Galaxy Buds Live

Galaxy Buds Live

The Galaxy Buds Live price in Kenya is Ksh 11,000. They come in three color options, mystic white, black, and bronze.  This price is lower than that of the standard Apple AirPods. The Buds Live are like the AirPods with an open design which makes them comfortable to wear. They’re also really discrete and sit flush with your ear without a little white pipe sticking out from them.

Galaxy Buds Live specs and price in Kenya

How to wear Galaxy Buds Live

Now, Samsung says you should stick these in your ears in a very particular way. It’s kind of with the speaker facing down into your ear at a 45-degree angle. However, it is a little bit more horizontal. So I think you have to go with what works for you depending on how securely they will fit. Keeping the standard AirPods in one’s ears isn’t as easy as it is here. With these, you will have no trouble. They fit well. You can run and even bike with them. And while they only have IPX 2 water-resistant, that means they are splash-resistant from certain angles, they are sweat-resistant and you can work out in them.

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 made 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.

Galaxy Buds Live does sound open. That’s where the live name comes from. Their open-airy sound doesn’t feel like it’s stuck in your head. They’ve got 12-millimeter drivers and a big base port. The base is plump yet punchy, which is how most people like it. And there’s a nice detail in the mids and highs. There’s certainly lively sounding, the dynamic is the word to use.

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 does 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 spoken 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,

Similar to the hands-free option for Siri, AirPods allows you to activate Bixby without using the earbuds’ touch controls. It does work well and is responsive. If you use a hands-free big speed, you do lose a little bit of battery life. Is aerated for up to 8 hours with noise canceling off in 6 hours with it on it drops to 5.5 with noise canceling on. And Bixby, always there waiting for you to wake it up. The compact charging case has wireless charging, or it also charges via USBC. It gives you about two and a half extra charges.

Recommendation

A lot of time talking points are about the sound and the features of Galaxy Buds Live. But it’s their design that is the standout feature. We get a lot of these types of buds in for review. This is the first one in a while that we think is innovative and different. They’re pretty unique looking, and discreet, and not only do they fit securely, but they’re comfortable to wear for long periods. Alas! The noise canceling. Isn’t what I hoped it would be, but it is a challenge to do with open earbuds like these even so they’re easily among the best earbuds of 2020.