Samsung - Galaxy Buds+ True Wireless Earbud Headphones - Black

So I am no audiophile. I do however still want a clean sound. I use these at the office (home until the shelter-in is lifted) and for walks. I both listen to music and make phone calls. I was using Bose SoundLink AE wireless headset for awhile, but wanted in-ear buds instead. I love the Bose, they sound amazing and have a great battery life, but I just cannot stand having over-ear headsets. So I wanted to find some true wireless earbuds that sounded great, with a clean sound and nice bass profile. The Good: - Price -- although they don't have ANC, they are priced well below other premium earbuds and sound great with great features and build quality. - Excellent sound IMO - Nice bass without drowning out the mids and highs -- I used the app (Galaxy Wearable) to change the EQ to Dynamic and it sounds awesome! Also, if you Google it, there are some great YouTube tricks to update the settings on your phone to further max out the sound quality. Note, I have a Galaxy S10+. - Great sound quality on phone calls - Volume -- I hate when earbuds are low volume. These bad boys can get super loud. BUT, for some weird reason out of the box the max volume is very low. I almost returned them, as the instructions doesn't tell you how to increase the volume to their full potential. Thankfully I found a YouTube video that walks you through maxing out the volume. - Like the ambient sound feature for phone calls (which has different levels) - Very comfortable in my ear -- can wear for hours - They don't fall out -- I can go for brisk walks and runs and they stay in without losing a seal (which is important to have good sound) - The battery life is great -- 11 hours + another 11 hours with charging case - They look great -- very sleek and don't stick too far out of your ears - Solid build -- I bought a pair of Mpow M5 earbuds and although they were pretty nice, they had some quality issues - IPX2 rating -- good enough for working out or walks without worrying about damaging them from sweating - Tap control - I didn't want to have to click a button with earbuds, as that can get annoying. The Buds+ are pretty good with the sensitivity of the taps and the controls are just what I need: volume, pause, skip, answer calls, etc. - Customizable with the app -- can check battery status, customize sound with the preset EQ settings, and more. - Pairing -- maybe because I have a Samsung Galaxy phone, but as soon as I opened the case they paired right away with my phone - Independent ear buds -- these ear buds can be used independently, as opposed to the right ear bud being the main bud and the left dependent, which can cause bluetooth sync issues. Plus, if one of your ear buds is lower on battery, you can use the other for calls. I also think the sound quality is better with independent setup. - Noise isolation -- I had to put on the large eartips and are able to seat them nicely in my ears, which blocks out external noises very well. I don't need ANC as the isolation is fine for me. - Charging case -- very nice and solid. Love the magnets and the case is small enough to easily carry around. - Auto-reconnect -- they automatically reconnect to my phone when I open the case The Bad (there's nothing bad with them, but just less good LOL): - Can only pair with 1 device at a time. I guess you can pair more than one Samsung Galaxy device with the app -- but for non-Samsung devices, this is not possible. I have to unpair them from my phone in order to pair with my laptop for example. - Having to put the earbuds in the case to pair. I tried pairing while they were in my ears, to change devices, but didn't work for me. - No active noise cancelling (ANC) -- but for me that's not a problem as they seat in my ears well and isolate outside noise quite well. - Poor documentation -- I think it's crazy that I was nearly about to return these because the volume was so low and the sound quality initially was weak. But once I found some great tips on YouTube it changed everything - Sometimes taking them out of my ears and putting them into the case, I accidentally tap them and start music playing or something -- nothing serious. Bottom line, I think for most users, especially if you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, these are fantastic. They are not perfect by any means, but all around great and I am pleased with my purchase.

