The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live have a slim profile and good battery life. But if sound quality and ANC performance are what you care about, we have bad news.
The most useful product review isn’t necessarily the first one, nor is it the longest. It’s the most honest and the most thorough — and quality can take time, especially in the world of audio. To review such products, we study their sound quality with an experienced ear and pore over the execution of promised features. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the hype surrounding the latest, shiniest product. But does it do what it claims? And does it do it well? With the Galaxy Buds Live, we went a step further and tested them with a group of editors. We talked together about expectations and performance and agonized over the details. We know that these buds are going to be polarizing because they are so different. Samsung took some serious risks here, deviated from their very good Galaxy Buds+, and gave us something completely new. The Galaxy Buds Live have a unique shape and the promise of a more comfortable fit. I went into my time with the Buds Live with an open mind, ready to be converted to the outer-ear design. With a long specification list that boasts considerable features for their $170 price, the Galaxy Buds Live are an intriguing option in the heavily competitive personal audio space. So how are they? Let’s get into it. Much like the Apple AirPods Pro, the Galaxy Buds Live are packaged very simply. You get the buds, the charging case, a charging cable, a pair of ear wingtips, and some literature. That’s it, and that feels particularly odd in a segment that is including more materials with earbuds, not less. As a result, there is no customization offered for these buds, but that’s entirely by design. Instead of including a set of eartips like all earbuds do these days, the design of the buds is specifically made to work with anyone’s ear. We’ll get more into that below. Aside from a few small strips of clear plastic, the box and contents appear fully recyclable. I don’t know that the little plastic strips of film were necessary, but they seem to be in almost every high-end product these days. We would like to see those disappear. Let’s talk about the design of these buds because it’s very different from most everything else on the market. Instead of sitting inside your ear canal, the Galaxy Buds Live instead rest outside the canal and against the inside of your concha. For those who find that having silicon eartips sitting inside of your ear canal feels uncomfortable, the Buds Live are a great alternative. At first, the way the buds sit in your ear is weird and it takes some getting used to. But after some adjustment and time, I found them to be pretty comfortable. It’s hard to say if this design choice is more or less comfortable overall than a traditional earbud shape. In one sense, it’s certainly less tiring on your ear canal because it doesn’t use it at all. However, it is still putting pressure on your ear, just in a different spot. For me, I could wear these about the same amount of time I can wear the AirPods Pro before feeling some fatigue. It’s not the same fatigue, but it’s still there. As mentioned, the Buds Live can’t be adjusted to your specific ear, with Samsung designing them to work with any ear. This was a risky move, and though so far they seem to work for everyone I know who has tried them, I have to think that there is no way they will work for everyone. Until that time comes though, I suppose this particular risk is paying off. The Buds Live have a touch-sensitive area on them that allows you to play/pause/skip music, adjust volume, call up a voice assistant, and pick up and hang up phone calls. You can adjust the functionality of the touch controls via the Galaxy Wear app on Samsung devices and the Galaxy Buds app on iOS. More on that in a moment. Unfortunately, the tiny size of the buds makes accidentally hitting that touch-sensitive area very easy, as it occupies a large portion of the exterior surface area.
