Samsung dropping blade lights on its earbuds so soon is a bad signal

Samsung has always been great at coming up with new ideas. The problem is that it rarely sticks with them long enough for those ideas to become anything meaningful.

The upcoming Galaxy Buds 4 Pro look like yet another example: Samsung introduced a bold new design for the Buds 3 Pro with the unique Blade Lights, and just one generation later, it is already abandoning the feature that made them stand out.

The Buds 3 Pro were Samsung’s first AirPods-style earbuds, and the Blade Lights were supposed to be their signature look. Samsung could have taken them further. It could have refined the lighting, added customization, or even gone all-in with something fun like RGB lighting instead of the plain white glow.

But instead of doubling down, Samsung is quietly stepping back. The Buds 4 Pro will go back to something more conventional. And this isn’t new for Samsung. The company has a long history of launching headline features only to drop them as soon as the next generation rolls around:

With this pattern, it’s hard to see the Buds 3 Pro situation as anything other than Samsung being Samsung again: throw out an interesting idea, hype it, then move on before it matures.

The Buds 4 Pro might still be excellent earbuds, but their design shift highlights a bigger pattern. Samsung keeps coming up with clever ideas, then abandoning them before they can evolve into something truly great. It’s innovation without commitment, and for users who want features to grow and improve across generations, it can be genuinely frustrating.