Get ready to grab your bean buds, because the beans are finally here. The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live has garnered an excellent deal of attention for their kidney bean-shaped buds, and these buds immediately separate themselves from the swarm of AirPods doppelgangers. Many believe Samsung bit off quite it can chew with the Galaxy Buds Live, so we’re getting to see how these open-fit, noise-canceling earbuds perform within the world. Grab those spoons: it’s time to dig in.
QUICK REVIEW:
The bean-shaped Samsung Galaxy Buds Live is a significant departure from the norm in every single category. Their design is like nothing we’ve ever seen before; they’re the primary true wireless earbuds from Samsung to incorporate noise cancellation and they’re tuned to supply a heaping helping of bass.
Samsung is not any stranger to the present category, with previous earbuds just like the Samsung Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds Plus, but the kidney bean shape of those buds is extremely different to what we have seen from rival brands, with most other wireless earbuds on the market basically plugging into your ear canals.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live is an important deal. They can compete with the likes of the Apple AirPods and Google Pixel Buds, offering many of the equivalent features plus a couple of new ones exclusive to Samsung device owners. (Surprise, it’s Bixby!)
The bad news is that they’re not the highest dog in terms of Android-based true wireless earbuds – that honor still belongs to the Sony WF-1000XM3. The Buds Live sound fine but aren’t anything to write down home about, and therefore the noise cancellation may be a similar story. Tack on some problems with sound leakage and a low IP rating, and you’ve got a competent successor to the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus but not the simplest true wireless earbuds on the market.
PROS
Surprisingly good fit
Extra helping of bass
Combined 20-hour battery life
CONS
Middling sound quality
Poor noise cancellation
Low IP rating
FACTORS WHICH MIGHT HELP YOU DECIDE:
PRICE:
The Samsung Galaxy Buds are available to order from Samsung – as well as most third-party retailers – now for $169.99 / £179 / AU£319. That’s significantly less expensive than the AirPods Pro, which comes in at $249 / £249 / AU$399, meaning the Galaxy Buds Live could be a compelling cheaper alternative to Apple’s noise-canceling earbuds.
What’s quite confusing about the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live is how close they sit to the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus that was released on March 6. The Buds Plus are $149.99 / £159 / AU$299, which is only about $20 less than the Buds Live.
The only difference is that the Buds Live have active noise cancellation while the Buds Plus use ambient noise reduction, and the Buds Plus have a longer built-in battery life but an overall lower one once you think about the charging case.
Long story short, you ought to probably buy the Galaxy Buds relive the Plus unless you propose on wearing your earbuds for 11 hours straight.
DESIGN:
The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live are available three colors – black, white, and bronze – and are available with an identical charging case that’ll slip into your pocket. There’s a USB Type-C port on the rear of the case for charging, or alternatively, you’ll also charge it wirelessly. An LED is present both inside and out of doors the case to allow you to realize the charging status of the case, also as of the earbuds.
Samsung has created something unique here. Where other wireless earbuds manufacturers are still copying the planning of Apple’s AirPods, Samsung’s design team is clearly at work to make something original.
When properly aligned, the Buds should be a near-perfect fit – sealing the ear with a cozy grip.
NOISE CANCELLATION
It’s impressive what proportion tech Samsung has packed into the Galaxy Buds Live. On each of the earbuds, there are three microphones alongside a further voice pickup unit, the speaker with a bass duct, and a bunch of sensors like an accelerometer, IR, and a touch-capacitive sensor. All of this tech allows for an upscale set of features on the Galaxy Buds Live- a number of which work better than others.
Let’s start with Active Noise Cancellation – something which will be tricky to realize in such small earbuds. What makes it even tougher to urge ANC on the Buds is that they don’t plug into your auditory meatus with silicone ear tips like a number of the other buds that support this tech.
