AirPods vs Galaxy Buds Live; Which One To Go For
AirPods vs Galaxy Buds Live is one greatly interesting and fairly the trendiest debate to be a part of. While these two earbuds are from the leading tech brands of the world, it undoubtedly becomes difficult or to make up one’s mind in order to settle for one.
Talking about the brands, AirPods, as we all know are an Apple Product and those incredible shaped Galaxy Buds Live belong to Samsung.
And The Competition Begins!
Now that Apple has introduced its 2nd generation AirPods, the competition at this point is meant to become the most intense. This is because, on the flip side, we’ve got those unique kidney bean-shaped design cool Galaxy Buds Live.
From the legit phenomenon of obsession with a certain brand, all the way to those impressive designs and remarkable features plus interfaces, there are nearly endless influential factors to go through. Not to mention that these aspects can really affect your earbud purchase decision and we are saying this is in an absolute positive context.
As we, at Techtrada, have come up with a super spicy and spectacular talk about AirPods vs Galaxy Buds Live comprising all the crucial comparison, in-depth structural knowledge, physical attributes, plus points, dark sides, price ranges, and every other statement which you’re meant to find relatable to your aptitude and preference.
A Quick Glance At AirPods vs Galaxy Buds Live (Before Diving Deeply!)
This way, we shall make it a lot easier for you to make a choice and even if you aren’t looking forward to an earbud upgrade, still this incredible info is going to be extremely advantageous for you. Do take a look at this and have a lot of wisdom induced to your purchasing decision.
Apple AirPods |
|
| Developer: Apple Inc | Developer: Samsung |
| Release Date: March 20, 2019 | Release Date: August 21, 2020 |
| Type: Wireless Earbuds | Type: Wireless Earbuds |
| Product Family: AirPods | Product Family: Samsung Gear |
| Design: Elongated Stem Design | Design: Kidney Bean-Shaped Design |
| Construction Material: White Plastic | Construction Material: Glossy Veneer |
| Wearing Style: Sticks out of the ear | Wearing Style: Sits inside the ear |
Samsung Galaxy Buds Live 1. Design And Hardware
Apple AirPods
Apple AirPods offer you that signature sleek and iconic design for your love for music plus an overall charm addition to your personality (AirPods do seem a thing, right!). The surface texture features a glistening white-colored look and the best part is the minimalist yet amazingly astounding appearance. As for the design profile, the elongated stem extends one’s ears and timelessly becomes the most capturing aspect.
Talking about within the AirPods vs Galaxy Buds Live comparison, the AirPods Hardware, the microphone is located at the stem part. These are the 2nd generation AirPods and it’s fairly impossible to resist the urge to own them.
Samsung Galaxy Buds Live
This part is, for sure, going to be greatly interesting as Samsung has totally gone to another level when it comes to the phenomenal manufacturing of the Galaxy Buds Live. These earbuds feature an entirely different and extremely interesting design profile. They literally have the kidney bean-shaped design and are a totally new concept of earbuds within the entire tech industry.
As for the hardware, these elegant earbuds are constructed from veneer and feature a glossy finish. The color choices include black, white, and bronze. These earbuds get to sit inside your ear and appear to be super attractive to feel and look at.
2. Interface And Onboard Controls
Apple AirPods
They feature touch sensors which do mean that you can conveniently control the playback just from your earbuds. However, there’s one bit of an unacceptable aspect that you’ll be needing the help of Siri in order to control and adjust the volume since the AirPods don’t have any on-device volume adjustments. Another amazing aspect of the Apple AirPods is that you have an extensively versatile automatic ear detection.
Also, another fun fact is that you can easily have your media playback paused automatically when you get to remove one bud. Similarly, you can play it again, simply by reinserting the bud in your ear. At this point, it is crucial to know that Apple is the leading one when it comes to this feature, as with AirPods, you’re meant to enjoy this feature more fundamentally and efficiently.
Samsung Galaxy Buds Live
Galaxy Buds Live also has the feature of controlling media playback directly from the earbud. Another significant aspect to know is that with the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live, you will enjoy relatively more onboard controls. These onboard controls come in addition to ANC (active noise canceling) toggle and extensive volume adjustments. Over and above, the controls are fully customizable with the Galaxy Wearable app.
When comparing AirPods vs Galaxy Buds Live, It goes without saying that Galaxy Buds Live does come with the automatic ear detection feature, as well. However, with these earbuds, you’ll have to remove both of them at a time, so as to enable the auto-pause functionality. For resuming your playback, just tap the touchpad and your favorite media playback will be resumed.
3. Bluetooth Codecs
Apple AirPods
Since these AirPods are of 2nd generation, therefore the supported Bluetooth codecs include AAC and SBC. These AirPods feature Apple’s proprietary H1 chip and allow a seamless connection creation with the respective hardware.
