Samsung Buds Live White (Old Version)

I'll get the bad stuff out the way first. The ANC (active noise cancellation) is okay at best. It cuts out bass frequencies pretty darn well, but higher frequencies still get in due to the unintrusive fit of these buds. I mainly wear these while walking, so this is actually a major benefit for me, as I can still hear car tyre noise without hearing the rumble of engines, allowing me to stay safe. If you want absolute silence, these aren't for you, but if you need a decent amount of awareness these are perfect. The battery life is also okay at best. I only wear these for up to a couple of hours at a time, so I can't comment on their endurance without the case, but you will find yourself charging these more often than the more up-market earbuds according to reviews I have seen. The active noise cancellation does drain them down pretty significantly faster (just based on me randomly checking the battery percentage, this is by no means scientific) so if you're not bothered about it, just switch it off. The touch controls can be hit and miss. These are my first true-wireless headphones, so I'm not well practised in these kinds of controls, but I do seem to fail regularly on the more complex gestures (mainly double-tap to skip, and usually I end up rewinding the track instead). Maybe I'm the problem, not the headphones, but this might be worth bearing in mind. Okay, now onto the good bits. I'm not one of those hardcore audio nerds, but these sound nice to me. My preferred sound profile is a lot more bass-heavy than most, and these definitely deliver in that respect, but unlike a lot of other headphones, the mids and highs still sound clear. They get pretty loud and also pretty quiet without compromising quality at either end, so they are super versatile. Obviously, the key selling point of these is their design, and I really buy it. Ear fatigue isn't a problem with these at all because of the very respectful design. Plus, they look different in a world of companies desperately trying and failing to compete with AirPods. I'm not gonna be a cringey Samsung fanboy and say these are better than AirPods because I'd be lying, but at least they look good doing it. Everyone's ears are different so the fit will vary a lot, but there are two pairs "wing tips" included to adjust how tightly they fit in your ear. My final positive probably won't even apply to you, but I got these at a huge discount. Honestly, I wouldn't buy these at full price because a little extra saving could get you a lot more headphones for your money. But, if like me you see these on sale for as little as £59 brand new, just go for it. I have friends who have bought headphones in this price range without discounts from less reputable brands, and they have been sorely disappointed. Samsung sells these for a high price because they are high-end earbuds, and you won't replicate the effect with cheap nasty things. Just be wary of what you do pay for them.

