Samsung’s headphones have a long battery life and good sound. However, the unusual shape does not only bring advantages.

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live Bluetooth headphones are shaped like beans. They are made of hard plastic and therefore do not adapt to the ear canal as seamlessly as headphones with silicone attachments. This also means: Like other hard plastic in-ears, such as the Airpods from Apple, the Galaxy Buds Live does not fit every ear. A soft rubber attachment can be exchanged on the rear part – Samsung supplies two sizes. But in our experience, that doesn’t make a big difference: if the buds don’t sit properly, they don’t fit and it’s better to use another model. If they fit, however, they are very comfortable and hardly noticeable in the ear.

The fit has a clear impact on the sound. If the buds, each weighing around 6 grams, sit right in the ear, the sound is full and clear. Both bass and treble can be heard precisely. The sound can be adjusted with ready-made modes in the app. The bass on our measuring head in the c’t laboratory was unrealistically strong, which did not match the subjective impression of several test persons. One reason for this is the sound adjustments made by the microphones directed into the ear canal. The buds keep compared with our reference headphones Sennheiser HD 600 in sound measurement with good, only at very They drop at high frequencies.

Striking: The bass sounds pleasantly full, although the Buds Live is not stuck in the ear like a plug due to its design. In everyday life this is quite pleasant, as you don’t feel so disconnected from your surroundings and you don’t have any unpleasant background noises from breathing, eating or drinking. Disadvantage: The active noise suppression called ANC for Open Type is almost ineffective in everyday life. It doesn’t keep annoying noises at bay as reliably as with good over-ear headphones or in-ears with silicone attachments, which close the ear better. The suppression of low frequencies up to 600 Hertz, as promised by Samsung, works poorly.

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