Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Review: If Looks Could Kill

The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro was the only thing that stood out to me from this year’s Samsung Unpacked event. It received a major design overhaul with flashy lights and an edgy new look which quickly got itself labeled as an AirPods copycat all over the web. But this new design piqued my interest and now that I have used them for a week, I’m ready to discuss whether this expensive purchase is worth your money in this review of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.

Galaxy Buds 3 Pro: What’s In the Box?

Before we start, let us take a quick round-up of all the contents you’ll get with the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. Here’s a list of all the items.

• Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro
• Pair of small and large ear tips (Medium tips pre-applied)
• User Manual
• USB A to C cable

Build and Design

As I previously stated, one of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro’s main selling points is its design. The brand replaces the in-ear type buds with a more classic lollipop design, comparable to, yep, AirPods. The rationale for this adjustment is increased sound pickup from the microphone. However, Samsung was aware that these similarities would be drawn. That is why they included their own touches.

First and foremost, the stems are triangular instead of typical cylindrical. They sit at an angle to the upper section. It also contains a new Blade Light, which only flashes white. This begs the question who this light bar is intended for. It blinks or flashes when the battery is 30% or lower. Okay, but how would I know when I am wearing them? Is it for others to tap on my shoulders and remind me to charge my headphones?

I used these for several hours. During that period, I was continually readjusting them. That’s not to say they were uncomfortable, but I never felt like I was going to forget I was wearing them. Which is what I did with the AirPods. Putting them back into the case was also a chore at times. It felt like a kindergartener attempting to arrange blocks in similarly shaped holes.

The casing has also had a makeover. It is now composed of metal, with a clear lid, and feels more compact and lightweight. The translucent lid and blade lights surely makes me wonder if someone on the design team was a Tron fan. The compact size made it comfortable to slip into even my tight jeans without any hassle or uncomfortable bulges. Overall, I am impressed with Samsung’s dramatic design choices this year, but I believe there is potential for improvement in future editions.

Galaxy Buds 3 Pro: Connectivity

For connectivity, Bluetooth 5.4 (LE audio ready) is included, along with Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair. And, yes, they support dual-device pairing. When connecting to the latest Samsung foldable, the pairing process is rather seamless. I used them with the Flip 6, and the pop-up appeared as soon as I opened the lid.

They were super quick to pair with my Windows laptop. I would go as far as to say, these are the best buds to use with your PC. They handled switching between the two devices gracefully. When switching audio sources, the delay was almost negligible. The connection also remained strong and I didn’t get any drop-offs even when I left the phone on one end of the office and moved to the other. So, in this regard, you should have nothing to complain about.

Sounds Quality

When you pay a premium price for a pair of TWS, you don’t want any compromises in sound. This is why Samsung has included a dual channel 10.5mm dynamic driver and a 6mm planar tweeter within the casing of these buds. They support SBC, AAC, Samsung Scalable, and Samsung Seamless codec in both HiFi and UHQ versions allowing them to stream high-res audio in 24-bit/96kHz.

All scream top-notch in every standard but how good do they sound? I typically listen to Bollywood tracks where the mids or the vocals are the focus. With these buds, the mids sound so clear, that you can hear lots of detail and definition in them. When listening to Bekhayali from Kabir Singh (2019), I noticed for the first time there is a female co-singer in the track.

They have a bright sound signature that emphasizes instruments and vocals. Which is great when listening to tracks like Bohemian Rhapsody. The sound stage is open and rich, something that I could only expect from such premium earbuds. The separation is good as every instrument has its moment to shine.

This was all on the default settings with Ultra High Quality audio active and listening to lossless tracks on Apple Music. But you can choose different presets or create your own from the companion app.

The lows are balanced but you wouldn’t get that strong wobbly bass effect that the masses really lean towards, like the Nothing Ear. This was kind of a disappointment. Especially when playing hard rock songs like New Divide by Linkin Park or EDM tracks. But again, I would take vocal clarity over bass any day of the week.

The spatial or the 360 Audio as Samsung calls is pretty strong and effective here. Even though I still consider it a gimmick, it does offer that immersive experience you would traditionally expect from it. That is in part thanks to the head tracking feature. However, there was a latency when using UHQ audio enabled. And turning it off for the sake of 360 Audio didn’t feel worth it.

However, the biggest issue with the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro is not the sound, but what it takes to experience it. You’ll need a Galaxy S23 or a newer flagship running on One UI 6.1.1 to take advantage of the UHQ and 360 Spatial audio. Else you’ll be stuck with AAC which is not bad by any means but doesn’t justify the price you pay for them.

