Samsung announces Galaxy Buds Plus earbuds with huge boost to battery life

Samsung has just announced its second-generation true wireless earbuds, the Galaxy Buds Plus. They feature a design that’s more or less identical to the original Galaxy Buds but offer a number of improvements. The Galaxy Buds Plus are priced at $149 and will come in black, white, and blue color options.

Specs for the Galaxy Buds Plus were leaked ahead of Samsung’s Unpacked event and revealed that the latest model makes impressive strides in battery life. They can last for up to 11 hours on a single charge, and the charging case extends that to 22 hours before everything needs to be juiced back up. In situations where the buds are completely dead, charging them for just three minutes over USB-C will get you an hour of playing time.

The Galaxy Buds Plus have dual dynamic drivers, so they should offer a step up in audio fidelity compared to the previous model. And you can see that there are now two external microphones (for a total of three), which Samsung says helps improve voice call performance.

There’s also now a shortcut for quickly launching Spotify on your phone: you just press and hold the left earbud to start listening to the popular music streaming app.

One feature Samsung hasn’t brought to its latest earbuds is active noise cancellation. While that’s the headlining perk of the AirPods Pro (and other options like Sony’s 1000X earbuds), Samsung isn’t alone in deciding against it. It no doubt helps the Galaxy Buds Plus hit their substantially lower price point. If the past is anything to go by, Samsung will offer tempting promotions for its new earbuds and try to position them as the must-have companion for the Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra.