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Galaxy Buds3 Pro
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Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Were Pricier at Launch, But Now They’re Way Cheaper Than AirPods Pro 3

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We can’t blame you if you were planning on keeping your wallet stashed away until Amazon’s Fall Prime Day hits on Oct. 7-8, but the run-up to the big event is often where you can find sneaky-good deals as Amazon looks to clear out the shelves. We found this one today — 24% off the price of the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro, which brings their price down to just $190. That’s right in line with Apple’s AirPods 4 and a big drop from the closer-comparison AirPods Pro3.

The Galaxy Buds3 Pro got a full redesign from Samsung before dropping this past July, with an emphasis on comfort for long listening sessions. The sound is, of course, the amazing quality that Samsung’s famous for. And these buds are bolstered by Galaxy AI to enhance the noise cancellation, equalization, and more.

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Theater of the Mind

Whether you’re listening to your own playlist or connecting to your tablet or TV via Bluetooth, the surround sound from the Galaxy Buds3 Pro is so good and so immersive it’s like being in the theater, but the sound is all for you. Dual amplifiers and a 2-way speaker in each bud creates a 360-degree effect, and Galaxy AI powers an adaptive equalizer that optimizes the sound specifically for you.

You can disappear into the listening experience of the Galaxy Buds3 Pro regardless of where you are, because the Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation feature, also powered by Galaxy AI, intelligently adjusts the level of noise cancellation based on your surroundings, and changes is as the conditions around you change. You won’t want to put them down, and thanks to the comfort-enhancing redesign and long battery life, you won’t have to.

Futuristic Features

One of the most jawdropping features of the Galaxy Buds3 Pro is the real-time interpreter. When your Buds3 Pro are paired with a compatible Galaxy device, your can carry on a conversation with someone speaking a foreign language and hear the translation on your earbuds in real time. All you need is a Samsung account, from which you can download languages for free. (English and Spanish are pre-installed.)

Will there be incredible tech deals dropping during the two-day Fall Prime Day event? Of course. But consider the several days leading into the event a golden opportunity to find those under-the-radar bargains Amazon likes to drop as they get their inventory set for the big rush. This is most definitely one of them — a $60-off deal on Samsung’s newest and best wireless earbuds. Get the Galaxy Buds3 Pro for just $190 and beat the Prime Day rush.

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Gaming Gear

Pixel Buds Pro 2 get Adaptive Audio, gesture controls and more in latest update

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Google first teased some enticing upgrades for its Pixel Buds Pro 2 during the Made by Google event in August. More than a month later, Google is finally rolling out the update that makes its wireless earbuds earn the Pro label.

The Pixel Buds Pro 2 now get an Adaptive Audio feature in the Active Noise Control section of the Pixel Buds app. This ANC mode automatically adjusts the volume depending on your surrounding environment, balancing between hearing your music or podcasts and the world around you. If you want to drown out the outside world a little more, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 now also have the Loud Noise Protection feature, which can detect and reduce any sudden loud noises, like a passing ambulance siren or construction work. While these two features are already found in Apple’s AirPods Pro 3, they’re a welcome addition to the more affordable Pixel Buds Pro 2.

For anyone who frequently uses Gemini Live, you’ll notice that the AI assistant will be able to hear you better in noisy environments thanks to advanced audio processing that prioritizes your voice and eliminates background noise. For a truly hands-free experience, the update even adds gesture controls that let Pixel Buds Pro 2 users nod their head to answer a call or start dictation for a text reply and shake their head to decline a call or dismiss a text. Google is rolling out its 4.467 update to its users gradually, which takes about 10 minutes to download and another 10 minutes to install.



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Anker’s latest sleep buds can silence snoring
Gaming Gear

Anker’s latest sleep buds can silence snoring

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Anker’s latest Soundcore Sleep A30 sleep buds do what its A20 buds promised but couldn’t deliver: mask snoring. It accomplishes this with the inclusion of Active Noise Cancellation in the buds and a microphone inside the charging case that actively adjusts masking audio to cancel out the sound of sawing logs.

Of course I want that! said my monkey brain when I first saw those specs attached to slightly smaller earbuds, which should make them even more comfortable for side sleepers. But after testing them every night for the last month, I’ve come to a different conclusion. Then again, my bedtime buddy doesn’t usually snore.

$230

The Good

  • Masks light to moderate snoring
  • Good for side sleepers
  • Smaller than last generation

The Bad

  • ANC kills the small batteries
  • More expensive than predecessors
  • Unresponsive touch controls

First, I should explain how poorly I sleep. I listen to podcasts to quell my busy mind, and that means earbuds – Apple’s AirPods Pro, usually – to avoid disturbing my wife when falling asleep. To complicate matters, I wake up frequently each night, anywhere between one and about five times, requiring a podcast rewind and restart. And if I roll over I have to switch out earbuds since the AirPods are too big to sleep on. It sucks, but that’s my routine for years now.

