Galaxy Buds 3 FE vs Galaxy Buds3 PRO vs Galaxy Buds FE vs Galaxy Buds 3 | Ultimate Comparison
With the new Galaxy Buds 3 FE hitting the market, the Samsung Galaxy Buds lineup has become a bit more confusing. Do you splurge on the Buds 3 Pro or save $100 on the visibly identical Buds 3 FE? Or do you settle on a middle ground with the Buds 3, which are an open design? Or do you go with the cheapest $99 Buds FE that have no stem, but they have the wing tips that maybe stay in better?
There are really radically different designs here and all different price points as well. And choosing the wrong design could be a big mistake. So, what are the compromises of each design and which use cases match which earbuds? I've been testing these side by side and I have 10 categories in this video that we'll be going through in comparing, testing, and demonstrating the differences between these four pairs of earbuds.
Category Number One: The Prices
So, let's get started off with category number one being the prices. Now, the prices I'll be sharing are USA prices. They're the MSRP, but don't worry, like Samsung always has sales on these and I'll have links in the description down below so you can see the latest prices.
So, starting off in first place, the cheapest ones, of course, are the Galaxy Buds FE. $99, under $100. Pretty solid for a pair of earbuds that, I mean, when you see what these offer, it's really good value. In second place, the Galaxy Buds 3 FE. Samsung kind of made it confusing with their naming here. These are both still for sale on Samsung's website, and the Buds 3 FE are $149. So, significantly different offering, but again, both FE models from Samsung.
In third place, the Galaxy Buds 3. Just regular three are $179 and the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are $249. Although they're the only ones right now that are on sale. They're selling for $189. Still the most expensive in this group.
Now, you might be wondering right now, why are there no other older buds? The two Pros or the Twos or whatever. They still could be great earbuds, but they won't be supported forever, and Samsung no longer sells them on their website. So, I wanted to just cover the current offerings. Now, if you already have the older earbuds or you're interested in buying some older ones, maybe you're on a budget, I do have other videos. I'll link those down below in which I compared those.
Category Number Two: The Design
Now, category number two, the design. In this, I want to talk about what these do well, the fit, the water resistance, and different things like that. These are all available in a light and a dark color. Sometimes that's like a white and a kind of cyber truck silver, if you want to call it that, as we're seeing on the 3 Pro and the 3. Sometimes it's just plain black and white like on the FE. And the Buds 3 FE actually kind of come in this matte black color as well as a matte gray. So again, kind of a whitish color there that I actually really do like quite a bit. I love the look of the Buds 3 FE. They're probably my favorite looking ones here. Although I really do like all of them.
Running through the actual design of each of them, and I'll talk about the fit and the comfort in a second, but you can see the Buds 3, the 3 Pro, and the 3 FE—anything that has the three name in it is essentially an identical case. Now, that doesn't mean the earbuds are cross-compatible. They're not. The Buds 3 FE don't fit in the Buds 3 Pro case, but the earbuds look almost identical. They have that stem design on them, kind of a geometric stem, really that again, I really do like the shape of that. It's pinchable, so that's how you're going to control these. And you can also slide up and down on these to control the volume.
Now, some people love the stem. I think it's very functional. I don't love the way they look necessarily, but I think if you're going to have a stem, Samsung did a pretty good job making these look as good as they possibly could. These stems, of course, also give you some advantages in terms of microphone performance, as you'll see later. And a big advantage is that you're able to adjust these in your ears without accidentally pinching the controls there. And also, because they're pinch controls, they're going to be a little bit better if your hands are wet or sweaty or maybe wearing gloves or something like that.
Whereas the Galaxy Buds FE, the base model here, has a totally different design. Not only is the case like the old school kind of little clam shell design, which I kind of do like that case, but these earbuds have capacitive touch controls on them. So when you put them in your ear, it's a little tougher to adjust them. Like, there is room to grip on the outside to adjust, but you need to be careful you don't accidentally control your music when you're adjusting the earbuds, so you don't accidentally end up pausing or opening Google Voice Assistant or something like that.
