Samsung Galaxy Buds Live, A Comprehensive Review of the Bean-Shaped Earbuds
by Samuel Kalenga on Oct 04, 2024
Design and Comfort: A Bean-Shaped Revolution
The most obvious thing you’ll notice about the Galaxy Buds Live is their shape. Unlike a typical in-ear model, which sits deep in your ear canal, these sit snugly inside the outer concha, a bean or kidney-shaped recess of the ear that extends downward from your lobule or outer ear. Samsung calls this new design a ‘contour fit’ – the Buds Live ‘lounge’ in your ears. The open-fit design is supposed to make the listening experience more airy, lessening any sense of ‘ear fatigue’ associated with wearing in-ear models for long periods.
The earbuds are incredibly lightweight too, and Samsung offers a selection of finishes. Mystic Black earbuds have a stealthy matte black finish while Mystic Bronze and Mystic White are metallic. You should be able to find an earbud that matches your style. The Buds Live come in a compact charging case that’s shaped like a bean, too. Still, whether the Buds Live are comfortable is a subjective matter – even though many people find them comfortable to wear for long durations, others will find them a little loose or prone to falling out, especially with any kind of vigorous use, which will be a concern if you want to use them for workouts or running. The lack of a secure fit also means they won’t do as good a job of noise cancellation as in-ear designs.
On the fit side, Samsung has included several sizes of ear tip with the Galaxy Buds Live. (While the not-quite-in-ear fit of the Buds Live doesn’t actually create an in-ear seal, the ear-tips can play a role in helping to stabilise the earbuds, and therefore keeping them a bit more solidly seated in the ear). The Buds Live’s design, which creates a seal around a portion of the outside of the ear, helps outside sound can get through to reach your ears).
Sound Quality: AKG-Tuned Excellence
AKG-tuned speakers promise rich, immersive Live are versatile.tuned speakers aim normal headphones. Gam punchy bass but also find the balanced mids and clear highs satisfying. Buds Live’s 12mm speakers are reportedly their biggest-ever for the Galaxy Buds line, offering excellent audio experiences for music lovers, be it in genres as varied as energetic pop and rock, classical or jazz. You can expect deep, powerful low-end response, a characteristic of punchy bass, which is frequently found in energetic music like pop or sequences with a synthesiser or bass feature.
Punchy bass is known for adding a powerful, punchy sound quality to the entire piece of music. On the other hand, the bass can get a little loud for some users’ liking, with the result being that it can mask certain details in the mids and highs. Just how much bass there is, depends on the kind of music you’re playing. Some genres and tracks will be heavier on bass than others, so you can use the Samsung Wearable app’s built-in equaliser to adjust the sound profile to your liking, so it sounds the way you want it to. You can go for a sound profile that emphasises the bass, another one that highlights the mids and another one that amplifies the highs depending on your musical taste.
Active Noise Cancellation (ANC): A Quiet Revolution
The Buds Live’s ANC aims to block ambient noise, sifting what you listen to through the noise filter to eliminate distractions. The ANC here is excellent at silencing people-generated noise such as street traffic, crowds and conversations. Although relatively ineffective at blocking loud, noisy machines like washing machines, particularly compared with ANC from some in-ear models, the Galaxy Buds Live’s ANC is sufficiently effective to justify their use in moderate noise environments, for example on the tube or plane. To be fair, how effective ANC functions largely depends on your environment.
For instance, in extremely loud or noisy environments, you will definitely not see the complete silence that the Buds Live are capable of. The open-fit design of Buds Live (which allowed them to feel very comfortable on the ear for many people) basically robs the efficacy of ANC when compared with in-ear models that allow complete noise isolation through a secure seal. If outright noise-cancellation is your prerogative, there are plenty of other models to choose from, like the Galaxy Buds Pro. On a daily basis, with moderate noise levels, you will probably find the ANC pretty usable.
