Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review: Excellent sound, knockoff design

Samsung’s new Galaxy Buds 3 Pro look inspired by the AirPods Pro 2, to say the least, but they’re much more than a copycat below the surface. After more than a week of listening to the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, it’s clear that these are great wireless earbuds that have the sound quality to stand on their own. The new design features blades that make for a better fit and superior microphone quality, even if those blades don’t improve the reliability of the touch controls as much as I had hoped. And if you buy the silver colorway, they really don’t look that much like AirPods.

Whenever a company takes not-so-subtle inspiration from another, it usually tweaks something in some way to differentiate itself. That’s what Samsung did with the blades—those are what Samsung calls the angular, LED-equipped stems—on the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. It’s unfortunate because I find that the blades’ design isn’t as intuitive for touch controls or fit adjustments. If Samsung didn’t try to needlessly reinvent the wheel here, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro might have been a more complete pair of earbuds.

Overall, our verdict on the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro is simple. They’re the best TWS earbuds you can buy if you own a Samsung Galaxy phone. The software features, from the fine-tuned EQ controls to the ANC toggles, are a delight to use in the Galaxy Wearable app. But the second you stray from the Galaxy ecosystem, features start to drop like flies.

Pricing and availability

Samsung was originally slated to ship the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro this week, and although some are receiving their earbuds, that’s been put on hold. New and existing U.S. orders for the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are now showing delivery windows in late August. The delay is due to quality control issues ranging from blue splotching to ripping earbuds. Here’s what the company told us about the delays:

There have been reports relating to a limited number of early production Galaxy Buds 3 Pro devices. We are taking this matter very seriously and remain committed to meeting the highest quality standards of our products. We are urgently assessing and enhancing our quality control processes. To ensure all products meet our quality standards, we have temporarily suspended deliveries of Galaxy Buds 3 Pro devices to distribution channels to conduct a full quality control evaluation before shipments to consumers take place. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

When these earbuds start shipping, they’ll retail for $250. You can still place pre-orders now, and you have white and silver colorways to choose from. In addition to Samsung’s official website, you can pick up a pair of Galaxy Buds 3 Pro from third-party retailers like Best Buy and Amazon.

Design and fit

The new blades certainly make the Galaxy Buds more comfortable

How much the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro look like AirPods Pro will depend on whether you pick the white or silver colorway. My review unit is the silver one, and it has stark differences from the AirPods Pro. For starters, the metallic finish and the LED strips are things you certainly won’t find on a pair of Apple earbuds. The black-and-orange accents add some character to the buds, too. The blades have an angular appearance with sharp edges to match, and the touch control area is on the back of the stems — not the front.

At that point, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro aren’t copying AirPods Pro anymore, but they’re copying other earbuds with stems, such as the Nothing Ear. Well, not exactly. Samsung borrowed the same “snapping” trick Apple uses to swap ear tips. There isn’t an internal stem that ear tips grip onto; rather, they clip onto earbuds with plastic. This can help improve comfort for some because there isn’t a rigid internal stem going inside your ear canal. It also helps create some safe distance between the audio drivers and your ear.

Unfortunately, Samsung didn’t do as good of a job as Apple. The ear tips for the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro seem to clip onto the earbuds too much, to the point where they are tearing apart at the seams. I didn’t have any ear tips tear completely, but one of mine has a notable rip after just a few times of swapping out the tips.

As for the overall fitment, I find the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro to be a bit more secure than AirPods Pro 2 in my ears. They’re better than the earbuds I’ve tried without stems, most recently the Beats Solo Buds. However, the location of the touch controls on the back of the blades makes accidental touches unfortunately common. I can’t adjust the earbuds in my ears using the blades without accidentally raising or lowering the volume in the process.

Sound and call quality

Best-in-class audio, from music listening to voice calling

Before the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro launched, the AirPods Pro 2 were widely considered the gold standard for sound quality and ANC in this form factor. I still think Apple is holding onto the ANC crown, but Samsung is claiming the title of sound quality. The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro have a bass-heavy sound signature out of the box, offering a ton of fullness at the low end of the spectrum. However, the bass priority doesn’t smother the rest of the soundstage. You can still make out the mids and highs; there’s just additional emphasis on the “thump” of the bass.

Take a song like 2Pac’s California Love, for example. You can hear the anchoring and booming bassline, but you can also clearly make out the high-toned percussion instruments, like the cabasa in this track. This uses the stock balanced EQ setting, but there’s also a bass boost mode for even more lows.

