If you are looking for the top-notch Bluetooth ear buds, two brands probably come to mind first– we are comparing Apple AirPods and Samsung’s newest Galaxy buds to see which ones come out on top. This is a AirPods versus Galaxy buds showdown.
Price
First this first, lets talk price. You get your self the AirPods for about UGX 590,000 ($159) while the Galaxy buds are UGX 480,000 ($130) all prices are before taxes.
Winner: Galaxy Buds
Design
The AirPods come in White, while the Galaxy buds come in a yellow, black or a white finish. Both Earbuds magnetically clip to their cases for storage and to recharge the battery. The Galaxy buds design seems to be more comfortable in the ears as they give a secure fit but also the AirPods have now become so socially acceptable and we’ve kind of forgotten how ridiculous they looked when they were first introduced. The AirPods always present a problem depending one your ear shape but the Galaxy buds comes with multiple wing tips that you use to customize to your hearts desire.
Winner: Galaxy buds
Features
Both pair automatically with their matching phone as soon as you open the case, but you can also pair them manually with any other Bluetooth device.
The AirPods use a lightening cable to charge, while the Galaxy buds have a USB port. The buds also support wireless charging. Tap controls on both make you change tracks, play or pause music or activate your voice assistant. And, if loose either of these buds you can find them again on your phone.
The Galaxy buds app comes pre-loaded with several features; you can tune your music, determine what commands you are going to use, to play your tracks and also increase your volume using the bud’s touch sensitive pad. These settings can be a little bit confusing to set-up in the app, but with a little practice everything becomes a breeze. The AirPods on the other had have the basic functionality of Play and Pause which is great but you are more limited on what you can do. That might not be a bad thing if you just want to wear them and forget about it. Generally the customization on the Galaxy Buds is second to none, I really love how it can be tweak it to hear ambient noise so as not to feel blocked out from the outside world.
When you use your Galaxy buds on a iPhone or your AirPods on a Samsung phone there is a trade off in the ability to ping the earbuds in case they get lost .
Winner: Galaxy buds
Call and Sound Quality
Both earbuds have dual microphones. Sound on the Galaxy buds is tunes by AKG and you have the option to customize your sound profile in the Galaxy wear app. The app also gives you a sound setting to bring in more outside noise (Ambient sound) when paired with Android devices. The AirPods don’t have a native app, but you can use the equalizer in your music app to adjust the sound.
When it comes to sound quality its important to keep in mind what you are actually going to be using them for most. Obviously music is the number one choice for a lot of people. I am juggle between music and podcasts. Again the AirPods so seems to have been dethroned by the Galaxy buds when it comes to sound quality. Samsung’s Ambient noise feature is great and they also block out the noise when you are listening to music giving a great music experience. The Galaxy buds give better isolation from the noise because of their sealed design and also the audio has been tuned differently. The issue comes when you try to connect them to a none Galaxy phone the quality is not as good, but its better than the AirPods.
Call quality is kind of a different story, with the AirPods, you voice will sound more isolated and clear than with the buds which tend to pick up some ambient sound. This is all thanks to the physical design of the AirPods with that steam sticking down pointed towards you mouth. For calls the AirPods are unbeatable.
Winner: Draw (AirPods: Calls and Galaxy Buds: Music)
Performance and Battery
The Galaxy Buds support the latest Bluetooth 5.0 , while the AirPods have Apple’s custom W1 chip. In a simple wireless coverage test the AirPods had a better range by a few meters.
Samsung says that you can get 6 hours of playback before you need to charge your buds, while apple puts the AirPods at about 5 hours. In real-world usage, the Galaxy buds can go up to 7 hours of playback time and you can get the actual 5 hours on the AirPods as Apple commits.
The Galaxy buds have the wireless charging feature that the AirPods don’t. I was able to charge them using my Huawei Mate 20 Pro and if you have a Galaxy S10 you can do something similar.
Winner: Galaxy Buds
Overall winner
It is important to bear in mind that the AirPods are two years old at this point compared to the Galaxy buds which are brand new. In that sense its kind of unfair so I have a feeling that once we get AirPods 2, we shall have to re-evaluate this whole thing as they might get new features that the Galaxy buds also have.
But since we don’t have those yet, the clear winner is the Galaxy Buds. They are cheaper and you don’t sacrifice good sound quality and more features than Apple’s AirPods.
