 Samsung's original Galaxy Buds were an okay first attempt at true wireless earbuds. Sound quality was average, battery life was decent, but voice quality was bad. If you got them free as part of a pre-order for your new smartphone, that was a good deal. But paying full price for them was harder to justify. But now Samsung is back with the new Galaxy Buds Plus, and they've made improvements to all three of those areas, taking a product that was pretty meh into something that's pretty great. Let's start right off the bat with sound quality. Now you've still got a bunch of ear tips in the box, so you can get a good seal on your ear for a good fit. And Samsung also includes several wing tips, so they fit even more snug when you put them in. Unfortunately, there's no active noise cancellation, but the right fit will help you muffle out your surroundings. So on the inside of each Galaxy Buds Plus earbud is two drivers, one tweeter and a woofer, and that leads to richer, more detailed audio output. Your instruments and your vocals stand out a bit more, but sometimes the highs and treble can get a little bit fatiguing. It's not a big problem, but certain types of music, you'll hear it. But where Samsung has made big improvements is bass. And that was a weakness of the older Galaxy Buds. Here it's taken up a notch with good separation from the mids. I don't think these are quite as overpowering or as boomy as the Java Elite 75Ts, but it's a noticeable improvement that makes the Galaxy Buds Plus a better fit for more types of music. Now the buds support AAC, SBC and Samsung's own scalable codec, and that adjusts music quality based on how strong your Bluetooth connection is. But unfortunately, that only works on Samsung's own phones. From the outside, the Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds Plus look so similar that it's hard to tell them apart, but there are a few small touches that help identify the new ones from the old. The charging case is a bit more glossy now and has a raised label for the left and right earbuds. And while these look like buttons, they're not. Samsung also added a secondary microphone to the outside of the earbuds. But aside from that small touch and the case differences, these look right at home next to their predecessors, which Samsung is still selling for $129. The earbud controls work just like before. Single tap to pause, double to skip tracks or answer a call, and triple tap for the previous track. You choose what a tap and hold does. By default, it'll bring up Google Assistant or Bixby or Siri on iPhone. But you can also set it to activate ambient sound mode so you can hear what's going on around you or control volume. Now, for me, having physical volume controls is always more useful than voice assistants or whatever else. So that's what I do. If you're on Android, you can also have a long press open Spotify and start playing music right away. Now we come to voice quality. I'm talking to you right now on the original Galaxy Buds, which means they're pretty bad. I haven't gotten much better over time. It's hard for your colors to clear you of the background noise or anything. It's really just a big jumbled mess. And these are the Galaxy Buds Plus. As you can hopefully hear, my voice sounds clear and it's being separated better from all of this. And then we've got the Jabra Elite 75T, which costs a bit more than the Galaxy Buds Pro, sound a little bit better, but voice quality might be not quite as good. So you can see just how much progress Samsung has made. And last but not least, we have Apple's original AirPods, which have always had a really good reputation for voice quality, sound crisp, clear, I'm well separated. But the reputation for fitting in my ears is unfortunately not great. But when it comes right down to it, it's hard to be just talking right into your phone's microphone. Samsung's made big improvements, but is it as good? And here's what the Galaxy Buds Plus sound like if you record them straight to your phone's voice memos app. So if you're talking to Bixby or a Google Assistant or Siri, this is what that's going to sound like to your phone. And if you have to, say, record a quick idea, it's going to sound pretty good. But far and away, the biggest improvement to the Galaxy Buds Plus is battery life. These earbuds now last for up to 11 hours of straight listening time, which puts them at the top of the mountain. That's better than Powerbeats Pro, AirPods, the Jabras, and pretty much everything else. Those 11 hours are enough to get you through a full workday or a long haul flight. Add the case and you get up to 22 hours of battery life before you've got to recharge everything. Samsung says plugging them in for just three minutes is enough to get you an hour of extra listening time. So you can use the Galaxy Buds Plus on Android, of course, but Samsung also has a new iPhone app where you can customize the EQ settings, touch controls, and everything else. But I'd still recommend these more so for Android people than iPhone because I've had a lot of dropped connections and disconnects on iPhone that I didn't really have on my Pixel or the Galaxy S10 that I tested these with. Samsung has priced the Galaxy Buds Plus at $149. Now at that price, it's not really fair to compare them to the AirPods Pro or other earbuds that cost over $200. But it's a harder choice between these and the Jabra Elite 75Ts, which are only slightly more expensive at $179. And the Anker Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro earbuds are another good option at the same price point. And Amazon's Echo Buds manage to include Bose noise reduction technology for even less money. So if noise cancellation and having that private bubble of silence are most important to you, maybe look elsewhere. And if you've got an iPhone, I'm not sure why you'd venture over to Samsung for your earbuds, but Android owners should pay attention to these. I'm very impressed by the progress Samsung has made with its second-generation true wireless earbuds. Turns out that plus name is well deserved. These sound better, lasts much longer, and are a better suit for voice calls than their predecessors were. Add ANC to the next version and Samsung's third-generation Galaxy Buds might be pretty tough to beat. Hey, thanks a ton for watching. Now my question for you is, has Samsung done enough to make you consider the Galaxy Buds Plus over the Jabras or any number of other earbuds on the market right now? Leave a comment down below.