Fully-wireless earbuds are quickly becoming the new standard for listening to music or
basically anything else now that we’re going into 2020 and beyond, so in this video, we’re
gonna compare the 3 best pairs of fully-wireless earbuds to see which ones are the best for
each use-case!
We’ve got Apple’s incredibly popular AirPods Pro for $250, Sony’s WF-1000XM3’s that
are known for having the best noise cancellation, on sale for $198, and Samsung’s brand new
Galaxy Buds+ for $150, quite a bit cheaper than the other two options.
So without further ado, let’s get right into comparing these earbuds in a bunch of
different categories, starting with the size and portability of the cases.
The case on the Galaxy Buds+ is the smallest in terms of height and length, but it’s
thicker than the AirPods Pro case. The case on the Sonys, however, is pretty massive compared
to the other two, so it’s definitely not as convenient to carry around.
In terms of weight, the Sony’s are over twice as heavy as the Galaxy Buds, with the
AirPods Pro falling somewhere right in the middle, so that’s a nice bonus for the Samsung
earbuds.
For design & build quality, both the Sony’s and the AirPods Pro feel really nice, solid
and premium. The Galaxy Buds+, however, feel a little bit cheaper, which they are, of course.
In terms of the quality of the hinge, the AirPods Pro have a very solid metal hinge
that feels really nice to flick open, and the magnet that holds the top down seems to
be stronger than on the other two.
Both the Galaxy Buds and the Sony’s have plastic hinges that aren’t as solid, with
the hinge on the Buds+ feeling a bit wobbly and not as secure.
In terms of how much battery life is packed into the cases themselves, excluding the earbuds,
the AirPods Pro case holds enough power to give you 19 more hours of listening with Noise
Cancellation on while the Sony’s give you 18 hours, which doesn’t really make since
considering the massive size difference between the cases.
This shows that the AirPods Pro are more efficient.
The case on the Galaxy Buds, on the other hand, packs an extra 11 hours of listening
time, even without noise cancellation, which we’ll get into in a minute.
The nice thing about the AirPods Pro is that the case features wireless charging, which
the other two options don’t offer.
However, the AirPods case uses a Lightning port for charging, which is a bit disappointing
compared to USB-C on the other two cases.
Now opening up the cases, we noticed that it was a bit hard to take the earbuds in and
out of the case on the Sony’s compared to the other two, and the AirPods Pro have a
really satisfying snap when you put them into the case because of the more powerful magnets.
Now before we get into comparing the audio quality between these wireless earbuds, let’s
compare some of the fine details of the earbuds themselves.
The AirPods Pro have a very sleek low-profile shape, with a short stem sticking out for
better microphone quality.
The Sony’s are quite a bit larger than the other two in terms of total mass, and the
Galaxy Buds lack any kind of stem.
In terms of the weight of the earbuds themselves, the AirPods Pro are the lightest, with the
Sony’s being over 50% heavier.
In terms of the design, they honestly all look really nice and clean, with the Galaxy
Buds being the most subtle, lacking any kind of stem or logo.
The really nice thing about them is that they’re flush with your ears so you can freely change
your shirt without having to take them out.
The Sony’s honestly look really professional, while the AirPods Pro have a unique look and
shape that some don’t like, but you definitely won’t mistake them for any other pair of
earbuds.
Now comparing the battery life of the earbuds themselves, the AirPods Pro are rated for
4 and a half hours with noise cancellation on, and 5 hours with it off.
The Sony’s are rated for 6 hours with noise cancellation on, and an impressive 8 hours
with it off.
And the Galaxy buds+, which lack noise cancellation, are now rated for a much higher 11 hours of
listening time, easily beating out the others.
In terms of comfort in the ears, the AirPods Pro are by far the most comfortable out of
these two, and there’s two very good reasons for it. *Ad Spot?*
While both the Sony’s and Galaxy Buds+ have a hard plastic tube that enters your ear canal,
with the Sony’s tube being thicker, the AirPods Pro speaker is actually flush with
the body, so the only thing that goes into your ear canal is the silicon ear tip.
On top of that, all of these earbuds create a seal inside of your ears for better bass
and sound quality, but the AirPods Pro have an innovative new venting feature that equalizes
the air pressure between the outside world and the inside of your ear canal, so you don’t
feel like your ears are plugged.
This new feature, alongside the lighter weight, makes them a lot more comfortable for longer
listening sessions.
