Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Professional evaluation: gentle ’em up

Two issues may be true directly. Sure, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Professional have probably the most by-product design but of any of the corporate’s earbuds. Aside from gimmicky LED strips, there’s nothing notably unique or eye-catching about their stemmed look. However the $249.99 Buds 3 Professional additionally occur to be the best-sounding, most polished earbuds that Samsung has produced. Their audio high quality ranks with a few of my favourite wi-fi earbuds like Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wi-fi 4 and the Technics AZ80. And the Buds 3 Professional embody genuinely helpful voice instructions that don’t require saying a wake phrase beforehand. 

That’s a sterling begin, however their potential is held again by clumsy design choices, an absence of multipoint connectivity, and energetic noise cancellation that’s merely ample at this $250 value. Over the summer season, Samsung additionally needed to pause shipments of those earbuds to handle high quality management points after early patrons managed to simply rip the silicone ear ideas. I by no means skilled that downside with my evaluation pair, and the Buds 3 Professional are actually broadly out there once more.

Samsung’s newest earbuds don’t are available any enjoyable colours just like the bora purple Buds 2 Professional. Your choices are white — the place the AirPods resemblance will get a little bit uncanny — or gunmetal grey. Samsung has tried to create some visible distance between these earbuds and the AirPods by going with a extra angular stem and placing a seethrough lid on the charging case. After which there are these white LEDs, which you’ll be able to gentle up by squeezing each stems when the buds are out of your ears. 

You’ll by no means see this contact of aptitude when sporting them, after all, however different individuals will. The lights may be set both to glow steadily or do a pulsing impact, however what the LEDs can’t do is present useful issues just like the remaining battery stage for every earbud. That looks as if the obvious objective for these and but… nope! The lights do activate whenever you’re making an attempt to find the Buds 3 Professional with Samsung’s Discover My function, no less than. 

The transfer to a stemmed design would possibly really feel like Samsung lazily becoming a member of the pack, however what issues extra is that it ends in a safer, secure in-ear match. I’ve discovered the Buds 3 Professional to be very comfy, they usually haven’t fatigued my ears even after I preserve them in for many of a day on the workplace. Voice name efficiency can also be fairly spectacular; you may pattern the mic high quality of the Buds 3 Professional (and different latest earbuds) in a Vergecast episode from earlier this month.

Talking of voice, probably the most handy function of the Buds 3 Professional is their voice controls. At any time, you may say easy instructions like “quantity up” or “subsequent music” and the earbuds will execute these requests by your telephone — with out requiring some annoying wake phrase first. It simply works, and also you don’t have to talk notably loudly for the buds to detect voice instructions. They solely cowl the basics, however I’m now utilizing them each day. In the event you favor bodily controls, Samsung has principally lifted the AirPods Professional management scheme, with pinch gestures for play / pause, skipping tracks, or toggling between ANC and transparency modes. You too can slide your finger alongside the stem to regulate quantity. The angular form means the gestures aren’t fairly as foolproof as on the AirPods, however I’ve gotten them down pretty effectively.

The Buds 3 Professional supply terrific sound high quality, with a tuning that intently follows the Harman goal curve, which most individuals discover pleasing. Meaning you’ll hear emphasis on bass and treble, however the mids nonetheless come by with out sounding recessed. Samsung’s flagship earbuds sound full and detailed, bringing out the perfect within the newest albums from Waxahatchee, Publish Malone, and Billy Strings. There may be 360-degree / spatial audio with head monitoring for these of you who A) personal a Galaxy telephone and B) get pleasure from that form of factor. I proceed to (principally) ignore it.

I’m often not somebody who will get hung up on Bluetooth codecs, however I swear my ears can inform a distinction when listening to the Buds 3 Professional with a Galaxy S24 Extremely, which may faucet into Samsung’s Seamless Codec Extremely Excessive High quality (SSD UHQ) for richer audio — particularly in case you’re taking part in lossless tracks. There’s simply an additional layer of element and constancy that’s much less pronounced when utilizing these buds with a non-Samsung gadget. However even with my Pixel 9 Professional XL, they sound nice. The Buds 3 Professional are a punchy, crisp hear that ship throughout all genres. 

The energetic noise cancellation, nonetheless, has disillusioned me at instances. It’s simply not fairly as sturdy or as highly effective because the AirPods Professional, Pixel Buds Professional 2, or Bose earbuds. Can it reduce on a few of the on a regular basis life clamor? Certain, however I hoped for Samsung to have a greater displaying on this class. The Buds 3 Professional do have a fantastically clear transparency mode, so I’ve zero complaints there. You too can allow an “adaptive” mode that, like with Apple’s earbuds, will dynamically mix ANC and transparency primarily based in your environment in order that necessary sounds (like sirens) can rapidly get your consideration. 

The Buds 3 Professional don’t assist true multipoint, so you may’t join them to 2 gadgets directly. Similar to Apple, Samsung is pushing its personal ecosystem with an “auto-switch” function between its numerous Galaxy laptops, tablets, and telephones. However I’ve observed that even when your different gadgets are exterior Samsung’s walled backyard, enabling auto-switch makes it a lot faster to hop between them with out having to disconnect from the present supply each time. Some earbuds are very cussed about holding onto a reference to the last-paired gadget till you manually disconnect, however with these, you may simply choose them within the Bluetooth settings of the gadget you need to use, they usually’ll swap over with none fuss.

I’ve had no complaints about battery life over a number of weeks of utilization, and you may stretch it additional by disabling some options just like the aforementioned voice controls. The earbuds are rated IP57 mud and waterproof, although the charging case lacks any such protections. That’s unlucky when opponents are more and more making their instances extra sturdy.

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Professional may not have a novel design id anymore, however with improved consolation and voice name efficiency, they’re an instance of perform dictating kind. I can take or go away the gimmicky lights, and the angular form looks as if Samsung’s taking pains to keep away from these being labeled as AirPods clones. They’re, however you may make a case that they sound higher than Apple’s buds. And so they’re reliable performers by almost each metric aside from noise cancellation. That’s the place the inevitable Buds 4 Professional have room to enhance — hopefully whereas bringing again some character (or coloration). For anybody with a Samsung telephone, these are the de facto alternative, they usually’re an excellent one. However different Android homeowners must also give the Buds 3 Professional a protracted search for their sound constancy and mic readability. Until multipoint is a must have, there’s not a lot to seek out fault with.

Pictures by Chris Welch / The Verge