of the features that you could
want, the Galaxy Buds Live are all about comfort and the Galaxy Buds Pro really do excel at
bringing you great sound at a very reasonable price. But if you are trying to choose between
any of these earbuds, lets break them down and see which ones right for you.
Now when it comes to pricing, personally I think all of these earbuds are reasonably
affordable but the Galaxy Buds Plus are the most affordable ones here retailing for $150.
The Galaxy Buds Live retail for $170 and the newest of the bunch… the Galaxy Buds Pro
retail for $200. Now both the Plus and live can routinely be found on sale these days
I wouldn’t be surprised that the pros will go on sale in the future as well. So if you
want to pick any of these earbuds up they’ll be linked down below and if you want to learn
more about any of these earbuds please watch their full reviews cause we’re only going
over their main differences.
Now first lets talk about the carrying cases here. All of these earbuds have decently small
cases for truly wireless earbuds. But all of these cases are still a little thicker
than the AirPods and AirPods Pro’s cases. But nonetheless you can easily take out and
slip all of these cases into your pocket and not notice them too much when they’re in
there. And for comparison sake these cases are all way smaller than the Sony WF-1000XM3’s
case which are still a pair of very popular earbuds and they’re absolutely dwarfed by
the Bose QC earbud’s case. Now even though all of these cases are decently small… one
thing that I do want to point out about all of these cases are their magnets. All of these
magnets are a little on the weaker side. I wish these magnets had more of a pull to them
so that it would be even easier to put your earbuds away. But besides that all of these
cases are fine.
Now when it comes to charging these cases, all of these cases charge via USB C port as
they should. And they all have wireless charging which is great either if you have a phone
that supports powering sharing or if you’ve already invested in a few wireless chargers.
Now when it comes to battery life, you can easily get a combined battery life between
20 to 24 hours with all of these earbuds depending on how you use them. The main difference here
is going to be the stamina of the earbud themselves. Both the Pro’s and live are good for about
8 hours of playback time if you use them with their active noise cancellation and hi bixby
turned off.
Where as the Plus are good for around 13 hours with their ambient mode turned off. And this
is cause the batteries in the plus are larger than the batteries in both the Live and Pro’s.
So if you’re someone that looking for the earbuds with the longest stamina, maybe cuase
you work in a ware house or retail then you’ll might want to go with the Plus. But if you
just want to longest combined battery life than you’ll want to go with either the Live’s
or Pro’s cause the batteries in their cases are larger than the one found in the plus’s
case.
But now lets talk about the earbuds themselves. When it comes to fit all of these earbuds
fit very differently and this could be a differentiating factor for some people. The Galaxy Buds Plus
fit like your standard pair of in ear ear buds. As in they go into your ear canal a
decent amount like lets say the Jabra elite 75T’s or the Sennheiser Momentum 2’s.
But they don’t go in super deep into your ear canal like the Sony WF-1000XM3’s. But
then there are the Galaxy Buds Pro which fit between a pair of standard in ear earbuds
and a pair of shallow fitting in ear earbuds. As in the Galaxy Buds Pro do go in as deep
into your ear canal as the Galaxy Buds Plus, but they do go in a little deeper than both
the AirPods Pro and Jabra Elite 85T’s. The end result is that the Galaxy Buds pro don’t
feel as intrusive as the Galaxy Buds plus, but they also provide better lock down than
the AirPods Pro cause they don’t wiggle out as much. Personally I find the Galaxy
Buds Pro to be more comfortable than the Galaxy Buds plus. Now one important thing to keep
in mind here between the Pros and the Plus is that the Pro’s don’t have adjustable
ear fins like the Plus. Personally I don’t mind it, and actually if you look closely
you’ll notice that the sculpt of the Pro’s is very similar to the sculpt of the Plus
with their medium fins attached. But then there are the Galaxy Buds Live which don’t
go into your ear canal like these other two earbuds. The Galaxy Buds Live rest in the
bowl of your ears just like AirPods. So without question the Galaxy Bud Live are the most
comfortable earbuds here. But the Galaxy Buds Live’s superior comfort does bring one major
draw back and thats these earbuds do let in more ambient noise than these other two earbuds
cause the live’s just don’t create as good of seal. So since these earbuds can’t
create as good of seal, that is going to affect their sound quality. But regardless if you’re
interested in a pair of in ear earbuds than the Pro’s are more comfortable than the
Plus cause they don’t go in as deep and they still create a good seal. But if you
are interested in maximum comfort for long use sessions or if you’re just not the biggest
fan of in ear earbuds than you’ll want to go with the lives.