I have had my Buds for about 6 months now and have grown to love them, there we're a few teething issues but nothing major: - At first I struggled with getting them to fit in my ears because I wasn't putting them in right but once I got my head around them I can put them in with the perfect fit each time. - the two supplied wingtips didn't fit my ears very well, there are plenty of third party wingtips on the market that come in a multitude of differing sizes and I made some that are perfect for me so problem solved. So with that out of the way here's my review: - The price is good for what you're getting, if you can get them on a deal even better but they're generally avaliable for around £70, yes you can get cheaper alternatives but they won't be as good and they're easily as good alternatives in their RRP (around £120?). - The noise cancelling isn't great, I question why you would buy open earphone if you're looking for noise cancelling, seems like you're not helping yourself in that situation. This was one of the seeling points for me, I can still hear the world around me while also listening to music that nobody else can hear. - The sound quality is actually very good, that said you have to get the fit right to hear these earphone perform at their true potential. If you own a pair and the sound isn't great it's because you haven't got them in right: wiggle them a bit, take them out and reinsert them, try the other size wingtips and if that fails look for more wingtips that fit your ears properly. - they're a comfort set of earphones, I wear mine all day at work and don't feel any discomfort. This, again, is based on the wingtips, if you have a set in that are too large you will feel pain after an hour or so, you really do have to get the right sized wingtips to fully appreciate these earphones. - They're pretty attractive looking earphones, I really like the bean design. They've got a nice shine to them, the case is nice and compact, the beans aren't massive so they almost disappear into you ear, overall a really cool bit of design by Samsung. - The battery life is good, as I said I wear mine all day at work, pop them back in their case at night and they're good to go for a other day. I generally charge the case once a week, on exceptional weeks twice but I charge them at night when I charge my phone so it's not something that has ever been an inconvenience. - They fit very securely once you've got the right sized wingtips: if the wingtips are too small they will fall out your ear as you move around, if they're too large the beans might just spontaneously pop out of your ears. I honestly can't overstate how important it is get the right sized wingtips, they're the lynch pin of the whole package so if you're having any fit, comfort or sound issues get some new wingtips. - The supplied accessories are pretty good, the materials the wingtips are made out of is stiff enough to hold it's shape but not so stiff that there isn't a little give in it. Evidently the two different sized wingtips are fine for most people, but if you're like me and have funny sized ears then you will need to find some alternatives, take heart though, there are plenty out there, there are also anti-slip sleeves and wingtips with the sleeves built in so you should be able to find some that fit and feel right for you. If you've bought every variation of wingtip including the ones with the built-in anti slip sleeves and if you still can't get the fit and feel right here's what I did: Step 1: buy an aftermarket pair that I knew beforehand would be too large. Step 2: push some blue tack into the part of the ear that the wingtips go in to making an exact replica of the shape then carefully remove from the ear. Step 3: gently stick the wingtips to the bottom of the bluetack making sure not to deform it. Step 4: carefully cut around the bluetack with a modeling scalpel to replicate the shape (go bigger with the cuts rather than smaller as you can fine tune later if they're sightly oversized). Step 5: use a super fine grit disposable nail file to round off the edges, clean up the cut areas and fine tune the fit. Step 6: enjoy the comfort, listen to some music and pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Hey presto you got yourself a pair of wingtips that are a perfect fit for your ears only, from start to finish this whole process took me about 20 minutes to do both sides, it required minimal tools and effort, any one could do it, all you need is: - wingtips to cut down (I suggest buying a pair made out of good quality silicone rather than cutting up the rubber ones that come included with your buds, to be fair this is more to do with fact i would rather have all the original accessories fully intact but if that's not an issue for you then don't worry about buying aftermarket ones) - modelling scalpel with a fresh blade (if you have a Stanley knife or super sharp knife you could try using that but I would personally go with modelling scalpel for more precise cutting and ease of use) - bluetack/white tack/modelling clay/moldable ear plugs, really anything you can comfortably press into the part of your ear the wingtips go in and will retain it's shape when you remove it. - fine grit disposable nail file/super fine grit sanding pad/wet and dry paper, make sure you go with 1000 plus grit, you don't want to tear the living daylights out of your wingtips or sand off too much too quickly so the higher grit the better really, remember you can't sand the material back on. Final thoughts: I fell in love with my little ear beans, it took a couple of months but once I understood them and made the right sized wingtips I couldn't be happier. If you're looking for open earphones these are a strong contender, if you have small ear canals and struggle with in ear earphone these are well worth consideration.

The Samsung Beans are by far the best all round earphones I've ever owned. For anyone that doesn't like or can't use in-ear/ear-canal headphones, and doesn't require sound isolation — these are the perfect earphones. I have the smallest ear canals known to man and these are the only* good true wireless earphones that I can use. *haven't tried the Linkbuds though. It takes a few days to work out where the buds should sit for best comfort, security and sound. Once you realise that the buds don't need to be jammed down your ear holes to be secure, they're actually really comfortable and you can often forget they're in. My ears were definitely a bit sensitive for the first few days but stick with them! I'm not sure of it's just because of my small ears, but even when the buds aren't jammed into my ears and feel like they're sitting precariously — they never fall out even if I shake my head. Kinda feels like they defy the laws of physics. Sound is actually pretty good. Bass is significantly better than most earphones of this type, but only when set to dynamic in the settings. Volume is sufficient but could be a little better. I generally have them at half volume for comfortable listening, with things like YouTube videos and livestreams. If I'm listening to music outdoors, they need to be 75% or above if you want any immersion. Anything above 50% does cause sound leakage though, so the people around you may hear headphone noise depending on what else is going on around you. Battery has been great. I'm a very heavy user and haven't been caught short yet. I do however use the Sony XM4 noise cancelling headphones every now and then if I want to lock out the world for things like Netflix, so this obviously allows the Buds Live to charge while I'm using them. Touch controls are okay. I do miss the touch point fairly often, probably 20% of the time, but I dont ever get any incorrect taps (meaning tap twice but only registers once or vice versa) These are also great if you use headphones in bed (if you're pillow is soft enough). You can quite easily lay on one of the earphones for a short period of time without feeling any discomfort. Long periods of time may be different though. Noise cancelling should always be left off. It's pointless. Does it do something? Yes a little, but not to any degree that it's worth a reduction in battery life. (edit - does actually increase base. Brings alot of the lows and middles 'forward' to mask more outside noise, increasing bass quality. Have started using for music occasionally) I prefer to frame these headphones as headphones that immerse the sound into your world, rather than immersing you into the sound. Not all headphones need to isolate you from the world. If you can afford to, get these and a pair of good noise cancelling over the ear headphones like Sony Xm4/5 or Bose 700 and then you'll have the best of both worlds.

