Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Review – 6 Months Later

by Josh Teder

Initial Impressions

It’s been 6 months since I bought a pair of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, and while they look like what would happen if the AirPods and Cybertruck had a baby—looks and obvious comparisons to the AirPods Pro aside—6 months later, did these just turn out to be a decent set of buds overshadowed by wonky looks?

Sound Quality

The first highlight of these buds is their sound quality. They definitely match what Apple and Google have been able to do with their premium buds, and unlike AirPods, you can actually change the EQ within the buds’ settings. It’s really been key for me to get the most out of them and sound exactly how I want. You can also improve sound quality by using Samsung’s proprietary SSC codec, similar to Sony’s LDAC. With this feature, you’ll hear more detail in your music. This supports up to 24-bit 96 kHz sound quality for compatible services like Tidal or Qobuz. Apple Music, however, is not a supported service.

The only issue I’ve personally had with these buds is specifically with Apple Music. When you enable Dolby Atmos, which is called Spatial Audio in Apple Music settings, the Atmos tracks sound a bit more compressed, tiny, and just overall not as dynamic as they do on Apple’s buds and hardware. I’m not sure whether it’s the buds, Apple Music’s Android app. What’s odd is regular tracks, they sound great via the Apple Music app on this phone, so not sure what’s going on here. If you really want that Atmos effect, you might actually just be better off not turning on Spatial Audio in Apple Music and flagging 360 Audio in the Buds 3 Pro settings, which will make everything feel more spacious.

Noise Cancellation

Now when it comes to noise cancellation, these are good. They’re on par with other buds I’ve tested like the AirPods Pro, but unlike the AirPods, the algorithms on these, they do let in high-pitched noises, and I noticed this when doing things like clipping my nails or putting silverware in a drawer—kind of really high-pitched metallic sounds where ideally those noises would not be let in and sound as harsh as they do when wearing these buds. Also, like other earbuds with this design, they don’t have great passive noise cancellation like my Sony buds do with their more in-ear design and foam tips. Those buds are much better for tasks with loud noises like cooking and cleaning. In my experience, though, I will say the Buds 3 Pro’s noise cancellation is definitely a step up from where the Buds 2 Pro was.

Key Features

One new feature that’s worked surprisingly well for me is voice controls. These are great for controlling playback with just your voice by saying specific phrases like “stop music,” “play music.” Another standout feature is Auracast support. You can connect multiple pairs of buds to a TV or phone that support this feature, and these are one of the only buds I’ve tested so far that supports this new Bluetooth technology.

Transparency mode is another highlight. The audio quality is excellent. It’s one of the best out of any set of buds I’ve used. I’d say it’s neck and neck with where Apple is, and when you have it on, it’s pretty convincing actually. You’ll forget that you’re wearing them unless you talk a lot with your voice. That’s where you’ll still notice that, “Oh right, I’ve got buds in.”

Audio Quality and Mic Tests

For advanced audio quality options, you’ve got ultra-high quality, but you also have super wideband speech with 16 kHz bandwidth via phone calls.

“All right, and these are how the Buds 3 Pro sound using the wideband audio capability that they have. All right, so now I’ve gone ahead, I’m using the Buds 3 Pro without super wideband on. Turn that feature off, and this is what the audio sounds like when recorded via my iPhone. All right, and now back to the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. This is the super wideband option. Let me know if you heard a difference or not.”

“All right, start of our mic test. These are the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. This is how their mics sound. All right, and these are the Sony WF-1000 XM5. This is how their mic sound. And these are the AirPods Pro 2. This is how their mics sound. All right, and these are the Pixel Buds Pro 2. This is how their mics sound. All right, and here are the Buds 3 Pro. This is again how their mic sound. Which one did you think was better? Let me know in the comments.”

Setup and Design

Setup with these buds was another highlight and was incredibly easy. They pair right to the phone, and the software update was fast to install, though oddly I wasn’t guided through how to use all the controls initially, which was a bit odd, but I might have just initially encountered some bug that has now been fixed.

Another highlight is the clever design with the blue and orange markings on the blade tips. This way, you can always tell which bud goes in which ear when they’re lying down just by seeing those colors. The lighting design for the case is really interesting. You get a red light when they’re charging, a yellow light when their battery level is moderate. When you put them into Bluetooth pairing mode, you get so many lights like it’s kind of wild, and I dig it.

Channel Update

Now, speaking of things I dig, usually this is where in the video I tell you about today’s sponsor, but this time our sponsor is actually us. We’ve been working hard on making our site 6monthsl.net even better for you. We’ve got a new homepage layout which is more mobile-friendly and should always have something new for you to check out in our home feed, which features content from us and related content to what we cover, handpicked by us from across the web. And our shop page makes it easy to browse and search for all the products we recommend, plus get links to multiple retailers for easy comparison shopping. And if you like what we do and you want to see your name in our producer credits at the end of our videos, or you just want to say thanks, you can use the support us link found in the description. And now back to the buds.