Call Quality: Clear and Crisp Communication
Courtesy of SamsungThe three built-in microphones used in the Galaxy Buds Live for voice calls are specifically designed to pick up your voice and isolate it from background noise so that you can have calls in a noisy area. The 2nd mic with the ANC (Active Noise Cancelling) feature additionally filters out background noise, so anyone you talk to will hear a cleaner and clearer version of your voice over the call. For those who are always on the phone and having to call clients in a noisy place, this helps you to speak at a normal volume without having to yell to be heard. The call quality is good for an earbud and sounds clear and enjoyable.Battery Life: A Day's Worth of Listening Pleasure
One of their best features is battery life, especially for a true wireless earbud. At 6 hours playback on a single charge, the Galaxy Buds Live features among the best battery life around, especially considering that you get active noise cancellation (ANC) along with it. Including the charging case, you get a total of 27 hours, thanks in part to the extra 21 hours of battery life in the case without ANC. Even with the ANC on, you can use the Galaxy Buds Live for a full day on a single charge without needing to recharge it. And when you do, fast charging will give you 50 minutes of playback time off just 5 minutes’ charge from the case. This is very helpful, for example, when quickly dashing out of the door.Pros and Cons: Weighing the Benefits and Drawbacks
Pros:
- Unique and comfortable design (for many users)
- Excellent sound quality with powerful bass
- Effective active noise cancellation in moderate environments
- Clear call quality with multiple microphones
- Long battery life with fast charging capabilities
- Variety of features and customization options through the Samsung Wearable app
Cons:
- open-fit design doesn’t always fit well in all ears and would result in loss of sound to the external environment
- Bass can be overpowering for some users and may mask details in the mid-range
- ANC performance may not be optimal in very loud environments
- Price can be higher than some other earbuds in the market
Conclusion: A Unique and Stylish Listening Experience
The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live are a uniquely appealing pair of true wireless earbuds. They deliver on multiple highly specific checkboxes for discerning listeners. With their sound, design, noise-cancelling, and sheer longevity, they are an attractive and realistic option for this segment. Their open design offers a very airy, spacious listening experience that should greatly appeal to quite a few. The budget price tag for such a powerful pair of earbuds is also compelling. Simply put, there’s lots to like here. That said, there’s also a lot not to like.
Buds Live are not for everybody – or at least not everyone in every scenario, and certainly not everyone all the time. While the noise isolation might not be there for some, the fit likely will. The bean shape is not going to be for everyone. This might be an issue for some people versus others since our anatomy can vary in important, even critical ways. Design choices can sometimes lead to dramatically different experiences.
Perhaps most importantly, the Galaxy Buds Live cost a fair bit of money – on the higher end of the spectrum for this particular segment (for comparison, the AirPods Pro retail for $250, and the Sony WF-1000XM3 offer similar features for $230). To put it another way: whether you should buy the Galaxy Buds Live depends on your needs and preferences and your budget, among other things.
FAQs: Addressing Common Questions
Q: What are the different color options available for the Galaxy Buds Live?
A: Galaxy Buds Live are available in three stylish colourways, Mystic Black, Mystic Bronze, and Mystic White, giving you the freedom to choose the style best suited to your taste and device.Q: How do the Galaxy Buds Live compare to the Galaxy Buds Pro?
A: The Galaxy Buds Pro has a more classic in-ear shape with a better seal and a beefier active noise-canceling system; it also has a slightly warmer and fuller sound. The Galaxy Buds Pro will do a better job at noise isolation and offers a better seal, but the Galaxy Buds Live will be far better for longer wear, audio leaking out less and being more comfortable. Basically, choose based on your priority. If you need the best noise cancellation and seal, go with the Galaxy Buds Pro. If you want something that you can wear for hours and prefer to feel like there’s no outside world, certainly go with the Galaxy Buds Live.Q: Are the Galaxy Buds Live compatible with both Android and iOS devices?
A: They should work with an Android phone but the full customisability of the experience is only available on a Samsung device.The Samsung Wearable app works not only as the holistic gesture-based way to switch between noise cancellation modes and equaliser preferences, but of course is fully tailored for Samsung phones. This is why the Buds Live work between Android and iOS – the Galaxy Buds Live themselves will function on an iPhone – but the full experience of the £179 ‘beautiful device’ that they intend to feel like is best achieved when paired with a Samsung device.
