Galaxy Buds Plus review: better sound, fantastic battery life
Samsung's original Galaxy Buds were an okay first attemptat true wireless earbuds. Sound quality was average,battery life was decent, but voice quality was bad. If you got them free as part of pre-order for your new smart phone,that was a good deal. But, paying full price forthem was harder to justify. But, now Samsung is backwith the new Galaxy Buds Plus and they've made improvementsto all three of those areas taking a product that was pretty meh into something that's pretty great. (upbeat music) Let's start right off thebat with sound quality. Now, you still have a bunchof ear tips in the box so you can get a good sealin your ear for a good fit. And Samsung also includesseveral wing tips so they fit even moresnug when you put them in. Unfortunately, there is noactive noise cancellation, but the right fit will help you muffle out your surroundings. So, on the inside of eachGalaxy Buds Plus earbud is two drivers, one tweeter and a woofer and that leads to richer,more detailed audio output. Your instruments and yourvocals stand out a bit more.
But, sometimes the highs and treble can get a little bit fatiguing,it's not a big problem but certain types of music you'll hear it. But, where Samsung has madebig improvements is bass. And that was a weaknessof the older Galaxy buds. Here, it's taken up a notch with good separation from the mids. I don't think these are quiteas overpowering or as boomy as the Jabra Elite 75Ts, butit's a noticeable improvement that makes the GalaxyBuds Plus a better fit for more types of music. Now the buds support AAC, SBC, and Samsung's own scalable codec and that adjusts the music quality based on how strong yourBluetooth connection is. But, unfortunately, that onlyworks on Samsung's own phones. From the outside, the GalaxyBuds and Galaxy Buds Plus look so similar that it'shard to tell them apart. But, there are a few smalltouches that help identify the new ones from the olds. The charging case is a bit more glossy now and has raised labels forthe left and right earbuds and, while these looklike buttons, they're not. Samsung also added a secondary microphone to the outside of the earbuds, but aside from that smalltouch and the case differences, these look right at homenext to their predecessors which Samsung is still selling for $129. The earbud controls work just like before, single tap to pause, double toskip tracks or answer a call, and triple tap for the previous track. You choose what a tap and hold does, by default it will bring upGoogle Assistant or Bixby or Siri on iPhone, but you can also set it to activate ambient sound mode so you can hear what's going on around you or a control volume.
Now, for me havingphysical volume controls is always more usefulthen voice assistance or whatever else so, that's what I do. If you're on Android, you can also have a long press open Spotify and start playing music right away. Now, we come to voice call quality and I'm talking to you right now on the original Galaxy Buds, which means they're pretty bad and haven't gotten better over time. It's hard for your callers to hear you over background noise or anything, it's really just a big jumbled mess. And these are the Galaxy Buds Plus. As you can hopefully hear,my voice sounds clearer and it's being separatedbetter from all of this. And then we've got the Jabra Elite 75Ts, which cost a bit morethan the Galaxy Buds Pro, sound a little bit better,but the voice call quality might be not quite as good, so you can see just how muchprogress Samsung has made. And, last but not least, wehave Apple's original AirPods, which have always had areally good reputation for voice call quality, sound crisp, clear, I'm well separated. But, their reputationfor fitting in my ears is unfortunately, not great. But, when it comes right down to it, it's hard to beat just talking right into your phone's microphone. Samsung's made bigimprovements, but is it as good? And here's what the Galaxy Buds Plus sound like if you record them straight to your phone's voice memos app. So, if you're talking to Bixbyor Google Assistant or Siri, this is what that's goingto sound like to your phone and if you have to, sayrecord a quick idea, it's gonna sound pretty good.
But, far and away, the biggest improvement of the Galaxy Buds Plus is battery life. These earbuds now last for up to 11 hours of straight listening time, which puts them at thetop of the mountain. That's better than PowerbeatsPro, Airpods, the Jabras, and pretty much everything else. Those 11 hours areenough to get you through a full work day or a long haul flight. Add the case, you get upto 22 hours of battery life before you've gotta recharge everything. Samsung says plugging themin for just three minutes is enough to get you an hourof extra listening time. So, you can use the GalaxyBuds Plus on Android of course, but Samsung also has a new iPhone app where you can customize the EQ settings, touch controls, and everything else. But, I'd still recommend these more so for Android people than iPhone because I've had a lotof dropped connections and disconnects on iPhonethat I didn't really have on my Pixel or the GalaxyS10 that I tested these with. Samsung has priced theGalaxy Buds Plus at $149 and, at that price, it's not really fair to compare them to the AirPods Pro or other earbuds that cost over $200. But, it's a harder choice between these and the Jabra Elite 75Ts which are only slightlymore expensive at $179. And, the Anker SoundCoreLiberty 2 Pro earbuds are another good optionat the same price point. And,
Amazon's Echo Buds manage to include Bose noise reductiontechnology for even less money. So, if noise cancellation and having that private bubble of silence are most important toyou, maybe look elsewhere. And, if you've got an iPhone,I'm not sure why you'd venture over to Samsung for your earbuds. But, Android owners shouldpay attention to these. I'm very impressed by theprogress Samsung's made with it's second generationtrue wireless earbuds. Turns out, that plusname is well deserved. These sound better, lasts much longer, and are a better suit for voice calls than their predecessors were. Add ANC to the next version and Samsung's third generation Galaxy Buds might be pretty tough to beat. Hey, thanks a ton for watching. Now, my question for you is, has Samsung done enoughto make you consider the Galaxy Buds Plus over the Jabras or any number of other earbudson the market right now? Leave a comment down below.
