Samsung’s true wireless earphones, the Galaxy Buds, have just received a sizeable update that makes an already likeably accessory a bit more useful.
The most obvious thing in the update is the ability to control them via Bixby. As long as you speak English or Korean and have a Samsung phone, you’re now able to do various things with the power of your voice, such as check your battery level, fiddle with equalizer settings and lock the touchpad. Yes, it’ll make you look a little odd if you intend on chatting to your Galaxy Buds in public, but that’s the price of convenience for you.
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Non owners of Samsung phones (and probably a few Samsung loyalists in truth) will probably shrug at this particular improvement, but additional tweaks to touchpad controls are certainly welcome. Double and triple tap controls are improved, and Ambient Sound – the setting that lets in more of the outside world so you don’t miss anything important – is now easier to activate. Pressing one earbud will turn it on temporarily (if you’re running near a busy main road, say) while pressing both will flick it on for as long as you need.
Finally, if the duplicated call ending sound has been annoying you on Android 9, then this 1.36MB update fixes that too.
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It’s good to see Samsung offering genuine improvements to the Galaxy Buds this soon after release. We liked them quite a bit when we reviewed them last month, with Alistair praising their fit, design and clever charging mechanism that absorbs battery life wirelessly from the back of a Galaxy S10. Sadly this particular update does nothing to address the occasional drop-out problem he endured, but you can’t have everything, can you?
Are you loving the Galaxy Buds? Let us know how you’re getting on with a tweet: @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
