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Comfy and fun
Google Pixel Buds Pro 2
Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 fix the biggest problem with their predecessors, offering a much more comfortable fit for easy all-day wear. Combine that with great customizable, balanced sound, fun colors, and support for Gemini Live, and it adds up to a compelling package.
Pros- Solid ANC and transparency modes
- Great fit and fun design
- Exceptional battery life
Cons- Gemini Live features are of dubious value
- New sound signature won’t appeal to everyone
- Some features require a Pixel phone
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A bold new design
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are a significant departure from the company’s traditional earbuds. While not all the design changes are positive, they deliver excellent sound, plus support for lossless audio and advanced Galaxy AI features — as long as they’re paired with a Samsung phone.
Pros- Excellent sound quality
- Very customizable audio settings
- Galaxy AI support
Cons- Awkward touch controls on stems
- Tricky ear tip design
- Most advanced features require a Samsung phone
Google and Samsung, two of the biggest heavyweights building the best flagship Android phones, have also been making bold strides among true wireless earbuds. And this may be the year they come into their own with premium picks.
However, despite coming from two of the best smartphone makers in the business, Google and Samsung’s earbuds couldn’t be more different in design and approach. That’s especially true of their latest models. Samsung appears to have thrown out its old playbook, switching from its traditional stemless designs and embracing the look made popular by Apple’s AirPods. Meanwhile, Google has taken a more iterative approach, with a smaller and lighter version of its flagship Pixel Buds that are still unmistakably on-brand.
Those aesthetic differences may be polarizing enough to help you make up your mind, but it’s what’s inside that truly counts. Have Google and Samsung upped their game in more ways than just appearance? Let’s find out how these two pairs of premium earbuds compare.
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Best wireless earbuds in 2024
Your ears deserve the best, so choose the best wireless earbuds
Price, availability, and specs
The Pixel Buds Pro 2 typically cost $230 and can be purchased through the Google Store or at major retailers like Amazon and Best Buy. The buds are offered in Porcelain, Hazel, Wintergreen, and Peony colors, but the outer case is white for all models.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro cost $250 in White and Silver with color-matched charging cases. You can pick them up from Samsung’s website and also the usual third-party retailers like Best Buy and Amazon.
Read Our Review
Review: The Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 are a bright spot in a dull market
A perfect fit with a little extra flair
Read Our Review
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro sound better than AirPods, but look like a cheap knockoff
An unoriginal design and QC issues are a concern
Design & fit
Comfy in their own ways
Google learned a few important design lessons from its original Pixel Buds Pro and used that knowledge to make some refreshing changes to its successor. The Pixel Buds Pro 2 features a more svelte design that offers a much better fit — including getting them into your ears and ensuring they stay there.
That comes courtesy of a new wing, which gives you something to hold on to while inserting them and keeps them firmly in place. Unlike the original Pixel Buds Pro, we had no worries they would pop out of our ears, even during a vigorous workout. They’re also light and comfortable enough to wear for hours.
The Pixel Buds Pro 2 ship with a range of ear tip sizes that should fit most folks, ranging from extra small to large. We also found you shouldn’t need to fuss with them as much as you did with the previous model to get a perfect fit. Those with cavernous ears may be disappointed by the lack of an extra-large size in the box, but thankfully, they use a standard internal stem design, so there’s no shortage of third-party options.
That’s a decided advantage over Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, which have so closely followed in the footsteps of Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 that they’ve also adopted the same snap-on tip attachment system. The lack of rigid internal stems may help improve comfort, but it also limits your options for replacements — and they’re trickier to swap out, to the point where Samsung has a dedicated support article to explain how to change them, complete with an instructional video.
While the attachment system is similar to Apple’s, we found Samsung’s tips more fragile to the point where they can tear if you’re not careful. Thankfully, you won’t have to remove the tips once you’ve found the right size, and Samsung includes the typical assortment of small, medium, and large tips to choose from.
