Samsung wants to put artificial intelligence in your ears – at least that’s what the recently announced Galaxy Buds-3 And Galaxy Buds 3 Pro wireless earbuds.
The two new sets of Galaxy Buds, unveiled at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked on July 10, 2023, feature a new design, with both pairs of earbuds now featuring an AirPods-like stem that’s used to physically control the earbuds’ volume with up or down swipes. And the Buds have a case that’s more vertically oriented than the horizontal, rounded rectangle of the Galaxy Buds 2.
The standard Galaxy Buds 3 have an “open type” design, meaning they don’t have eartips that fit inside the ear canal (like the 3rd generation AirPods). The new Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, on the other hand, do have eartips (just like the AirPods Pro 2). This should result in better passive blocking of unwanted external noise, which should benefit the active noise cancellation.
Let’s start with the specs. The Galaxy Buds 3 have an 11mm dynamic driver to power the sound, 3 microphones, support for 24-bit Hi-Res Audio when used with compatible Galaxy devices, and can handle 360 Audio spatial sound with head tracking. Active noise cancellation is also present, but we’ll have to see how well that works in an open design without an in-ear tip to block out the outside world.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are largely the same, only they get a two-way speaker design with a 10.5mm dynamic driver and a 6.1mm planar tweeter. There’s ambient noise detection on ANC, and the ability to detect voices and let conversations through without the wearer having to stop the music or remove the buds from their ears – a feature we’ve seen before on Sony headphones and the AirPods Pro 2, with varying degrees of success, so hopefully Samsung has bettered those others here.
In terms of battery life, the Buds 3 themselves have a 48mAh capacity, while the Buds 3 Pro have a 53mAh battery capacity. Both the cases have a 515mAh battery inside, but it’s worth noting that the Pro earbuds have “Blade Lights,” which are light strips on their stems that light up to indicate things like that the earbuds are in pairing mode or to help you find lost earbuds. Such illuminations could use a bit more power than the standard Buds without lights, on top of the dual speaker system and more advanced processing.
So far, there’s not much to distinguish the new Galaxy Buds from the best wireless earbuds you can buy right now. And after seeing them in the flesh, I wasn’t immediately blown away by their build quality.
An AI trump card
AI, however, could be the secret sauce to these wireless earbuds. Smart audio sensing can not only provide an adaptive equalizer feature in the Buds 3 Pro, but can also intelligently adjust ANC filtering based on a person’s surroundings. Say you’re walking past a busy workstation with a lot of heavy machinery, the adaptive ANC will kick up to keep the noise in check, but if there’s an alarm going off, the smart tech knows to filter that horn past the noise cancellation because it’s probably important for you to hear.
Additionally, there’s an ‘Interpreter’ feature in Listening Mode on the new Galaxy Buds 3 and 3 Pro, which automatically detects when a supported foreign language is being spoken and instantly sends a translation to your ears.
I haven’t had a chance to try this out, but it could be a way to break down language barriers without having to learn another language. There is one caveat: at launch, there are only a limited number of languages supported, so don’t expect to immediately understand what ‘mochyn tew’ means when you go to a restaurant in Wales.
Another clever addition is the Super-Wideband Call feature, which uses a pre-trained AI model that allows the Buds 3 and 3 Pro to restore the voice of a caller if their real-time audio is disrupted by background noise. Samsung claims this should make calls placed through the earbuds comparable to calls placed directly through a smartphone.
Overall, the new Galaxy Buds 3 and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro appear to be notable upgrades over previous Galaxy Buds, with better audio and smarter features. Both come in silver and white colours and are available to pre-order today (July 10), with general availability on July 24, with the Buds 3 costing $179 / £159 / AU$299 and the Buds 3 Pro costing $249 / £219 / AU$399. Pre-orders for Australia begin on July 11, with the Buds going on sale on July 31.
We’ll have to put the new Galaxy Buds 3 to the test to see if Samsung’s upgrades and smart features are enough to beat out the competition. But these new wireless earbuds look promising.
