The idea of spending over $100 on earbuds doesn't sit easy with some people, and even I was hesitant before purchasing the Galaxy Buds+. When my 15-year-old Sony wired earbuds broke, I did quite a bit of research to see if jumping on the wireless earbuds trend would be worth it, and to figure out which wireless buds to get if so. I'm glad I was able to get the Galaxy Buds+ when they were on sale at the deepest discount they had ever been to date. They sound great, they're easy to use, they fit nicely, they're fairly customizable, and the battery life is excellent.
The idea of customizing the sound is maybe a little overhyped in some reviews/articles about the Samsung Galaxy Buds+. You can certainly change the sound settings in the Galaxy Wearable app - and you definitely should change from the default setting, but you're choosing presets rather than doing your own tuning. I'm fine with having presets, but if you're an all-out audiophile and expecting to be presented with a bunch of switches and sliders for full-blown customizability, you won't find that. Normal is the default setting, and it's okay, but I've found Dynamic to be the best. Clear is alright, better than Normal, but still not as good as Dynamic. The Bass Boost setting technically does boost the bass just slightly, but it also makes things kind of muddy - heck, muffled really, it's actually on the quiet side. Don't bother with Bass Boost. Set the buds to Dynamic - that's the way to go!
The sound is great when listening to music (of all sorts of genres) and when on conference calls. There are a lot of wireless earbuds out there at a variety of price points, and of course they all sound different. Everything I read said that the Galaxy Buds+ are the best for calls, and these are really quite good on calls. People's voices are clear, the sound is detailed and accurate, there's no hissing or static. As for the quality of the mics, others had no trouble at all understanding me. I sounded loud and clear.
There's also an ambient sound feature that's kind of interesting to experiment with. Even with the different levels of ambient sound enabled, things are clear. Outside noises can be sort of digital sounding in moments which are otherwise silent, but still clear, compared to using ambient sound while listening to music.
Touch controls are customizable and very nice, though if you touch the buds in just the right way while adjusting the fit, you might end up changing the volume or pausing/playing audio.
Using the earbuds with multiple devices is rather easy. It's really pair and play. You don't need to do any complicated procedures with turning the buds off or holding any buttons down and waiting for certain notifications every single time. Pairing to something other than your phone (like a Windows laptop), you do have to press and hold the touchpads on both buds and anticipate eventual beeps, then you'll see it in the list of Bluetooth devices to connect to. But after pairing, it's so easy to switch between my laptop and my phone.
The battery life is as good as described. It's incredible. They can keep going for hours. After a rather busy 9-hour work day with lots of calls and some occasional music, toggling between my laptop and my phone, there was still 59% battery (that's not nine straight hours of earbud use, but probably a spread-out total of around 5 or 6 hours).
The charging case is the same size as a Matchbox car. There's nothing wrong with the case, no bulkiness or difficulty of operability. You get a light outside to see the battery status of the case, and you get a light inside to see the battery status of the earbuds.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ are great. They sound really good, they're easy to use on different devices, and the battery lasts for a long time. There might be a lot of buds out there that sound alright while listening to music, but the call quality sets these apart from the rest. Music is good, calls are good, the Galaxy Buds+ will not disappoint!