Once we got the proper fit, we found the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro were more comfortable than they looked at first glance. The outer stems — what Samsung calls the “blades” — are more squarish and blocky than other AirPod-inspired buds like the OnePlus Buds 3, but that ends where the stems join the more contoured earbuds. The silver colorway with black and orange accents also helps set them apart, as do the LEDs along the stems.
The Pixel Buds Pro 2 and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro feature touch controls, with Google’s planted on the outer surface area of the earbud and Samsung’s along the back of the stems. Unfortunately, we found that position made them more prone to accidental touches during adjustments, yet they are not as easy to use when we actually wanted to change the volume or use pinch gestures to access other features. By comparison, Google has kept its gesture controls on the Pixel Buds Pro 2 the same as last year. They’re simple, intuitive, and work well.
For durability, Google has made both the earbuds and the charging case water-resistant, with an IPX4 rating for the case and an IP54 rating that also provides dust protection for the earbuds. Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro earbuds get a much better iP57 rating, but the case offers no water or dust resistance.
While the silver Galaxy Buds 3 Pro have a very classy look, it’s the only option beyond basic white. There’s no denying that Google leads the pack for more vibrant and whimsical colors, and the Pixel Buds Pro 2 continue that tradition with Porcelain, Hazel, Wintergreen, and Peony. There’s no black option, but Hazel comes pretty close, while Peony and Wintergreen are just downright fun and complement the Pixel 9 beautifully. The only catch is the cases are all still white on the outside and black on the inside, regardless of which color earbuds you opt for.
Sound & call quality
Impressive sound with ANC that’s good enough
The Pixel Buds Pro 2 deliver a more refined sound signature than their predecessors. The originals had an exaggerated V-shaped curve that emphasized the highs and lows, while this year’s buds have a more balanced sound stage. With most true wireless earbuds leaning heavily into the bass these days, we appreciated the Pixel Buds Pro 2 defaulting to a more neutral sound well-suited to a wider variety of genres.
However, it’s important to note that the Pixel Buds Pro 2 merely start in the middle. While the out-of-the-box settings will surely disappoint bass fans, they’re easily fixed in the companion app. We found a one-click heavy bass preset and a five-band EQ that let us tweak the sound to our liking without much effort. The same applies to fans of classical and jazz genres, where bringing out the mids is much more critical.
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro take the more typical approach, emphasizing the low-end. It’s full but not overpowering, but it still leans toward a more “modern” sound signature geared toward hip-hop and pop music. A nine-band EQ lets you tone that down, but we found the presets were still slanted more toward the bass line. The balanced option is a bit deceiving, as it still leaves too much of the low end and fails to bring out enough of the mids and highs; you’ll have to resort to the treble boost to really bring out instrumentals like acoustic guitar or the more subtle nuances in orchestral music. Still, those presets work reasonably well without too much fiddling, and once you’ve matched the sound to your preferred genre, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are some of the best-sounding true wireless earbuds in their class.
Sadly, the same can’t be said for active noise cancellation (ANC) on either set of earbuds. Both are good enough to drown out the everyday din of traffic and household distractions, but they won’t hold a candle to what flagships like Apple, Bose, and Sony offer in their higher-end models. The ear tips block a reasonable amount of noise on their own, and the ANC is roughly on par between them, with the Pixel Buds Pro 2 getting a very slight edge in blocking out lower-frequency sounds. We were quite happy with the ANC on both, and we think most folks will be satisfied with either.
Call quality is as expected from a set of true wireless earbuds, where the microphones are on the side of your head. Samsung’s triple-mic array offers slightly better call quality, which is also improved by the mics being located on the end of the stems. Both delivered good results, and no one had any problems hearing us during regular telephone conversations and video calls. Google and Samsung also offer audio enhancement features in their earbuds, but only if they’re paired with a compatible smartphone.
