Samsung Galaxy Buds  Headphones Review

The Samsung Galaxy Buds are very small and don't protrude much out of your ears. The bud design is sleek and feels high-end, and the back of the headphones are glossy and act as a touch-sensitive control scheme. They come in three monochromatic designs: black, white, and yellow.

The Galaxy Buds are very comfortable in-ears. They don't enter your ear canal too deeply and don't put pressure on your inner ear. They are very lightweight, and you barely feel them. The stability sleeves help get a nice fit, but not everyone will find in-ears as comfortable, and some might suffer from soreness after a while. On the upside, they come with three options for both tips and fin sleeves to help you find the best possible fit.

Update: 04/26/2019: A new firmware update for the Galaxy Buds now lets you toggle Ambient Mode with a long press. It also makes double and triple taps easier to use and now has an implementation for Bixby voice-enabled commands.

These earbuds have a decently easy-to-use, touch-sensitive surface on the back of the earbuds. You get access to common functionalities such as call and music management and track skipping. You can also map the press and hold command inside the mobile app, which is not available on iOS. You can choose between volume control, voice-enabled controls, or ambient noise mode. However, mapping the volume controls automatically sets the right earbud to volume up and the left one to volume down. On the upside, if you prefer to change your listening volume on your device, you can set the voice-enabled controls and the ambient noise mode on separate buds. However, without the app, the default setup is the device's voice assistant.

Like most in-ears, the Galaxy Buds are very small and don't trap a lot of heat inside the ears, which makes them a good option for sports, as you shouldn't sweat more than usual when wearing them. The temperature difference is negligible, and most won't notice it.

These truly wireless earbuds are very compact and can easily fit in pockets or a bag. They are easy to carry around, and their hard case also fits inside a pocket.

The Galaxy Buds' case is solid and compact enough to carry around on you at all times. It protects the headphones from physical damage from falls and scratches. However, since it's a charging case, you shouldn't expose it to water. Unfortunately, the case only holds about one additional charge, which is slightly disappointing when compared to other similar truly wireless earbuds. On the upside, the case supports wireless Qi charging.

These earbuds are well-built and feel solid, but aren't quite on par with the nice and dense build of the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless or the unique design of the Apple AirPods (2nd generation). Nevertheless, the Galaxy Buds should survive a few accidental drops without too much damage, and their case protects them well. We will keep using the headphones and see if the Galaxy Buds have the same clogging problem as the similarly designed Samsung Gear IconX when working out with them, especially since they are also rated IPX2, which is slightly disappointing.

The Galaxy Buds are stable headphones, and you should be able to jog with these without them popping out. Their stability fins aren't as big as the Samsung Gear IconX, but they feel as secure, and you should still be able to be active with them. They stay in place during workout routines, and their wireless design gets rid of a cable that could yank the headphones out of your ears. Also, they come with different tip and fin sizes, so you should be able to mix and match to find the most secure and comfortable fit for you.

• Samsung Galaxy Buds headphones
• Charging case
• 3 tip options
• 3 fin sleeve options
• USB-C charging cable
• Manuals

They have an excellent frequency response consistency. If the user is able to achieve a proper fit and an airtight seal using the assortment of tips that come with the headphones, then they should get consistent bass and treble delivery every time they use the headphones.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds have a very good bass. LFE (low-frequency extension) is at 27Hz, which is good, but combined with low-bass of -3 dB, indicates that the earbuds are a bit light on sub-bass. Mid-bass, where the body of bass guitars and the punch of kick drums sit, is quite well-balanced but underemphasized by 2.5 dB. High-bass, however, is flat but there is a slight bump before 250Hz, which adds a bit of boominess to the sound.

The mid-range performance of the Galaxy Buds is flat and even, but it's slightly overemphasized. Vocals and lead instruments will be accurately reproduced, but they might sound a bit forward in the mix, with high projection and intensity. The 2 dB bump in low-mid might also make vocals and leads a bit thick and cluttered.

The treble of the Galaxy Buds is great. The response throughout the range is very well-balanced, but slightly over our target curve. This results in sibilants (S and T sounds) to feel overly bright and piercing, especially around 10KHz. However, not everyone will hear them as sibilant.

