Samsung updates its earbuds. Both earbuds may have the same name and are released one after the other. Let’s compare the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live vs Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus.
Samsung Galaxy Buds Live vs Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus Review
Design
The biggest thing that lets’s get that out of the way is the main difference in design. One of these, the Galaxy Buds Plus, is a standard true wireless earbud design with a rubber or silicone ear tip that goes straight into your ear and creates a seal.
So it closes you off from external noise. As far as the Galaxy Buds Live, they are more of an open-ear design where they sort of sit snugly in your ear; it places a driver facing into your ear canal.
But it still allows plenty of external noise to come in. You always maintain situational and ambient awareness. So that is a very fundamental difference between both of these earbuds.
I am biased as far as this is concerned because I am not a big fan of open-ear design-type earbuds, whether it be something similar to Apple’s original Airpods.
I prefer the standard-style earbuds similar to the Galaxy Buds Plus. So as far as design and on a personal level, I prefer that.
So that’s why for me, that’s what gets the win here, but it comes down to what you need and prefer. Regarding a design choice, it will come down to your needs.
Price
Secondly, let’s move to the price. So as far as the Galaxy Buds Live, they come in at $169.99, with the Galaxy Buds Plus at $139.99. They’ve got a bit about $30 worth of a price difference.
So, nothing too crazy, but it is understandable, being that the Galaxy Buds Live do have active noise cancellation. So that is probably the reason for that price increase.
The win will go to the Galaxy Buds Plus if you want to save a few bucks. And then that will bring us over to the mics and the call quality.
Both of these are still featuring a triple mic setup. They do an excellent job of picking up your voice. They do a pretty good job of blocking outback noise.
But let me go ahead and play you some call-quality samples here. You can be the judge for yourself in a quiet environment and one with simulated crowd noise.
Battery Life
Now let’s transition over to the battery life of these earbuds. With the Galaxy Buds Live, they will give you eight hours’ worth of playback time with the active noise cancellation turned off.
They will give you around five or six hours with the ANC turned on and an additional 21 hours in the case.
When it comes to the Galaxy Buds Plus, they will give you somewhere around 11 to 12 hours with the ambient turned off and somewhere around eight hours with the ambient turned on, with an additional 11 hours in the case.
If you judge these based on sheer playback time, the winner would obviously be the Galaxy Buds Plus. But I think overall has to come into play here with the case included and recharged available.
So, for me, the Galaxy Buds Live will take the win in the battery department because they seem to be giving you a slight edge over the Galaxy Buds Plus in total battery life.
ANC
Let’s move over to the active noise cancellation and ambient sound. So far as the Galaxy Buds Plus do not have active noise cancellation, but they do have one of the best implementations of an ambient sound type feature.
Even out of the box, when you just activate it by itself, it’s perfect, it picks up a lot of the external noise around you, and it sounds pretty good overall. You can adjust the ambient sound’s volume level when you get into the Galaxy Buds Plus app.
Going into the little Labs tab, you can activate a fourth level, which pumps up the volume and gives you almost mutant-like hearing. But you must be careful because it will pick up loud noises and pump them straight into your ears.
So be careful with that function. With the Galaxy Buds Live, you’ve got a natural ambient sound because they don’t seal inside your ear. You do have active noise cancellation, and that ANC does work.
It will block out a bunch of low-frequency noise in your area. But this caught me by surprise. If you did in the menus of the Galaxy Buds Live app, you would find a setting that is ambient sound.
They called it something like pressure relief. If you click that one, you’ll notice that it will activate microphones and create an ambient sound on top of the natural ambient noise. It is a bit weird, but it is there.
This is why I would give the win to the Galaxy Buds Live because not only do they give you active noise cancellation, but they’re also giving you ambient awareness.
Sound Quality
So now that’s going to bring us over to the sound quality. So both of these earbuds about each other have a very different sound signature, at least to my ears.
The Galaxy Buds Live will give you a warmer, more expensive sound. At the same time, the Galaxy Buds Plus are tuned closer to the Harman curve, a sound signature that is less offensive to most people.
It’s more balanced, not so bass-heavy, whereas the Galaxy Buds live are much more bass-heavy, and that’s the main difference between the two, as far as that goes.
For me, just sheer sound quality is concerned, I most definitely prefer the Galaxy Buds Plus over the Galaxy Buds Live.
Now, that also has a bit to do with the fact that they seal in my ear and create a quieter environment, allowing me to hear more detail and clarity in the music that the Galaxy Buds Live can’t match.
So, it’s not, I’m not saying that they don’t have trouble, but it’s mostly concentrated in the base and the midst.
If you are okay with that sound, it will probably be your better choice. But I will roll for sound quality with the Galaxy Buds Plus here.
Conclusion
These two earbuds are concerned; these are products that are designed for two separate people.
So, some people prefer that open ear type design, where they can hear everything around them, and they don’t like having those ear tips stuck into their ears.
So, what it all comes down to is what you prefer. I Hope Samsung Galaxy Buds Live vs Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus helps you to choose your product.