Your first interaction with the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live isn’t with the earbuds at all; Rather, the experience begins with the angular plastic charging case. Don’t be put off by the choice of material, though: it has a nice gloss and semi-matte finish that makes it comfortable to use, especially when compared to the glossy veneer of the Galaxy Buds Plus. There are no buttons on or in the case, just two LEDs that indicate the respective battery levels of the case and earbuds. Inspired by a jewelry box, each half of the charging case has a lip that makes it very easy to open the case with one or both hands. Samsung added an extra reflective finish to the Mystic Bronze color variant, but the Mystic Black, Mystic White, and Mystic Red options are treated to the same glossy finish. Magnets hold the earbuds in place, allowing me to be imprecise when dropping the buds into their cutouts. Now for the earplugs. Shaped like beans, they don’t look like they’ll stay in place, but they always do. The Galaxy Buds Live stay in my ears over a range of exercises including climbing and running. The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live uses Bluetooth 5.0 and streamlines the pairing process with Android devices running Android 5.0 and above, similar to the Google Pixel Buds A series. All you have to do to pair the earbuds is turn on Bluetooth on your Android smartphone and open the charging case. A pop-up card will appear and read: “My Galaxy Buds Live” at the top. As soon as you tap “Connect”, a connection is established between your smartphone and the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live. Streamlined pairing processes like this make wireless headsets accessible. Even the least tech-savvy among us can use the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live right out of the box with little effort. The Galaxy Buds Live supports SBC and AAC, which is great news for iPhone users interested in these earbuds. The earbuds also use Samsung’s scalable codec. Rather than switching between static streaming rates, the Scalable Codec operates on a sliding scale from 96 to 512 kbps. It balances sound quality and connection stability, so listeners using a Samsung device experience few if any connection issues. Unfortunately, the Samsung Galaxy Buds range still doesn’t support Bluetooth multipoint. However, you get automatic device switching between Samsung source devices as long as they are all connected under the same Samsung account.
