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Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review: extremely boring headphones

Harry November 16, 2024

Our decision

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro compensate for an inoffensive and docile design by offering excellent sound quality and a great calling experience. Although ANC is missing, Samsung’s flagship headphones are worth buying if you have an Android phone.

Reasons to buy

Incredible sound quality
Great call experience
Sufficient battery life

Reasons to avoid

Not as good as ANC rivals
The design is pretty boring

It’s quite unfortunate Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro They are clearly boring. While the big tech company’s last-generation Pro headphones offer a curiously small form factor and a unique clamshell case, the new ones feel awfully familiar, like Apple’s AirPods and their countless imitations.

A stemmed design leaves little to be excited about, at least externally, with this pair of accessories. But thanks to its amazing sound quality, excellent calling experience and decent noise cancellation, SAMSUNG‘s buds are still among the best on the market, especially when paired with some. best Android phones.

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Features


Headphone type	wireless headphones
bluetooth	5.4
Active noise canceling	Yes
spatial sound	Yes
Battery life	6 hours (music, ANC on), up to 26 hours with case
Colors	Silver, White
Headphone weight	5.4g per earbud
case weight	46.5g

Price and Stock Status

You can pick up the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro for $249.99 / £219.99 from: Samsung store or cheaper through other major retailers like Amazon, Best Buy and more. You can also take advantage of Samsung’s trade-in offers to get the buds even cheaper, and they’ll likely be part of future promotions when Samsung sells new smartphones.

That’s about the same retail price as Apple’s flagship AirPods Pro 2, and considering the features are pretty similar, I think it’s a reasonable cost. Admittedly, I wish Samsung would undercut Apple with the Buds 3 Pro, but the brand’s trade-in and promotional offers often do just that.

Design

While the case of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro offers a futuristic design with a transparent roof that encourages you to open it and enjoy listening to music, I cannot be so kind to the headphones. There’s nothing really wrong with them, but they’re harmlessly tame and offer a familiar design that the market has seen since AirPods first launched in 2016.

The body allows for more convenient touch controls by letting you press a small button rather than relying on the sensitivity (or sometimes lack thereof) of the device as on the AirPods Pro 2. However, the sharp structure of the body gambles on whether it is comfortable to press. Sometimes it’s easier than Apple’s Pro offering, but sometimes it’s more tedious.

A little touch that completes the futuristic look are the color-coded left and right earcups that match their location on the box. Instead of letters spoiling the exciting feel of new technology, blue and orange stickers invite you to plug your earbuds into their respective slots, even if the square-like structure of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro means you can’t easily slide them in and move them around to charge as much as possible with the AirPods.

Performance

It’s frustrating that the design of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro bothers me more than I expected, especially since the naming convention is equally boring. But I have to give a round of applause for the sound design, which is absolutely incredible enough that I’d want from a set of next-gen Galaxy Buds.

There’s a big focus on treble, with nice bass and great mids. Music sounds full and vibrant, and when I listen closely, it feels like I can hear the notes of my favorite songs that I don’t hear on other headphones. With features like 360° Audio (one Samsung phone), you can even experience the songs that support this with the feeling of being at your own personal concert, but it is a feature that I rarely use.

Case of Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro in the box

Likewise, battery life was impressive. Despite frequent trips to my local store, daily walks or simply listening in the comfort of my home, I spent more than 20 hours in a week, which meant I had to charge my case and headphones every seven days. This might not be the best battery life on the market, but I found them charging much less frequently compared to my pair of AirPods Pro 2s.

Unfortunately, Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) isn’t that impressive. It certainly drowns out some everyday sounds, allowing you to easily immerse yourself in your favorite tracks, but Apple’s AirPods Pro 2, as well as Bose’s Ultra line of headphones and headphones, do a much better job than Samsung’s flagship headphones.

But it’s not that bad because making calls with the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro is very good. This isn’t a huge advantage for me, but I could hear the other person with reasonable clarity and my voice was pretty clear according to my family. At least “What did you say?” There weren’t many questions like that. or “Can you repeat that?” the entire time I used them.

Decision

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are great but painfully boring. The revamped design is inoffensive and imitates many headphones on the market, but it hides some excellent hardware that delivers excellent sound quality, whether playing music or taking calls. Even better, the price isn’t too hard to swallow. I wish Samsung had imitated the circular body.

Alternatives

If you’re not a big fan of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, check out some of the available alternatives:

Bose Ultra Open Headphones

While the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds are more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, they offer better ANC and the same great sound quality as the mobile app on both iPhone and Android smartphones. Bonus points here if you prefer the small capsule design of the previous Galaxy Buds Pro, as the shape of the Bose earbuds is just as small.