Since launching with its first generation in 2021, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro series have been some of the best wireless earbuds you can buy.
But following the second generation last year, Samsung chose not to update them in 2023, only providing the mid-range Galaxy Buds FE, which don’t quite scratch the itch for serious audiophiles.
Good news for said audiophiles: according to SamMobile’s sources, Samsung will release its Galaxy Buds 3 Pro next year. The site is pretty clear that it doesn’t know exactly when, but speculates that the earbuds could launch alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6. If Samsung follows its recent foldable release schedule, that would mean a new flagship set of wireless earbuds next August.
The site is equally in the dark about what features Galaxy Buds 3 Pro will bring. At the very least, we’d expect improvements to sound quality, active noise cancellation (ANC) and battery life, as this is what most earbuds and headphones bring between generations. With two years between the two, this might be a bigger leap than you’d get from an annual upgrade, too.
Beyond that, and in pure speculation territory, it’s also possible Samsung will be planning on adding some health features to mimic Apple’s rumored plans. This wouldn’t necessarily need additional hardware: a recent Google study proved that you can measure heart rate via ANC microphones.
Whatever Samsung has in store, there’s definitely cause for optimism. The original Samsung Galaxy Buds were a solid first step, scoring four stars in our review, but the second generation were a big improvement, offering a lighter, more comfortable design, significantly better noise cancellation and improved audio. That was enough to earn an extra half star and high praise from our audio specialist Alex Bracetti.
“It took several attempts, but Samsung finally has a serious AirPods Pro rival, at least for Galaxy owners,” he wrote in our four-and-a-half star Galaxy Buds 2 Pro review.
“Sound alone makes the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro worth the investment, giving you a high quality audio experience and compelling 3D sound with precise head tracking. Samsung’s ANC holds its own against the category best and blocks out close to 90% of ambient noise.”
But battery life proved disappointing, providing just five hours of use with ANC on, and a tendency to drop by one to two hours if listening at high volume or with special features enabled. The earbuds are undoubtedly expensive, too, coming in at $229 — a $30 increase on the first generation.
Hopefully Samsung will be able to keep the price static this time around — or at least come up with enough new selling points to justify another bump. We’ll find out at some point next year, assuming SamMobile’s sources are solid.
