Key Takeaways
- Galaxy Buds 2 offer decent features like noise-cancellation and touch controls for a reasonable price, but they are due for an upgrade.
- The IPX2 water-resistance rating of Galaxy Buds 2 is outdated, as budget-friendly rivals now offer IPX4 rating for sweat and light rain protection.
- Galaxy Buds 3 should consider adding features like an OLED case display and AI-powered translation to stand out from the competition.
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 2 are one of the best-received earbuds by the company – and for good reason. They offer excellent features, such as active noise-cancellation, an Ambient sound mode, and touch controls, and do it all for quite a reasonable price.
No doubt, even though they were released more than two years ago now, they are still some of the best budget earbuds on the market. That being said, it’s high time Samsung updated their regular Galaxy Buds, and it seems the third generation should finally be coming soon.
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The forthcoming Galaxy Buds 3 should drop later this year if Samsung’s release schedule is anything to go by, and there are already rumors swirling about what they’ll be able to do. It will take a lot to beat the Galaxy Buds 2s, which include ANC, wireless charging, and custom audio profiles for a reasonable price.
1 Higher IP rating
Don’t worry about rain
Wireless earbuds should withstand sweat and rain, so you can use them daily in all conditions. The Galaxy Buds 2s have a low IPX2 water-resistance rating that withstands up to 3mm of water drips per minute at a 15-degree angle and won’t survive rain or submersion. There’s also no dust resistance, so you’ll need to keep them clean if you want them to survive. This rating was barely acceptable in 2022 and doesn’t cut it in 2024 when even budget-friendly rivals under $50 offer an IPX4 rating to protect against sweat and light rain.
1:02
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For the Galaxy Buds 3s to succeed, they’ll need to match similarly-priced alternatives from companies like Jabra and JBL by offering at least an IP57 rating. It isn’t the highest rating, but it is in line with the cost, and it offers comprehensive protection against dust and can survive being temporarily submerged for up to 30 minutes.
2 OLED case
Add some pizzazz
Galaxy Buds with an OLED display on the case were one of the more interesting products Samsung unveiled at CES 2024, but were overshadowed by TVs, monitors, and other devices. The unnamed prototype earbuds were displayed in a range of cases featuring a circular OLED display similar to the Samsung Galaxy Watch that can display useful information or play fun animations.
This feature would be perfect for making the Galaxy Buds 3 stand out from the competition, and it’s useful, too, because you can see information like the date and battery life on a vivid color display. Samsung was coy about whether this feature would make it into production models, and it would probably depend on the cost factor and other practical considerations like weight and battery life. It’s still a cool concept we’d love to see on the Galaxy Buds 3.
3 Live Translate
Make it a communications device
Early rumors suggested that the Galaxy Buds 3 Pros would have an AI-powered translation feature, which seems more likely after the release of the Galaxy S24 range. Samsung‘s latest smartphones include the new Live Translate app, which can transcribe what callers say in a foreign language into voice or text in real time. It’s a groundbreaking feature to help people from around the world communicate, and adding it to the next generation of Galaxy Buds seems like the next logical step, since it’s already available on the Google Pixel Buds.
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Translating live calls will be a major selling point of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pros, and it would be great if the feature carried over the standard Galaxy Bud 3s. However, we aren’t holding our breath because Samsung usually releases new features on Pro versions before allowing them to trickle down to other models.
4 Better Active Noise-Cancelling
Locking in made easier
Galaxcy Buds 2 are well known as offering one of the best ANC experiences in their price range, but that doesn’t mean that things couldn’t be better.
While in general Samsung’s budget buds do a great job at making outside noises much more manageable and easier to ignore, they seem to struggle with one part of the sound spectrum — human voices. It means that while canceling hums, screeches or low rumbles works really well, if someone is talking next to you, the ANC on the Galaxy Buds 2 will have a hard time getting rid of that noise.
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So, in the next generation of Galaxy Buds, Samsung should really focus on its ANC. Bringing adaptive ANC would be another excellent addition, but even improving on the regular implementation and making it better at canceling out human speech would go a long way in making the Galxy Buds 3 an even better pair of earbuds.
5 AptX Bluetooth codec
Great sound quality with more than Samsung phones
Gaalxy Buds 2 are an excellent pair of earbuds, especially when you’re using them with a Samsung smartphone. It’s partly because they’re using a specialized Samsung Scalable Bluetooth codec that makes sure that the Bluetooth connection is not only stable, but it also allows for a high-quality, high-bitrate recordings to be streamed wirelessly.
Unfortunately, as the name suggests, this codec only works with Samsung devices, and any other manufacturers’ phones fall back on regular AAC or SBC Bluetooth codecs — meaning worse quality and connection stability.
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That’s why we’d really love Samsung to introduce aptX codec to the Galaxy Buds 3. It would ensure the best possible sound not only for Samsung phones, but also all the other devices that connect to buds made by the Korean giant.
6 Improve touch input
No more fiddling around
If there’s one annoying thing about the Galaxy Buds 2, it’s their touch-based input. Overall, it’s quite inconsistent, sometimes being extremely sensitive to any, even accidental, input, while other times seemingly not being able to detect even the most intentional touches.
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It has to be said that this complaint could as well be directed to any other pair of earbuds with touch-based navigation — it doesn’t seem to be the best way of interacting with small earbuds. That’s why, while I don’t think it’ll happen, I hope that the Galaxy Buds 3 change their input method. Either implement something similar to the AirPods’ pressure-sensitive system, or simply go for the tried-and-true buttons – they are much more usable and convenient.
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At the very least, Samsung should do something to make the touch inputs on the Galaxy Buds 3 more reliable and consistent, because as things stand now, navigating with the touch-sensitive backs of the Galaxy Buds 2 is a bit of a nightmare.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 2
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The Galaxy Buds 2 are still a great pair of buds in 2024, even as they await a successor. They’re really capable, offer nice sound quality and great battery life, along with really decent ANC, for a reasonable price. What’s more, they are very often discounted, so you can grab a pair for a great price and still be very happy with them for years to come.
FAQ
Q: When will the Galaxy Buds 3 be released?
Samsung usually leaves a two-year gap between its earbuds releases, with the original Buds dropping in 2019 and the Buds 2 arriving in 2021. It’s already been over two years since the last release, and it seems likely that the Galaxy Buds 3s will eventually arrive sometime in 2024 to complement the Galaxy S24 smartphones. It might also come out alongside the Galaxy S24 FE, making for a nice mid-budget combo.
Q: Should you wait for the Galaxy Buds 3?
Seeing as the Galaxy Buds 2 are a bit long in the tooth now, and we’re expecting the next generation to be released this year, if you’re not in a rush to buy a pair of earbuds, waiting for the release of the Galaxy Buds 3 will probably be the best course of action.
Granted, we’re still not sure when exactly they’ll hit the shelves, but whether you want to buy the next generation with their various improvements, or hunt for a big discount on the older one, your best bet is waiting for the release of the Galaxy Buds 3.
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