Introduction
The Samsung Galaxy Buds+ was announced alongside the Galaxy S20 series, a product from the Korean giant to compete with Apple’s AirPods. I’ve been using it for more than a month, pairing with the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and my iPhone 11 Pro. Without further ado, this is the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ review!
Unboxing
The Galaxy Buds+ comes in simple packaging, there are extra sets of eartip and wingtip sizes in the box. The overall unboxing experience is pretty similar to last year’s Galaxy Buds.
Design
Let’s start with the charging case first, which has a glossy finish all around and a single LED at the front indicating the case’s battery level. I’m not really a fan of glossy finishing because there will be smudges and fingerprints after using it for a long time. Thankfully, my review unit is the white variant, which makes the smudges and fingerprints less obvious.
Opening up the case, there’s an LED indicator in between the earbuds for indicating the buds’ battery level. The lid opens quite wide, the hinge will lock into any angle beyond 30°.
The earbuds look quite identical to its predecessors, both still have the triangular touch panel. This time around, there are more microphones, though. Those extra microphones are used for ambient sound mode, letting you listen to the environment without taking off the earbuds. Since the earbuds actually have excellent noise isolation on its own, it’s actually quite useful so that you can hear when someone is talking to you while listening to music at the same time.
The earbuds also have proximity sensors so that they will automatically play/pause music when you wear it or take off. However, it didn’t respond quickly when I’m testing.
User Experience
The Galaxy Buds+ app is available on both Android and iOS, you’ll need it in order to check the exact battery level of the buds and case, adjusting the ambient sound, and other features. The only difference between Android and iOS versions is the notifications setting, you can manage notifications on Android, but not iOS.
The touchpad functions are as below:
- Single tap: Play/Pause
- Double-tap: Next track/Accept or end call
- Triple-tap: Previous track
- Tap and hold: User-set function
Additionally, the Buds+ also comes with Spotify integration. If you have a Spotify Premium subscription, you can link it to the app. Tapping and holding the right earbud will start playing suggested music from Spotify.
Audio Quality
The Buds+ comes with 2-way speakers, a tweeter for high frequency + a woofer for low frequency. The overall audio quality is quite flat, but you can tune the equalizer in the app, I prefer the dynamic sound profile. The Buds+ has good enough bass based on the music I listen, vocals are quite okay with excellent highs.
Using the earbuds to make phone calls or audio recording will be a bad choice. Even though the person you are calling might be able to hear from you, the overall call quality just lacks audio clarity.
Battery Life
In terms of battery life, Samsung claims that the Buds+ comes with up to 11 hours of playtime per charge and a total of 22 hours of playtime with the case. Based on my usage, I was able to get around the same battery life as claimed.
Final Words
Retailing at RM599, the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ considers quite affordable in the world of premium high-end true wireless earbuds. However, if you are using an iPhone, I don’t see any reason you should get this instead of the AirPods. It has a great battery life, but the call quality is rather disappointing, though at least still better than the last-gen model. If you are using a Samsung device, feel free to get one as they were meant to be together.
Yay
- Comes with great features
- Impressive audio quality
- Great battery life
Nay
- Glossy finish
- Poor call quality