Now before we jump into sound quality, I want to mention what comes in the box.
They all come with replacement eartips, including a smaller and larger set for the AirPod Pros,
but only the Sony’s come with a full set of Foam tips. Don’t worry, though, foam
tips are available on Amazon for both the AirPods Pro and the Galaxy Buds, and we’ll
link them below.
The nice thing about the AirPods Pro tips is that they come with a mesh filter on the
inside which makes sure ear wax doesn’t get into speaker grilles.
The Galaxy Buds+ also come with some replacement Wing tips which is definitely a nice bonus.
They all come with charging cables in the box, but the Sony’s cable is embarrassingly
short compared to the others, making it seem like Sony is counting on you using your pre
existing cable for charging.
Now getting into audio quality, the Galaxy Buds+ have been updated with an extra speaker
so they actually sound much better than the original Buds.
They have a ton of bass, almost too much at times, but it can be tuned down in the app
which is now finally available for iOS alongside Android.
We also recommend switching to the Dynamic mode, which helped them beat out the AirPods
Pro in our hands-on comparison video, which you can check out after this one.
The AirPods Pro do sound really great, but they’re just a step down from the volume
and quality of the Buds+.
The Sony’s actually sound better than the other two, being the most clear, natural and
balanced, with really good volume as well.
In terms of noise cancellation between the AirPods Pro and the Sony’s, we’d definitely
say that the Sony’s do a better job, mostly for getting rid of low frequency noise.
Now that doesn’t mean that the AirPods Pro don’t do a great job, because they really
do. The Sony’s just do it a bit better.
All three of them have an ambient mode which lets in sound from the outside world, and
the Galaxy Buds+ don’t do a great job at this. It creates an unnatural sound of background
noise, and voices sound kind of tinny and fake.
Both the Sony’s and AirPods Pro sound much more natural, but Transparency mode is the
winner, sounding extremely close to how it sounds without anything in your ears.
Now before we get into which buds we would recommend, I want to go through a couple of
feature and software differences.
The Galaxy Buds have iPX2 water resistance, and the AirPods Pro have iPX4 resistance,
while the Sony’s, on the other hand, lack any official rating.
The Sony’s require you to download their headphone connect app to use the earbuds,
which is available for both Android and iOS, and it’s packed with tons of software features
and customizations.
The only issue is that the app crashed on me multiple times.
While the Galaxy Buds+ don’t require an app, there is one you can download to adjust
EQ and controls, and it’s now available for iOS, which is great!
The AirPods Pro connect instantly if you have an iPhone, which also syncs to the rest of
your Apple devices that are logged into your Apple ID, which is super convenient.
However, the AirPods Pro have the least amount of customization options.
Fortunately, we’ve tried them on Android phones and they actually work pretty well,
so you can check out that video at the end of this one if you’re curious.
The major benefit of the Sony’s is that you can easily get basically any smart assistant
to work, like google assistant, alexa and siri.
Now let’s get into which earbuds we recommend for each use-case.
The Galaxy Buds+ performed very well in a lot of the categories, including price, battery
life and sound quality, but the ambient mode didn’t work very well, and they lack active
noise cancellation. On the plus side, they’re only $150, a much better deal than the other
two, so if you don’t care about active noise cancellation, the Buds+ are a great choice!
Now if you’re okay with spending $200 or more, we would honestly recommend the Sony’s
because of the decent battery life, sound quality, best-in-class noise cancellation
and the fact that while the AirPods Pro work well on Android, not every single feature
is fully supported.
For iPhone users, the choice becomes a little more difficult.
If you’re someone who loves the ability to fine tune lots of features and settings,
the AirPods Pro might not be great for you.
But if you just want them to work great out of the box and be as convenient as possible,
the extra $50 is definitely worth it for the AirPods Pro.
There’s no messing around with apps that can crash and there’s no carrying around
a bulky case. They just work and they work well.
And even though the noise cancellation isn’t as good as on the Sony’s, we think it’s
more than good enough for almost all situations. For those that travel a lot, the Sony’s
will be a better choice because of the better noise-cancellation, but if you’re not willing
to spend that much on earbuds, just get the Galaxy Buds+, because at the price, they’re
the best value out of the three.
So there you guys have it, if this video helped you make a decision, feel free to use the
links down below for the best prices on each of these sets of earbuds. And if you enjoyed
it, make sure to check out one of those two videos right there and click that circle above
to subscribe. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next video!