Samsung Galaxy Buds Live

OVERVIEW

We liked the Galaxy buds plus, which has a noise-isolating design. They fit well too. And we think they sound really good for the money. Figured that when Samsung did noise-canceling earbuds, it would make something very similar to the Buds Plus and add noise canceling and call them the buds pro or something like that. But instead, it’s these Samsung Buds Live earbuds that have noise canceling.

Samsung calls it ANC for open type. I can’t say it’s all that effective. There have been a few earbuds that have an open or semi-open design that has noise canceling. But I’ve always found that you need a tight seal to have noise-canceling work. These are supposed to reduce some noise in the lower frequencies. And Samsung talks about them blocking sound while you’re riding on a train or a bus.

Compatibility

Sound-wise, the Galaxy Buds Live just is quite there with the best sounding true wireless earbuds. They’re as refined as those headphones. They’re really solid and pleasant to listen to. And you can make some sound tweaks in the galaxy Bud’s companion app for iOS & Android. You might notice that the bass rolls off a little bit at higher volumes when you push the volume up. But that tends to be par for the course for Bluetooth earbuds. Still, because these are open. I’d tend to push the volume.

Listening experience

They do seem to help slightly when you’re listening to music or making voice calls and noisy environments. But the AirPods Pro and Sony WF 1000 XR3 have much better noise canceling. So don’t buy these for the noise canceling, or you may be disappointed. On the flip side, if you’re sensitive to active noise canceling, these shouldn’t bother you. Like the Galaxy Buds Plus, I did like how these sounded no surprise.

Multiple devices

It’s a little unclear whether these have true multipoint Bluetooth pairing. It does seem to work with galaxy devices. You can pair them with multiple galaxy devices and they automatically switch between those devices. It’s pretty seamless! With iOS and Android users. That’s regular Android users. It’s a little bit more complicated. You’d have to manually switch between them. They don’t seem to be paired simultaneously to two devices at once. You can also pair these two windows computers using Microsoft Swift pair.

Background noise & calls

The Galaxy Buds Plus did a good job of reducing background noise when you’re making voice calls. Galaxy Buds Live do too. There are two microphones on the outside of each bud and one on the inside. And while they don’t completely muffle sound around you, they do a good job of tamping down ambient noise and also picking up your voice. People I spoke with said they could hear me well, even when I had speak noise, playing pretty loudly in the background.

Extra features

As for extra features. Galaxy device owners do get a few options, not available to Apple and regular Android users. That’s not surprising since AirPods partially exists to help sell more iPhones. So it shouldn’t shock anyone that Samsung would have some special features for its users. First, there’s a low latency gaming mode in the lab section of the app. It’s designed to reduce latency issues while gaming. That was also available for the buds plus, but what’s new is a hands-free Bixby voice assistant option.