I have been using these for a couple of months now. They do look very fashionable. It took while to to get the hang of how to place them properly in the ear (like the other reviewers said as well) but once it was clear the sound was good, not painful to use and stay in the ear well. The sound wasn't great (only good) as I do love to listen to music with a good bass but these ones do not make the bass sound well enough for me. Zoom and skype calls are great. I have been using them with 2 different devices- one older Samsung phone and another a bit newer. With the older Samsung phone, skype calls are not great as the sound breaks all the time with these buds. No problem yet with using the newer phone with these buds. Battery life seems to be OK. I do not use them daily but around every other day for couple of hours and need to charge the whole set once a week or so. All in all I'm happy with the purchase and the price was discounted too !

These buds are really good quality made and fit quite good for me. The buds come with little things that let you change the fit if you have larger conches (the place where these are put in and settle), I have smallish ears and would not want these galaxy buds any larger in size because these would not have fit me, but having said that these do fit me very well. These feature a noise cancelling setting, but in use don't really do much to reduce noise because these don't seal up your ear canals and allow background noise like people talking and car noise in, but I expected this as I had ear phones that have a mushroom tip on the end and seal up your ears and thus don't need this feature. The sound settings have different sounds types either more bass or increase treble, I found that the treble frequencies are a bit overly too sharp as for my liking and have set mine on the Samsung app Wear and have these on the soft or on normal sound setting. These buds come in a cute case that charges the buds when you put them back inside and the case is chargeable as it itself has a small battery inside it with small light that shows up red yellow or green depending of its state of charge, just to note you only get the necessary cable used to charge the case but no charger, I use a laptop USB port to charge mine this takes around two hours or so to full capacity. I really like these buds and recommend them as they look really good and fit well and don't fall out easily. The sound is adjustable for the different settings in the app that I use on my Galaxy M31 (Wear), these change with the setting selected, This has no adjustable bands to change the sound at frequency level or range eg 20hz to 20000hz. The buds sound good anyhow and this does not change my opinion about them and would recommend them for use out and about when walking or on a bus, just don't expect them to block out all sound from around you. Overall I really like them and am happy to recommend them and have a good battery life and look cool in either bronze or black!!.

Firstly i bought the bronze verison of these at £79.99 which i believe is an absolute bargain. Pro's: Great sound quality Lovely fit without being invasive like some earphones Wireless charging Price (at circa £80) Excellent for phone calls. Bluetooth Connection Controls easy to use Cons: Noise cancellation is at best poor Not sure of there suitability for sport due to fit and IP rating Firstly i own and have owned multiple sets of headphones from Earfun, Bose, Jabra to name a few. For this review i am comparing the Samsungs to the Bose QC 35 Mk2 and the Jabra active 65T, both of which i use regularly. Right of the bat if noise cancellation is a priority look elsewhere, at best the ANC on the Samsungs is marginal and at worst virtually non existent. The fit, i think will also divide opinion. Personally i love the fit on these earphones, they sit in the outer ear and rest there without needing to be squeezed into the ear canal. Initially i found it unsettling but have worn them for a while on walks they stay in place just fine, i am not convinced this would be the case however if you want them for rigourous exercise. Sound quality is excellent, i would say overall it is smooth which is great for both music and podcasts, they are not the most detailed of earphones but strike a good balance and they would be easy to use for long listening periods. They are much better than the Jabra 65T, to be honest there is no contest and only slightly behind the Bose QC35 which in itself is excellent given the price point. This sound quality extends to calls where people could hear me clearly and i had no trouble using them for extended conference calls. Onto their weaknesses, ANC is poor and i think a lot of this is down to the fit and there shape both the Bose and Jabra i mention are better here by some margin even though the Jabra's dont have ANC, just their tight fit blocks out more noise. For ANC the Bose are clear winners. At their full price i would probably mark the Samsung's down for this but at £80 there are many more positives than negatives. Summary: I doubt at the price point of £80 these can be bettered for sound quality, fit, finish and convenience, i am really impressed. For this review i am using them with a galaxy S20 and you need to download the wearable app to fully utilise the settings and capabilities. For now i will be using the Jabra active 65T for my running and the Samsungs for pretty much everything else. Ultimately in this test the best headphones are the Bose QC35 MK2 but these cost me £280 so is hardly a fair comparison but when ANC is important (travelling, flights etc) i will be using these.

