In this article, I will provide a full review of the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live wireless headphones, I will reveal the advantages and disadvantages of these headphones, as well as their features.
Sound
Galaxy Buds Live are open-back headphones. Those. they do not have passive noise isolation, unlike in-ear headphones. In general, it is not correct to compare them with the previous generation Galaxy Buds or AirPods Pro.
In general, a priori, the sound from these headphones will be better if you play music from a Samsung smartphone. These headphones are capable of playing sound through the ScaLable codec, which is Samsung's proprietary codec. Other devices will play music in the same way.
For sound transmission, Bluetooth 5.0 is used. In terms of range, the Buds Live are slightly less long-range than the same AirPods 2 or AirPods Pro.
It has 12mm speakers tuned by AKG. As for the sound quality, I compared them with AirPods 2 (also in-ear). I can say that the headphones Apple have a pronounced middle, i.e. the voice and podcasts sound great. The Galaxy Buds Live have clearer, richer bass and better stereo sound.
But you won't notice the difference if you listen to music in a noisy room or outside. These are not in-ear headphones, there is no passive noise isolation here at all. And when all the surrounding sounds are “mixed” into the music, all the sound chips disappear.
The sound in the headphones is quite loud, i.e. there is a volume margin. Over 90% of the volume is already very loud. There is practically no delay in the sound. Watching videos or playing games with headphones is pretty comfortable.
Battery life: 5 hours with active noise canceling and 7.5 hours without it. The case will also give about 2.5 charges for the headphones.
There is fast wired charging. For 5 minutes, 1 hour of music playback is given.
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Active noise cancellation
The laws of physics are difficult to deceive. And if there is no passive noise isolation (a tight fit of the headphones to your auricle), then there can be no question of any active noise canceling function.
And if in Huawei Freebuds 3, in which this function was also announced, it somehow worked, then here it does not exist at all.
When you switch the lever in the proprietary application, all you hear is the sound of the function activation. I did not feel any cut of low frequencies.
Buying Galaxy Buds Live and hoping that the earbuds have at least some noise reduction is pointless.
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Headphone design
Available in 3 colors: black (mirrored), white and bronze. The black surface stands out strongly against the background of the human body and attracts too much attention on the street.
The earbuds are quite slippery, and when removed from your ears, it is not always easy to do it as you would like. And the controls on the headphones are touch-sensitive, and when removed, music playback gestures are triggered. By the way, the sensor is very cool and works well (it's better than tapping on AirPods).
The headphones must be inserted correctly. The hard part is immersed in the auricle, in which 2 speakers are located, and the soft part adjoins the upper part of the ear.
Comes with a pair of rubber bands to make the earbuds better fit your ear. The likelihood that Buds Live will not fit your ear shape is higher than any other. the area of the earphone itself is 2 times larger than that of classic ears.
The casing of the headphones is IPX2 protected, which means that they will not tolerate anything but sweat and light rain.
With regard to the firmness of fixation in the ears, no problems were noticed. Those. during sports, the earbuds fit snugly against the ear and do not fall out.
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Case
The case itself is quite compact. It's thicker than the AirPods 2 case, but slightly lower. Easily fits into jeans pocket.
The plastic in the case is glossy (black and white) and matte (bronze). There is a USB-C connector for fast charging as well as wireless charging.
There are 2 indicator lights on the surface of the case: one outside, one inside. They show the remaining charge of the case and headphones.
Often, the earbuds need to be forced into the case to start charging.
The case has a very cool build. Nothing backlash, no creaks, unlike AirPods, where Apple went to reduce the cost of production.
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Pairing with your phone
There are no buttons on the case for pairing with a phone. Pairing occurs when you open the case. But the coolest thing is that when both earbuds are in your ears, you don't need to take them out and insert them into the case to connect to the phone. It is enough to bring two fingers to the headphones, when the signal sounds 3 times, the pairing process will begin.
But if you have a non-Samsung smartphone, there will be no automatic pairing. You also pinch your fingers on the headphones inserted into your ears, go to the smartphone settings and select Galaxy Buds Live in the Bluetooth section. This is the primary sync.
If the smartphone already knows your headphones, i.e. you have already connected them before, then go to system settings, select Bluetooth and simply connect these headphones. They automatically switch to a new smartphone, i.e. you do not need to disable anything on the old device.
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Repairability
Repairability of the headphones is at a very high level. The headphones open quite easily. This is done using a vice with rubber pads, then the latches are unclasped, and there is a regular Varta battery under the motherboard and one screw.
You can buy it for $ 15 on aliexpress. This is great because all headphones and batteries degrade very quickly. Two to three years of active listening, and battery life is poor. The same AirPods cannot be repaired (only replaced by officials).
The same is with the case. The battery is easy to replace at home and costs $ 10.
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Proprietary Galaxy Buds Live app
Installing the proprietary Galaxy Buds application is mandatory for at least two reasons:
- Find out the exact battery charge in the headphones.
- You can update the headphone firmware.
The app has a button to enable / disable active noise canceling (it's completely useless). Just turn this feature off to reduce the drain on your headphones.
There are 6 equalizer presets in the app, they are pretty soft. The one you use the most will be Dynamic. Unfortunately, you cannot create a custom profile.
The app has a touch control section. Here you will be shown how to use these headphones, touch to play or stop a song; double tap starts the next track or answer a call; triple-tapping activates the previous song.
And you can assign your own action to hold the earphone for a long time. For example, activate active noise cancellation, turn on the voice assistant or turn down the volume. You can also roam in touches.
The Labs section has a function to reduce pressure using external noise, but I don't know its purpose. Because when I activate the switch, I don't really feel anything.
There is a cool headphone search function when the right or left earphone will make sounds. Unfortunately, you cannot find the case in the same way.
In general settings, you can reset the device. And in the rather useful section “Tips and Guide” there is a primary manual on how to use headphones and even how to insert or sync with other devices.
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Delivery set and price
The set includes a USB type-c charging cable, a pair of additional rubber nozzles and the actual case with headphones.
Officer. headphone price 14.000r. in the Russian Federation, in the USA – $ 170 (excluding state tax). In comparison, the price of AirPods 2 headphones with wireless charging is 17,000 rubles.
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Let's sum up
autonomy sound repairability active noise cancellation does not work false triggering when pulled out of the ears non-standard format price
What do you think of these headphones, write in the comments.