Samsung Galaxy Buds Live
Galaxy Buds Live offers support for Samsung Scalable Codec (identical to aptX Adaptive), SBC, and AAC. Moreover, there won’t be any connection dropouts at all, since the Galaxy Buds Live features a proprietary Samsung codec which in turn has its functionality in adjusting the stream level (quality) between the ranges of 96 to 512 kbps.
4. Charging Cases
Apple AirPods
Apple AirPods come within the standard minimalist tic-tac resembling, white-colored charging case. This sleek and clean case features rounded edges and the material used is a sublime quality hard white plastic. This way, there is no potential likelihood for the AirPods to get damaged in any way, and also this kind of casing offers extreme levels of mental satisfaction to the owner(s).
Another remarkable aspect in order to ensure the perfect safety is the fact that the AirPods case features built-in magnets, so your precious AirPods aren’t at risk of falling, even if you get to hold them upside down. The placement of the AirPods goes vertically into the case and it is a fairly convenient step that also gives you the relief to not look again and again and have the guarantee of your AirPods being charged.
Samsung Galaxy Buds Live
Owning a sleek pair of the Galaxy Buds Live can totally be your thing if you’re much into flaunting and more ornamented stuff. These impressive AirPods come within a casing whose physical aesthetics seem to have been inspired by a jewelry box. To put it simply, your cute, little earbuds will rest in a tiny jewelry box-kinda case with the excellent build quality.
The case of the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live also has built-in magnets and therefore there will be no threat to your earbuds at all. Nevertheless, there is a bit of an unsettling aspect here, that you need to keenly look for the positioning of the Galaxy Buds Live, in order to have them perfectly aligned with the charging contact points.
This is because the Samsung Galaxy Buds lay flat within their casing so it might seem difficult and dissatisfactory at times to have them placed properly for charging.
5. Sound Quality
Apple AirPods
Sound Quality is indeed one of the major concerns of the AirPods vs Galaxy Buds Live debate. Apple Airpods come with a remarkable consumer-friendly sound signature. According to the frequency response chart of the AirPods, what we get to notice is low notes that have their significance in blocking out external noises. In other words, these (unsealed) low notes, don’t let the ambient noises interrupt your favorite music, in any way.
The sound quality you’ll get from your 2nd gen AirPods initially depends upon your surroundings. This does mean that you’re meant to enjoy the most detailed audio when you’re alone. However, this detailing will eventually fade away once you’re surrounded by a crowd.
This functionality has its significance within keeping you necessarily aware of the sounds around you and not letting you indulge in any mishap or loss by providing complete noise canceling. This feature turns out to be extremely beneficial when you’re about to cross the road or are waiting for your flight or bus.
Samsung Galaxy Buds Live
Galaxy Buds Live will offer you a sound quality that’s excellent, much similar to that of the sound quality achieved from the Airpods. Yet the best part of having the Galaxy Buds Live is that you get an amazing (and fairly upgraded from the Airpods) active noise canceling which helps you hear the low notes much perfectly, as well.
The mid-related bass bump is quite amazing and it gets to sync with the boosted (enhanced) treble and eventually results in a greatly consumer-friendly sound profile creation.
In addition to that, you can make use of the Galaxy Wearable app and pick out your favorite choices from the EQ presets, if you’re fond of increased sound bass and treble.
6. Battery Life
Apple AirPods
Battery Life, for sure, can’t be overlooked while we are talking about AirPods vs Galaxy Buds Live. AirPods, while used with an iOS, tend to last for 4 hours and 7 minutes. On the other hand, when used with an Android device, it remains functional for a lesser time that is 3 hours and 29 minutes. As for the AirPods charging case, it offers a battery life of 24 hours. One can even enjoy a listening time of 3 hours, over a charging span of merely 15 minutes.
Samsung Galaxy Buds Live
Samsung Galaxy Buds, as a matter of fact, emerges as a winner when it comes to battery life because the working time offered by them is a literal of quarter past 5 hours. Not to mention that this is the playing time with enabled ANC.
With ANC being disabled, the playback time gets enhanced up to a good 8 hours. As far as the charging case is concerned, it offers battery storage of 21 hours. Last but not the least, just 5 minutes of charging will provide you with a playback time of an entire hour.
7. Phone Call Performance
Apple AirPods
Is AirPods (2nd Generation) best for Phone calls? This is one popular concern of both the AirPods owners as well as of those who are planning on switching to the AirPods from any regular earbuds. Despite the fact that the AirPods’ microphone quality initially depends upon the usage, whether they’re being used with an iOS device or an Android one, they are going to provide you with excellent phone call performance.
The credit, of course, goes to the dual beamforming mics, working by capturing even the lowest-pitched voices and delivering them clearly to your ears. The same goes for the other person on call with you, who is meant to hear you without any possible distortion.
Samsung Galaxy Buds Live
Galaxy Buds Live, being one noteworthy name within the entire Galaxy Buds line, comes with an incredible mic system. The crystal clear audio you get is the result of the synchronized working of the bone conduction technology along with the beamforming. This functions in the form of a three-mic array which is present within each earbud. Also, the ambient noises get effectively reduced all along, as well.
8. Connection With The Respective Hardware
Apple AirPods
AirPods come with an entirely seamless connection building with iOS devices. Thanks to the H1 proprietary chip, the very process of creating a connection becomes a lot easier. In order to do that just open the charging case’s lid after having it placed next to your desired device. You’ll get to notice a card appearing on the screen of your device, asking you to connect to the AirPods.
During the super stable connection, there is no chance of any kind of sound distortion or connection loss at any point. At this stage, one question is likely to be popped up in the user’s mind, i.e. How to update firmware on Apple AirPods? We’ve got you covered here as well.
Apple AirPods, in the first place, have all the necessary firmware updates downloaded and installed automatically as long as you’re connected to an iOS device.
What you need to do here is to check if the firmware of your AirPods is running or not. Just follow this path, Settings App>General>About>AirPods. The version number should be labeled within a box under the name of Firmware Version
Samsung Galaxy Buds Live
Samsung, as well, has made it nearly impossible to beat it when it comes to the codec support and connection quality, an integral part of the AirPods vs Galaxy Buds Live comparison. To establish a connection, you’ll have to enable your Smartphone’s Bluetooth while also opening the Galaxy Buds Live’s charging case.
A pop-up card will then be shown, making you capable of connecting the earbuds with your device. The same goes for connection building with an iOS device, in which you have to select “Galaxy Buds Live” within the Bluetooth menu.
As for the popular pondering of “How to update firmware on Samsung Galaxy Buds Live? You must know that the firmware updates are operated by the Galaxy Wearable App for both Android and iOS. All you need to do is select “Update earbuds software” whenever there is an update available, post launching the app. Follow the given guidelines and finish off with the installation.
The Bright Side
Given below are a few amazing highlights of the perks and pros of both earbuds, by all means, one crucial milestone within our AirPods vs Galaxy Buds Live comparison. Do take a look and make up your mind for the right choice in no time!
Galaxy Buds Live
- Galaxy Buds Live are one versatile selection of earbuds as they can be used by iPhone users as well and come with additional advantages for Android and specifically Samsung users. For Samsung users, there is hand-free access to Samsung Scalable Codec support and Bixby.
- Galaxy Buds Live comes with ANC (active noise cancellation) which makes it an excellent choice.
- Galaxy Buds Live sit firmly into the ear and are a wholly new concept of earbuds with their distinctive and highly attractive shape.
Apple AirPods
- The AirPods offer the easiest and most seamless pairing up with iOS devices. Over and above, the connectivity security offered by the H1 proprietary chip makes it an unquestionably best option to consider.
- When not being used, the AirPods get ideally secured within their case, that too, in vertical positioning, in order to ensure the level best safety and trouble-free charging.
- Apple AirPods offer abundant talking and listening time, along with voice-activated access to Siri.
The Downside
Nevertheless, when it comes down to AirPods vs Galaxy Buds Live, there are a few aspects that you shouldn’t expect from both of the earbuds. These include:
No Firm Fitting
Both the earbuds offer a one-size-fits-all design since there is no usage of the ear-tips within both. This often ends up in inadequate sealing which means that there won’t be a firm fitting of any of the two earbuds in your ears.
No Functionality As Workout Earbuds
This is because the Apple AirPods have an extended stem which is most likely to be dropped out of the ears during any activities such as intense workouts or even towel rubbing on the head. The same goes for the Galaxy Buds Live which can’t manage to stay in your ears, right from the moment you begin working out intensely. However, they can be used during lighter exercise sessions.
No Sound Isolation
This, fair enough, is one feature that one should not look forward to, within both of the earbuds, due to the one-size-fits-all design profiles they have. This way, there is no noise isolation provided by our under-consideration earbuds and one is much more likely to be interrupted by the surrounding noises.
To Sum Up
We’ve got you this trendy debate of the AirPods vs Galaxy Buds Live, hoping for it to be the right kind of buying guide as well as a whole lot of interesting tech info for you. You must have found the above-mentioned aspects, facts, and figures rateable to your own requirements, which makes it easy to pick a suitable choice.
Just keep in mind that there’s always room for the betterment and even if you don’t find the galaxy buds vs AirPods comparison favorable enough for you, you can always switch to the upgraded versions.
