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Samsung prices its first clip-on Galaxy Buds at 299,000 won for a South Korea launch
Samsung will sell the Galaxy Buds On, its first clip-on open-ear earbuds, in South Korea from October 27 for 299,000 won, with Gemini Live built in. The AI carries over from existing Galaxy Buds, so buyers will judge this pair on fit and bass.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- The Buds On clip onto the side of the ear and position the driver into the ear, leaving room for ambient sound to come through.
- Samsung says the buds adjust volume automatically, work to reduce sound leakage and carry upgraded call quality.
- They run on a Snapdragon chip and are rated for 9.5 hours of battery life.
- Gizmodo reports the launch covers South Korea only for now, with no U.S. release yet.
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Why it matters
- decision Buyers outside South Korea can only estimate the price from a currency conversion, so holding out for Buds On means waiting on both an unset price and an unset date.
- constraint With no noise cancellation the Buds On have one listening mode: useful to people who want to hear their surroundings, and no help to someone trying to block out a loud room.
- exposure Launch-day buyers in Korea pay 299,000 won with only Samsung's account of how TwinBoost lifts the bass, the spot where open earbuds usually fall short.
The first thing anyone does with a clip-on earbud is put it on and shake their head to see if it stays. Gizmodo wrote that "Clip-on wireless earbuds are just as much about the fit and the feel as they are about the sound" [16]. Samsung plans to reveal more on October 27, the day the Buds On go on sale in South Korea [17].
Most of Samsung's pitch is the existing Galaxy Buds feature list. According to 9to5Google, Gemini Live is supported here as it is on Samsung's other recent Galaxy Buds [9], and Gizmodo lists Galaxy AI as well [11]. Head gestures answer or end calls and dismiss alarms [9]. Samsung says the controls respond to "a light touch" on the back half of each bud [6]. The charging case is essentially the one from the Galaxy Buds 4 [10].
The clip is the new part, and it comes with the usual open-ear tradeoffs. Gizmodo credits the long battery life to the lack of active noise cancellation [14]. Bass is where open earbuds typically struggle, and Samsung's fix is a class-D amplifier plus a feature it calls TwinBoost [13].
Neither report includes sales or usage figures for clip-on earbuds. So the launch tells you Samsung is interested in the category, and nothing yet about how many people wear these. Samsung is putting the Galaxy Buds name on a style that a host of other brands made popular [5], and Gizmodo says the result looks similar to pairs from Shokz [18]. The price is 299,000 won [3]. 9to5Google converted that to over $200 [3] and Gizmodo to around $220, adding that the eventual U.S. cost is hard to say [15].
For a buyer, or for whoever picks earbuds for a team, the choice comes down to two things. One is whether the wearer needs to hear the room while listening. The other is whether they will use Gemini Live and head gestures day to day.
- Needs the room, uses the assistant: Buds On is the candidate, and whatever Samsung shows on October 27 [17] decides it. - Needs the room, ignores the assistant: Shokz's OpenDots 2, which Gizmodo calls a solid option [18], competes with Buds On on fit and price alone. - Wants quiet, uses the assistant: Samsung's other recent Galaxy Buds already support Gemini Live [9], and Buds On has no noise cancellation to offer [14]. - Wants quiet, ignores the assistant: this pair is built for someone else.
What to watch
- Samsung's October 27 details and the first hands-on reports on how the Buds On fit and how the bass sounds.
- A U.S. price and release date for the Buds On, and whether the price lands near the roughly $220 conversion.