Software
Platform makes a difference
Although the Pixel Buds Pro 2 and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are standard Bluetooth headphones that can be paired with any smartphone or compatible device, you’ll need to use a Google or Samsung smartphone to get the most out of them.
The good news is that this is less of an issue for the Pixel Buds Pro 2. Spatial Audio and Bluetooth Super Wideband are only available on a Pixel 6 or newer smartphone (but not the A-series models), but the Pixel Buds app is available on the Play Store for any modern Android smartphone. Even support for Google’s Gemini Live, new to this year’s earbuds, isn’t limited to Pixel phones. Apple users are left out as there’s no iOS version of the Pixel Buds app, although the earbuds can still be paired with an iPhone or iPad as standard Bluetooth headphones.
Along similar lines, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro will provide a higher-quality listening experience with modern Samsung phones, thanks to support for Samsung’s own lossless 24-bit Samsung Seamless Codec. Everyone else gets AAC, but that’s on par with what Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 offer across all devices, for now at least. Bluetooth LE Audio went live after release, and there are rumors that support for a higher-quality LC3 codec could arrive in the future, but as of this writing, Google’s buds are limited to AAC.
Beyond sound quality, Samsung’s advanced software features are more of a mixed bag. While the Samsung Wear and Galaxy Buds apps are available for other Android devices and even iOS devices, many other features like automatic switching, hands-free voice commands, and Galaxy AI are exclusive to Samsung devices, and you won’t find the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro listed at all in the iOS app.
Nevertheless, both companion apps offer all the basic features you’d expect from these earbuds, including access to the five-band or nine-band EQ with a collection of useful presets, plus the ability to adjust the usual settings, such as assigning the buttons and gesture controls and enabling ANC and transparency modes.
Battery life
Plenty of listening time
Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 edge out the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, offering eight hours of battery life with ANC on, compared to six hours for Samsung’s earbuds. Their respective cases provide roughly three more top-ups, which works out to 30 hours overall for the Pixel Buds Pro 2 and 26 hours for the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.
If you’re willing to forego ANC, you can increase the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro’s listening time to seven hours, plus another 23 hours from the case for 30 hours.
The cases support quick charging, which takes around 10–15 minutes to get your earbuds up and running again for another couple of hours of listening time. They can be charged via USB-C or a standard Qi wireless charger.
Which is right for you?
It’s a close match between the Pixel Buds Pro 2 and the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, but for many, the decision will come down to the platform. The very simple answer for Pixel and Galaxy phone users is: buy the earbuds that match your phone.
That’s really all that needs to be said if you’re using a Google or Samsung phone. However, the best pick is a bit more nuanced if you’re using another Android handset. In this case, we think Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 come out slightly ahead by offering broader compatibility that’s not locked into a single platform.
Despite their name, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 can do more with non-Pixel phones than Samsung’s earbuds with non-Samsung devices. This includes automatic switching between devices and Gemini Live AI features — features that Samsung restricts to its own devices. Platform compatibility aside, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 also deliver slightly better ANC, a more balanced sound out of the box, more intuitive and less awkward touch controls, and a better fit with less frustrating ear tips.
Best overall
Google Pixel Buds Pro 2
Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 offer a few additional features for Pixel phone owners, but they’re surprisingly well-rounded earbuds for any Android device. They offer balanced sound that can be easily adjusted, exceptional battery life, and a more comfortable fit than ever. They’re available in some fun colors, too.
Nevertheless, Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are a much better choice if you’re using any recent Galaxy smartphone, as you’ll not only get advanced Galaxy AI features but also support for lossless audio thanks to Samsung’s Seamless Codec. While fit and finish are subjective, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro deliver some impressively advanced features — but only when they’re paired with a Galaxy phone.
Ideal for Samsung phones
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro have a new design that won’t appeal to everyone, but they still deliver great sound, reasonable battery life, and advanced Galaxy AI features — as long as they’re paired with a modern Samsung phone. However, other Android users are probably better off looking elsewhere.