These quickly became my favourite pair. I’ve owned plenty of blutooth headphones over the years, and was a little sceptical about these at first. But they far exceeded my expectation after about 2 weeks. The fit was strange at first – I felt that they might fall out at any moment. Turns out, I was slightly incorrectly inserting them – I needed to place the bottom portion more pointing towards the head – I don’t want to say push them in, because they DON’T enter ear canal, but the bottom should be slightly ‘tilted’ towards the ear canal. And possibly, rotated forward, slightly. Suddenly the fit became snug and absolutely secure. Also, the sound became a lot more defined. The sound overall on these is magnificent. I can’t believe certain frequency levels. I don’t use Noise Cancelling on the daily basis, because I end up leaving these in my ears for most of the day, and still want to hear other people. But when I am in a noisy office and want to enjoy my music better, I turn on the cancelling and it becomes quite amazing. The battery life is fine and wonderful. The responsiveness of the touch is high, albeit delayed by about half second. I love how they start (connect) immediately to my phone and sense the music signal. I highly recommend checking out the Galaxy Wearable app, and notice the Find My Buds option. This came in handy the other night, when I dropped one at night in a dark grassy spot. I didn’t know about the feature, and went home to wait for the next day daylight to search the area. I couldn’t find it at all, even in the daylight. I opened the app, and saw that the buds were both connected, so I knew it’s nearby. Then I saw the Find My Buds feature, and I made this bud beep. It sounded like birds chirping, and I found it in a matter of a few seconds. Amazing. The 2 super minor gripes I have with these: The case is lovely but I would prefer a more ductile feel as to what side to open it from. I often open it with one hand, while walking the dog, and I would love to be able to find which side of the 4 sided box to pry open with the finger – it feels perfectly symmetrical and I can’t tell without looking how to open it. The start/stop touch is sensitive, so I end up pausing music often when I slightly push the bud into my ear, or adjust it. I don’t need to do it often, and I know I can adjust it by holding it on the sides, but still, a quick push sometimes is all I need, but it stops the music. It would be absolutely cool to be able to reprogramme the touches, not only the touch-hold abilities. These 2 minor gripes are nothing to worry about though – these buds worth every penny, for me.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live are really comfortable and look sleek in the ear. The sound quality is impressive for their size, with clear highs and decent bass, and I like that they sit securely without feeling bulky. The touch controls are intuitive and convenient for calls and music. The main downsides are that the noise cancellation isn’t as strong as some other models, and they can feel a little loose during vigorous activity. Overall, they’re a solid pair of wireless earbuds that combine style, comfort, and good sound - just not flawless

I love these earbuds, so comfortable.

Najlepsze bezprzewodowe słuchawki douszne jakie kiedykolwiek miałem.

I did my research to find ear buds that don't hurt my ears. It led me to these. Not only can I wear them for an extended period of time comfortably, I can jog and they stay put! The sound is amazing and there is a noise canceling function that helps block out other sounds without having to have the volume up too loud. Definitely recommend!

