Galaxy Buds 3 Pro vs. AirPods Pro 2:
When Samsung released the new Galaxy Buds 3 Pro this year, you may have noticed that they resemble Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro, but is there really a parity of characteristics between these two buds in their ecosystems?
First of all, let’s start with the sound of these buds.
You might think that just by looking at the specs, the Buds 3 Pro would sound better with their new dual amplifiers combined, to the two redesigned drivers that Samsung has put in these things.
But in my experience, these two headphones sound pretty similar, and I think that ultimately depends on how each one was tuned. For me, the Buds 3 Pro seemed a little flatter, and less dynamic than the AirPods Pro, and seemed more adjusted to lean on the bass compared to the mids.
Their soundstage was also slightly less wide, than that of the AirPods Pro, these two elements contain processors to help process the sound, and to render the details for the specific shape of your ear.
Both have adaptive audio features, which measure the position of the headphones in your ears, and customize the sound just for you.
Both have a function that will adapt the headphones, when someone starts talking to you or lets the emergency alarms go, and the sirens to warn you of danger.
The AirPods Pro also have a custom volume function, which uses machine learning to understand your listening preferences in different environments, and then it will automatically make adjustments according to your habits.
Now, in terms of audio quality yes, Samsung supports 24-bit audio, for some applications like Tidal, but since the support for the Samsung 24-bit codec is a bit limited, you will find that most of the time these headphones will use the AAC codec, the same one used by the second generation AirPods Pro, which support lossless audio, with ultra-low latency, but only when used with the Apple Vision Pro.
I prefer the way Apple set the AirPods Pro to the Buds 3 Pro, now, this is going to be somewhat subjective, and it really all depends on the type of music you are listening to.
You may very well like the sound signature of the 3 Pro headphones better, than that of the AirPods Pro, and because of that, I can’t really give you a “yes, one of these headphones absolutely hits the other”. I really can’t say that, because they’re pretty close.
Now, for noise cancellation, however, I think the AirPods Pro are slightly better, they just eliminate background ambient sounds, like a bathroom fan, or air conditioning just a hair better.
In addition, both support adaptive noise cancellation.
The transparency mode is pretty much a tie, I would say that the AirPods Pro maybe have a slight advantage, as if it seemed that the microphone gain on these, was not increased as much as on the Buds 3 Pro, but it’s really close.
And like, good job Samsung to be able to roughly match what these can do, because Apple just got away with transparency mode, on their headphones.
Now for several years, for the quality of the microphone,”Okay, and this is a microphone test for the AirPods Pro, this is how their microphones sound. And These are the new Buds 3 Pro, this is how their microphones sound.
For me, I hear a little more artifacts in my voice, on Buds 3 Pro headphones, than on AirPods Pro, but this is the difference that I could detect only by wearing a good pair of noise cancelling headphones.
Then, the battery life, and here things get a little murky, samsung claims 30 hours of listening, with a charging case for the Buds 3 Pro, but it’s not with active noise cancellation enabled, since Samsung makes you scroll down the page a little to even see their slightly misleading title about battery life.
And that they don’t even say how long the battery life of the headphones themselves will last, makes me think that it’s probably less than the AirPods Pro.
Apple clearly indicates 6 hours of listening, with the ANC activated for the headphones and 30 hours of listening with noise cancellation with the case.
As for the design, both have similar controls, you can pinch to control the support, and scroll through the transparency mode and noise cancellation.
Both have a volume control: you slide your finger in front of the AirPods Pro, and towards the back of the Buds 3 Pro blade, to adjust the volume.
In fact, I prefer the Buds 3 Pro, they just have a little more surface, to slide your finger up and down compared to the AirPods Pro, on which you just have to touch your finger a little more.
But there is a big drawback that I found with the design of the Buds 3 Pro, the eartips can tear when you replace them, even when you follow Samsung’s instructions, which happened to my pair.
One point certainly goes to the AirPods, for more durable ear tips, another notable difference between these two headphones, is that the 3 Pro headphones have an IP57 water resistance rating, while the AirPods Pro have an IP54 protection rating.
The main difference between these ratings is that although the AirPods Pro are protected from limited dust penetration, and from water splashes from any direction.
The Buds 3 Pro can withstand immersion in water between 15 cm and 1 m deep.
In terms of shape, the Buds 3 Pro is almost identical to the AirPods Pro, except that the rod or blade, as Samsung calls it, is triangular, and includes what Samsung calls the blade light.
What is the purpose of the blade light?
It’s a bit gimmicky, and the LED they use for it, has a pretty low refresh rate, so you can kind of see it flicker, when the buds are moving.
The case designs are quite different, one thing I really don’t like about the design of the Buds 3 Pro is the way they fit into the case, they face the outside instead of the inside.
This means that you will still have to turn them over to put them in your ear, unlike the design of the AirPods Pro.
The Buds 3 Pro case, also gives off that alien spaceship, and Cybertruck had a baby vibe, which is a choice.
You can’t just say, that they ripped off the AirPods Pro after reviewing the case design.
Both support spatial audio, although I found that the spatial audio performance, was better on the AirPods Pro.
An interesting feature of the Buds 3 Pro, is the possibility of recording videos with 360° sound, which I don’t know how useful it will be to most people, but it is an interesting feature.
Now, another thing that looks on paper like these buds, is the way you find them when they are lost.
For the AirPods Pro, you will use the Apple Find My app, the buds have the precision location activated by the Apple U1 chip, which works faster, is much more accurate than Samsung Find, which for me, when trying to locate the buds, took one or two minutes just to acquire a signal.
In addition, the AirPods Pro case has a speaker, much more powerful than the noise produced by the Buds 3 Pro headphones, when you try to find them.
For voice commands, you can trigger the Google Assistant on the Buds 3 Pro, or you can use Bixby, which I still don’t think is as capable of an assistant.
The Buds 3 Pro, also have voice commands that you can say, without any trigger words, which is pretty cool.
AirPods Pro have nothing like that and just use Apple’s assistant.
Both headphones, have automatic switching capabilities, within their ecosystem of devices.
The peculiarity of the Buds 3 Pro is that they include Auracast Bluetooth support, so you can connect several pairs of these headphones to a TV or a smartphone and stream the audio to them.
For AirPods Pro, Apple supports streaming up to two pairs of AirPods at once from a single Apple device, such as an Apple TV.
In terms of price, both headphones are listed at $249, but the AirPods Pro are often on sale at a great price, and I would expect the same for the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro as the year goes on, especially during the holidays.
So, has Samsung really created its own AirPods Pro equivalent with these headphones?
In some ways they did, but I would still give the AirPods Pro, and their overall package, I would still declare that the winner over what the Buds 3 Pro offer.
The comparisons of specifications, do not do everything, although both headphones have a similar functionality, Find My with the AirPods Pro, works faster and is more accurate.
Their case has a speaker that really helps to locate them.
The AirPods Pro, do not have the same problems of durability of the eartips as the Buds 3 Pro at launch, and they do not seem as fancy either.
There is no blade light that depreciates the look a little, the design of the AirPods Pro is slightly less bulbous and at least for me, more comfortable.
The AirPods Pro, have a better battery life, and Dolby Atmos sounds better on the AirPods Pro.
Conclusion :
And for those who want to listen to pop, acoustic soundtracks, classical music, basically any type of musical genre, which is not really focused on a ton of bass, I think you will probably like the sound signature of the AirPods Pro better.
So even though I think Samsung has made great strides with the Buds 3 Pro, Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro are still holding the edge.
Samsung just hasn’t managed to make an AirPods Pro killer yet.
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