Samsung Unpacked has officially been and gone. Despite the furore surrounding the company's foldable phones, the whole shebang went off without so much as a sniff from Samsung on the (more or less) third iteration of its popular non-Pro-suffixed Galaxy Buds, aka the successors to the wildly popular Galaxy Buds 2, which arrived at Unpacked 2021.
These are not to be confused with the excellent August 2022-issue Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, which feature in our roundup of the the best wireless earbuds. We've had the pleasure of testing the middling bean-shaped Galaxy Buds Live and the disappointing Galaxy Buds Plus.
Samsung's clearly in a handset kinda mood in 2023 – and if you're into it, our hands-on Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 review and early Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 review might scratch your itch if it's Samsung newness you're after. Our initial Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 review and early Samsung Watch 6 Classic review might also pique your curiosity. Tablets more your thing? We’ve also got our hands-on Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 review and initial Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra review, which offer our first impressions of the tablets.
But you came here for earbuds, because if the Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 took center stage, it stands to reason that there should at least have been some new entry-level earbuds to accompany them, right? Actually, no.
That said, there have been a few leaks about the Galaxy Buds 3 and although no official announcement has come from Samsung, that doesn't mean we can't make educated predictions based on everything we know so far – and we can certainly tell you what we'd like to see, when they do arrive.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3: Predicted release date and price
First, some facts: there was a two-year gap between Samsung's inaugural Galaxy Buds. The Galaxy Buds 2 launched in August 2021 and the original Galaxy Buds made their first appearance in March 2019. So, the smart money might have been on 2023 being the Galaxy Buds 3's year – only it didn't happen at Unpacked.
Samsung also held a Galaxy Unpacked event in February 2023, which made us think Samsung's annual August Unpacked event would an ideal stage for a big Buds 3 reveal, but no.
Now let's have a bit more fun with some leaks. An April 16 Twitter (are we really supposed to call it X now?) post by tipster @chunvn8888 claimed that the Galaxy Buds 3 are "coming soon".
Galaxy Buds 3 coming soon 👀April 16, 2023
So, that something, right?
In terms of pricing, we really hope the Galaxy Buds 3 will follow Samsung's trend of offering affordable true wireless earbuds. Not necessarily as cheap as the best budget wireless earbuds, you understand, but close.
The Galaxy Buds 2 and original Galaxy Buds both launched for $150 / £139 / €149 / AU$219, so we really hope Samsung doesn't buck this trend upon releasing its third-generation, non-suffixed Buds.
Other wireless earbuds loosely meant to accompany smartphones also exist, of course, thus fostering brand loyalty within a beneficial ecosystem. And here Samsung comes off looking relatively affordable. Apple's closest rival for price, the AirPods 3, launched at $179 / £169 / AU$279 in October 2021 – and those basic AirPods don't include active noise cancellation while the Galaxy Buds do.
But Samsung isn't the cheapest option out there. The Nothing Ear (2) arrived in March 2023 (now a natural partner for the Nothing Phone 2) with a price tag of $149 / £129 / AU$219, which was more expensive than the inaugural Nothing Ear (1) but still marginally cheaper than any Galaxy Buds.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3: Features – what we want to see
Best thing about the entry-level Galaxy Buds 2? Probably the fun, light, compact and pebble-shaped earpieces and supremely pocketable square case. Oh, and the and fact Samsung was able to achieve such bijou proportions without losing Qi wireless charging. We hope Samsung doesn't ditch that – and the overall design language – for the Buds 3.
At just 5g per earbud, we truly hope Samsung won't stray too far from the design and shape of the Buds 2 (aside from new colorways, perhaps) – because as one TechRadar writer knows, silicone stability bands on Bose earbuds have an annoying shelf-life. Also, Samsung tried the kidney-bean shape… We'll leave it there.
One aesthetic we would like Samsung to tweak? The glossy finish. A matte coat on the driver housing, (similar to that sported by the Buds 2 Pro) would aid both security and fingerprint smudges – although Sony has adopted a shinier approach with its Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds so we may be out of luck there.
Now, sound quality. This year, rivals such as the excellent Sony WF-C700N are delivering much better audio at much lower price points (albeit without Sony's top-tier LDAC spatial audio or DSEE extreme upscaling engine), so we'd truly like to see some form of spatial audio here, which Samsung tends to call 360 audio. And it can be done at this level! Considering that the Sony WF-C700N offer both active noise-cancellation and Sony 360 Reality audio, your Tidal account just got a massive, immersive audio boost.
Perks we'd like to see? The flagship Technics EAH-AZ80 now offer multipoint connectivity to three devices, not two – but we wouldn't expect to see that here, right? Well actually, Technics' step-down earbuds (the EAH-AZ60) offer it too, so if Samsung really wants to make us invest in its watches, tablets and folding phones in the hope of a truly stress-free homogenous ecosystem, it knows what it has to do…
Better ANC (besides the existing on or off, as you'll find in the Buds 2) is also a no-brainer of a request for us to make – and again, the Sony entry-level option listed above offers adaptive sound control (you can select 'Walking', 'Waiting', 'Travelling' or 'Registered places' in the app), which actually tailors the levels of noise nixing for you.
Samsung's Voice Detect, found in the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, is an excellent little perk meaning that when you pipe up vocally, Ambient mode and lower music volume is automatically deployed to make your conversation easier. After five, 10 or 15 seconds of no talky (you can choose in the app), the music simply returns to normal. We'd love to see this trickle down to the Buds 3.
Lastly, we really need to talk about battery life – a sore point across Samsung's entire Buds lineup. Samsung's output has typically only managed about five hours of playtime on a single charge, whereas the Sony WF-C700N manage 7.5 hours – and although the overall battery life from the older, still inexpensive Sony WF-C500 isn't amazing (there's only one extra charge in the case) you'll get 10 hours from the earbuds alone. We'd really hope for a little extra stamina from Samsung's next Galaxy Buds 3.
With these upgrades, we might soon be able to slip the unannounced Galaxy Buds 3 straight into our best noise-cancelling earbuds guide – and possibly even our top three ANC earbuds for 2023 roundup too. For now, we wait…
