If wireless headphones are your preferred method for listening to music, audio books, etc., you are currently spoiled for choice.
There has never been a greater range of devices available on the market, with more and more products on the market.
Among the latest to appear, the Samsung Galaxy Buds +, the new iteration of Samsung’s wireless headset offering.
The heads consist of two triangular shaped plastic units housing all the technology, with detachable rubber rings around the edge.
The ear pieces with a rubber cup at the end, which fits into the opening of the user’s ear canal, protrude from these units on a slightly inclined rod.
There is a left and a right, of suitable form.
There are also rings of different sizes in the box to help improve the fit and the replacement mugs in case you lose one.
It took a little while to figure out how to adjust the knobs properly, and it didn’t exactly come naturally.
But after a few tries, it quickly became second nature.
Once in place, the heads are very comfortable to wear. And just as importantly, they don’t feel likely to fall.
Unlike the first generation of Apple AirPods, which I always feared to dislodge and disappear on the ground to never be seen again, the Buds + feel firmly housed, both in the external headset and in the opening of the ear canal.
When they are not in the ears, the buds live in an elongated case in the shape of a pill box which doubles as a charger.
The headphones themselves are capable of reading up to 6 hours, 5 hours in conversation or 20 hours of standby time between charges.
This charger case is capable of holding up to 11 hours of additional charge and recharges fairly quickly when connected to the mains via USB-C.
This collective capacity of 22 hours is quite good, but not at the top of the class, with Airpods offering up to 25 hours.
Indicator lights inside and outside the case tell you the state of charge of the heads and the case itself.
One of the great improvements of Buds + is that they now work with Apple’s iOS operating system.
But whichever operating system you use, the pairing and configuration process is fairly straightforward.
They can be connected directly via Bluetooth, but this limits functionality.
The alternative is to download the Galaxy Buds + app from Google Play or the Apple App Store.
Pairing this way gives access to the full suite of controls via the app – some useful, others less.
These include an ambient sound function, which allows you to customize the amount of ambient sound you want to leak through the headphones into your ear, so you can hear what’s going on around you while listening – an experience slightly strange.
There is also an equalizer in there, with a range of parameters, including Bass Boost, Soft, Dynamic, Clear and Treble Boost.
It can also be used to change the touch controls on the headphones themselves.
Press once, for example, to play or pause a music track. However, a double tap plays the next track or answers or ends a call. And there are various other options available.
One drawback, however, is that the touchpads are extremely sensitive and can trigger an action from the lighter keys, which can be annoying.
Fortunately, you can lock the touchpad even if it goes against the goal.
The app also offers a Find My Earbuds function that beeps when the buttons are pressed.
When it comes to the functionality of wireless headphones, nothing is more important than sound quality.
And here, the performance of the Galaxy Buds + is average.
I found the overall tone quite lean in nature, even when the bass boost was on.
It is clear and the volume levels are good.
But the overall sound quality is not as good as I expected.
The performance of the built-in microphone is also correct.
During phone calls, especially when there was background noise like in a moving car, I found that people sometimes had trouble hearing me correctly.
Another crush, when I answered incoming calls on my iPhone with the headphones in my ears, I always had to manually choose to send the call to the headphones, which was very annoying. It should default once they are connected to the iPhone.
The rubber cups block out ambient sound when properly seated in your ear, but there is no proper noise cancellation on the buds.
The heads are also only resistant to splashing, so don’t drop them in a puddle.
And there is no built-in voice assistant.
All in all however, these are fairly good quality headphones at a price (179 €) which is not exaggerated.
However, the competition is tough and if sound quality is really important to you, you may want to look further.