Now, I kind of brushed over it, but a huge advantage of the Buds FE over the much more expensive models, all three of the more expensive ones actually, is that little wing tip on there. So, these, I would say, are much more likely to form a better seal in your ears and fit and stay in more ears in general.
Fit and Comfort
So, talking about the fit and the comfort of these, I mean, I separate those. I call comfort like if you're going to wear them all day, which one's going to be the best? And then fit is going to be which ones are going to stay in your ears the best if you're working out.
Fit and Security
And so starting off with fit, I think the obvious winner here has to be the Buds FE. These stay in so well because you put them in, give them a slight rotation back, and they're pretty much locked in your ears. There are different wing tips that come in the box, and of course different ear tips as well. So these should be staying in pretty much everyone's ears very, very well.
Then in second place, I mean, the Buds 3 Pro and the Buds 3 FE have almost identical geometry and how they fit in your ears. I find that they both stay in reasonably well, but if you're doing more dynamic workouts and maybe you're sweaty, so if you're doing like burpees or you're doing, you know, some sprints or something, they can work their way out of your ear.
And then the least secure, which is really no surprise, are going to be the Buds 3, which have that open design. They don't have a silicone ear tip that plugs your ear at all, which means that they're kind of just sitting in your ear like old school AirPods. And while they do sit in very well when you're still, if you're doing something dynamic, I mean, obviously everybody has different ears, but for me personally, they definitely have a tendency to fall out of my ears.
Comfort
So, that is the fit and the security in your ears. The comfort, it's kind of just the opposite there. Where you have the most comfortable in my opinion are the Galaxy Buds 3, at least right now. There is definitely a little bit of ear fatigue because it is a hard plastic that pushes against certain parts of your ear, but again, like because it just sits there, it's very open. It's very comfortable. Your ears don't feel like they get hot at all. And I really could wear these for an extended period of time and almost forget they're even in my ears.
Once again, the Buds 3 and the 3 Pro are both the same geometry. I can wear these for a very long time and they never get uncomfortable for me. And I don't find that the silicone ear tip is too aggressive where it stays in my ear, but I don't feel a lot of pressure or fatigue from wearing them for a while.
Then the Galaxy Buds FE. Again, I really love the way these fit. I think they are very comfortable at first, but I think the wing tip is like a little bit too stiff of a rubber for me. So, when I put them in, sometimes they can get fatiguing after a little while of wearing them.
Durability and Water Resistance
As far as the durability, really the water resistance goes on these. The 3 and the 3 Pro are the best. IP57 water and dust resistant. The 3 FE are IP54. So, that means all three of those so far are pretty solid for like sweat or, you know, light rain or anything like that. And the Galaxy Buds FE are only IPX2, which still probably should be okay if you're sweating, but I wouldn't want to wear these if it's raining and I'd really be a little more cautious with them.
Category Number Five: Sound Quality
So, we talked about design, comfort, fit. We're on category number five now being the sound quality, which is a big differentiator with these. And I think unfortunately, it's not much of a surprise here. Well, there is maybe one surprise with these. But let's start off with the first place here being the Buds 3 Pro. It's really no surprise these have a dual amplifier in them and they're significantly better than all the other ones on this table. You have deeper bass, more full sound. They still can be like a tad hollow. Like they're not the best hi-fi earbuds out there. Like they're mainstream Bluetooth earbuds, but the 24-bit audio is nice with codecs like AAC, SBC, and SSC (Samsung Scalable Codec). So I would just put these firmly in first place, and I think even the untrained ear could pretty easily detect that these are sounding a lot better than the others.
Next, we possibly have a surprise here, depending on how you'd expect the turnout to be. I would say in second place are the Galaxy Buds 3 FE, which are better than the Galaxy Buds 3 despite being cheaper than them. And the reason for that is because they have that better isolation of the silicone ear tip that goes in there and delivers a more accurate sound profile in my opinion. It's still a tad muddy. They have a lot of bass in here. Can be a tad thin as well and a little bit splashy. So, kind of a V-shaped profile if you want to picture it like that. They boosted the bass. They boosted the high-end to give you a lot of bass and perceived clarity, but you know, if you really know what you're looking for, it's not the optimal profile in my opinion. It's not really a radically different tuning compared to the rest of the Galaxy Buds. But these only have one driver in them as we see with the other two as well. Unlike the dual driver, the dual amplifier architecture of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.