Now when it comes to bluetooth connectivity all of these earbuds each establish a connection
with your phone so if you just want to use one earbud at a time you can use either one
it doesn’t matter. And at this point I would expect these earbuds to use this set up cause
this is the kind of set up that we would expect from a premium brand.
But one very important feature all of these earbuds have is that they all have that seamless
earbud connection feature. So with all of these earbuds you can easily jump around between
all of your previously connected bluetooth devices without first having to disconnect
them from the first device. So if you’re a power user using multiple devices with multiple
operating systems the galaxy buds let you easily swap between your devices.
However the galaxy buds don’t allow you to be simultaneously connected to two devices
at the same time like the Jabra Elite 85T’s do. So you can’t hot swap from one device
to another. Nonetheless the Galaxy Buds allow you to jump around from one device to another
no matter what operating system youre using fairly easily, but you’ll might still have
to fiddle around with your bluetooth menu.
But if you are heavily invested into the Samsung Galaxy eco system, then the galaxy buds will
allow you to easily hot swap between any of your galaxy devices associated to your Samsung
account similar to how you can hot swap between any of your apple devices associated to your
iCloud account if you’re using AirPods.
But performance wise, all of these all of these earbuds have zero latency across the
board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or
an android device. And when it comes to audio codecs, all of these earbuds are strictly
using SBC and AAC.
But now lets talk about listening to music with these earbuds. Now I feel the galaxy
buds live sound good enough to get the job. Now personally I like to use these earbuds
while they’re in their dynamic EQ cause in their normal EQ these earbuds have way
too much bass which can be over powering and makes it hard to hear everything else. But
while in their Dynamic EQ their bass gets lowered a little bit… but they still have
a lot of bass and the mids come out a little bit as well. Making it a little easier to
hear vocals and instrumentals. But due to their design, these earbuds do let in a lot
of ambient noise so you're really going to have to crank the volume up on these earbuds
when you're out and about. Overall, I feel these earbuds are better suited for consuming
videos and podcasts. And if you’re interested in better sound quality then you do want to
go with either the Plus or Pro cause first off both of these earbuds do a significantly
better job of blocking out ambient noise cause they create better seals. Which reduces noise
pollution and increases sound quality. Now when it comes to choosing between the Plus
and the Pro’s hands down the Pro’s sound significantly better than the Plus. The Pro’s
sound significantly more open than the Plus, their bass resonates and hits much harder
than the Plus, and the highs on the Pro’s stay crisp where as the highs on the Plus
can get a little fuzzy at times. Now even though the Plus do sound better than the lives,
the plus are better suited for people who like a flatter or vocals focused EQ. Where
as I genuinely believe that the Pro’s will be able to please both people who like a bass
heavy EQ and people who prefer a more vocals focused EQ cause these earbuds can really
do it all.
However when it comes to the media controls on these earbuds… I still feel the Galaxy
Buds Plus have the superior touch pads here. Personally I feel the touch pads on the Pro’s
are just a little too sensitive for my taste cause these things are very quick to accept
inputs even when you’re just adjusting these earbuds. Where as I feel the touch pads on
the Live’s aren’t sensitive enough cause I routinely get missed inputs with these earbuds.
Where as with the Plus, these are more accurate for me. Now with all of these earbuds you
can tap to play and pause, double tap to skip a track, triple tap to go back a track and
you can set press and hold to either adjust your volume, cycle between your active noise
cancelation or ambient mode, or activate your voice assistant. However, with the plus if
you were to go into their labs tab you can also choose the double tap the edge so that
you can adjust your volume. So this way with the Plus you can cycle between your music
by tapping, cycle between your Ambient mode by pressing and holding AND still be able
to adjust your volume all from the earbuds themselves. You would think that the Live’s
and Pro’s had this feature but they don’t.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancellation on these earbuds… the Galaxy Buds plus don’t
have active noise cancelation, but quite frankly since the Galaxy Buds Plus are in ear earbuds
ive found that they manage to block out more noise than the Galaxy Buds Live’s even with
their active noise cancellation turned on. But given the Galaxy Buds Live’s fit I think
thats perfectly fine.
However with their active noise cancelation turned on the galaxy Buds pro do block out
the most amount of noise here. Now I do want to taper expectations here, the ANC on these
earbuds is mostly going to focus on constant low frequency sounds and they aren’t going
to block out nearly as much noise as a pair of proper over ear ANC headphones like the
AirPods Max, Sony 1000XM4’s or the Bose NC 700.