Anker advertises 9 hours of battery life per charge with ANC enabled (extended to 45 hours with the case), but that’s only when you’re primarily listening to white noise or snore-masking sounds like rain, wind, and campfire crackles stored locally on the buds. If that works for you, then the A30 buds will easily make it through the night.

However, they last closer to 6.5 hours per charge if you’re primarily streaming audio over Bluetooth. At least twice a week, I’d wake before dawn and attempt to restart a podcast on dead earbuds, especially on nights when I got sucked into a doomscrolling session before falling asleep. I didn’t have that problem with the passive A20 sleep buds.

No wireless charging, these are USB-C only.

The buds can emit a stream of beeps if lost.

Next to my trusty AirPods Pro.

The buds really are small making them good for side sleepers.

The smaller A30s are more comfortable than the A20s when sleeping on my side. I still have to adjust my pillow just so to make sure the pressure isn’t too acute and that the audio isn’t muffled. And so far, I haven’t woken up with any soreness. Side sleeping with AirPods or any other popular earbuds just isn’t a possibility, so this is a major win for Anker.

To test the adaptive snore masking, I took advantage of Alexa’s ability to play snoring sounds on my original Amazon Echo speaker placed about a meter from my head. With the Soundcore charging case nearby, I tested the A30 buds with ANC turned on, with local snore-masking audio, and with podcasts streamed over Bluetooth. I did the testing with the Echo at volume levels of 3 (akin to my wife after too many glasses of wine), 6 (time to seek relationship counseling), and 9 (divorce!).

At volume level 3, the A30 sleep buds blocked the snoring 100 percent, or 90 percent with just ANC enabled and no masking sounds or podcast playing. It was so good that I had to remove the buds to make sure the snoring sound effects were still playing from the speaker. The buds with masking audio did a reasonable job at level 6, blocking about 70 percent of the sound — but I was able to clearly hear the repetitive drone next to me. At volume level 9, well, you can’t expect miracles.

Anker’s bedtime buds also offer a sleep tracking feature that gives a general sense of how well you slept, but with far too much confidence, enthusiasm, and specificity. For example, on one particularly restless night — I felt like shit after waking up 4 or 5 times over an eight-hour span, including a stretch from 4am to 5:15am where I listened to a podcast from beginning to end. Yet Anker congratulated me on an 87 sleep score, with a “Wow, you slept like a baby! Start your day in the best shape possible!” It also said I spent 29 percent of the night “prone,” even though I never sleep on my stomach.

The buds can supposedly detect when you fall asleep. However, I wonder if this is just a timer — they repeatedly shut off after about an hour of continuous use when watching a movie, for example.

I also found the touch controls to be unreliable. The buds respond to single or double taps to switch from Bluetooth to local modes, skip tracks, adjust volume, etc. Yet they fail frequently enough that I never expect them to register on the first attempt. And battery life is such that when the taps don’t register after a few tries, I just assume the buds have gone dead, only to launch the app and see they’re not. This isn’t what you want to deal with when trying to fall back asleep.

The buds can also be set to playback a wide variety of white noise and other audio soundscapes, with enough bubbling brooks and loon calls to make a spa operator swoon. The “AI Brainwave Audio” feature promises restful sleep by delivering different frequencies to each ear, which supposedly “helps sync your brainwaves with calming patterns to promote relaxation and restful sleep.” I found it pointless, but that bullet point sure looks like gee-whiz tech to investors and wellness nerds. I’m envious of you if these features can calm you and help you fall asleep, as Anker claims.

  • The Soundcore app offers personalization features like sleep reminders and alarms. I didn’t find them compelling enough to use or supplant what’s already available in iOS.
  • The case doesn’t offer wireless charging; it’s USB-C only.
  • Volume for local mode audio can’t be controlled from the phone’s volume buttons, only via the Soundcore app (or the tap controls on the buds if configured).
  • The sound emitted from the Find Device feature is loud enough to help find a bud lost in the sheets or under the bed.
  • The buds now include a microphone for making calls.

If, like me, you’re a side sleeper who likes to fall asleep listening to white noise or podcasts, then you can save a few bucks with the excellent Soundcore Sleep A20 buds, which can still be purchased for $179.99. Paying a $50 premium for the $229.90 Soundcore Sleep A30 buds will be easy to justify if they help restore sanity to anyone partnered up with a light to moderate snorer, assuming those tiny batteries last through the night.

All photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

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The translucent Beats Studio Buds Plus are half off
Gaming Gear

The translucent Beats Studio Buds Plus are half off

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Noise-canceling earbuds are great productivity tools, blocking out noisy roommates and busy coffee shops so you can focus on studying or work. While there are a number of great options these days, few are as eye-catching like the translucent Beats Studio Buds Plus. And right now, you can buy the stylish wireless earbuds for just $84.99 from Woot — a 50 percent discount and the best price we’ve seen outside of a brief drop to $63 earlier in June.

The wireless earbuds are some of our favorites, and not just because they look cool. Despite the fact Apple owns Beats, they play well with both iOS and Android devices. They don’t support every software feature — like Apple’s automatic device switching — but they still offer perks like one-tap pairing and integration with each platform’s respective Find My networks. Their sound quality also comes close to matching the latest AirPods Pro, and their active noise-cancellation does a good job of tuning out distractions — even if it’s not as powerful as Apple’s premium earbuds.

The Beats Studio Buds Plus are also comfortable, arriving with four swappable silicone ear tips. You also get IPX4 water resistance, as well as up to six hours of battery life on a single charge with ANC enabled. While we wish they also offered wireless charging and multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, all in all they’re a well-rounded option that can help you focus while looking good — especially if you own both iOS and Android devices.



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Google Pixel Buds 2A hands-on: ANC, Gemini, and replaceable batteries
Product Reviews

Google Pixel Buds 2A hands-on: ANC, Gemini, and replaceable batteries

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Four years after launching the original Pixel Buds A-series, Google’s back with the Pixel Buds 2A. The new budget buds are $30 more expensive at $129.99, but add some notable updates like an upgraded chip, Gemini access, a replaceable battery, and most importantly, active noise cancellation.

The 2A also adds a Tensor A1 chip, which Google says “unlocks the power of Google’s advanced AI and Gemini features.” That Gemini access was heavily emphasized during my briefings, though in practice it mostly replaces Google Assistant on the buds. For most people, the most exciting feature enabled by the new Tensor chip is active noise cancellation and a transparency mode. The acoustics have been re-engineered — there’s also AI-powered wind and background noise reduction for calls. Google says battery life has increased to roughly seven hours with ANC on and 10 hours with it off. The case holds an extra 20 hours of juice. Five minutes of charging also gets you about an hour of playtime. The buds also have improved IP54 water and sweat resistance, while the case gets an IPX4 rating.

Perhaps most interesting is that these buds are more repairable than the previous model. While fiddling around with the case at a hands-on, I was told that the inside insert pops out, allowing you to replace the battery when it gets old. This dovetails nicely with the Pixel Watch 4, which is also more repairable than previous versions.

These updates aren’t too shabby, but the Pixel Buds 2A aren’t exactly the stars of this year’s Made by Google announcements. While the Pixel 10 phones and the Pixel Watch 4 took center stage at my hands-on, the buds were sequestered to the side, next to the watch straps and other accessories. The units I was shown weren’t even connected, so I couldn’t try the noise-canceling features. Even if I could, a quiet Google office isn’t the ideal environment for getting an accurate sense of the buds’ noise-cancelling prowess. But, the design is familiar, the buds are still extremely lightweight, fit nicely (there are now four eartip sizes and no protruding fins), and the new purple color is fetching. I wish the cases supported wireless charging in addition to USB-C. You can’t have everything.

If there’s a clear theme to all these upgrades, it’s that Google is prepping its hardware for on-the-go AI. For the earbuds, that means futureproofing everything to work with Gemini. It’s the obvious reason for adding the Tensor A1 chip to its budget line, as well as the new noise reduction features that are also coming to the Pro 2. When you consider that the Pixel Watch 4 adds Gemini to the wrist, and that Google’s embarking on a new era of smart glasses with Android XR, the rationale for these particular updates starts falling into place.



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Samsung’s budget Galaxy Buds 3 FE are here
Gaming Gear

Samsung’s budget Galaxy Buds 3 FE are here

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The Fan Edition Galaxy Buds 3 have ditched the blob for a stemmed design popularized by Apple and found in Samsung’s higher end Galaxy Buds 3 models launched last year. The Galaxy Buds 3 FE arrive with improved sound, enhanced active noise cancellation, and IP54 resistance to dust and rain, according to Samsung.

For music, the Buds 3 FE promise 6 hours of listening with ANC on, or 8.5 hours with it off. Those numbers extend to 24 hours / 30 hours, respectively, when recharged in the case. Talk time is 4 hours with ANC on or off, which can be extended to 18 hours through case recharging.

The Buds 3 FE are also designed for seamless access to Galaxy AI capabilities on Samsung smartphones. A “hey google” or long press puts you in a conversation mode with Gemini or the Galaxy AI Interpreter app to translate someone speaking in another language.

Other specs in include Find My Earbuds support, an ambient sound transparency mode, voice isolation to help improve call quality in noisy environments, and the ability to auto-switch between Samsung devices.



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