My first pair of wireless earbuds were Samsung’s Galaxy Gear IconX from 2018, and truthfully, I loved them. They were relatively small, sounded pretty decent for the time, and they didn’t look like every other pair of wireless earbuds ever—AirPods.
In fact, my next pair of earbuds, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live, further diverged from the classic AirPods look, opting to adopt a new design that resembled beans. They were surprisingly comfortable, albeit at the cost of ANC, battery life, and sound quality.
EnterSamsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, which undeniably echoes Apple’s AirPods Pro. As unoriginal as they may seem, I think there’s a strong case to be made for these earbuds actually being better because of their design choice over previous iterations.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro
If You Can’t Beat Em', Join Em'
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are the latest flagship earbuds from the company, boasting advanced AI features such as interpreter mode and voice detection. They promise superior audio quality with 10.5mm dynamic drivers and 6.1mm planar drivers.
Pricing and Availability
The Buds 3 Pro are available from Samsung’s online store as well as most major retailers, including Best Buy and Walmart. The colors available include White and Silver.
Do These Look Familiar?
First off, let’s talk about the design since it’s the most glaring aspect of this entire product. Leave nothing to the imagination, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro have a striking resemblance to AirPods Pro with their stem body, their ear tip shapes, and the case design. These undeniably look almost exactly like AirPods Pro. I have them in Silver, which sort of masks the design, but make no mistake, the White variant looks nearly identical to the AirPods Pro.
That said, Samsung gives these earbuds a bit of “differentiation.” The “blade” stems are angular and have an LED strip running down the entire body of each earbud. They can stay on or blink while in use. Honestly, they feel more like a gimmick than a useful feature, especially because of how ridiculous you’d look with the lights on. That said, they do serve as an additional indicator for pairing mode, but beyond that, they don’t add much value.
One of my favorite aspects of this AirPods-esque design is that Samsung finally has reliable touch controls on its earbuds. Mind you, I’m speaking from using the Galaxy Buds Live a long bit ago, but the core design issue of having a round, stem-less design was having touch controls, which were an absolute pain to deal with when trying to adjust your fit while the earbud was in your ear.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro accepts swipes for volume control and pinches for playback and noise control on the stem of each earbud. In my testing, both the swiping action and the pinching mechanism were really easy to master, and the angular shape of the stems makes it easier.
As for the case, it also has a familiar feel reminiscent of AirPods, but with its own Samsung differentiation. The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro case has a clear lid, so you can see the buds nestled inside without opening it, which, I’m going to be honest, serves virtually no purpose other than to look unlike the AirPods case, but from the shape to the LED battery indicator still looks nearly identical.
The USB-C port and Bluetooth pairing button are at the bottom, which differs slightly from Apple’s back placement. One quirky design choice is the orientation of the buds in the case; you need to rotate them 180 degrees to put them back, which, again, just seems like Samsung being different for the sake of being different.
That said, I wish that if Samsung went to these lengths to create such a similar design, it should have at least included a speaker on the case so the buds could be located through its own Find My Device service.
The case charges via USB-C or through wireless charging.
Durability and Comfort
When it comes to durability, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are IP57 rated, meaning they can handle your workouts just fine. The Pro version comes with ear tips, which offer a more secure fit and seal, especially during intense activities.
Comfort-wise, these buds are impressive—there is no discomfort even after hours of use. I could easily go through long work or gym sessions or commutes with ease, and they have yet to fall out of my ears, which is great.
Excellent Sound Quality
Onto sound quality. I am very impressed with the range and versatility these earbuds offer in terms of the listening experience. The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro have two-way speakers and dual amplifiers, delivering a deep, immersive sound with really good bass. They support Ultra High-Quality audio and 24-bit HiFi, but only when paired with newer Samsung phones.
For the first couple of days, I left the earbuds in their default settings, and they sounded pretty decent. Compared to the most recent earbuds that I used—the OnePlus Buds from 2021— the Buds 3 Pro definitely had better sound space with clear mids, but they lacked a bit of bass on lower volumes.