Now even though the Galaxy Buds Pro do block out a decent amount of noise ive found that
the Jabra Elite 85T’s, Sennheiser Momentum 2’s and AirPods Pro all block out more noise
than these earbuds. However I do feel the Galaxy buds Pro block out more noise than
the Sony WF-1000XM3’s.
But like ive mentioned in the past I only use the ANC on the earbuds when I have to
and what’s really important to me is the quality of their ambient mode. Now the Galaxy
buds live have an ambient mode but for some reason its hidden in the labs tab. But none
the less the ambient mode on the Galaxy Buds Live sounds decent with zero hissing in the
back ground. The only thing is that you can’t adjust their ambient mode like you can with
these other two earbuds, cuase the ambient mode on the Live is like having the ambient
mode on the Plus and Pro’s set to low.
Now the ambient mode on the Galaxy Buds plus is okay but it does sound little on the artificial
side when compared to these other two earbuds. And the microphone array on the Galaxy Buds
Plus does like to pick up a noticeable amount of wind noise when walking out doors.
Where as the ambient mode on the Galaxy Buds pro does sound a little more natural, however
there is a slight hissing in the back ground. And if you were to use the ambient mode on
these earbuds set to high or extra high then youre going to hear that hissing even more.
However the microphone on array on the Galaxy Buds Pro does do a battery job of rejecting
wind noise when walking out doors than the Galaxy Buds Plus.
And the Galaxy Buds Pro also have an active ambient mode meaning the they’ll actively
block out sudden spikes in loud noise and once that loud noise stop they’ll turn their
ambient mode back on. Where as with both the Plus and live’s they’ll just let in everything.
But a new feature the Galaxy Buds Pro have is voice detect which is very similar to speak
to chat on the new Sony 1000XM4’s. With voice detect if you have music playing and
start talking the ear buds will automatically lower the volume of your music and pump in
all of the ambient sound around you so that you can talk to someone without having to
touch your earbuds. Now you’re still going to be able hear your music in the background
but the idea is that you’re going to hear be able to hear whoever you’re talking to
over your music. Now the earbuds will stay in this state as long as youre talking…
and they’ll go back normal either after you’ve been quite for a preset determined
amount of time which you can set through their app or you can always cancel Voice detect
by tapping on either of the touch pads.
But just like with speak to chat on the sony 1000XM4’s personally im not a fan of voice
detect on the Galaxy Buds Pro cause it can get activated even if you’re talking to
yourself very quietly or if you start laughing. And either way it is a little hard to hear
people over your music. So if I am going to talking to someone im still going to remove
at least one of my earbuds.
But finally here’s the microphone test, now the micorhpne on the Galaxy Buds Plus
does sound a little shallow when compared to both the Galaxy Bud Live and Galaxy Buds
Pro.
Now I feel these earbuds do a decent of blocking out road noise…
But when it comes to chatter these earbuds do struggle quite a bit.
Where as both the Galaxy Buds Live and Galaxy Buds Pro do a better job of blocking out ambient
noise and focusing on your voice. Cuase if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone
you’re going to clealery hear all of this chatter, but if we were to switch back over
to the Galaxy Buds Live it is reduced but my voice is front and center.
And the same thing can be said about road noise, if we were to switch over to my lapel
microphone you’re going to clearly hear all of this road noise, but if we were to
switch back over to the Galaxy Buds Pro, it is severely reduced.
So if you do plan on taking lots and lots of phone calls then both the Pro’s and lives
are good options where as the Plus can sound a little shallow.
And you know with all of the remote work people are doing these days having a good sound microphone
on your earbuds is super important.
So with all that being said, Samsung has a very compelling line up of earbuds to choose
from. The Galaxy Bud Plus are a pair of budget friendly earbuds that have all of the features
that you could want in a pair of every day carry earbuds. However the Galaxy Buds Live
are all about comfort. Since these earbuds don’t actually go into your ear canal they
don’t get itchy after awhile or feel intrusive. So if you’re looking for a pair of earbuds
to mostly use while you’re out running errands and you want to passively consume videos and
podcasts than the Galaxy Buds Live are a great option. However if you are looking for the
best sound quality then you definitely want to go with the Galaxy Buds Pro. The two way
speakers in the Galaxy Buds pro bring great audio at a very reasonable price. The Pro’s
also have decent active noise cancelation and they also have an active ambient mode.