So 3 FE second place, pretty solid. The Galaxy Buds 3 lack a little bit of detail partially because they have that open design. The bass is very boommy, which is kind of impressive for an open pair of earbuds, but it can be a little bit uncontrolled. Honestly, it's not too bad. I think that these ranked below the FE before, like the regular FE, but I think it really depends on the song and what you're really looking for.
So, in fourth place, the Galaxy Buds FE, like I said, could potentially be better than the Galaxy Buds 3 depending on what you're listening to and what you're really like what you like in your music. But the Buds FE definitely have significantly less detail. They're muddier. They're a little bit distorted. And they have even less control on the highs compared to the other ones on this table. Certainly, they're not terrible, especially when you factor in the price, but they're not going to sound as good as the Buds 3 Pro.
And it's also worth noting that technically the 3 FE have 16-bit audio, while the 3 and the 3 Pro have 24-bit audio, and we don't have that on the FE at all. Also, the drivers, essentially, the little speaker inside your earbud is 11 mm on the Buds 3 and the Buds 3 FE. Whereas on the Pros you have dual drivers. So you have two little speakers in there. One's going to be a woofer and one of them is going to be like essentially for mids and highs. And then we have the very small six and a half millimeter driver on the FE which kind of explains why we have that difference in the sound.
Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency
Now the sound quality is great, but I think one of the biggest differences that I found really surprising with these was actually with the active noise cancellation. So all of these interestingly have active noise cancellation. Even the open earbuds, even the FE budget model, they all have active noise cancellation. But they all perform very, very differently and I did several different tests to see which one performs the best in which situation.
Low Frequency Noise Blocking
So, starting off with the like lower frequencies, maybe you're on a jet, maybe you're a bus, something like that. You're trying to block out a lot of ambient sound. The Buds 3 Pro do the best job, but they do it kind of awkwardly. Like they have these digital sounds, these little artifacts in your ear that to me, I find very annoying when ANC is on, but music is not playing. Even if music is playing, depending on the kind of music, sometimes you can still hear. It's almost like a little digital chirping sound specifically in the left earbud for me. The Buds 3 FE do not have that, which I think is a huge positive. And yet, they still deliver a very similar performance in terms of power.
So, I do this test where I play a sound of a jet set distance away. I turn it up until the earbuds are no longer able to block it out. Then, I measure the volume where I am, and that's essentially how powerful these earbuds are. So, a higher number is better. And in first place here, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro blocked about 57 dB. Interestingly, the Galaxy Buds FE, the cheapest model here, like you're looking at about like what 40% the price of the Pros are blocking almost the same level. I'm getting about 56 dB compared to 57 dB. I think that is incredibly impressive. I think a lot of that has to do with the geometry and the fit and how much deeper the Galaxy Buds FE go into your ear. And then not far behind that are the Galaxy Buds 3 FE blocking 54 dB. And then in last place with I mean even though they have ANC, there's no seal in your ear really. So no passive noise blocking. And these are the Galaxy Buds 3 blocking 32 dB, which is I mean ambient room volume with no speaker on was like 29 or 30 dB. So not really not really blocking a whole lot there, but it could be enough to block out like a refrigerator in the background or something if you're really trying to lock in and focus.
Voice Blocking
As far as voice blocking goes. So, if you have anyone talking, it's typically a lot more difficult for earbuds to perform here. And again, the Pros perform the best. The regular FE were behind, actually more behind on this one, kind of surprisingly. Even though I think they do have a really good fit, I think the engine was just a little bit better on the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro in blocking voices, then the 3 FE. And then in last place, again, the 3 basically blocking nothing there.
Silence Test
And then the third category, you might wonder like, all right, voices, low noises. What other category could you have? Actually, just pure silence. Like if you're sitting there and there's not a lot to block out, which one gives you the best experience of actually just silence? Like which one has the fewest artifacts? And interestingly here, the three Pros perform the worst. Like if you're just sitting in a quiet room and you have ANC on, you get the most noise out of the three Pros.
