If you own a Galaxy S10 phone, you may already have the companion Galaxy Buds because you pre-ordered or found a great deal. If not, you can still pick them up for almost any Android device. They are earbuds that don’t need to connect to each other or the device with wires — but that may be a form factor everyone is now becoming familiar with. There are plenty of wireless earphones and neck-phones flooding the market, but all of them don’t necessarily sound good. The Samsung Galaxy Buds do.

Dressed in black, white or a startling lemon yellow-green, the Galaxy Buds come in a solid hard smooth plastic case, submarine shaped and a bit bigger and heavier than Apple’s AirPods, if you’ve seen those. We got an egg-shell-white one to try out.

There are no buttons on the case but just a notch for the lid to be prised open and a little dot that lights up to indicate the charging status, changing colour depending on battery charge. Inside sit the two buds with the charging light between them. No buttons here either — the buds pair on opening the case if you’re using a Samsung phone. They can otherwise be paired manually, including with an iPhone.

The Galaxy Buds are nowhere near the unusual and much derided shape of the Apple AirPods with the handle-like portion that sticks out. That ceases to bother users after a while for the most part, but those who object to that could explore Samsung’s alternative — at a significantly lower cost.

The Buds are bigger clumps with just the ear-tips sticking out. Now, the fit can be a bit tricky and needs a little patience and perhaps trying the ear-tips and wings in the box to get it right. I swapped the default ones for the biggest because I wasn’t getting a good seal for my ears. In fact, for a while, I didn’t think the Buds sounded good but it turned out I hadn’t found my fit. You also need to gently twist them to settle in your ear, again, positioning them so there’s enough of a seal. This took me quite a few tries until I finally got it right and could subsequently wear them correctly each time. Once I figured this out, I find the Buds by far the most comfortable and light wireless earbuds I’ve ever used.

When you plug in the case, it charges itself and the earbuds, but what is a neat trick is that the case can also be placed on the back of the Galaxy S10 to charge. Though slower than the regular method, this can give you an emergency top-up if you’re somewhere you can’t charge the Buds. Other Qi wireless charging devices might do it too. The Buds give you about six hours of battery life, which is pretty good but the case gives an additional seven, which could have been better.

Each of the buds has a button on it that can be used to stop and start, change tracks, take calls, and trigger the Google Assistant, depending on the number of taps. For other controls, you have the Galaxy Wearable app that can be used on all Android phones. From here, you can adjust treble, bass and other equaliser settings, let in ambient sounds, handle notifications. Since adjusting the earbuds for a better fit invariably triggers the Google Assistant or pauses the music, I found the option to lock the touchpad very useful. You can choose not to if you prefer. The app also has a useful ‘Find my Earbuds’ option.

The sound from the Buds is full of clarity. Not harsh, mind you, but clean clarity. I thought the bass a little under-done and went into the app and boosted it, but overall it’s a bit on the subtle side. I spent several hours listening to the Blues, country music and instrumental jazz and quickly grew to like the sound signature. I felt I needed more depth for videos and movies. There’s no shortage of synchronisation for sounds with videos, thankfully. Phone calls were good, except that one can hear one’s breath and voice rather loud inside those earphones. That can be a little distracting.

Price: ₹9,990

Pros: Clean, clear sound, easy pairing, useful app, wireless charging, sweat-proof, affordable

Cons: Tricky fit for some, could do with a little more bass, case only charges an additional cycle

comment COMMENT NOW