Don’t call these “stems” – the new Samsung Galaxy Buds3 series have “blades”. You can press the blades to control playback and swipe up and down to adjust the volume. The new buds also come in a newly designed case and have several AI features.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro feature 2-way speakers with 6.1mm planar tweeters and 10.5mm dynamic drivers, as well as dual amps. The SSC codec has been updated to support double the sampling rate for better sound quality.
The Pro has active noise cancellation, of course, and its microphones are constantly monitoring the environment with features like Active Noise Control, Siren Detect, and Voice Detect. The latter two will automatically pipe in ambient sound so you can hear what’s going on around you.
Additionally, a machine learning model will help understand the noise coming from the other end during a call – it has been trained to recreate a natural-sounding voice even if the audio is coming from a noisy environment. With the super-wideband feature, the buds can transmit sound at 16kHz, which is twice as fast as normal Bluetooth buds.
The style of the Galaxy Buds3 Pro is complemented by exclusive Blade Lights. This is a light strip that runs down the stem, sorry, edge of the blade. You can use the wearable app to customize the lighting style.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds3 are a more affordable option. They have 1-way dynamic drivers (11mm), while still offering Adaptive ANC and Adaptive EQ to adjust sound based on environmental factors. Plus, they have an open design, which is more comfortable for long-term wear (but the Pro’s canal type design offers more passive noise isolation).
The redesigned case has a transparent top and the same battery capacity, 515mAh. However, the Pro Buds have a slightly larger 53mAh battery in each bud and can last up to 6 hours with ANC enabled and up to 26 hours in total with the case (or up to 7 hours/30 hours with ANC disabled). The Buds3 have a 48mAh battery in each bud and promise up to 5 hours of continuous listening and up to 24 hours in total with ANC enabled (or 6 hours/30 hours with ANC off).
Both the vanilla and Pro Buds support Galaxy AI features such as Interpreter Mode – using Listening Mode, you can listen to lectures in a foreign language with your Galaxy phone and the Buds providing translation into your native language.
Samsung used computational design to ensure a better, more comfortable fit for both Buds. This time around, both Buds3 models have the same dust and water resistance – IP57 (up from IPX2 on the Buds2 and IPX7 on the Buds2 Pro). This is just for the Buds and that’s not all. Anyway, the Buds3 series is part of Samsung’s sustainability initiative and features recycled plastic from discarded fishing nets and water barrels.
The Buds 3 series is on pre-order from today and will be available from July 24. They come in two colours, silver and white.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro cost $250, while the vanilla Galaxy Buds 3 cost $180. For comparison, these prices are $30 higher than the Buds 2 models.