So in first place are the Galaxy Buds FE. They really don't give you anything. It just feels quiet. Not any kind of hissing or artifacts or anything. The Buds 3 FE are really not far behind. If you listen, there's some faint noises in there, a little bit of gain distortion, but it's really not much, especially compared to the 3 Pros. Then we've got the 3s, which do a little bit, but the 3 Pros for me are definitely the worst.
Transparency Mode
Now, not everyone wants to block all the noise all of the time. Like sometimes it's good to have transparency on just to, I don't know, hear the next stop on the bus or you're in the office and somebody's going to talk to you. I don't know. Sometimes you want transparency. So, the Galaxy Buds FE unfortunately have a lot more white noise here. It's a little bit more muffled. And they don't really do an excellent job. I would put them in last place. Even though they really outperformed in ANC, they definitely underperform in transparency. It's good enough, but compared to the others, certainly last place.
The Galaxy Buds 3 FE have a lot of white noise on them, but otherwise are really good. Like, they sound very clear. There's good volume. They do a great job. They just have so much gain, like so much white noise going on there that I think I have to put them in third place. In second place, no surprise, the 3 Pro is absolutely incredible. Like, they do a great job with transparency. You can hear everything smooth, natural. You would almost forget that you have these in your ear, except again, you have those little artifacts going on that sometimes can be annoying and distracting. And then in first place, no surprise because they don't even seal your ear, is going to be the Buds 3. These don't technically have transparency mode, but because they're an open pair of earbuds, you can already hear everything around them anyway.
Category Number Eight: The Microphone Test
All right, so category number eight is going to be the microphone test. And these are the microphones on the Galaxy Buds FE. Now, I'm not going to rank these in this video. I'm going to let you rank them in the comments down below and let me know which one sounds the best. Now, these are the Galaxy Buds 3 FE. These have a really good pass through. Like, when I'm on the phone call, I can really hear my voice. It sounds like I don't have to yell. But let me know how it would sound on the other end of the line. Again, remember the stems on these as well as the other two models I'll show you in a second should ideally give you a big advantage in the microphone performance.
And now the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3. Now, there are some features I want to talk about that the 3s and the Pros have that the other ones don't in terms of microphone. And I'll talk about that in the features section of this video. I think it's really interesting. But let's move on to the Buds 3 Pro. So, finally, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. Let me know how these sound. Obviously, we're in a studio environment, so let's go outside now and see how they perform in a loud, noisy environment and see which ones can actually block out the sound of I don't know, just like a ambient, busy sidewalk.
All right, outdoor test number one. These are the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. Outdoor test number two, these are the Galaxy Buds FE. And one thing I really like about these, by the way, is that they kind of look and feel and fit a lot like the original Galaxy Buds, which were really quite popular. Now, of course, the Galaxy Buds 3 FE. Clearly, a lot of traffic behind me. It's also kind of windy. I should probably measure the wind when I do these tests. But, yeah, I'll give you a sample in a second. You can hear what it sounds like without the microphone from the earbuds. And of course, then just the regular old Galaxy Buds 3. And now, for reference, this is what it sounds like just using the microphone on my phone outside of this road.
Category Number Nine: Battery Life and Charging
Category number nine is the battery life and the charging. We only have wireless charging on two of these being the not FE models and the two FE models unfortunately do not have wireless charging despite clearly having the room for it. But you know, you got to cut your cost somewhere and that's something that Samsung decided to save money on.
The battery life on these is the best on the Buds 3 Pro. Even with ANC on, you're getting 6 hours in the earbuds and 26 hours when you include the case with those recharges. The Galaxy Buds 3 FE are 6 hours in the earbuds and 24 hours with the case. So just two hours less than the Pros, but the earbuds are essentially identical in their battery life. Then you have the Galaxy Buds FE which have 6 hours in the earbuds and 21 hours in the case. Again, with ANC on. And then in last place, only 5 hours in the earbuds and 24 hours in the case are the Galaxy Buds 3. And again, I believe that is with ANC on. So not really the best battery life on those. Although I would say that of all of them, you could probably turn the ANC off and get a significantly better battery life because it's not really doing that much anyway.
