Samsung Galaxy Buds Live Review

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live are Samsung's most latest competitor in the wireless earbud market and have been out for a few months now. In this review, I will take you through my own personal daily experience with them as a user over the last few months. Hopefully this review can help you decide whether you want to purchase a pair for yourself or someone else.

Cut to the Point

Why should you consider them?

1. Good sound quality
2. Great build and design
3. Decent battery life

Why should you avoid them?

1. Quite expensive
2. Noise cancellation is limited by earbud shape
3. Quite low IP rating

What Are Samsung Galaxy Buds Live?

The Galaxy Buds Live are Samsung's latest truly wireless earbuds, released in August 2020, they are known for their distinct bean shape. They are compatible with Android and iOS and can connect to most other bluetooth devices. They come in four different colours: Mystic Bronze, Mystic Blue, Mystic Black, and Mystic White. They have a glossy finish and come with a colour matched charging case. The case not only keeps the Buds safe and clean but charges them with its built-in battery, and the case itself can be charged using a USB-C cable or using a wireless charging pad.

The Buds feature touch controls on each bud, allowing you to increase and decrease volume, skip/pause/replay/skip-backwards for songs, and activate assistants such as Bixby. They also have a microphone for answering or making calls.

If you're interested in picking up a pair of Samsung Galaxy Buds Live, they can be found on Amazon here.

Sound Quality

Why should you buy these buds over others? Well, lets first look at what is arguably the most important factor to consider when comparing earbuds: the sound quality. I would describe the sound quality of the Galaxy Buds Live as great and better than expected. I wouldn't say it blew me away because after all they are earbuds and not headphones. However, I was surprised and impressed, to say the least, at how good the sound coming from them was and I was very happy with the sound quality. The Buds do have more bass than some other earbuds, so this is something to note.

One thing to note is that since they are buds they don't form a complete seal inside your ear, which means that not only will some of the sound escape from your ears, but ambient noises from outside may still be heard and may reduce the clarity of your music, but not by too much. They create as good a seal as AirPods do, however, the seal will depend on the shape of your ears.

The Buds also need to be placed in a certain position in order to get the best sound out of them. After some time, finding this position is easy and usually it only requires the back of the Buds to be positioned slightly further downwards, as Samsung demonstrates in the app and documents they provide with the Buds.

Comfortability

One of the next most important factors (arguably) to consider is the comfortability of using them. The Galaxy Buds Live sit quite snugly in your ear and because of their unique shape they don't protrude from your ears as much as other wireless earbuds might (like the Apple AirPods). They feel secure in-ear and in order to take them out you have to make deliberate adjustments for them to come out. So rest assured these will not fall out of your ears very easily.

The Buds have a rubber earpiece that is used to grip onto the inside of your ear, and different sized rubber earpieces are included with your purchase of a pair of Buds so you're able to interchange between whichever sizes are most comfortable for you.

The case, while being slightly bulky in your pockets, is rather small compared to some other available earbuds and their cases. But I only found myself ever noticing it when it was in my trouser pockets, never in a coat pocket or something similar. And it's much less bothersome than having a pair of twisted wired earphones in your pocket that wrap themselves around your keys, your phone, and anything else you might have in your pockets. Of course, one benefit of wireless earphones/earbuds is that you no longer have to deal with having to untangle wired earphones anymore like you're attempting to solve some kind of puzzle.

At first, however, they may cause discomfort to your ears after wearing them for some time (30 mins and up) due to their shape, but after my ears got used to this it stopped being an issue after a couple of weeks.

Battery Life

I was shocked how long these Buds and their case could last on a single charge. Samsung claims that the Buds themselves can play music uninterrupted for up to 6 hours on a full charge. This gets extended by another 15 hours (to a total of 21 hours) when charging them in the case. Although in my experience, with relatively high volumes, I will usually get around 2-3 hours out of the Buds themselves instead of 6 hours.

The case however keeps them charged up mostly and I find that I can usually charge the Buds fully around 4-5 times before needing to charge the case. This means in total I typically get around 15-18 hours of non-stop listening on a single full charge. I've had no major issues with them running out of charge yet, and I have gone days and even weeks at times of minimal use (an hour or so a day) without needing to charge them.

The Buds charge in the case and the case can be charged using the included USB-C cable or using a wireless charging pad. Even better, if you have a reverse charging capable phone (like a Samsung S10, S20, Fold, or Note10) you can charge your case and Buds on the back of your phone if you need a little extra charge on the go. From a USB-C cable, the case can take about an hour to charge fully from from a 20% charge.

Design

This is a more subjective area of the discussion and whether you like the distinct bean shape of the Galaxy Buds Live or not will be up to you to decide. Many people, for example, aren't fans of the way Apple AirPods poke out from your ears while using them whereas others see it as part of the AirPod look. The same can be said for the Buds, although, the Buds don't have anything really sticking out from your ears much and therefore they are lower profile and more inconspicuous. That doesn't mean that they don't standout though as the glossy finish combined with the shape makes them easily identifiable, though from a distance, not as much as AirPods. Whether this is good or bad is up to your personal preference.

