62 T3 DECEMBER 2020State of the art
SAMSUNG GALAXY BUDS LIVE
You’d think they’d fall out
of your ears but they sit
very securely in place
The really impressive bit is that when you turn on the
Buds Live’s active noise cancelling, everything suddenly
sounds much better. Not as good as the Bose or Jabra,
admittedly, but certainly better than AirPods. When you
consider how much cheaper these are than the Bose or
Jabra – the RRP may be £179 but you can often find Buds
Live on sale around the £130 mark – you realise just how
good they are.
Battery life is not bad at six hours with ANC turned on
and eight hours with it off. The case adds a further 15
hours or 21 hours respectively. That is not dissimilar to the
Bose QuietComfort, but Buds Live are way more compact.
If you’re looking for a good value pair of true wireless
buds that can be worn in a similar way to AirPods, but
which are also capable of a musical performance that is
more comparable to AirPods Pro, Samsung Galaxy Buds
Live could be just what you’re looking for. Oh, and if you
absolutely love Bixby, Samsung’s AI assistant you will love
Buds Live even more, as they can activate it without even
needing a wake word.SAMSUNG
GALAXY
BUDS LIVE
PRODUCT 02:
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HLJKWKRXUV7KHFDVHDGGVDIXUWKHUKRXUVRUKRXUVUHVSHFWLYHO\lenty of true wireless buds have tried to
compete with (or rip off) Apple AirPods, and
quite a few are close competitors to AirPods
Pro. Galaxy Buds Live from Samsung are the
first buds we can think of that attempt to do both at once,
however. What’s truly impressive is that they have a very
good stab at it.
What many people love about AirPods – aside from the
look – is that they are much more loose fitting than most
earbuds. As a result they let you hear what’s going on
around you, and can be worn for prolonged periods,
whether you’re listening to music, making calls or
communing with Siri. The bean-shaped Buds Live take a
completely different design approach but pull off a similar
trick. You’d think from looking at them that they would
be falling out of your ears but Samsung’s legume-
resembling earbuds actually sit very securely in place,
without penetrating your ear hole at all.
They sound perfectly alright in their standard mode as
well. As with AirPods, the downside to the comfortable fit
is that there is a lack of sonic isolation, which means audio
is less impressive than on the other buds reviewed here.
But they sound good enough for casual use.A unique combination of noise cancelling
and bean resemblanceP