Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro hands-on images show very different earbuds

Just days before its big Galaxy Unpacked event on 10 July, Samsung's much-leaked wireless earbuds, the Galaxy Buds 3 and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, have been pictured in the wild, seemingly by people who've got their hands on the earbuds early through retailers.

The images confirm what was already practically fact – Samsung is ditching its pill-shaped designs and moving to an earbud with a stem, like the old-school Apple AirPods, for both its standard Buds and the Buds Pro. 

The Galaxy Buds 3 get off lightly, thanks to just images of their packaging leaking in a now-deleted Instagram post from user phonepointdar – showing the earbuds in a white colour with those unmissable stems. 

The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, however, were shown off in much more detail via a Reddit user who said they'd been able to buy the earbuds and use them already. The post includes a few images of the earbuds in their case, but in some replies to comments more angles showed the earbuds themselves, too. 

These earbuds are in a metallic grey finish that looks like brushed metal, confirming that this will be at least one of the colours on offer when the earbuds are released - which will probably happen later this week. 

Image 1 of 2

As well as that dramatically different earbud design, it's also clear that the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro will have a slightly interesting-looking case, with a clear plastic top that lets you actually see the buds nestling in their charging spots while they're docked.

That could be a response to the revival of transparency in tech aesthetics - you only have to look at Nothing's tasteful use of see-through elements to see that people are really vibing with the look again. Each earbud appears to have a strip of LED lighting on the outside of its stem, too, which will be interesting to assess once Samsung explains what it's for. 

The Reddit user said they bought the earbuds for $250, or around £195, although it's a little hard to know whether that represents a price that can be relied upon come release - we'll know more when Samsung finally gets to actually talk about the earbuds at Galaxy Unpacked.