While many diehard Samsung fans have been delighted with the news that the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are (apparently) starting shipping again in major markets around the world, I'm here as PhoneArena's designated spoilsport to, well, spoil your party.
Do you have $250 to spend on a new pair of wireless earbuds? Did you save up the money specifically to get excited about the fanciest member of the hugely popular Galaxy Buds family after Samsung's Unpacked event last month? Then now is the time… to look elsewhere. Hopefully it's not too late for you to reconsider, cancel your existing order, or choose one of the many other great options available today from a variety of trusted brands (including Samsung).
But didn’t you praise the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro in your review?
I'm so glad you asked that question. And the answer is, “Yes, we definitely have.” We're also not retracting or revising our (largely) positive review of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro (at least not yet), because everything written there still holds true… for a small number of lucky users.
This Redditor, for example, calls the Buds 3 Pro “top-of-the-line headphones,” which is obviously incredibly high praise, even by this particular social network's sometimes bombastic standards. Another Reddit user, who claims to have initially criticized Samsung's controversial design choices this year, is basically blown away after actually using the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro for a week, and the list of satisfied customers could go on… for a few seconds.
The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro looked (and sounded) so promising in our original review.
But then there are the angry buyers who forced Samsung to temporarily halt and/or delay sales of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro with their truly shocking complaints. Many units shipped to early adopters exhibited build quality issues that are simply unacceptable for a product marketed (and priced) as ultra-high-end.
Can you imagine paying $250 for a pair of “top-of-the-line headphones” only to have the earbuds break without warning or apparent reason, or to receive units with chips and dents scattered everywhere? How about ordering a white model and getting one smeared with blue paint that just won't come out?
That would clearly be bad even for a sub-$100 product, and to Samsung's credit, the company has acknowledged the issue as something that needs to be fixed. But is everything OK now that shipments have (apparently) resumed? We honestly don't know, and that's clearly another problem.
Can you trust Samsung?
I don't know about you, dear readers, but I personally can't. That's because the tech giant hasn't communicated the root cause of these very serious quality issues, nor the exact steps the company intends to take to prevent future problems.
Was it simply a matter of inadequate testing of an initial batch of units before clearing them for launch? I seriously doubt that, and I'll tell you why. If you try to order the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro from Samsung's official US website today, the expected delivery date will be September 20th. If you don't own a calendar (or a phone with a calendar app), that's still more than a month away… more than a month after these bad boys were unveiled with an original July 24th release date.
This long wait is never a good sign for a new product. | Image credit – Samsung
If you search for the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro on Amazon, you won't find them anywhere. If you search for “Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Amazon” on Google, you will eventually arrive at a page where you can buy the Galaxy Buds 3 and Buds2 Pro. Best Buy still has the same problematic product available for pre-order, although the release date is listed as “August 23,” which is starting to feel like wishful thinking on the part of the retailer.
In short, the availability of the Buds 3 Pro in the US continues to be very variable, which strongly suggests (to me, anyway) that there is something seriously wrong with this product.
What should Samsung do?
This isn't a tech journalist's job, of course, but if I were in charge (which I'm probably not, and for good reason), I'd pull the plug on the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and start over. While the company is at it, the Galaxy Buds 3 should also go without Pro models, for committing the cardinal sin of following in the AirPods' footsteps in terms of poor repairability and for disappointing their own early adopters.
While we haven't tested the Galaxy Buds 3 ourselves, their average buyer rating of 2.6 stars on Amazon speaks volumes about their overall mediocrity, which is unacceptable at a rather extravagant price of $179.99.
Despite their age, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are still undeniably great.
Fortunately for Samsung, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro and Galaxy Buds FE are much more popular with their users, and with their frequently reduced prices, they are probably among the best wireless earbuds in terms of their price-performance ratio. Unfortunately, we all know that it is not realistic to hope that the company will simply abandon the Galaxy Buds 3 duo so quickly, which makes this author hope that the galaxy Buds2 Pro and Galaxy Buds FE aren’t going away anytime soon.
