This wireless earbuds guide explains the five best new features and improvements of Galaxy Buds Plus: longer battery life (11-hour non-stop playtime ), 2-way speaker. 3-microphone system, Spotify integration, and the Galaxy Buds+ app for iOS.
Although Galaxy Buds Plus was announced together with Galaxy S20, it works with all Android devices with Android 5 (Andriod Lollipop) or newer versions and most iOS devices. You can also use Galaxy Buds Plus as a universal Bluetooth headphone on almost all platforms with Bluetooth audio support.
Of course, like Galaxy Buds, Galaxy Buds+ works best with Samsung Galaxy phones with Android Nougat 7.1 or later with the Samsung Scalable Codec. Samsung Seamless Codec, the new generation of Scalable Codec is currently only supported on Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. You may check this guide on Bluetooth codecs for wireless earbuds.
Galaxy Buds Live, Galaxy Buds Pro, and Galaxy Buds 2 (all with active noise cancelling) were released as an upgrade for Galaxy Buds Plus.
Samsung Galaxy Buds already has a decent battery time. You can use the buds for about 6 hours in one charge. The charging case offers an additional 6 hours of playtime.
Now, Samsung further improved the battery life for the Galaxy Buds+ for about 50%.
You can continuously use the Galaxy Buds+ for more than 11 hours in one charge. The charging base gives another 11+ hours.
In addition to the longer battery life, Samsung Galaxy Buds+ also charges faster. You can use the Galaxy Buds+ for one hour after charging it for 3 minutes. As a comparison, you need to charge the Galaxy Buds 15 mins to get a battery life of 100 mins.
Anyway, no other wireless earbuds can match the battery life of Galaxy Buds Plus currently. We consider the longer battery life is one of the best new features and improvements of Galaxy Buds Plus.
Please note, you can ow check the battery level of the earbuds and the charging case with a widget on your Android phone.
The tiny Galaxy Buds+ now features a 2-way speaker, which is seldom found in other wireless earbuds.
The combination of a woofer for the low and mid-range sound and a tweeter for high-frequency sound technically can significantly improve the sound quality, if tuned properly.
It seems the best (balanced) sound quality can be achieved when you set the equalizer to dynamic for Galaxy Buds Plus.
If you choose the equalizer to normal, it is hard to differ Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds+.
In short, the 2-way speaker technically will provide better sound quality. But it depends on the usage.
Like Samsung Galaxy Buds, Galaxy Buds Plus does not offer active noise cancelling.
The additional microphones are mainly used to cancel noises when you speak to the microphones (e.g. on a call). So, you can be heard clearly by the other party.
On Galaxy Buds, there is a 2-microphone array. One microphone in the outside of the buds, and the other inside your ear canal.
Galaxy Buds Plus adds one more microphone in the outside of the buds. So, the Galaxy Buds+ can pick up and preserve your voice against background noises better.
Comparing to Galaxy Buds, you can hear the improved the call quality very easily in most cases. This is one of the most useful new features and improvements of Galaxy Buds Plus.
The deep integration of Spotify with Galaxy Buds+ lets you hold the touchpad to launch Spotify on the connected device directly.
Spotify will resume the play or play a recommended list depending on where you left. You do not need to do anything on the phone.
Of course, this is just one additional option for the holding gesture on the touchpad. But it is extremely convenient if you are a Spotify user.
FYI, Samsung has preinstalled Spotify on all of their Galaxy phones since 2019 in most regions as Samsung stop their own music services (Milk Music).
Apple created a high barrier for non-AirPods wireless earbuds. They want iOS users to use their overpriced AirPods, AirPods 2, AirPods 3, or the latest AirPods Pro.
Galaxy Buds+ is a direct competitor to AirPods 2 in terms of price and sound quality.
Compared to AirPods 2, Galaxy Buds+ excels in battery life and comfort.
If you compare AirPods Pro with Galaxy Buds+, you can find Galaxy Buds+ is far cheaper ($100 cheaper) than AirPods Pro and has longer battery life. Of course, AirPods Pro has advantages in active noise cancelling and integration with iOS.
Anyway, to expand the user base beyond Android, Samsung released an iOS app for Galaxy Buds Plus.
The app works very well, just like the Galaxy Buds plugin for the Galaxy Wearables app on Android devices. But the app supports Galay Buds+ (and Galaxy Buds Live
) only, not the 2019 Galaxy Buds. For this reason, the app was poorly rated by many Galaxy Buds owners.If you own Galaxy Buds+ and iOS devices, you should try this app. You will enjoy it and forget about AirPods 2 or even AirPods Pro.
Samsung Galaxy Buds+ (MSRP $149) is the top choice of wireless earbuds under $150. Even for iOS users, it is recommended over AirPods 2.
The new features and improvements of Galaxy Buds Plus justify the $20 difference between Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds+.
If you have any questions or want to share your thoughts on the new features and improvements of Galaxy Buds Plus (vs Galaxy Buds), you may let us know in the comment box below.
The community will help you.
You can check this guide on how to use Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds+.
You may check Headphone 101 for detailed explanations of headphone technologies and terms.
For Bluetooth headphone guides, please check the Bluetooth headphones section.
Sports headphones section is dedicated to guides on sports headphones.
Active noise-cancelling headphone guides can be found in the Noise-canceling headphones section.
This post was last modified on November 18, 2023
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