Samsung's Galaxy Buds have arrived. The completely wireless earbuds have a 6-hour battery life, seamless pairing, Bixby built in, and can be wirelessly charged -- even by setting them on the back of the Galaxy S10.
These earbuds' coolest trick is that their contactless charge-enabled case works with Samsung's new Wireless PowerShare charging on the back of Galaxy S10 phones. Drop them on your phone and they'll charge up at the equivalent of 5W. Samsung says it'll take roughly an hour for a charge to go from zero to 100 percent. The case can also charge via USB-C.
The Galaxy Buds will cost $129, but if you preorder a Galaxy S10 or S10 Plus, you can get a pair for free. Those of us who don't preorder will have to wait for retail availability on March 8.
Samsung says the Galaxy Buds are 30 percent smaller than the Gear Icon X earbuds. According to Samsung, dropping onboard music playback from the Gear Icon X helped shrink these new Buds, though the Buds in their case still end up being a bigger package overall than Apple's AirPods.
Samsung estimates the Galaxy Buds will last for five hours when being used for phone calls, or six hours when playing music. That beats AirPods, which get about two hours of talk time and five hours of music. The case retains an additional full charge, plus an hour or so.
