Galaxy Buds3 Pro: The Smartest Ear Gear Around?

Samsung’s new top-tier wireless earbuds, the Galaxy Buds3 Pro, pack many compelling features and deliver decent audio. But are they worth the money? I went ears-on with them for the better part of a month.

The review units were packed away in a lozenge-shaped charging case with a clear lid so you can handily see that both buds are in the case. The charging case sports a USB-C socket and supports Qi wireless charging. It’s a tad bulkier than some other brands but is still pocketable.

This time around, Samsung opted for a more traditional driver and stem design that is not too dissimilar to Apple’s AirPods. In use, this translated into a good fit and improved noise isolation for better audio and ANC for blissful silence. The stem has the added benefit of placing the mic closer to my gob for clearer phone calls (more on this later).

Both buds have an illuminated strip down their sides that Samsung calls Blade Lights. These can be tweaked in the Wear app, allowing the blade lights to flash, which proved handy for finding a missing bud that’d fallen under the sofa.

Controlling the buds has also been made easier. Volume can be intuitively adjusted by swiping your finger up or down the stem, and play/pause/FFW/RRW is as simple as pinching the stem. Where many other earbuds confusingly offer different controls for the left and right buds, Samsung has wisely chosen to offer identical controls on both, greatly reducing the learning curve of driving these buds.

All told the Galaxy Buds Pro were a comfy fit. The other design feature of note is the not-so-inconsiderable fact that they’ve been built to handle a dunking at up to 1 meter in water for 30 minutes. While I wouldn’t go swimming with them, it’s good to know they’ll survive if accidentally dropped in water or during a particularly sweaty workout.

The market is awash with active noise-cancellation-capable wireless buds. Bose, Sony and Apple already have an entrenched position. But Samsung is crafting its own niche by offering what it says is the smartest active noise cancellation available.

This takes the form of adaptive active noise cancellation, which will tweak ANC settings in real time in response to changes in the audio environment.  This worked like a charm. Catching a bus into Wellington’s CBD at 3 pm to test the buds saw the looser cruiser packed full of shouty school kids, and was predictably noisy. Firing up ANC mode saw the on-bus bedlam dropping to barely noticeable levels.

The AI smartness also extends into audio thanks to what Samsung calls Galaxy AI-assisted adaptive EQ. It detects your particular ear shape and analyses sound characteristics in real-time. Galaxy AI then optimises audio based on the bud’s fit. The other clever AI bit comes in the form of Siren Detect, which will detect an alarm or siren and automatically switch to Ambient mode so you can hear sirens. I turned it off when out and about in the CBD. The many police, fire and ambulance sirens typical in the city proved to be far too disruptive to my music listening.

Another particularly nifty ambient audio feature for flyers is Voice Detection, which blocks out the drone of jet engines but still allows you to hear in-flight announcements or the voice of the flight attendants offering you a glass of something nice without you having to yank the buds out of your ears. When a voice is detected, audio pauses and the buds switch to ambient mode, resuming playback once the conversation has finished. This might sound handy, but it didn’t always work perfectly. Sometimes, voice detection kicked into gear when I coughed or cleared my throat.

The other standout feature is the Galaxy Wear app, which allows you to tweak equalisation, ANC, and many other useful settings. Not only is it intuitive, but it also gives you a tonne of control over audio customisation, which many other wireless earbud makers could learn from.

The Galaxy Buds Pro (and charging case) gave me around 27-28 hours of battery life (with ANC disabled) or 18 hours enabled. The case gives two charges before it needs to be charged. Firing the Intelligent ANC/Ambient mode extended run time by up to two hours.

Taking the bud’s walkies through Wellington’s RF congested, windy (and noisy) CBD showcased their standout ANC and call quality. This is largely thanks to each bud packing three mics plus what Samsung’s engineers call a Voice Pickup Unit (VPU). At the same time, it might sound like a reality dating show, but it’s designed to kill background noise during a call. Placing a call next to the construction chaos at Civic Square, the call recipient remained blissfully unaware of the pile driver I was standing next to (yes, the ANC was that good) until I asked them about it.

The buds also come with 360-degree audio and head tracking. In practice, this delivered a slightly wider and deeper soundstage, which added an extra layer of immersion to the audio, even if the head tracking sometimes seemed abrupt, swinging sounds from one channel to the other when I tilted my head.

Their Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity was solid, with only two connection drop-outs. Both happened at intersections where at least a dozen other people were waiting to cross the road while wearing Bluetooth ear gear.

The Galaxy Buds Pro offered surprisingly decent audio. The bass from the 11mm woofer had plenty of depth and extension yet was sufficiently balanced that Kebu’s synth work was pumping. Similarly Holst’s Planet Suite held together and had room to breathe. Highs from the bud’s planar drivers were also crisp but not shrill. Both drivers are independently controlled by separate amplification, which should (in theory) limit the scope for interference between both drivers. In practice, this resulted in well-balanced and clean sounds, where music was not muddied by too much uncontrolled bass, and not overly bright from shrill highs and mids that made my brain feel as if it was being attacked by a dentist’s drill. The Galaxy Buds Pro are a definite sonic improvement over Samsung’s previous wireless earbud efforts.

I was disappointed, however, to see that they lacked support for Qualcomm’s aptX-HD codec. For those wanting wireless high-res audio, the Galaxy Bud Pros support Samsung’s proprietary Scalable codec, but the buds have to be paired with a compatible Galaxy device for this to work.

The Galaxy Buds Pro represent a sizeable step up for Samsung’s wireless ear gear efforts. Their sound is superb, and active noise cancelling and ambient modes have both been significantly improved. Add to this decent battery life, a comfy fit, and an app that gives a tonne of customisation options, and the buds have the makings of a gold rating. However, their lack of Apt-X support held them back.

https://www.samsung.com/nz/audio-sound/galaxy-buds/galaxy-buds3-pro-silver-sm-r630nzaaasa/