SAMSUNG Galaxy Buds Plus, True Wireless Earbuds Bluetooth 5.0 (Wireless Charging Case Included), Black – US Version

I bike everywhere. I bought these earbuds specifically because they offered Ambient mode, so I could hear traffic. It turns out, the Ambient mode kind of sucks. Essentially, it puts you on a skype call with the outside world: speech is understandable, but it amps up certain frequencies (footsteps, car tires, and air conditioners are all super loud) while leaving others alone. I should have seen this coming, but I thought with 3 mics and an equalizer they could do better than they've done. On top of that, the microphones get overwhelmed with wind noise at anything above 10mph, and you get constant crackling. Between these issues, Ambient mode is totally useless when biking.Fortunately, these earbuds have a second feature that kept me from returning them: You can use either earbud, independently, and it works *really well*. Not only can you switch from left-only, to both, to right-only, while playing music, without dropping any audio or so much as skipping a beat... when you put one of the earbuds back in the case and close it, it automatically plays both channels out of the remaining earbud. You can try this yourself by playing a song with distinct left and right channels. I recommend Such Great Heights by The Postal Service: the intro beeps alternate between left and right ears, it sounds super wrong if you're just listening to one ear normally. Try it with both earbuds in, then take one out, notice that you're missing half the beeps. Put that earbud back in the case and close it, and the missing channel will get added back into the remaining earbud. This is *amazing*, and a really difficult thing to do technically, I'm very impressed.As for the rest of the experience:Physically, the buds are fantastic. Having 3 sizes of insert, plus 3 sizes of wingtip, means you can really dial in the fit. The color is gorgeous (I got the opalescent blue ones), and it looks good without looking gaudy. The buds are comfortable, though my left ear does get sore after a while (I think I may just be putting the bud too far in). They go in and out very easily, especially if you use the smallest (nonexistent) size of wingtip. With the wingtips on, they stay in really firmly, I can't shake them out no matter how I try.The case is sleek and also not gaudy. Wireless charging is a huge plus, especially since it doesn't charge noticeably faster on wired (at least, not according to the amperage limits written on the case). It does fit in the "useless pocket" on my mens jeans, but it sticks out so much that I just leave it in the same pocket as my phone. It's all glossy plastic, and won't scratch the screen. I do wish the case was easier to open one-handed. It's possible to open the case, pull out an earbud, close the case, and put the earbud in, all one-handed... but you gotta do some finger yoga to manage it. The earbuds themselves are held into the case magnetically, so they won't fall out if it's upside-down and open. The case shape itself is really well designed: it's not gonna accidentally open in your pocket or bag, and if you put the earbud anywhere near the right position, it slides in and starts charging automatically. The earbuds also don't rattle at all with the case closed. My only complaint is that the hinge plastic is noticeably creaky, which is fine for now, but something I expect to get worse with time.Sound quality is great, I prefer the "Soft" eq preset.The in-ear detection is handy, and does 2 things. It auto-pauses the music if you take both earbuds out at once, and it prevents any touchpad commands from registering while the buds aren't in your ears. This is nice, but since there's only one sensor (that's easily fooled if you cover it up accidentally while handling it) it means you still have to be somewhat careful when handling the buds to prevent accidental touches. It does give you a nice "vwoom" sound to let you know that it's detected your ear and you can use its touchpad now.The notification reading, while a phenomenal feature that I already had enabled through third-party apps, isn't customizable enough for my usage. It starts every notification with "comma <appName>" which is just silly.The touchpad takes a bit of getting used to. You have to be pretty quick on the double and triple taps, and skipping back a song often involves two triple-taps, one to restart the song, and another to actually skip backwards. It only lets you go back within the first 3 seconds of the song, so you have to be really quick between the two triple-taps. There's not really a good way around this, it's just something you'll need to keep in mind. The touch-and-hold, on the other hand, seems super long, I wish it was about a half second shorter every time I use it. That said, within a day or two, I found I rarely issued the wrong commands, and it does a nice job of immediately giving you one, two, or three beeps to tell you what it thinks you did. You can also lock the touchpad completely with the app, if you never want to deal with it.The seamless earbud connection works well enough: it switches to any nearby device it hears start up bluetooth. This means that switching between devices is as simple as turning bluetooth off and on on that device, once it's been paired. You do have to toggle bluetooth on your first device to get it to switch back, it doesn't auto-switch on disconnect (at least, not as fast as I'd want it to).The Find My Earbuds feature is super nice, though you should note that it does depend on the phone's music volume setting (as it's just playing a really loud chirping music track), so you have to turn the phone's volume up to max when you use it, and remember to turn it back down when you're done.The "Double tap earbud edge" feature is *amazing* but really mis-labeled. It took me ages to figure out: it's not using the touchpad *at all*, not even the edge. It's just using the accelerometer built into each earbud. This means that the best way to activate it (with my ear shape) is to not touch the earbud whatsoever, and instead tap the back of my ear itself. This is remarkably reliable (I'd say it works 4/5 times I try it), and it feels *super futuristic* to control my music by tapping on my own ears. It also lets me put my phone down and just have the earbuds in as I walk around my house, which is super nice.I do wish that the "game mode" that's advertised as being in the labs actually worked on my Pixel 3. It's apparently a samsung-phone-only feature, which is a shame, as that would be super convenient.All in all, an incredible engineering achievement by Samsung.