Controls

The Galaxy Live Buds feature touch controls on each bud which allows you to adjust the volume as well as pause and change songs. You can also long press the buds to activate Bixby or you can set that action to launch Spotify, giving you quick access to your songs. Only a specific part of the Buds are touch sensitive meaning that you aren't too likely to pause or skip your song when taking one bud out for example.

However, I often found myself accidentally skipping or pausing my music when trying to readjust the position of my Buds. Since the touch areas are on specific parts of the Buds, you sometimes might find yourself not entering the touch pattern you intended to meaning you might pause when you mean to skip or you might skip one song forward when you mean to skip one song backwards. Eventually I got used to the touch controls of the Galaxy Live Buds and these issues became less frequent and didn't really bother me.

Price

It's fair to say that the Galaxy Buds Live are not cheap wireless earbuds. At launch, here in the UK they cost around £179, now down by £20 to £159. However, this is much lower than the price you might find for the Apple AirPods Pro wireless earphones which can be found for around £199-£249.

Other Features and Things to Know

The Galaxy Buds Live come with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) which can be turned on to reduce and dampen surrounding noise and sounds such as when you're sat on a busy train. However, the effectiveness of the noise cancellation is quite minimal when comparing it to that of over-ear headphones that have noise cancellation as the seal made by the Buds doesn't prevent as much noise from entering your ears as over-ear headphones would. If you are looking for effective noise cancelling earphones/headphones, I would suggest looking for noise cancelling headphones, as the noise cancellation in earbuds may really only be useful in places such as slightly noisy offices.

If you have a Samsung phone or device then connecting the Buds to your device is incredibly easy. In order to pair the Buds with your device, you simply need to download the Galaxy Wear app (available on Android and iOS) and follow simple pairing instructions on-screen. After pairing, when you want to listen to music, simply flip open the case and the Buds will automatically connect to your device ready for listening. The Buds are compatible with essentially any other phone or device (any Bluetooth capable device including iPhones and other Apple devices) using the device's standard Bluetooth.

Samsung's SmartThings Find app (available on both Android and iOS) allows each individual bud to be tracked and located based on their last known location. Both the SmartThings Find and Samsung Wear apps allow the Buds to be found by playing sounds from the Buds when within bluetooth range so you wont have to worry if they've gone missing in the house somewhere.

One final thing to note is that the Galaxy Live Buds are only IPX2 rating meaning that they are dust resistant and can withstand slight amounts of water spray so you can get away with taking them on light runs or gym sessions. However, they cannot be exposed to too much water so its best to keep them out of the shower or any other place they might get wet like during heavy rain.

Verdict

All in all, I am very happy and impressed with the Galaxy Live Buds as someone who has been using them for the past few months. I find them to be super easy and convenient to use because they are easy to put into my ears and connect to my phone. The sound quality is slightly above what I would expected from them, and they are build very well. The battery life is impressive for such small buds but nothing too special, and their unique design makes them stand out from the crowd in a way thats not too obnoxious.

If you have a Samsung phone or device, or you are a fan of Bixby, then you may find these buds particularly practical and simple to use.

So why should you maybe avoid these and go for something else? Well for one thing, they are quite pricy. There are other wireless earphones which can be bought for much less, but you'd probably be compromising on some of the features and quality of the Galaxy Buds Live.

They can take some getting used to as the shape of them may cause slight discomfort at first and you may find yourself having to learn where to touch exactly to use the controls, but after some time these things stop being significant issues. You're likely to face similar issues with other wireless earphones/earbuds.

They aren't the best for working out, in fact, I wouldn't recommend getting them if you're after earphones for intense or sweaty workout sessions.

Sound quality, despite being great, isn't the best in the world of earphones, and a lot of this is due to them being buds where other earphones with rubber tips create better seals and go deeper into your ear giving clearer and better sounds. The sound quality of the Galaxy Buds Live is still really good and I can't complain. And if noise cancellation is particularly important to you then you may want to consider over-ear headphones instead as few earphones or earbuds come close to comparing.

If you would like to get a pair of Samsung Galaxy Buds Live for yourself or someone else, have a look on Amazon.

Alternatively, you may want to consider the Apple AirPods for Apple's similarly priced entry wireless earbuds. See the Apple AirPods here on Amazon.

Or consider Apple's AirPods Pro (which some consider to be the rivals to Samsung's Galaxy Buds Live). See the Apple AirPods Pro here on Amazon.

Finally, another one to consider is the Jabra Elite 75t Earbuds, from Jabra, a company well known for their earbuds. See the Jabra Elite Earbuds here on Amazon.

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