Once you do crank up the volume, the sound surprisingly stays consistent, though it can eventually thin out and be a little treble-heavy.
For the remainder of my testing, I tweaked the EQ and enabled UHQ, 24-bit audio, and Dolby Atmos, which these earbuds support.
This is the EQ I used, which really showed off the sound quality of these earbuds:
Essentially, my goal was to push these earbuds to their limit. To my surprise, they actually sounded incredible after these adjustments, with a much fuller sound and better separation. Of course, this did take a bit of a hit to battery life, but I was fine with that, especially given how great they sounded, even at just sub-50% volume.
Active Noise Cancellation Leaves a Bit to Be Desired
The Buds 3 Pro provide decent active noise cancellation (ANC), though it’s definitely not on par with other earbuds, including my three-year-old OnePlus Buds Pro. These earbuds struggle with human voices and higher frequencies quite a bit more than my older buds, but they do handle low-to-moderate background noise reasonably well. On the other hand, the transparency mode is quite effective and offers a natural ambient sound.
I did have a weird crackling sound on the right earbud whenever I had ANC enabled and no audio playing, but I imagine this is a solitary case, and doubt it’ll affect you if you decide to pick these up.
A Healthy Amount of Useful Features
Samsung packed the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro with a lot of features, many of which, as you can imagine, mirror Apple’s AirPods Pro and introduce AI as part of Samsung’s suite of Galaxy AI features.
First, Samsung’s Adaptive EQ and Adaptive ANC are two features that allow the earbuds to constantly adjust sound and noise cancellation based on your surroundings. These work decently well. I played siren sounds on my laptop to test out how well its siren detection worked, and sure enough, I could hear the sound through the ANC.
Another feature these earbuds have is Voice Detect, which lowers the volume and activates transparency mode when you start speaking, but in testing, the delay for transparency mode to kick in was a bit jarring.
Finally, Real-Time Interpreter is an interesting Galaxy AI feature that is currently limited to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 andFlip 6, and it’s a tool that translates other languages being spoken to you directly in your ear in real-time. I tried it with a friend of mine who speaks Hindi, and much like how Interpreter normally works on the Galaxy Z Flip 6, it’s all dependent on how well the microphones are picking up on what’s being spoken, and sometimes it comes out with some pretty inaccurate translations.
The delay here is also a bit awkward compared to using the feature with just the phone, as you’re actively waiting to hear the translation in your ear, and the other person can’t verify if what you’re hearing is accurate.
Decent Battery Life
In terms of battery life, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro performs fairly well, though I may push it beyond what it’s regularly capable of. With ANC on, they offer around six hours of use, with an additional 20 hours in the case. In my testing on default settings, I got around the advertised six hours of use, and they charged fairly quickly in the case.
For my usage, however, I had 24-bit audio, Dolby Atmos, and UHQ audio all on at the same time, and the battery definitely took a hit. I averaged around three-and-a-half to four hours of continuous use before needing to put the buds back in the case, but in more general use at smaller listening intervals, the case kept the buds juiced up long enough for the next session.
Should You Buy the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro?
If you’re in the market for new wireless earbuds and are part of Samsung’s ecosystem, theGalaxy Buds 3 Proare a strong contender for your consideration. They might not be the most original in design, but they bring some much-needed improvements to Samsung’s earbud lineup. The touch controls are now more intuitive and responsive, and the fit is secure and comfortable even during long sessions.
Sound quality is where these earbuds truly shine, especially after tweaking the EQ settings and enabling features like UHQ, 24-bit audio, and Dolby Atmos. They deliver a rich, immersive listening experience that surpasses my expectations. That said, the ANC is not the best in its class and often struggles, particularly with higher frequencies.
Ultimately, I think the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro offers a strong case for being an excellent pair of earbuds, even if they do take some heavy inspiration from their competitors.
