In the “Galaxy Unpacked 2020” event held on August 5th, Samsung officially launched a new generation of true wireless headphones. This wireless headset called Galaxy Buds Live was first exposed at the beginning of this year. The unique design resembling a “broad bean” made people eye-catching, and it also gave rise to ridiculous titles such as “waist” and “bean”.
As Samsung’s first true wireless headset equipped with ANC technology, about the actual experience of Galaxy Buds Live, if you are interested, you can read this article.
With a weird appearance like a bean, and support for active noise reduction, these unknown upgrades make people think that this may be the masterpiece of the Galaxy Buds series, and some people joked that this is the real “noise reduction bean.”
After the global release of the Note20 series, Galaxy buds Live was also officially released, and I have been listening to it for a few days. Next, I will talk about the experience of using it over the past few days.
- Wearing Experience
The charging case of Galaxy Buds Live has changed from its sleek shape to a squarer shape. I got the mist gold, very clean and beautiful.
First of all, the most worried thing is actually the problem of wearing comfort. If it’s an in-ear earphone, I’m not worried at all, because in-ear earphones can’t be comfortable for you to wear. Although the part of Air Pods Pro that extends into the ear canal is very narrow, many people still cannot adapt.
The secrets of Air Pods Pro without getting too deep to get good sound insulation is that the shape of most people’s ear concha cavity is thoroughly studied, so that it can fit better and get better airtightness.
What is the concha cavity is actually the structural part responsible for holding the earphone when you use the earphone? It is very like a pit. You can put the earphone into it and tighten it to get the best sound effect.
Since true wireless earphones do not have any other support, they all need to rely on the concha cavity to hold the earphones. Therefore, the shape of the concha cavity and the design of the earplugs themselves are very important. Fortunately, most people have the shape of the concha cavity. They are all relatively regular, and it is also one of the most important factors for Air Pod Pro to be well received.
Having said so much, why should you worry about Galaxy Buds Live, because this earplug is indeed very unusual.
When I first saw this headset, my intuition was that it should be called Galaxy Buds Bean, because the design is too long like a broad bean, almost exactly the same in shape and size, and even seems to have a bite Illusion in the mouth.
After actually putting Galaxy Buds Live lightly into my ears, I suddenly felt that this was wrong. Judging from the photos, the whole headset is not sticking to the ear vertically in the Samsung promotional video, but has been pressed into a sideways by me. Could it be that I was wearing the wrong one again?
After trying a few times, I’m sure I did not wear it wrong, maybe Samsung’s promotional video is also correct, because as I said above, everyone’s ear shape is different, and it may be the same as mine. The above is different.
This also reveals the fact-my wearing experience may not be suitable for you.
Another foreign media, GSMArena, believes that whether it is in-ear or non-in-ear design, it ultimately depends on the personal preferences of consumers. The former can provide stronger sound insulation and often has some “innate advantages” in bass performance. The advantage of non-in-ear design headphones like Galaxy Buds Live is that it has a more comfortable wearing experience:
“We have obtained different wearing feedback on different colleagues in the office. Some people find it difficult to wear the Galaxy Buds Live firmly, while others find it just right. Generally speaking, for colleagues who feel that they are not wearing it properly, when After we changed the earbuds and wingtips to their Galaxy Buds Live, the situation has improved a lot.”
- AKG’s Tuning Is Trustworthy
The inside of the Galaxy Buds Live is equipped with a 12mm speaker tuned by AKG, supplemented by a bass tube that can enhance low-frequency sound, and the vents can balance the internal and external pressure of the headset, and relieve the pressure of wearing the headset for a long time.
Harman Kardon, the parent company of AKG, was acquired by Samsung in 2017. If you have read some evaluations about headphones, you should have heard the term “Harman curve” more or less. In short, it is a set of frequency response curve tuning that is most suitable for the human ear after research. As long as AKG is responsible for the tuning of Samsung’s headphones, the actual listening experience is pretty good.
So, we still focus on another long-awaited feature-active noise reduction.
Although it is a semi-in-ear wireless headset, Galaxy Buds Live is equipped with active noise reduction technology. Samsung said that ANC can reduce interference while allowing the wearer to perceive external sounds, and can reduce up to 97% of low-frequency noise without High-frequency sounds such as human voices and notifications, which will be missed.
Active noise reduction is not a necessary skill for true wireless earphones. Tirck Air+, the first bird with active noise reduction, did not cause any disturbances. Until the emergence of Air Pods Pro, the direct active noise reduction ability of true wireless earphones Pulled down a new ceiling.
The true wireless headsets released in the last year, as long as they are positioned more high-end, more or less have a certain active noise reduction capability, but for Samsung, which has a good reputation, the later the launch of the active noise reduction function, the better pressure.
