Samsung Galaxy Beans upgrade finally lets them compete with Apple AirPods

Samsung Galaxy Beans specs leak ahead of August launch

Samsung Galaxy Beans
(Image credit: WinFuture)
Shabana Arif
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The follow-up to Samsung's Galaxy Buds+ wireless earbuds are set to launch this August, if the latest rumour is to be believed, along with a price that my not be music to the ears of Samsung fans.

Some of the specs for the headphones have also slipped out, and it turns out that one of the features fans have been clamouring for is finally going to make an appearance, with news of Active Noice Cancellation (ANC) being introduced at last. 

According to leaked internal documents from Samsung, Galaxy Beans is the official name of the striking-looking earbuds - and we can see why! The bean-shaped design was first leaked a couple of months ago; while it looks fairly ergonomic, it seems like it could pose a bit of a faff to take in and out of the ear with ease, and also raises questions as to how far into the ear canal they'll sit. That last issue could be resolved with the introduction of ANC, which Samsung didn't include in the original Galaxy Buds or the Buds+, and is a staple of Apple's AirPods Pro.

Another point of contention for fans could be the battery life - six hours of play time has been confirmed, although talk time is unknown. That's the same battery life as the Buds - the Buds+ were a step up in this department, and could keep going for 11 hours. On the plus side, the charging case can juice them up to squeeze out 24 hours of play time, which is more than both Buds models. If you're in a pinch, the Beans can extract an hour's play time from just three minutes on charge - just like the Buds+.   

Delving into the nitty gritty, the Beans are PX2 water resistance which is standard for Samsung's wireless earbuds so far, and they've ditched the Buds+ two-way speaker for a 13mm one-way speaker. All of that will set you back £179 which might be a bit of a shock to Galaxy Buds owners; the original earbuds launched for £130, while the Buds+ got cranked up to £159. 

The silver lining appears to be the fact that you can knock around £30 off the retail price with a trade-in (seemingly on any pair of headphones), bringing that down to a more acceptable £149.    

We don't know what the sound quality will be like - and we wonder whether the design will be conducive to improving that - but with ANC as a feature now, the Galaxy Beans offer an upgrade to both Buds models, and are a cheaper alternative to the AirPods Pro, especially with that discount. As long as the sound is in the region of comparable, Apple might just have something to worry about.   

Source: Gizmodo UK

Shabana Arif
Shabana Arif

Shabana worked at T3.com as News Editor covering tech and gaming, and has been writing about video games for almost a decade (and playing them since forever). She's had bylines at major gaming sites during her freelance career before settling down here at T3, and has podcasts, streaming, and video content under her belt to boot. Outside of work, she also plays video games and should really think about expanding her hobbies. If you have any tech or gaming tips, shoot over an email or DM her on social media.

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