When I first tried the original Galaxy Buds, they were a revelation to me because they were the first true wireless earbuds I ever had. I have since owned and used different over the ear noise cancelling headphones, and true wireless earbuds with noise cancelling. However, I still found myself very excited to try out the new Galaxy Buds+ and so far here are my thoughts: WHAT THESE DO WELL: - The portability and ease of use remain the greatest quality of the Galaxy Buds line. The Buds+ case is so small that they can easily go in your pocket or throw them in your bag without being too bulky. After the initial set up (which is quick), all I had to do is flip open the case and they popped up on my Galaxy S10+ which was nice. - The design of the Buds+ themselves are once again discrete and out of the way. Everything is self-contained with nothing that sticks out away from the Bud and I think that is the way these true earbuds should be designed to look! - Another thing these maintain are the Wireless charging and USB-C charging interface. Both are very forward thinking and make it easy to charge them with the rest of your USB-C products. - The sound is really a great step up for the Buds+ headphones! You can tell there is better clarity and deeper bass than the original Buds. Overall I am very impressed with the audio immersion these supply while being in a such a small package. - Lastly, the Buds+ are excellent workout headphones! Seriously they never pop out no matter if I’m running, walking, at the gym, or playing sports. Really they work well in any environment. WHAT THESE ARE MISSING: - The biggest feature the Buds+ are missing are Active Noise Cancelling (ANC). I thought for sure Samsung would add this feature to the Buds+ given that other companies have done with same with their true wireless earbuds but I understand that Samsung wanted to maintain the small design and improve battery life in exchange for no ANC. - That being said, I compared the Buds+ to more expensive true wireless earbuds with ANC and you can definitely tell the difference in the two. However, in my opinion as of early 2020, ANC in true wireless earbuds are nothing compared to that of ANC in over the ear style headphones. Sure it creates a vacuum affect but when you are not playing music it does not drown out sound that much. - Other than that, these headphones really have everything you would want in a pair of true wireless earbuds. GALAXY BUDS VS GALAXY BUDS+ - The main question I suspect people will have are: why would I buy these over the original Galaxy Buds? Yes, the two devices largely look the same besides some minor cosmetic changes. Still, there are four main reasons why you should choose these over the original Buds: Better Sound Quality, insane battery life, improved calls, and Apple Compatibility. - As stated above, the sound is a much needed improvement to the original Buds. I used the Buds for their portability and ease of use, knowing the sound was just fine. Now I will use the Buds+ knowing that they can perform so much better and will be that much more enjoyable to use. - The battery life is not even a competition. The Buds+ have 11 hours of listening on one charge plus the case provides an additional full charge meaning its 22 hours total. The Original Buds had 6 hours per charge and 13 hours with the case. - The Buds+ also have 3 total microphones compared to the Buds 2 microphones. I have definitely noticed better call quality while using these which are a huge plus for me because I love using the Buds+ for calls. - Lastly, Samsung released an Apple iOS app for the Buds+ which make them much more useful when connecting them to an Apple device. That might not be super useful to some of you, but I think it's always better to have more compatibility than less. BOTTOM LINE: - After a week or month of using the Galaxy Buds+ I believe they will quickly become your go to earbuds. Sure you may get better sound out of more expensive headphones or noise cancelling earbuds, but you will not get the do it all utility of the Buds+ at this price point anywhere else. They sound great, have nice call quality, are simple to use, will last forever, and can be used anywhere you need to use headphones. The Buds+ will once again be the only headphones I use everyday and I think it will be for you too.

The idea of spending over $100 on earbuds doesn't sit easy with some people, and even I was hesitant before purchasing the Galaxy Buds+. When my 15-year-old Sony wired earbuds broke, I did quite a bit of research to see if jumping on the wireless earbuds trend would be worth it, and to figure out which wireless buds to get if so. I'm glad I was able to get the Galaxy Buds+ when they were on sale at the deepest discount they had ever been to date. They sound great, they're easy to use, they fit nicely, they're fairly customizable, and the battery life is excellent. The idea of customizing the sound is maybe a little overhyped in some reviews/articles about the Samsung Galaxy Buds+. You can certainly change the sound settings in the Galaxy Wearable app - and you definitely should change from the default setting, but you're choosing presets rather than doing your own tuning. I'm fine with having presets, but if you're an all-out audiophile and expecting to be presented with a bunch of switches and sliders for full-blown customizability, you won't find that. Normal is the default setting, and it's okay, but I've found Dynamic to be the best. Clear is alright, better than Normal, but still not as good as Dynamic. The Bass Boost setting technically does boost the bass just slightly, but it also makes things kind of muddy - heck, muffled really, it's actually on the quiet side. Don't bother with Bass Boost. Set the buds to Dynamic - that's the way to go! The sound is great when listening to music (of all sorts of genres) and when on conference calls. There are a lot of wireless earbuds out there at a variety of price points, and of course they all sound different. Everything I read said that the Galaxy Buds+ are the best for calls, and these are really quite good on calls. People's voices are clear, the sound is detailed and accurate, there's no hissing or static. As for the quality of the mics, others had no trouble at all understanding me. I sounded loud and clear. There's also an ambient sound feature that's kind of interesting to experiment with. Even with the different levels of ambient sound enabled, things are clear. Outside noises can be sort of digital sounding in moments which are otherwise silent, but still clear, compared to using ambient sound while listening to music. Touch controls are customizable and very nice, though if you touch the buds in just the right way while adjusting the fit, you might end up changing the volume or pausing/playing audio. Using the earbuds with multiple devices is rather easy. It's really pair and play. You don't need to do any complicated procedures with turning the buds off or holding any buttons down and waiting for certain notifications every single time. Pairing to something other than your phone (like a Windows laptop), you do have to press and hold the touchpads on both buds and anticipate eventual beeps, then you'll see it in the list of Bluetooth devices to connect to. But after pairing, it's so easy to switch between my laptop and my phone. The battery life is as good as described. It's incredible. They can keep going for hours. After a rather busy 9-hour work day with lots of calls and some occasional music, toggling between my laptop and my phone, there was still 59% battery (that's not nine straight hours of earbud use, but probably a spread-out total of around 5 or 6 hours). The charging case is the same size as a Matchbox car. There's nothing wrong with the case, no bulkiness or difficulty of operability. You get a light outside to see the battery status of the case, and you get a light inside to see the battery status of the earbuds. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ are great. They sound really good, they're easy to use on different devices, and the battery lasts for a long time. There might be a lot of buds out there that sound alright while listening to music, but the call quality sets these apart from the rest. Music is good, calls are good, the Galaxy Buds+ will not disappoint!