Underused Features

Now, let’s talk about features I haven’t found myself using as much. First up is voice and siren detection. I never end up using these voice detection features because you can’t really use them and sing along to your music with the feature on. The siren detection does work, but oddly it picked up this train horn in the distance, and it scared the hell out of me when I was listening to some music because I had no idea what this noise was that came through the noise cancellation. It did not sound like an actual train, so I just ended up turning that feature off.

Recording 360 sound with these buds for videos is another interesting feature, but also one I haven’t found myself using because I don’t have a great use case for it. Next up, the blade lights—they’re just kind of a gimmick, and the LEDs Samsung used for them are low hertz and have a flicker which I don’t love, but hey, I’m glad they took a risk and added those in. They needed something to differentiate these from AirPods, and the blades definitely do that.

Downsides

Now, let’s talk downsides. Battery life is a bit of a disappointment compared to competing buds like the Pixel Buds Pro and AirPods Pro 2, which Samsung clearly benchmarked these against. The buds with the case get you 26 hours of battery life with ANC, which is lower than the 30 that you get with both the AirPods Pro 2 and the Pixel Buds Pro 2. The buds themselves get you 6 hours with ANC on, which is in line with the AirPods Pro 2 but below the 8 hours you get with the Pixel Buds Pro 2.

Now, the case design has issues too. This is a nitpick, but the buds face the wrong direction in the case, so you have to flip them around every single time you want to put them in your ear, which is annoying. The silver finish does feel a bit cheap, like they painted on the finish instead of it actually feeling metallic. There’s also no Ultra Wideband chip to use for finding buds like Samsung uses for their smart trackers. They have a similar find feature to AirPods and other buds, but it’s not as precise as what you’ll get with the AirPods Pro, for example, which I’ve compared the Buds 3 Pro in another video, and I’ll leave that link in the description.

Tips and Maintenance

Another slight downside is with the tip design. Early versions of the tips easily ripped when removing them, even when you did it correctly, which happened to my unit. Samsung had me ship them back and replaced them for me, and they threw in some extras as well, which was nice. And if you’re coming from the AirPods, it’s important to note the way you take off Samsung’s tips is slightly different. You pull the outside part inside out first, then pull on the base to remove it. If you try to use your fingernail like you do with the AirPods Pro, that’s likely going to cause the Buds 3 Pro tips to tear.

For repairability and upgradability, I do wish we had a set of buds that at least had replaceable batteries so they didn’t have an inherent shelf life that was dictated just by the batteries, but alas, these do not. They do have a trade-in program and recycling program. At least Samsung is one of the only companies I know that will actually let you trade in earbuds for a discount on a new pair, which is pretty awesome.

Digital Assistant Support

Another downside is Bixby. It’s still the default assistant for voice wakeup, even though Gemini is now the default assistant in Samsung’s One UI 7. While you can change the assistant that triggers when you hold down the stem of one of the buds, unfortunately, there’s no easy way to use a wake word to trigger Google’s assistant directly from the buds.

Recommendation

So, do I recommend these buds? Yes, they are a great addition to Samsung devices like the new S25 Ultra that I’m reviewing, but I’d really only recommend them if you have a Samsung phone to get all of the features. These won’t work with Apple phones, but even with other Android devices like Pixels, features like high-quality audio codecs like Samsung Seamless Codec and Scalable Codec, gaming mode—those features only work with Samsung devices. Other features like real-time language translation and adaptive sound adjustments are as well optimized for only Samsung devices. However, a surprising amount of features like voice commands, those will still work with other Android devices.

Final Thoughts

6 months later with these buds, I’ve been pretty happy with them and think anyone in Samsung’s ecosystem would enjoy upgrading to them. They’ve been overall comfortable and provide excellent noise cancellation overall for a set of buds, though they’re not the best I’ve ever used, but for things like blocking out city noise or the airplane cabin noise, they’ll definitely do the job for those tasks. Samsung definitely did take some wild aesthetic swings with the case design and the blade light, so overall the form factor is similar to the AirPods, but not the entire thing.

If you’re looking for a pair of buds and have a Samsung phone, I think you’ll be pretty happy with the Buds 3 Pro, but maybe don’t pay full price. The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro retails for $249, but you can often find them on sale for much less, which is why I personally wouldn’t pay full price for them. If you want even better noise cancellation and don’t mind spending close to $250, that’s where I’d personally go for Sony’s buds, which are still the everyday buds I use for tasks like cooking and cleaning where there are more loud, sudden background noises.

Where to Find More

I’ve left purchase links for the Buds 3 Pro and all of the other products I mentioned in this video in our 6monthslater.net blog post, which you can get to via the description. And if you want to see more of my upcoming reviews on products like the new S25 Ultra, make sure you’re subscribed to the channel, and you can click here to get to all of my current Samsung reviews. And then for comparisons between these buds and other buds like the AirPods Pro 2, you can click here to get to those. For 6 Months Later, I’m Josh Teder. Thanks for watching.