If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Apple will be feeling highly praised and fawned over when the company sees this thinly disguised image of the new and hotly-anticipated Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. The image, which has been given a mosaic filter by leaker Evan Blass in what could possibly be an attempt to avoid legal nastygrams, clearly shows a prominent stem that strongly resembles the design of the AirPods 3 and AirPods Pro 2. But of course this is nothing like Apple's earbuds, because they are white and Samsung's ones appear to be silver. Apart from the ones that are (might be) white.

As much fun as being snarky is, in fairness to Samsung there are only a few ways in which you can free up extra space for more hardware in a set of even the best earbuds: you can fill out the body of the 'buds and risk them looking bulky or being more prone to falling out (and thus not something we could recommend in our best earbuds for small ears guide), or you can go down the stem route. And clearly Samsung has chosen the latter.

Why have Samsung's Galaxy Buds suddenly sprouted stems?

We have actually been expecting the stems, to a degree. Previous reports had said that Samsung would be adding them in order to deliver better battery life as well as improve the quality of voice calls. They're believed to have a dual-driver design with Bluetooth 5.4, 24-bit/96kHz high quality audio, active ANC and active EQ, and IP57 water and dust resistance. There will be two colour options, silver and white.

We're expecting 30 hours of total battery life from the Buds 3 Pro and six hours before you need to stick them back in the case. That's with ANC on, and you'll get an extra hour with ANC off.

One of the more intriguing rumors about these buds is the inclusion of something called “blade lights”, which as yet remain unrevealed. If you squint at the leaked image, you might be looking at them on the vertical strip that runs up the center of the stems. 

I'm looking forward to hearing these buds, as their current iterations already rank among our picks of the best wireless earbuds. And we're also looking forward to hearing one more detail, which is still under wraps: the price. We'd expect similar prices to the $249 / £229 / AU$399 AirPods Pro 2, although Samsung might yet surprise us. 

We should find out soon enough, as the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro are expected to launch during or before Samsung Unpacked next month.

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