Galaxy Buds 3 Pro: Microphone Quality

One of the key factors in adopting a new design was to improve the mic pickup as the stems are much closer to your mouth. Well, I have to say that the gamble surely paid off. The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro has one of the best mic pickups I have used to date. With the Ambient mode toggled, I used the buds to talk to a friend in a crowded metro. Guess what?

While I could still hear the train’s harsh vibrations and people’s chatter, my friend on the other end reported that my voice was crystal clear. I recorded the call, and I couldn’t believe it. It was clean, and the surrounding noise had been wiped out. If that isn’t a testament to how good the microphone quality is, then I don’t know what is.

Adaptive, Noise Cancellation and Transparency Mode

Samsung bundles in three different modes: Ambient (Transparency), Adaptive, and Active Noise Cancellation. The Adaptive mode toggles noise cancellation and switches to Ambient mode when detecting a loud noise. Suffice it to say that it is pretty unreliable. It kept turning on ambient mode whenever someone passed by me which got annoying after some time. That’s when I turned it off.

On the other side, Samsung has worked some witchcraft with noise cancellation. It’s hard to say, but it’s comparable to the Bose QuietComfort Ultra, the industry standard for ANC. You switch it on and enter your little realm, where it’s just you and the music. Even in loud situations, like the rush at Rajiv Chowk station, I could barely hear my surroundings when played a song at 50% volume.

The transparency mode is also fuller, cleaner, and isn’t as harsh as some other premium options. You can make out what the others are talking about around you without the wind noise overwhelming you. Even your voice doesn’t sound artificial or muffled when talking. If the design wasn’t an issue, I wouldn’t even know I was wearing earbuds. Yes, it is that good.

AI Features and Voice Control

The buds also include the Live Interpreter Galaxy AI feature. It translates others’ speech to your native tongue in real time. I’ve used this feature on the Galaxy S24 series before and it’s still hit-and-miss. It did an okay job with simple sentences when I tried it in the Hindi language. However, anything even nuanced transforms back into nonsense. Maybe it works better in other languages, like Spanish, but I couldn’t try it myself.

You can also control playback with voice commands such as “Answer call”, “Play Music”, “Volume Up”, or “Previous Song”. However, I am not the type of person who shouts voice commands in public when I can do so softly using my hands. It’s also worth noting that these commands work with everyone. So if your children or colleagues discover about them, they may irritate you to no end. They worked great for the limited time I used them, but I soon forgot about the feature and returned to touch controls.

Galaxy Buds 3 Pro: Touch Controls

The new lollipop design allows pinch and swipe touch controls to change modes and volumes. Here is a list of the default touch controls of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.

Now I appreciate these new controls. But Samsung forgot to provide any physical indicators in the buds to help you figure out where to pinch. It was a lot of trial and error till I figured out that it was halfway through the stem. Still, I struggled at times to figure out where I needed to pinch. The good thing here is that there is a sound letting you know that your pinch is registered.

Battery Life and Charging

In the battery department, both the buds come with a 45 mAh battery and the case includes a 500 mAh power pack. What you can expect is about 6.5 hours of battery life with noise cancellation active which was my experience. Even with loud music sessions and gaming, you could easily go through one-fourth of the day without having to put them back to charge.

When the time does come to charge, both the case and the buds take about 1 hour 20 minutes to charge from 0 to 100. Since the case supports wireless charging, you can just let them take a nap on your Galaxy smartphone while they refuel.

Companion App Experience

To control the long list of features of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, you will need to download the Galaxy Wear app. I didn’t think anyone could give competition to Realme Link but the Wear app is a worthy contender (not in a good way). It has a long and tedious setup process, which involves you signing in with your Samsung account. But once you are through with that, you get to experience the good part.

The app has a nice interface, with well-labelled menus. It’s here you’ll find Samsung’s version of Find My in case you lose your earbuds. You can also manage the equalizer, touch controls, and other vast sets of features that you can pull off with them. Once I got used to it, I knew exactly where to look to change particular settings for the buds. There’s not much to talk about the companion Wear app apart from the features I have discussed above.

Should You Buy the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro?

Finally, coming to the important part. Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro? They come at a hefty price tag of $249/ £219/ Rs 20,000. At that price, they even cost more than the Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Gen with USB-C which goes for even less than $200 at times. But if you want a great sound and feature-rich experience, these become a compelling option.

The cracks start showing up when you factor in that you’ll need the latest Samsung flagship to take advantage of its myriad of features. Else, they are as good as any midrange option. This is sort of shady on Samsung’s part because now, instead of being a good product in itself, it’s become basically an accessory to their flagship.

At that point, it’s best if you pick them up only if you either already have a Samsung S23 or later, or getting a good deal on them when buying a new Samsung device. Otherwise, I’ll say look for something more versatile that offers all the good stuff without limiting you to a limited number of devices.