The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 are arguably overdue – we've been patiently waiting for successors to the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 (which made their debut all the way back in August 2021). The more affordable Samsung Galaxy Buds FE launched in October 2023, and it's time for the more advanced Buds to make their debut.
The Samsung Buds 3 are extremely likely to launch today at the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event. Our Samsung Galaxy Unpacked July live blog will keep you up to date with any news and leaks before the event, and then we'll post all the announcements there as they happen. We also have TechRadar people on the ground at the Paris launch event, so we'll take a first look at any buds that appear right away.
As leaks about the Galaxy Buds 3 and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro have grown from a trickle to a torrent, it's pretty clear that we'll see the latest generation Galaxy Buds at that event; when even Galaxy Buds 3 unboxing videos leak within days of a whole bunch of leaked Galaxy Buds 3 images, you can be sure the launch is imminent.
We're expecting to see both sets of buds alongside the latest generations of other key Samsungs, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6.
Here are the leaks and rumors we've heard so far, together with what we're hoping for from the next set of Samsung Galaxy wireless earbuds.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3: expected release date and price
We've been hoping to see the Galaxy Buds 3 since 2023, but Samsung hasn't stuck to the two-year gap that there was between the first-gen Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds 2. Multiple regulatory filings confirmed that the buds were coming soon, so unless something massively unexpected occurs, they're going to be launched at the Samsung Unpacked Event on Wednesday 10 July 2024. That's when we'll surely officially see the Galaxy Buds 3, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, and a whole host of other Samsung gadgets.
Galaxy Buds 3 coming soon 👀April 16, 2023
One of the few things that hasn't leaked yet is the price. We hope that the Galaxy Buds 3 will follow Samsung's trend of offering affordable true wireless earbuds. Not necessarily as cheap as the best budget wireless earbuds, you understand, but close.
The Galaxy Buds 2 and original Galaxy Buds both launched for $150 / £139 / €149 / AU$219, so we really hope Samsung doesn't buck this trend upon releasing its third-generation, non-suffixed Buds.
Other wireless earbuds loosely meant to accompany smartphones also exist, of course, thus fostering brand loyalty within a beneficial ecosystem. And here Samsung comes off looking relatively affordable. Apple's closest rival for price, the AirPods 3, launched at $179 / £169 / AU$279 in October 2021 – and those basic AirPods don't include active noise cancellation while the Galaxy Buds do.
But Samsung isn't always the best budget option out there. The Nothing Ear (a) arrived in April 2024 (now a natural partner for the Nothing Phone 2a) with a price tag of $99 / £99 / AU$192, which equals the Samsung Galaxy Buds FE's price – but the Nothing outperform Samsung's most budget-friendly Buds. So the Buds 3 will need to justify their higher price than Nothing low-priced wonder-buds.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3: leaks and rumors
With just days to go before the expected launch of the Galaxy Buds 3 and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro we've been inundated with credible leaks.
At the time of writing, the most recent leak is a Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 unboxing video along with more leaked images. And just days before, notable industry leaker Evan Blass posted new high resolution photographs of two pairs of Galaxy Buds and two Galaxy Watch models on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter).
We've also seen a regulatory filing that gave us an early look at the Galaxy Buds 3. From that leak it appeared that the design of the earbuds had been tweaked slightly, giving off Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus vibes.
That leak didn't tally with more recent AirPods-esque stem design images, but those claimed to be for the Buds 3 Pro, which look significantly different to their siblings: Samsung is looking to launch (ahem) a stem sell experiment in its flagship Buds. Recent leaks also nod to a 'pinch' functionality, pointing to a similar feature in the AirPods Pro 2, and "blade lights", which are LED strips down the stems of the Buds 3 Pro.
More leaked images, shown in the tweet below, reveal a stylish and rather futuristic, AirPods-esque look, and a charging case to match. They certainly look like a quality pair of earbuds from this leak.
갤럭시 버즈3의 제품 이미지가 쿠팡에서 발견되었습니다. pic.twitter.com/aCWUEyigVdJune 20, 2024
One rumor that got our hopes up was the secret unveiling (which sounds like an oxymoron, but is essentially what happened) of a Samsung earbuds case with a screen – though that appears to be only a concept so far. Samsung says it has no plans to release this as an actual product, so sadly we're not going to see them on the Galaxy Buds 3.
One other thing we've seen recently is that the Galaxy Buds 2 now support real time translation, courtesy of the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy AI. Samsung has also gone on the record as saying more advanced health features are on the way, and the Galaxy Buds 3 could well play a part in that. Leaked promotional items for the next generation of Z Fold and Z Flip phones are pushing Samsung's Galaxy AI hard, so it's possible we'll see more of an AI focus in the Buds 3 Pro too. Leaked Buds 3 Pro marketing images have the tagline "where audio meets AI", although we don't yet know what that meeting actually entails.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3: what we want to see
Best thing about the entry-level Galaxy Buds 2? Probably the fun, light, compact and pebble-shaped earpieces and supremely pocketable square case. Oh, and the and fact Samsung was able to achieve such bijou proportions without losing Qi wireless charging. We hoped Samsung wouldn't ditch that – and the overall design language – for the Buds 3… but it looks like we didn't get that wish.
One aesthetic we would like Samsung to tweak? The glossy finish. A matte coat on the driver housing, (similar to that sported by the Buds 2 Pro) would aid both security and fingerprint smudges – although Sony has adopted a shinier approach with its Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds, so we may be out of luck there.
Now, sound quality. This year, rivals such as the excellent Sony WF-C700N are delivering much better audio at much lower price points (albeit without Sony's top-tier LDAC spatial audio or DSEE extreme upscaling engine), so we'd truly like to see some form of spatial audio here, which Samsung tends to call 360 audio. And it can be done at this level! Considering that the Sony WF-C700N offer both active noise-cancellation and Sony 360 Reality audio, it's very realistic.
The same leak that brought us marketing images with the "audio meets AI" line also referred to new internal drivers and improved battery life, but didn't go into detail.
Perks we'd like to see? The flagship Technics EAH-AZ80 now offer multipoint connectivity to three devices, not two – but we wouldn't expect to see that here, right? Well actually, Technics' step-down earbuds (the EAH-AZ60) offer it too, so if Samsung really wants to make us invest in its watches, tablets and folding phones in the hope of a truly stress-free homogenous ecosystem, it knows what it has to do…
Better ANC (besides the existing on or off, as you'll find in the Buds 2) is also a no-brainer of a request for us to make – and again, the Sony entry-level option listed above offers adaptive sound control (you can select 'Walking', 'Waiting', 'Travelling' or 'Registered places' in the app), which actually tailors the levels of noise nixing for you.
Samsung's Voice Detect, found in the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, is an excellent little perk meaning that when you pipe up vocally, Ambient mode and lower music volume is automatically deployed to make your conversation easier. After five, 10 or 15 seconds of no talky (you can choose in the app), the music simply returns to normal. We'd love to see this trickle down to the Buds 3.
Lastly, we really need to talk about battery life – a sore point across Samsung's entire Buds lineup. Samsung's output has typically only managed about five hours of playtime on a single charge, whereas the Sony WF-C700N manage 7.5 hours – and although the overall battery life from the older, still inexpensive Sony WF-C500 isn't amazing (there's only one extra charge in the case) you'll get 10 hours from the earbuds alone. We'd really hope for a little extra stamina from Samsung's next Galaxy Buds 3.
With these upgrades, we might soon be able to slip the soon-to-be-official Galaxy Buds 3 straight into our best noise-cancelling earbuds guide – and possibly even our top three ANC earbuds roundup too. For now, we wait…
