The Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are terrific wireless earbuds, and we have been really happy with them. However, that doesn't mean they had no room for improvement.
If you have Samsung's existing flagship earbuds, this Galaxy Buds 3 Pro vs. Galaxy Buds 2 Pro comparison will help you decide whether or not you need to upgrade to the newer ones.
Galaxy Buds 3 Pro vs Galaxy Buds 2 Pro
We usually don't recommend upgrading to newer products every year, but Samsung has outdone itself with the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.
The newer earbuds offer improvements in almost all aspects, including audio quality, call quality, controls, customization, and battery life, compared to the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.
While the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro uses a dual-driver setup with dynamic drivers, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro uses an improved dual-drive setup featuring planar drivers. Planar drivers usually have higher details, more control, and a wider soundstage.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro also uses a higher-quality audio codec called Samsung Seamless Codec Ultra High Quality (SSD UHQ) with a 24-bit 96KHz sampling rate, which is twice as good as the 24-bit 48KHz Samsung Seamless Codec Hi-Fi (SSC Hi-Fi) used in the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.
The newer earbuds also feature Bluetooth 5.4 for higher privacy and security.
Thanks to their stem design, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro have microphones closer to the mouth, allowing the voice to be recorded more clearly. The earbuds also feature Super Wideband (SWB) call, which records audio in a wider bandwidth of 16KHz for more natural sounding calls.
Samsung also uses Galaxy AI's machine learning (ML) to reconstruct voices lost in noisy environments. All these call-related features aren't present on the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.
Galaxy AI can also detect sirens (Siren Detect) around you or people talking to you (Voice Detect). When it detects those things, it reduces ANC strength and allows ambient noise to pass through to your ears, letting you stay aware of your surroundings.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro have an IP57 rating for dust and water resistance, an improvement over the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro's IPX7 rating. If you constantly go to a beach or other places with dirt, dust, or sand, you should think of upgrading to the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.
Samsung's newest flagship wireless earbuds also last longer on a single charge. They last up to 6 hours with ANC turned on and 7 hours with ANC turned off. Their total battery life with the charging case is around 30 hours.