The imaging is excellent. Their weighted group delay is 0.13, which is very low. The GD graph also shows that the entire group delay response is below the audibility threshold, suggesting a tight bass and a transparent treble reproduction. Additionally, the L/R drivers of our test unit were exceptionally matched, which is important for the accurate placement and localization of objects and instruments (like voices and footsteps) in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

Like most other in-ears, the soundstage of the Samsung Galaxy Buds is poor. This is because in-ears bypass the pinna (outer ear) and don't interact with it. Activating the resonances of the pinna is one of the key factors in creating a speaker-like and out-of-head soundstage. Also, because of their closed-back design, their soundstage tends to be less open than that of open-back headphones.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds have an okay isolation performance. In the bass range, occupied by the rumble of airplane and bus engines, they reduce the noise by about 4 dB, which won't be as good as noise cancelling headphones. In the mid-range, important for blocking speech, they get 21 dB of isolation, which is very good. In the treble range, occupied by sharp S and T sounds and A/C system noise, they achieved more than 44 dB of isolation, which is excellent. For truly wireless in-ears with better passive noise isolation, take a look at the Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 or the JBL Reflect Flow.

The leakage performance is excellent. These in-ears do not leak in the bass and mid-ranges, and the entire leakage is concentrated in a narrow band in the treble range, meaning it will consist of sharp sounds like S and Ts. The overall level of the leakage is not very loud, either. With the music at 100 dB SPL, the leakage at 1 foot away will average around 25 dB SPL but peaks at 47 dB SPL, which is just under the noise floor of most offices.

The recording quality of the Galaxy Buds' microphone is okay. LFE (low-frequency extension) is at 302Hz, which is sub-par. This results in a recorded/transmitted speech that's relatively thin-sounding. The HFE (high-frequency extension) of 3.4KHz means that speech will sound noticeably muffled and lacking in detail. This HFE performance is a limitation of the Bluetooth protocol and is a common shortcoming between almost all Bluetooth headphones. However, it will still be relatively easy to comprehend, since speech intelligibility is mostly dependent on the 500Hz-4KHz range.

The microphone is mediocre at noise handling. In our SpNR test, the mic achieved a speech-to-noise ratio of 11 dB, indicating that it is best suited for quiet environments. However, in moderate and loud environments, the mic will have difficulty fully separating speech from ambient noise.

The Galaxy Buds advertised six hours of continuous playback, but we measured more than seven hours, which is great. This is one of the longest-lasting battery lives on a single charge for truly wireless headphones we've tested so far. Unfortunately, their case only holds about one additional charge, which is noticeably less than most similar headphones, but at 14 total hours, it should be long enough for most users. On the upside, they last about 20 hours in their standby mode according to Samsung's specs sheet, and you can also use one bud while the other one is charging in the case, which is convenient. If you're often on the move and need something that offers additional charges, check out the Amazon Echo Buds (1st generation). You may also want to check out the upgraded Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus, which have a much longer single-charge battery life.

The Galaxy Buds are compatible with the Samsung Wearable app, which offers a few information details and equalizer presets. You can map the touch-sensitive buttons of the earbuds inside the app to volume controls, voice commands, or ambient noise mode. You also have access to the battery data, and you can enable a read-notification function. You can also make your earbuds beep loudly if you've lost them and are looking for them. The Galaxy Buds Manager is also available on macOS and Windows, but we would always get an error message when trying to run the app.

These are Bluetooth-only headphones and support version 5.0. However, they can only be connected to one device at a time and don't support NFC. Also, the connection stability of our unit was finicky, and we would get some drops in audio, even after installing the latest firmware update (which stated this issue was fixed in the patch notes).

Their latency is very high, and you will notice a delay when watching video content or gaming. Some apps and devices seem to offer some sort of compensation, but the delay will most likely still be very noticeable.

These truly wireless headphones can’t be used with a wired connection, as expected.

The Galaxy Buds' hard charging case offers an extra 6 to 7 hours of playback time, according to the specs sheet, but it doesn't have any audio outputs, like most truly wireless cases. On the upside, it also supports wireless Qi charging.