Galaxy Buds Live: Samsung launches rival to Apple's Airpods

The company also launched a new smartwatch, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, with better fitness features and a smoother interface

Wednesday 05 August 2020 15:30 BST
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(Credit: Samsung)

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Samsung has launched a new rival to Apple’s wireless AirPods Pro – the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live.

The new earbuds look like small beans and will come in three colours – Mystic White, Mystic Bronze, and Mystic Black – to match the colour palette of the newly-released Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.

Priced from £179, the Galaxy Buds Live have three microphones for noise-cancelling. This setting can be changed to allow ambient sounds to filter through, which will be useful for athletes or those wearing the headphones in busy areas.

Rather than conventional buttons, the earbuds will be controlled via touch controls. They will also have a companion app to change the equaliser and activate a “find my Earbuds” mode in case they get lost.

As for the speakers, the Galaxy Buds Live have 12mm speakers and a bass duct for better low-frequency sounds, made by the sound company AKG which has been purchased by Samsung.

The new headphones are the sequel to the Galaxy Buds+, which did not have noise-cancelling and sported a more generic design compared to the Galaxy Buds Live.

As well as the new headphones, Samsung is also launching a new smartwatch – the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3.

This watch has a smaller body but a slightly larger display, available in 41mm and 45mm varieties for £399 and £419, respectively.

It has also been updated with new features, including advanced health monitoring, the ability to detect oxygen saturation in blood, fall detection, and an update that lets the watch analyse a runner’s form.

Samsung says that it has tweaked notifications and the watch’s user interface as well, in order to make the experience smoother and more refined. The smaller version will be available in Mystic Bronze and Mystic Silver, while the larger one will be available in Mystic Black and Mystic Silver.

The smartphone giant has also launched its Note 20 Ultra and Note 20 smartphones as well as two S7 tablets, and has revealed details about its sequel to the Galaxy Fold, the Galaxy Z Fold 2, as other companies are also gearing up to announce foldable flagships.

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