Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus Review
After hanging on to the headphone jack for a long time, I finally bit the bullet and got my first truly wireless earphones. There are plenty of choices right now ranging from budget earphones like Realme buds to top of the line Airpods pro.
My requirements were basic like balanced sound, a great battery life, reliable connectivity, comfortable to wear, reliable mic and a good support.
I decided to go with Galaxy Buds Plus as it met most of my requirements without being overly expensive. Let’s find out whether it met my requirements.
Fit
This is highly subjective, I suggest trying it out yourself, I had no problems personally and there are 3 sized wings and tips which should fit 98% of the people.
Sound quality
I am just an average user and not an audiophile. The buds sounded neutral, the sound profiles can be adjusted via the app in both iOS and Android.
Just to give you an idea of how they sound,if you ever listened to Apple’s stock earphones they sound balanced like that but with a bit more bass. I previously owned Beats X, the Samsung buds sound much better in comparison, but Bluetooth earphones in general still have some catching up to do compared to wired earphones. A wired earphone that costs 1/3 of the reputable TWS earphones can easily match their sound quality.
Overall the Buds plus sound great for this category, no complaints here.
Battery
No other TWS right now can match Samsung buds plus in battery life. Samsung has nailed the battery life, without being too bulky to wear. They last 3–5 days between charge assuming an average use case of 2–3 hours/day. They deliver what they advertised, 11 hours playback time, you can get more depending upon the voulme levels, how frequently you use ambient sound and the touch gestures.
Irrespective of how you use them, hard to kill them in under 6 hours, even a 4 hour phone call only drained 50% of the battery.
It is not that we are gonna use it 11 hours every day, what this also does is prolong the longevity of the product as you will be going through fewer charging cycles. I don’t think any TWS is repairable so it makes sense to get one which might last the longest. Compared to these, the AirPods are like a subscription service that come with an expiry date, you know that in a couple of years you might need to replace them. I can’t be using my earphones concerned about the battery lifespan, especially when paying a premium for it. I am not saying Samsung buds are immortal but battery is not going to be one of the reasons you are gonna throw them away.
You can charge them with the provided USB type A to type C cable which was of usable length, the case also support Qi wireless charging and fits comfortably in your pockets. The case can charge the buds from 0–100% for one time before the case themselves need charging.
One thing I found during my usage is that the case is likely to die sooner than the buds themselves, as most of us are likely to put the buds back in the case after using them briefly. You will often run into a situation were the buds have a 70–80% battery and the case is dead. Even in that situation, your overall battery life is still gonna be better than its competitors.
Connectivity
I had no connectivity issues moving around my room, moving outside the room caused connectivity drops, that might just be due to thick walls and other obstacles. I tested them out in the open and had no troubles.
I didn’t notice any latency issues when streaming content or when playing GTA on my iPad. If those milliseconds of latency that a normal person cannot perceive matter to you, you are better off using wired for now.
Microphone quality
The buds plus have supposedly improved mic quality compared to its predecessor. I have had a few phone calls with them, no one on the other end had any complaints. In my opinion, if you want the best possible mic quality in a TWS, get the Airpods as their stem sticks out from your ear thus receiving your voice in a better way.
I am not much of a talker and for the occasions that I do, I had no problems with the Buds plus even with some background noise.
Other features:
They are IPx2 certified, so they should be sufficient for moderate intensity workouts. If you sweat profusely through your ears they might still work, but you will be constantly worried. If this is the case look for a workout specific earphones.
The touchpad on the earbuds can be customized to have all the controls you want, you can have volume control, ambient noise mode toggle, your choice of virtual assistant, music playback controls all right on your earbuds. Having all the controls accessible from the earbuds require turning on the tap edge of earbuds to adjust volume option under labs section but you would be pleasantly surprised to know that it also works if you tap the back of the ear, as the vibrations generated transfer over to the earbud’s edge.
Ambient noise mode in low, medium settings was quite good, if you turn it to high you tend to hear a lot of static noise around you, but the feature is not a gimmick and can be used when taking a walk on the road, even then if you are blasting away at 100% voulme don’t expect the ambient noise to save you from the dangers of the outside world. There is also a toggle to take it up a notch above high in the labs section of the app. It does ramp up the ambient noise quite a bit but I wouldn’t use it at that setting.
Cons
Are the Galaxy buds perfect?.
No they do have some cons. Mostly nitpicks, some might be deal breakers for you.
Despite being Bluetooth 5.0 they can’t connect to two devices at once. They don’t auto play/pause, which is a bummer. They do auto pause when both the earbuds are taken out but don’t auto resume, rendering the feature useless.
Due to the big battery they put in the earphones themselves, expect a little bit of ear fatigue if you wear them continuously for a long time, as they don’t release the air pressure like Airpods Pro but then again the Airpods Pro is in a different price league.
Using them in bed depends on your sleeping postures, I couldn’t use them in bed when sleeping. You can wear them under your helmet, just be careful when removing the helmet, as the buds may fall down.
There is no ANC, but the passive seal they create usually drowns out external noise when you start playing music. At this price ANC is not a deal breaker to me. If you want ANC there are other options for you.
Overall thoughts
It doesn’t make sense at all to compare the Buds Plus to Airpods Pro, as Airpods Pro is in a league of its own, when compared to the standard Airpods though the Buds Plus blow them away, the standard Airpods cost 80% more, with absolutely no passive isolation. Unless you love the on the ear, plastic resting on your ear and absolutely can’t live without the ecosystem advantages. My order of preference irrespective of price and ecosystem advantages would be AirPods Pro, Samsung Buds Plus, Standard Airpods.
In the end, whatever product you pick in this category, it’s a compromise in one way or another, you compromise either on longevity, comfort, mic quality or the price factor.
After three weeks of use, I can say that compromises Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus makes are the right ones.
P.S : At the time of writing this review Samsung has released their Samsung Galaxy Buds Live, which I have not factored into this review. Check that out if you need.