Move to a song focusing more on acoustic guitar and authentic vocals, like Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car, and the balanced setting is slightly underwhelming. There’s too much emphasis on the low end in a song where the rudimentary bassline is only meant to complement the powerful vocals. Switching to the treble boost EQ setting fixes this problem completely. According to Samsung, it’s great for instrumentals, and I confirmed that while listening to Booker T & The M.G.’s.

I do think the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro sound best while listening to hip/hop, rap, or pop music out of the box, and that’s not surprising. Most mainstream TWS are moving in this direction to match consumer preferences. However, what I love about the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro is that there are plenty of EQ settings that let you fine-tune the earbuds to your favorite genres or listening styles. You can even create your own, and interactive graphs let you know exactly what you’re changing.

Active noise-canceling is more than serviceable, but less impressive. The main ANC mode blocks a fair bit of sound — I couldn’t hear my surroundings in a noisy coffee shop with music playing at 50% volume — but I don’t think it’s as powerful as AirPods. Adaptive and Ambient modes also let in a small amount of sound — like voices. These modes are better, but that’s probably due to the weaker ANC quality overall.

There isn’t much to say about microphone quality other than that it’s improved thanks to a triple-microphone array. They’re also closer to your mouth with the blades, which helps. Samsung has a software feature that’s also supposed to isolate and clear up your voice on calls. Wireless earbuds have never been the best way to get great microphone quality, but the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are more than good enough on this front.

Software

Samsung copied Apple’s walled-garden approach, too

The story about the software on the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro is the same one we’re used to. These earbuds will work best with a Galaxy phone, slightly worse with an Android phone, and they’ll be basic Bluetooth headphones on anything else. Samsung uses Bluetooth 5.4 to connect with devices and supports the following audio codecs: Samsung Seamless Codec (SSC), SSC UHQ (24bit/96kHz), AAC, and SBC.

As I mentioned earlier, I find the touch controls to be disappointing to use. It’s hard to change the volume, and it’s awkward to pinch the blades when you need to, yet it’s somehow too easy to do so when you don’t. You’ll need the Galaxy Wearable app to change some settings, like what pinches and gestures will do on the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. By default, you can pinch and hold to cycle through ANC modes with one quick pinch handling media controls. Swiping up and down on the back of the blades either raises or lowers the volume.

Those LED strips can also be enabled with a pinch-and-hold action while the buds are out of the case and out of your ears. In the app, you can change whether these lights blink, fade, or are steady. They’ll turn off when your Galaxy Buds 3 Pro drop below 30% battery.

Battery life and charging

Good enough, but not great

Battery life on the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro is fine, but it’s nothing groundbreaking. You get six hours out of each earbud with ANC enabled, for a total of 26 hours, including the charging case’s capacity. If you switch ANC off, you can get up to 30 hours of charge, including the case. Each earbud has one extra hour of charge compared to the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, but the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro only match the AirPods Pro 2 in terms of battery life. They don’t beat AirPods, unfortunately.

When it’s time to charge them, you can power up the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro with a USB-C cable or using a wireless charger.

Competition

These earbuds are neck-and-neck with the AirPods Pro 2

I’ve compared the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro to the AirPods Pro 2 quite a bit throughout this review, and for good reason. The AirPods Pro 2 are arguably the most complete pair of TWS earbuds on the market, and I don’t think the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro changes that. Sure, the Galaxy Buds sound better, but they’re still lacking in terms of ANC and the reliability of touch controls. At the end of the day, this choice should come down to what phone you have. iPhone users should go with AirPods, Galaxy owners should go with Galaxy Buds, and Pixel users should go with Pixel Buds.

It’s really that simple. The marginal benefits of sound quality or ANC power won’t outweigh the frustrations you’ll experience by using a pair of earbuds without a matching smartphone. Basic necessities like settings management and software updates will become a headache.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro?

Samsung’s new Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are the best earbuds the company has ever made, full stop. They’re certainly worth the upgrade if you’re a Samsung user, even if there are some things the company should work on for the next revision. The sound quality finally beats AirPods, and ANC power is just a step behind Apple’s. You may even want to pick up the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro if you’re using another Android phone, as long as you think twice about whether you’re willing to lose some features. It also might be worth waiting to see how these quality control issues play out before you throw $250 at these headphones.

All told, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are more than AirPods Pro lookalikes. Samsung has a winner here, and Galaxy users won’t be disappointed if they decide to buy these earbuds.