Read in full Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review
Along these lines, Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro What Pixel Buds Pro 2 means for Pixel phones is for Galaxy phones. Using them with a Samsung phone unlocks several ecosystem-specific benefits, including a high-quality Samsung Seamless codec, a real-time translation tool, and a latency-reducing “Game Mode.” This is on top of features like spatial audio, graphic EQ, lost device finder, adaptive ANC, simplified voice commands and automatic switching between Samsung devices.
This kind of walled garden approach is frustrating – remember when you could plug your headphones into any device and it would work the same way every time? — but, as with the Pixel Buds and AirPods, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are certainly affordable if you’ve already purchased their platform of choice.
The rest of the package gets more right than wrong, though a few things are worth noting. The root-style design pretty much knocks the AirPods Pro off—this is especially evident in white—but adds weird, unnecessary LED strips to the housings. It’s convenient, but Samsung doesn’t beat its imitation claims here. ANC isn’t on par with the Sony XM5s either, and the six-hour battery life is shorter than many other premium pairs. Non-Samsung phones also lack high definition codec support. On the plus side, the surround sound mode works well. And best of all, these things sound great out of the box, complete with full, meaty bass and plenty of detailed highs and upper mids.
It should be noted that Samsung froze shipments Galaxy Buds 3 Pro due to quality control concerns (mainly the stock earbuds), but those seem to have been resolved and we didn’t see anything out of the ordinary in our review unit.