The Galaxy Buds+ are very impressive for their price point. The sound is great; the fit and comfort are excellent. They look good and are easy to use. What more could you ask?I admit the little kidney-shaped Galaxy “Live” buds are cuter, and I was tempted, but I don’t need noise cancellation so the extra $30 would be a waste for me. Actually, I’m skeptical of noise cancellation technology anyway. Even my big over-the-ear headphones provide barely noticeable NC effect (Sony and Bose). They block ambient noise pretty well, as any earmuffs would. That’s about it. Their much-ballyhooed NC technology is negligible. Earbuds are no different. They’re earplugs and that’s all you need. The Buds+ block nearly all ambient sound, especially with music on. If you want to let in more sound from the outside for safety, there’s a setting for that.The fit is comfortable right out of the box because they’re very lightweight. You hardly notice you’re wearing them. They come with extra ear tips and wings to customize the fit.The case is a small, smooth pillbox and is also the charger. A USB-C cable is provided. The case has an induction coil, so if you have a wireless charging pad, you can use that instead of the cable. The case provides one full earbud charge on the go before it needs to be recharged itself. A fully charged set of Buds+ goes for an impressive 11 hours. I don’t know how you tell when the charge is low.The sound is excellent. I compared them to JBL Live 300 TWS earbuds and the result was not even close. The Galaxy Buds+ sound is full-range, well-balanced, and immersive. The music sounds like it’s coming from inside my head. The JBL sound was good, but distant. The Buds+ sound is not overly-heavy on the bass, as Sony products tend to be. I tested the sound on my Spotify lists of string quartets, jazz, and blues. A+ all around, which is remarkable for such small speakers at this price point. Amazingly, the Buds+ have separate woofers and tweeters, which may account for the exceptional sound quality.You can adjust the sound profile with the Galaxy Wearable App, free online for Android and iOS. I tried all the equalization presets and ended up back at the default “Normal” as the best for me. “Dynamic” was also good, boosting the high end for a brighter sound. Bass Boost didn’t do much but muddy the rest of the soundscape. Treble boost was tinny. “Clear” was well-balanced and enjoyable, and it made me realize that “Normal” had a slight bass boost, which I preferred.Pairing is quite easy. When you open the case with the buds in it, they enter pairing mode and appear on your transmitting device’s Bluetooth list. When I switched to the phone (a Samsung Galaxy) and turned on pairing, it captured the Bluetooth connection away from the computer. Going back to the computer (HP), I simply clicked “Connect” to recapture the connection again.Unlike other earbuds, such as the JBL Live 300 TWS that I tried, I did not have to first disconnect, cancel, and actually remove the Bluetooth device from one source before any other source would connect. That was tedious in the extreme. The Buds+ are promiscuous. They don’t hesitate to go with anyone who flashes a nice signal. My kind of buds.The Galaxy app had to “connect” to the buds. I’m not even sure what that means, since the phone was already connected. The app allows customization of the touch gestures such as to assign “tap-and-hold” to volume up on the right bud, volume down tapping the left. That’s convenient when driving or typing. When that was done, I went back to the computer and clicked “connect” to test that change. Someday, all Bluetooth devices will be multipoint so we don’t have to go through these sacred incantations to make things talk to each other. For now, the Galaxy Buds+ are about the easiest to work with of any I have encountered.Zoom performance with the Galaxy Buds+ was perfect. The sound quality was clear, with no delay, lip-lag or echo. It was a liberating experience to sit back in my chair and still be heard, and likewise to hear others talk loud and clear without straining. Others said I sounded normal. The Buds+ use a three- microphone array on each side, and they apparently work very well without those little white stems you see sticking out everybody’s ears on TV. If I wanted antennas on my head, I could give myself antlers with a Zoom filter.Phone performance was equally good, although I never mastered the “answer” and “disconnect” gestures by tapping the earpieces. Too much fussing for me.NOW THE BAD NEWS: The Galaxy Wearable app requires that you give it “permission” to totally take over your phone. That’s required before you can even open the app for anything. What kind of “permission” is required? That’s not permission. That’s tyranny. Samsung demands are intrusive, unnecessary, rapacious, and offensive.Of course the app needs access to location data if I’m going to use the “find my earbuds” feature. But this app demands that I give that permission and also demands control of my SMS (that’s text messages), camera, calendar, and all my contacts. Why does an earbud need to control my camera? My contacts list—of course they want the contacts. That’s just greedy marketing, straight up. But the calendar, too? That's over the top.In a state of high moral pique, I said “yes” to this unconscionable exploitation so I could open the app and make some adjustments to my Buds+. When I was done, I went into my phone’s settings, found the “permissions” screen, and turned off all the permissions Samsung had acquired, cursing under my breath the whole time.Naturally, the app won’t work again unless I let them draw another pint of blood from me. But I won’t need the app for anything further unless I should decide to turn on “Bixby,” the Samsung counterpart to Siri, or Alexa, or Google Assistant. Why anyone would invite any of those thieves into their house is a mystery to me, but I guess a lot of people do.In the end, Samsung wins, as they knew they would. I’m keeping the earbuds despite my annoyance at the company because the product is pretty terrific. If I have to use the app again, I’ll wear an N95 mask and dark glasses.