Open-ear, clip-on earbud designs have already had their moment with Bose, Huawei, and Shokz over the past few years, and now Samsung is finally catching up with its first Galaxy Buds On, which debuted in its home market of South Korea on October 1.
This style of earbud, which clips onto the outer ear instead of going into the ear canal, has the advantage of not feeling intrusive — but the tradeoff is obvious: sound leakage. Samsung's answer is a TwinBoost dual-speaker system, which the company says boosts bass performance, paired with a feature that automatically adjusts volume based on your surroundings, aiming to shore up the inherent soundstage weaknesses of open-ear designs.
To keep the buds secure without pinching your ears, Samsung widened the contact surface so pressure spreads out across the whole clip area, while touch controls are placed on the back of each earbud. Voice recognition during calls is also a key feature this time around, which Samsung says is meant to improve call clarity.
