Samsung Galaxy Buds Live review – unique design, rich audio experience

• The Galaxy Buds Live are the latest pair of truly wireless earbuds from Samsung.
  
• Featuring a ‘bean’ design, the Galaxy Buds Live promises to offer a unique experience at a price of ₹14,990.
  
• The Galaxy Buds Live offers a snug fit thanks to the bean design, along with improved audio performance over the previous generation.
  
• However, are they worth their price? Read on to find out.
  

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live are the latest in line of truly wireless earbuds from the company. These third-gen earbuds in the Galaxy Buds line-up come with a unique design – radically different from the Galaxy Buds and the Galaxy Buds Plus.

Designed to look like they’re a part of the human ear, the Galaxy Buds Live are refreshing to look at after a stream of circular earbuds or the stemmed ones that stick out from the ears. But is design the only thing that is great about the Galaxy Buds Live?

I’ve been using these new earbuds from Samsung for a while now. Read my review to find out if you should buy the Galaxy Buds Live.

Samsung Galaxy Buds Live price

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live are priced at ₹14,990 in India. They come in three colours – black, bronze and white. You can buy them from Amazon, Samsung India’s online store, and authorised Samsung partners across the country.


Samsung Galaxy Buds Live design – cool beans

The standout feature of the Galaxy Buds Live is, without a doubt, the design. They were initially named Galaxy Beans, which does make a lot of sense. They look exactly like two pieces of a bean.


It’s quite possible that you might find the design to be a bit weird – after all, we’re used to seeing earbuds with circular or stem designs.

But the uniqueness of the Galaxy Buds Live are what sets them apart. They integrate well with the ear. They don’t stick out, so you can go about your lives without many people realizing that you’re wearing a pair of earbuds.

The Galaxy Buds Live fit really well in my ear, but it is worth noting that this might not be the case for everyone.

They are also extremely light, which allows you to wear them for hours at a time without any issue.

One side-effect of the snug fit is that they’re harder to pull out of ears when compared to a regular pair of earbuds. It’s not a big deal, though.


Samsung Galaxy Buds Live – pairing the beans with your phone

The Galaxy Buds Live are as easy to pair like any other Bluetooth device. You simply have to turn on Bluetooth on your phone and then open the charging case. Once the phone detects the Galaxy Buds Live, a pop-up asks you to confirm the pairing request.


This entire process is smooth and quick. You can download the Galaxy Wearable app to further customize the experience, but it’s not mandatory.

It gets even better if you have a Samsung phone – the process is more streamlined and quicker since the Galaxy Wearable app is pre-installed.

Samsung Galaxy Buds Live performance

The Galaxy Buds Live promise to offer a great audio experience, thanks to features like Active Noise Cancellation (ANC).


In terms of real-world experience, the Galaxy Buds Live sounds great for the most part. The audio is rich with clear and pleasant lows, no matter what genre of music you prefer. The bass is a little on the lower side, but Samsung has struck a balance in terms of audio performance.

The Galaxy Wearable app allows you to customize the audio experience with six different sound modes in the Equalizer. You can also toggle ANC depending on your needs, but it’s too subtle to matter anyway.

In addition to this, the app also lets you customize touch controls for media control, call management and more. The Galaxy Buds Live also lets you wake up your Samsung phone using Bixby, which can be useful when you cannot touch your phone.

Samsung Galaxy Buds battery life – can last an entire week

The Galaxy Buds Live are rated to last up to 8 hours, with the charging case adding another 20 hours. This is if you have ANC and Bixby wake disabled.

In real-world usage, I found that the Galaxy Buds Live lasted for 6-7 hours with a lot of calls and some music throughout the day. With the case, it lasted an entire week on a single charge for me, but this will vary amongst different users.

Conclusion

The Galaxy Buds Live are a definite improvement over the Galaxy Buds Plus, which was impressive too. The design is its unique selling point, but it’s not just that – Samsung has also worked on improving the build quality, the charging case now feels a lot sturdier, and the audio performance is great too.

If you are looking for a pair of truly wireless earbuds under ₹15,000, the Galaxy Buds Live stand out in a sea of AirPods clones.

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Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus bring good sound and battery life in a neat package

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