Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Review: Not Just AirPods Wannabes

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Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Design

They’ve started to grow on me.

Pre-order Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro on Amazon

The blades are named appropriately. They have sharp edges and give the buds a strange triangular look. Unlike the AirPods, which have circular stems, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro feature pointy bodies, which immediately made my coworkers and me a little unsure about them. What’s weirder is that they look triangular at first, but if you inspect the base, it’s an odd pentagonal shape. 

The most annoying thing about the five-sided base is that it’s a task and a half to dock the buds inside the charging case, especially when you’re in a hurry. Matching the shape of the buds with the socket in the case almost feels like a block puzzle challenge. It’s a relief that the base of the buds is marked with a red and blue stripe, which matches the identical stripes on the case, so you at least know which bud belongs in what socket. 

Apart from the struggle it took to plug them in, the unique design grew on me as I used them. I remember appreciating it when I had to navigate the buds via the blades. Pinching the blade handles playback and swiping up or down along it tweaks the volume. Interestingly, the triangular, sharp-edged design worked out pretty well, giving my fingers a nice, comfortable shape to hold on to. A circular stem isn’t the easiest to pinch, but the V-shaped blade on these buds felt fitting when my thumb and forefinger made the same shape when brought together.

Pre-order Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro on Amazon

Pre-order Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro on Amazon

Thanks to the pressure-sensitive buttons on the blades, they go beyond typical touch-capacitive stems and respond with a tactile, reassuring press that you can feel. I love that the response also includes a nice ‘click’ sound, which provides extra assurance that your gesture will be accepted. My biggest issue with touch-capacitive stems is that I always run into mis-taps when simply trying to fix the bud in my ear. On the Buds 3 Pro, that was thankfully not a problem since it only acknowledges your action when you press the blade. 

The blades offered enough surface area for me to interact with them easily. Swiping up and down for volume control wasn’t as smooth as I’d liked. Swiping makes more sense on over-ear headphones with plenty of space. Not only was it challenging to do a controlled, precise swipe on these buds, but it also made the bud move its position in my ear, which was uncomfortable. While swiping down, I always had to ensure I didn’t pull the bud out of my ear. 

I downsized the default medium ear tips with the small tips in the package. My ears have difficulty accepting in-ear buds, but the Buds 3 Pro were somewhat snug on me once I chose an appropriate size, so that’s saying something about their comfortable fit.

Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Sound

Low-end tends to get overly thick.

The extra $70 you pay isn’t just for a pair of blade lights. It’s for an enhanced sound system with a two-way speaker, dual amplifiers, a planar tweeter, and a dedicated woofer. I spent a few days listening to my favorite songs, watching some YouTube videos, and watching a lot of Instagram reels with these buds.

The low-end on the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro tends to get muddy, even at around 50% volume. It sounded a little thick and gave me some trouble in trying to make out the elements in the song. I’m talking about the You & Me Flume Remix here. It was a bit of a disappointment eagerly waiting for the drop and then having to put up with overdone bass. The planar tweeter understood the assignment well and delivered high-quality treble that didn’t sound exceedingly sharp at a high volume. It maintained its crispness and clarity. 

I can imagine the overly ambitious low-end on these buds sounding pleasant only when I’m at the gym, and I care more about the bass than the clarity in my music. I would love the Buds 3 Pro as my gym buds anyway because of the fantastic noise canceling they feature. I engaged in the loudest tasks I could think of (working right next to my window AC, inflating my air mattress) with these buds, and they passed every test with flying colors. 

As expected, it canceled high-end noise better than low-end ones. So, I could still hear a slight hum of my thunderous, ancient AC, but it was silenced to a very impressive degree. At work, I often had to plug the buds out to stay mindful of my surroundings, and on the streets, I specifically made sure to turn ANC off. 

As I said in my Buds 3 Pro-hands-on, I can’t attest that the ANC is indeed adaptive, as they claim it to be. Unless the difference isn’t supposed to be perceptible anyway (but then what even is the point of the feature and all the marketing around it?), I couldn’t tell a noticeable difference in ANC when I was in my kitchen–pretty far from the noise in my room–compared to when I was inside my room subjected to my noisy AC and equally noisy neighborhood kids.

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Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Water Resistance and Battery Life

The Buds 3 Pro has been putting up with my irresponsible usage so far.

I used the Buds 3 Pro as my daily buds for a few days, which included a lot of calls, especially over the weekend. Connectivity was never an issue on these.

My “daily buds” are also subjected to water splashes because I’m too lazy to take them off when brushing my teeth or washing my face. Sometimes, I’d be in a call and wouldn’t want that to be interrupted. Also, I’ve done a few Trader Joe’s and FedEx runs with these, and with the current NYC heat, I was sweating like a pig. This is all to say that I’ve properly tested the IP57 water and sweat resistance on these, and they’ve been holding up pretty well so far. 

As for the battery life, I’ve been using the Buds 3 Pro every day for the past seven days, and they’re still boasting a green light, and I haven’t had to charge them yet. My average daily usage (including social media, music, and calls) would be between close to three hours, totaling around 20 hours. Samsung claims 26 hours on these with ANC on and 30 with ANC off. My testing included cycling between the modes, so I’d be happy if I get around 28 hours out of these, and looking at the current status, I’m pretty sure I can.  

Pre-order Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro on Amazon

Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Verdict

Score: 4.5 /5

Apart from the overly done bass, it’s hard to find many flaws on the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. The design, which looked weird initially, is pretty comfortable to navigate; the fit is snug, the sound rich and clear, and the ANC extremely powerful. I also have a minor gripe with the volume control, but I wouldn’t call that a deal breaker. If you’re upgrading only for improved bass, know that you might have to compromise on sound quality, especially at higher volumes. You will enjoy these if you only care about dramatic bass and nothing else.

These are also some of the best Subway buds I have encountered in a long time, and that’s a huge compliment. As I’ve mentioned before, the subway station is my ultimate litmus test of ANC, and these passed the test pretty well. I certainly believe the $250 price tag on these makes sense. But the bigger question is whether they’re worth going for over the considerably cheaper base model priced at $180. I’ve gotten a quick hands-on of those, and so far, the answer is yes. The extra bells and whistles and noticeably richer sound on the Buds 3 Pro make the $70 bump in price understandable.

Pre-order Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro on Amazon