Galaxy Buds+ is good everywhere, the sound is good, and the battery life is high enough. The delay problem that has always been criticized also has a game mode as a solution, but there is no active noise reduction that many people expect.
At that time, I thought that Samsung might be copying Apple’s routines. Galaxy Buds+ is just a minor upgrade. There will be new models with active noise reduction soon, and it is estimated that they will adopt a different design. I found it later.
- Spear and Shield of Ambient Sound and Active Noise Reduction
Regarding the effect of active noise reduction, I must first declare: on a semi-open earphone, you will never get the same airtightness and noise reduction effect as an in-ear earphone.
The picture is given first. Let’s actually take a look at the active noise reduction capability of Galaxy Buds Live. Officially described as being able to eliminate 97% of low-frequency noise, it sounds quite powerful. The question is how low is this low frequency? Just get on the subway and experience it.
The conclusion is that Galaxy Buds Live can eliminate the first type of noise very well, but can do nothing for the remaining noise. With the semi-open design, except for the lowest frequency noise is eliminated, the remaining noise will enter your ears.
The noise in the subway can basically be divided into several kinds of noise superimposed and mixed, including the lowest frequency “boom”, which should be the noise of the power plant, the friction sound of the wheels and the track, and the airflow sound formed in the narrow passage. And the voices of passengers in the subway, etc.
The conclusion is that Galaxy Buds Live can eliminate the first type of noise very well, but can do nothing for the remaining noise. With the semi-open design, except for the lowest frequency noise is eliminated, the remaining noise will enter your ears.
- Good Call and Battery Life Experience
After talking about the sound quality, let’s talk about how the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live performs in terms of calls. As mentioned earlier, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live uses a three-microphone array. The first and second microphones are placed outside the headset. They play a role in enhancing the human voice and isolating background interference. The third microphone is hidden inside the headset. The unit, used in conjunction with an external microphone, can effectively lock the sound source through beamforming technology.
Secondly, Samsung Galaxy Buds Live also added voice pickups. Its magic is that it can use an accelerometer to sense the movement of our jaw and bone conduction vibration, which can be converted into a voice signal. In layman’s terms, when we speak, it can respond in time and effectively.
Regarding the functions mentioned above, we have also conducted actual tests. Walking on noisy streets, or in crowded places such as shopping malls, subways, etc., when using Samsung Galaxy Buds Live to call, there will be no inaudibility or Can’t hear the sound in the headset. And we don’t have to shout “ah, ah” to reply to each other, and speak normally, so that the family or colleagues on the other end of the headset can receive the sound information we send out completely.
In addition, in terms of intelligent experience, using Samsung Galaxy Buds Live can easily wake up the Bixby voice assistant and let it help us complete the corresponding operations. When paired with a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or tablet, we can also turn on the “Game Mode” in the Galaxy Wearable APP laboratory menu. The actual test experience is that even if you are playing games that are very sensitive to delay, such as audio games, they basically feel there is no delay.
In terms of battery life, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live can have about 6 hours of battery life with only headphones. With a charging box, it can get up to 29 hours of battery life. Like my usual commuting, it basically charges once a week. In terms of charging speed, Samsung Galaxy Buds Live can continue to play music for 1 hour after charging for only 5 minutes. Even if the headphones are out of power, a temporary charging for 5 minutes is sufficient for emergency.
As for the delay, I also mention it here. In terms of latency, AREGINA also tested it, and the effect of Galaxy buds Live is a little better than Galaxy buds. From my own experience, the delay of Galaxy buds Live is still OK.
- Is Galaxy Buds Live Worth Buying?
If you want to experience excellent sound quality and need a comfortable wearing experience without the dull feeling of in-ear headphones, Galaxy buds Live is worth it, and its noise reduction and battery life are also very good. From my own experience, as a true wireless noise reduction Bluetooth headset, Galaxy buds Live is a very nice choice besides Air Pods Pro and Sony noise reduction beans.
Through my experience, I can roughly summarize the following advantages of Galaxy Buds Liv:
1. Comfortable wearing experience.
2. Sound quality and call sound quality are good.
3. Good endurance.
4. The low-frequency noise has a good noise reduction effect.
5. There is a supporting App for operation.
But it also has some disadvantages:
1. Wearing requires a proper angle to be more stable.
2.Slightly weaker physical noise reduction.
As a new generation of Samsung Galaxy Buds series, Samsung Galaxy Buds Live innovative appearance design brings us a very good experience in wearing comfort. The important thing is that the sound quality and call are significantly upgraded, such as the addition of the open ANC function, the blessing of the adaptive three-microphone system, etc., which make its product strength more obvious.