But, sometimes the highs and treble can get a little bit fatiguing,it's not a big problem but certain types of music you'll hear it. But, where Samsung has madebig improvements is bass. And that was a weaknessof the older Galaxy buds. Here, it's taken up a notch with good separation from the mids. I don't think these are quiteas overpowering or as boomy as the Jabra Elite 75Ts, butit's a noticeable improvement that makes the GalaxyBuds Plus a better fit for more types of music. Now the buds support AAC, SBC, and Samsung's own scalable codec and that adjusts the music quality based on how strong yourBluetooth connection is. But, unfortunately, that onlyworks on Samsung's own phones. From the outside, the GalaxyBuds and Galaxy Buds Plus look so similar that it'shard to tell them apart. But, there are a few smalltouches that help identify the new ones from the olds. The charging case is a bit more glossy now and has raised labels forthe left and right earbuds and, while these looklike buttons, they're not. Samsung also added a secondary microphone to the outside of the earbuds, but aside from that smalltouch and the case differences, these look right at homenext to their predecessors which Samsung is still selling for $129. The earbud controls work just like before, single tap to pause, double toskip tracks or answer a call, and triple tap for the previous track. You choose what a tap and hold does, by default it will bring upGoogle Assistant or Bixby or Siri on iPhone, but you can also set it to activate ambient sound mode so you can hear what's going on around you or a control volume.
Now, for me havingphysical volume controls is always more usefulthen voice assistance or whatever else so, that's what I do. If you're on Android, you can also have a long press open Spotify and start playing music right away. Now, we come to voice call quality and I'm talking to you right now on the original Galaxy Buds, which means they're pretty bad and haven't gotten better over time. It's hard for your callers to hear you over background noise or anything, it's really just a big jumbled mess. And these are the Galaxy Buds Plus. As you can hopefully hear,my voice sounds clearer and it's being separatedbetter from all of this. And then we've got the Jabra Elite 75Ts, which cost a bit morethan the Galaxy Buds Pro, sound a little bit better,but the voice call quality might be not quite as good, so you can see just how muchprogress Samsung has made. And, last but not least, wehave Apple's original AirPods, which have always had areally good reputation for voice call quality, sound crisp, clear, I'm well separated. But, their reputationfor fitting in my ears is unfortunately, not great. But, when it comes right down to it, it's hard to beat just talking right into your phone's microphone. Samsung's made bigimprovements, but is it as good? And here's what the Galaxy Buds Plus sound like if you record them straight to your phone's voice memos app. So, if you're talking to Bixbyor Google Assistant or Siri, this is what that's goingto sound like to your phone and if you have to, sayrecord a quick idea, it's gonna sound pretty good.
But, far and away, the biggest improvement of the Galaxy Buds Plus is battery life. These earbuds now last for up to 11 hours of straight listening time, which puts them at thetop of the mountain. That's better than PowerbeatsPro, Airpods, the Jabras, and pretty much everything else. Those 11 hours areenough to get you through a full work day or a long haul flight. Add the case, you get upto 22 hours of battery life before you've gotta recharge everything. Samsung says plugging themin for just three minutes is enough to get you an hourof extra listening time. So, you can use the GalaxyBuds Plus on Android of course, but Samsung also has a new iPhone app where you can customize the EQ settings, touch controls, and everything else. But, I'd still recommend these more so for Android people than iPhone because I've had a lotof dropped connections and disconnects on iPhonethat I didn't really have on my Pixel or the GalaxyS10 that I tested these with. Samsung has priced theGalaxy Buds Plus at $149 and, at that price, it's not really fair to compare them to the AirPods Pro or other earbuds that cost over $200. But, it's a harder choice between these and the Jabra Elite 75Ts which are only slightlymore expensive at $179. And, the Anker SoundCoreLiberty 2 Pro earbuds are another good optionat the same price point. And,
Amazon's Echo Buds manage to include Bose noise reductiontechnology for even less money. So, if noise cancellation and having that private bubble of silence are most important toyou, maybe look elsewhere. And, if you've got an iPhone,I'm not sure why you'd venture over to Samsung for your earbuds. But, Android owners shouldpay attention to these. I'm very impressed by theprogress Samsung's made with it's second generationtrue wireless earbuds. Turns out, that plusname is well deserved. These sound better, lasts much longer, and are a better suit for voice calls than their predecessors were. Add ANC to the next version and Samsung's third generation Galaxy Buds might be pretty tough to beat. Hey, thanks a ton for watching. Now, my question for you is, has Samsung done enoughto make you consider the Galaxy Buds Plus over the Jabras or any number of other earbudson the market right now? Leave a comment down below.
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