The Galaxy Buds+ land with the best battery life among true wireless earphones
Believe it or not, the fact that they come as a gift with the Galaxy S20 series pre-orders isn’t the only thing that the new Galaxy Buds+ have going for them. We’ve been playing with the new earphones for a while, and came away thoroughly impressed by the price-to-audio-to-battery-life ratio.
Galaxy Buds+ features and specs
As usual, they are “tuned by AKG,” too, and we found the audio output to be above average, with the notable lack of active noise cancellation. Apart from these major enhancements, Samsung has managed to vastly improve the fast charging capabilities of its true wireless earphones too, as the Galaxy Buds+ will deliver a whole hour of playtime after just 3 minutes of charging.
Other notable upgrades seemingly include multi-device connectivity, a 2 way dynamic speaker with a woofer and a tweeter, two outer microphones instead of only one, and an improved touch pad with a direct link to Spotify.
Galaxy Buds+ price and battery life
That bundled case, for which Samsung doesn’t charge extra (cough, Apple, cough), is set to make a smaller leap from a 252 to a 270mAh battery capacity, compared to the Buds one, which nevertheless is enough to double the aforementioned 11-hour autonomy, and then some.
If you run out, you can top up the case with your brand spanking new Galaxy S20 model via reverse wireless charging, and not be worried about draining its huge battery. That’s because, even though the Buds+ have a much larger 85mAh battery compared to the 58mAh in each Bud, the cumulative capacity is a chump compared to, say, the 5000mAh juicer of the S20 Ultra.
Galaxy Buds+ vs AirPods vs Amazon Echo Buds specs and price comparison
| Active noise cancellation (ANC) | Battery life | Features | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy Buds+ ($149) | No | 11 hours Charges in the wireless case – 1.3 |
– IPX2 sweat- and water-resistance – Four finishes (red, blue, black, white) – Google Assistant integration – Touch controls |
| Apple AirPods 2 ($199 w/ charging case) | No | 5 hours Charges in the case – 4 |
– IPX2 sweat- and water-resistance – One finish – Siri voice assistant – Touch controls |
| Samsung Galaxy Buds ($129) | No | 6 hours Charges in the case – 2 |
– IPX2 sweat- and water-resistance – Two finishes – Google Assistant integration – Touch controls |
| Amazon Echo Buds ($130) | Sort of, Bose’s Noise Reduction tech | 5 hours Charges in the case – 3 |
– IPX4 sweat- and water-resistance against splashes – One finish – Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri – Touch controls |