Samsung Galaxy Buds are a True AirPods Competitor and Has Bixby Too
- Samsung Galaxy Buds are a new competitor to Apple AirPods that go on sales on March 8th
- Galaxy Buds will be priced at $129.99 in the U.S. and €149.99 in Europe
- The wireless earbuds have Bixby 2.0 access with seven language localizations when paired with a Galaxy S10 smartphone
Samsung Galaxy Buds were introduced today at the company’s Galaxy S10 smartphone launch event. Galaxy Buds are in-ear, independent wireless earbuds that compete directly with Apple AirPods. Like AirPods, there is no connecting wire between the buds which differs from Google’s tethered Pixel Buds. Galaxy Buds will go on sale on March 8th and retail in the U.S. for $129.99 and €149.99 in Europe. They will be available in black, white, and yellow (canary).
Consumers that pre-order the new Galaxy S10 or S10+ will receive a complementary pair of Galaxy Buds. Vlad Savov of The Verge has a great review published earlier today. He commented:
“Their pill-shaped enclosure is as close as anyone’s yet come to the AirPods’ unbelievably tiny bijou of a case. With six hours of battery life in the buds and a further seven hours in the case, the Galaxy Buds take the lead in terms of case autonomy, even if the AirPods have a longer total endurance with more pauses to recharge…I think there’s good reason to be excited about the Samsung Galaxy Buds. With their promise of strong battery life, compact dimensions, and a lower price than the AirPods, they’re going to nudge the entire market for true wireless buds forward.”
Bixby in Your Ear in More Languages
AirPods have Siri, Pixel Buds have Google Assistant, and Galaxy Buds have Bixby. Of course, this is not Bixby on the actual earbuds but rather an easy connection to Bixby on the smartphone. Voice assistant access is what distinguishes dumb Bluetooth earbuds from smart hearables. You can both listen and speak and use your assistant to execute tasks.
Samsung also announced that Bixby 2.0, first launched in November 2018, now supports British English, German, Spanish, and Italian. That is an expansion from November when Bixby 2.0 supported only American English, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese. Keep in mind that neither Amazon Alexa nor Google Assistant support Korean or Mandarin.
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