The Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro and its non-Pro counterpart have not had a great launch. Ever since its initial announcement, the earbuds have been plagued with defect after defect, ranging from fragile eartips to shoddy build quality, the Korean electronics giant was forced to issue a recall on them and delay their official release to a later date.
It’s been close to two months since then and as of this publication, I finally have the Buds3 Pro in my hands and in my ears. As these articles go, this isn’t an in-depth review and simply my initial impressions of the products, and there are a couple of things to say.
As it is the trend, the Buds3 Pro’s packaging is fairly simple, uncomplicated, and made from recycled material. There’s no faffing about: you get the earbuds and charging cradle at the centre, the user manual, a USB-C charging cable, plus two additional sets of eartips, should your ear canals be smaller or bigger. But by default, the attached eartips fit my ears snugly.
Speaking of the earbuds, the LED strip in their spines is a nice touch, with it coming to life whenever you place them back into the charging cradle, when you open them, and when you stick them into your ears. Although, you’re unable to view the latter directly, not unless you’re looking into a mirror. If you find yourself doing that the latter often, then you’re just a vainpot.
Continuing with its aesthetics, you get an understanding of the ire of Samsung’s chairman – their irritants are two-fold with the Galaxy Watch Ultra that I recently reviewed as well – and how much its engineers drew inspiration from its fruit rival. In all fairness, they aren’t identical to each other, the stem of the earbuds looking slightly more aggressive and, to point out the most obvious difference, the built-in LED on the spine. For that matter, they’re also more less cylindrical-looking.
At the time of this publication, I’ve yet to remove the eartips but in an abundance of caution, I’ll let you know in my review whether or not Samsung solve the brittleness issue. On another note, the charging case definitely feels and looks different. Technically speaking, it’s the first charging case I’ve seen with a transparent top. What I don’t get, though, is why brands that make TWS earbuds would install the USB-C charging port at the bottom of the casing and not directly in the back. Again, Samsung isn’t alone on this with the Buds3 Pro, with brands like Creative doing it with its Aurvana lineup and more recently, its Zen Air.
I won’t go into too much detail about the Buds3 Pro‘s performance but initial impressions of it lean towards it being bright. Like, very bright. Surprisingly, the passthrough or ambient sound mode on the Buds3 Pro is very clear but extra crispy with vocals and pitches. When active, it sounds and feels as though I’m not wearing the earbuds.
As mentioned, we’ve got an in-depth review of the Samsung’s in the works, so as always, check back on this space.
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