Me gustaron mucho por el sonido y diseño que tienen, después de un rato no sientes que los llevas puestos y la batería de los audífonos dura bastante pero la de la caja no tanto, los tengo que cargar cada 2 días para que no se quede en cero

Ich schreibe nicht allzu oft Rezensionen. Aber weil gerade bei den Buds Live viel vorurteilsbehaftete Berichte durchs Netz schwirren, will ich doch mal ein paar Worte loswerden dazu. Direkt vorweg: Noise Cancelling ist praktisch nicht vorhanden. Aber jetzt mal ehrlich. Das sollte keinen überraschen. Ja, Samsung vermarktet das natürlich und es ist schon ein kleiner Effekt zu hören. Aber das ist natürlich nicht mit Kopfhörern zu vergleichen, die den Ohrkanal komplett abschließen oder mit richtigen Over-Ears, wie den Sony M4. Das war aber auch nie mein Kaufgrund. Ich wollte kleine Kopfhörer, die nicht in den Ohrkanal gesteckt werden, da ich darauf einfach nicht klarkomme. Man hört sich selbst komisch, es ist unangenehm zu tragen und ich fühle mich unwohl dadurch. Die bekannteste Alternative sind da natürlich die Airpods von Apple. Mein Problem damit: wenn der Akku durch ist, dann sind die nur noch Elektroschrott. Mittlerweile bietet Apple zwar zumindest die Rücknahme an, damit sie nicht auf den Müllbergen dieser Welt landen. Aber was weiß ich, was die damit wirklich machen. Da hatte mich dann tatsächlich überrascht, dass die Buds Live einen iFixit-Wert von 8/10 erhalten haben. Das ist viel wert, da man diese wohl doch sehr gut reparieren und auch die Akkus tauschen könnte und hat mich dazu bewegt, diese zu bestellen. Und was soll ich sagen: bei mir sitzen sie wirklich super und fest im Ohr. Ich habe den größeren Gummiring daran befestigt, aber auch der kleinere hatte schon einen guten Halt. Hat mich ja echt überrascht. Das mag je nach Ohrform mal besser und mal schlechter sitzen. Aber das ist bei Airpods oder anderen In-Ears auch nicht anders. Der Sound ist auch richtig gut. Die haben richtig Bass und klingen richtig gut. Habe den Equalizer aber auf Dynamic gestellt - klang für mich noch eine ganze Ecke besser als die normale Einstellung. Das Mikro geht wohl so. Konnte es bisher nur einmal ausprobieren und es klang wohl etwas entfernt und hohl. Aber auch das ist mir persönlich nicht so wichtig. Es wird ausreichen, wenn ich es mal tatsächlich nutzen wollen würde. Aber das wird kaum der Fall sein. Für iPhone-Nutzer noch ganz wichtig: man benötigt die Samsung Buds App, um Einstellungen vorzunehmen, wie z.B. auch den Equalizer. Die iOS Version ist da aber leider nur zweitrangig, wenn es darum geht, ob die App funktioniert oder nicht. Im App-Store wird da nämlich "Works on this Phone" angezeigt. Tatsächlich ist aber vor allem auch die Geräteversion wichtig. Ich habe zum Beispiel ein iPhone 6s und darauf läuft die App nicht. Man benötigt mindestens ein iPhone 7 dafür. Es reicht aber auch, wenn man ein anderes neueres Gerät hat oder leihen kann (ich habe z.B. noch ein iPad von 2019). Damit kann man die Einstellungen vornehmen und dann ist alles gespeichert. Man kann dann aber natürlich nicht mal zwischendurch einfach den Equalizer ändern. Das ist tatsächlich sehr schade und auch nicht verständlich, da auch ein 6s das aktuellste iOS und auch die gleiche Bluetooth Version hat. Das müsste viel offener kommuniziert werden, da das sicherlich für so einigen Frust sorgen wird. Alles in allem bin ich aber sehr zufrieden mit den Buds Live, weil sie einen richtig guten Sound haben, bequem sitzen und auch absolut stabil in der Verbindungsqualität sind. Fände ich es besser, wenn sie ohne ANC kommen würden und dann 50 Euro günstiger wären? Absolut. Aber es gibt keine andere vernünftige Alternative auf dem Markt, wenn man Probleme mit In-Ears hat, die in den Ohrkanal gesteckt werden.