Category Number Ten: The Features
And then finally, category number 10 being the features on these earbuds. It's not uncommon to see a lot of brands kind of withhold features on the budget models and then just give you way better features on the Pros. It's kind of just incentivizing you to buy an expensive one, and we're definitely seeing that here. So, we lack SWB call capabilities, which is on the Pros. You're lacking that on the FE models. Also, the 360 audio recording. Again, you're seeing that on the Pros, not on the other ones. And that's essentially going to be like if you're recording a video and you want to use the Galaxy Buds as a microphone, you're going to have like a 360 audio experience, which honestly I've tried it and it is quite impressive how that works. You might have actually noticed it in the outdoor microphone test. Well, no, you probably wouldn't have seen it there, but I can demonstrate it if you guys ever want. I'll probably put that on my socials. You can follow me on Instagram or Tik Tok. Probably make a video showing that.
Anyway, the three and the 3 Pro have Auracast. The other ones don't. So, if that's a feature you really need, again, you might have to go for the non-FE models. And you don't have adaptive sound controls on either of the FE models. They do all have a lot of the basics, though, like you can listen to just one earbud at a time. Mono mode is kind of what I would call that. They also all have ear detection, so automatically playing and pausing, like if you're listening to a podcast, that's where I find that most important. The Pros have things like siren detect, voice detect, things we're not seeing on the cheaper models.
And again, you're getting those little blade lights on there, even though the lights like, yeah, they look cool. You can see when you open the case. But they're also kind of useful if you ever drop the earbuds, maybe on a plane, for example, like if you have the darker earbuds, you drop it. Like, this happens to me all the time. I don't know why, but it's really hard to find earbuds under the seat in a plane. And these have lights, which make them so much easier to find. When you go into the app and find your earbuds, it'll light up and you can find them fairly easily.
Additionally, they all have Bluetooth 5.4 except for the base model FE which has Bluetooth 5.2 and otherwise they all have a lot of the same Samsung features like seamless switching between Samsung Galaxy devices. A lot of the basics we like to see. None of them have true multi-point connectivity. Like if it's not a Samsung device you can't switch automatically from like an HP laptop to a Samsung phone unfortunately but you know with Samsung at least you're in the ecosystem you can do that. They also all have 360 audio in some capacity and they do have some customizations for the control.
Which One Should You Actually Buy?
So, those are my thoughts on the Galaxy Buds lineup. Which one should you actually buy? I mean, I think for most people, if you're on a budget and you don't care as much about sound quality, the Galaxy Buds FE are such a compelling buy. They really punch above their weight in terms of ANC and a lot of performance like that. They're also very comfortable and they stay in really, really well.
But if you care a little bit more about sound quality, the Buds 3 FE are actually a really good middle ground among this lineup where they're very recommendable. They're pretty solid across the board. They didn't really lack a ton in any one situation and they don't have those artifacts that we saw on the Pros. We have a much smoother sound with the ANC on. And I think the earbuds are pretty easy to recommend. Again, only at $150.
But if you really want better sound quality, the Pros are going to be obviously the best one here. So, if you hear the difference between like a muddier profile or more of a V-shaped profile, then you might actually really appreciate the pros. Although, I mean, not everyone does. Some people are just happy with any sound profile they get. Some people just want more bass and they don't care if it's muddy or boommy or anything like that.
Then the Galaxy Buds 3. These are the toughest to figure out who should really be using these. I would say anybody who shares your earbuds a lot and you really care about them being hygienic. Anybody who really gets bothered by silicone ear tips kind of plugging your ears. Again, these would be really solid for you. I don't have to tell you who you are. I think anyone who sees this and is like, "Yeah, I like open earbuds." You're going to get these anyway. But I think anyone who's okay with silicone ear tips, you're going to get a better experience with those silicone ear tips, at least on the Galaxy Buds 3 FE.