This sounds great on paper but didn’t really make much of a difference with our testing – a minimum of not with voices. At lower volume levels, we could hear people around us with ANC enabled or disabled, and cranking volumes on the brink of 90% or more made the voices disappear with or without ANC. In short, like most other wireless earbuds, ANC depends on the fit of the buds and volume of what you’re taking note of.
CALL QUALITY
What does work well is call quality, which uses the three microphones (one inner mic plus two outer beam-forming mics on each side) alongside the Voice Pickup Unit that uses the accelerometer to sense the movement of your jaw to convert that K.E. into voice signals via bone conduction.
This enables you to be heard better on the opposite end of the decision, even in noisy environments. We tested this and were told that our voice was very clear on the opposite end, even once we had music playing within the background.
AUDIO QUALITY
Samsung has implemented a mess of features for keeping the Buds Live connected and in sync together with your device – all of which is predicated on Bluetooth 5. to stay a reliable audio stream, the Galaxy Buds Live feature Samsung’s proprietary Scalable Codec which prevents audio chopping by changing the bit-rate consistent with the strength of the Bluetooth connection.
We enjoyed uninterrupted audio even when the phone was over twenty feet faraway from the Galaxy Buds Live, but you almost certainly shouldn’t push the space if you propose on walking in between rooms without your phone.
BATTERY LIFE
At full charge, the earbuds are expected to last for 6 hours and therefore the battery case cover can provide over two full charges, meaning you’ll expect on the brink of 20 hours of playback with the Buds Live. Better yet, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live support quick-charging, which may provide about an hour of playtime with just five minutes of charging.
So how does that compare to the competition? Well, it’s almost like what Apple offers with the AirPods Pro – though many cheaper models, just like the LypertekTevi and even the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus, offer much more impressive battery lives.
REASONS TO BUY:
You’re trying to find a Samsung-friendly alternative to the Apple AirPods
If you’re trying to find a cool companion for your next Samsung Galaxy smartphone, the Galaxy Buds Live are a solid option. they need variety of features that cater specifically to Samsung device owners just like the Scalable Codec, and that they pair more easily, too.
You love Bixby
The other advantage (or disadvantage, counting on how you check out it) of employing a Samsung device with the Galaxy Buds Live is that you simply can have Bixby as your smart assistant. Now, for most, that’s not an enormous advantage, but if you’ve become enamored with Bixby over the previous couple of years, well, then who are we to inform you you’re wrong?
You love bass-heavy music and need true wireless earbuds
While the sound quality is nothing to write down home about, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live do really bring the bass. If you’re keen on that fun, thumping bass and don’t mind some lack of clarity within the mids and highs, you’ll definitely want to select up a pair of the Buds Live.
REASONS to not BUY:
You absolutely need noise cancellation
There’s no two ways about it, the active noise cancellation on the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live is more like noise reduction instead of full cancellation. In most cases, you’ll still be ready to hear just about everything that’s happening around you, just at a rather lower decibel level than if you weren’t wearing the earbuds.
You have irregularly shaped ears
The other issue is that there’s no guarantee that they’ll suit your ears. The Galaxy Buds Live have an incredibly unique shape that ought to fit comfortably, but if you’ve got oversized or especially small ears – otherwise you plan on buying these for your kids – there’s an honest chance the space between the auditory meatus and therefore the external ear won’t be the proper size to carry the Buds in situ.
You’re trying to find the most cost-effective pair of truly wireless earbuds
They’re the foremost expensive of the bunch. If you don’t want to distribute $169.99 / £179, there’s always the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus that provides many of an equivalent features for a touch less, or the LypertekTevi that cost a heck of tons less.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live are good and true wireless earbuds. it still requires a variety of features and offers a combined 28-hour battery life, but their sound isn’t amazing, therefore the noise cancellation features a lot of room for improvement. They’re certainly unique, but those curious about high-end sound quality and excellent ANC over a conversation-starting design should look elsewhere.
Source:
theverge.com
