Samsung Galaxy Buds3 FE Review – New Shape, New Ways

Unboxing

Meet Samsung Galaxy Buds3 FE, the second model that uses the “Fan Edition” moniker in Samsung’s audio line, since the company skipped over Buds2 series. A gap generation later, the new model has vastly different look; so let’s start with the unboxing process with the box that immediately reveals the semi-transparent case.

There’s not a whole lot of things you’ll be getting in the box outside of earbuds/case themselves, which only includes two additional sizes for ear tips, along with a quick start guide. For charging, you’ll need to bring your own cable for that.

Walkaround

Samsung basically passed down the design of its Buds3 Pro to the Buds3 FE with minimal changes, chief among them is the new almost-white plastic shell for this color variant that Samsung referred as Gray. I will say, the photos above does slightly exaggerate the gray-ness of the color, for which I suggest to refer to the actual product if you want best accuracy. The two-tone design remain, with the top part and inside colored in different shades of black.

The Galaxy Buds3 FE has switched to a stem-based design as opposed to the dot-based design from the original model; in fact, Samsung pretty much just duplicated its design from the Galaxy Buds3 Pro and use the same gray-colored plastic for its material. You do lose the onboard LED strip that comes with the Pro model, but that’s as far as visual changes go.

There’s also proximity sensors onboard (the black circle), along with microphone grilles for ANC and voice pickup. Controls are done by pinching or sliding the stem, which is a common implementation in this form factor. At the bottom of the stem are the pogo pins used for recharging inside the case.

Specifications

Samsung Galaxy Buds3 FE

Product specifications available on official website.

Form Factor	In-ear with stem, silicone eartips
Drivers	11mm dynamic driver
Frequency Response	Unspecified
Microphones	6 microphones (3 per side)
Connectivity	Bluetooth 5.4 SBC, AAC, SSC (Samsung Seamless Codec) Samsung Auto Switch
Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)	Adjustable ANC mode Adjustable transparency mode
Companion App	Galaxy Wearable *Native feature integration with OneUI 8 and above
Battery	Earbuds (53mAh per unit) Up to 6 hours (ANC on) / 8.5 hours (ANC off) playback Charging Case (515mAh) Up to additional 18 hours (ANC on) / 21.5 hours (ANC off) playback
Dimensions & Weight	Earbuds 21.1 x 18.0 x 33.8mm / 5g (per unit) Charging Case 48.7 x 58.9 x 24.4mm / 41.8g
Colors	Black, Gray [As tested]
Ingress Protection	IP54

User Experience

The pairing process of the Galaxy Buds3 FE starts as soon as you open the case (provided Bluetooth is enabled on your smartphone), and here two things will happen depending on your device: for non-Samsung smartphones and Samsung smartphones running Android 15 (One UI 7) or below, the process will direct you to install a separate Galaxy Wearable app which is used to manage the earbuds.

For Samsung smartphones running on Android 16 (One UI 8) or later, the process will automatically download the resources which puts the controls within system settings. The earbuds settings page and the UI vary slightly, with different options placed at different spots between the two examples, as seen in the screenshots above. There is a small quirk when it comes to battery level monitoring: to view the case battery level, you must open the case but keep the earbuds within the case, otherwise the app will only show the earbuds’ battery level.

There’s plenty of settings to go through as well, including EQ controls, earbud controls, voice controls, find my, earbuds fit check, and a lot of features you’ll find in contemporary earbuds. For gaming, there is a low latency mode as well, although that’s hidden under Labs section for now. Based on my experience, the latency under this mode is sufficient – you may still notice slight delays if you pay close attention, but it’s fairly useable in most cases. Additionally, you can also place the ANC controls on to the home screen, although with the integration for One UI 8 I was hoping this can be directly integrated into quick settings instead.

For quality assessments, let’s start with the audio first. Right out of the box, the audio profile is quite balanced, and the Dynamic preset brings it quite close to my personal preference. That said, I did some fine tuning as seen in the screenshot above, which isn’t too far off from the Dynamic preset. In terms of ANC, the Galaxy Buds3 FE performs great at cancelling low-end frequencies, although it does struggle slightly on the high-end (and in particular, wind noises), so your fit will be crucial to block out any additional sound leakage.

Speaking of which, there is an earbuds fit test in the app that, while working in theory, it won’t perfectly detect an ever-so-slightly loose fit which can cause small amounts of sound leakage. The relatively shallow ear tip does cause minor fit issues for me, and I had to twist it outwards to ensure a fit secure enough to avoid it getting loose and rubs against my ear canals as I walk and move around over time. Still, ergonomics is unique for each human, so your mileage may vary.

For microphone quality tests, for some reason the volume is quite low in both silent and noisy environments (we’ve boosted the overall volume in the clips above just so you can still hear them at reasonable volumes). In latter’s case, the background noise can be noticeably heard in relation to my voice, although it didn’t get in the way too much as far as voice pickup goes.

The Good

The Samsung Galaxy Buds3 FE is generally solid, and to summarize, the audio, ANC, and feature set ticks the right boxes all around. Audio quality is solid, ANC is great (provided your ears have a good seal), of which you can adjust the level, along with transparency mode. There’s also a low latency mode for gaming, which is always a nice addition that you won’t necessarily get in other earbuds.

In terms of software, having the EQ feature is also another plus, especially with the 9-band controls it offers; besides that, the widget function is a nifty feature that skips through opening the app for quick control, although I do wish it could be integrated more tightly for One UI 8+ models more than just putting it inside a Settings page (it also helps that the UI should be more consistent for both versions, too).

Battery life-wise, I did manage to get slightly over 6 hours of battery on a single charge with ANC fully enabled, which is on the slightly short side. That said, the case offers significantly more battery onboard, so you don’t have to charge the case as frequently to keep the earbuds topped up. The case is also fairly slim in thickness, meaning it should slip into pockets with no issues.

The Bad

That said, the Galaxy Buds3 FE have some minor flaws worth addressing in the next iteration (or a simple update). To read the case battery level, there’s two ways of doing so: the first is open the case and check the LED, which only gives you a rough idea on the level. The second option is to look at the exact percentage through Galaxy Wearable app, but to do this you must only open the case and not take out the earbuds to see the battery level. If you remove them from the case, the case battery level simply disappears from the app, which can be annoying if you want to check the battery level after the fact.

The second issue I have partly comes down to the form factor. Given that the Buds3 FE uses a stem-based design, the capacitive touch area is located down at the stem and it requires a deliberate pinch to actually register actions. It’s great for avoiding accidental touches, I suppose, but as someone who used dot-based designs that allows me to operate them hands-free (i.e. tapping using my shoulder), this design is less convenient for me to operate. On that subject, the controls are restricted to presets only, meaning you can’t individually disable, say, volume controls (swipe up/down) on a specific side to open up more controls.

There’s also two more potential oversights: first, the microphones are quieter than usual, and I couldn’t find any setting related to this; secondly, while the earbuds feature proximity sensors, there’s no auto play/pause function implemented into the earbuds. Since the sensors are already used to enables transparency mode automatically when one earbud is removed, perhaps a software update can add this feature using the same principle.

Verdict

At RM499, the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 FE is a fairly solid mid-range earbuds for a solid audio experience, although the likeliness of you choosing this model over others will likely depend on your preference towards stem-based designs and the feature set it offers. If you’re only looking for audio quality and not much else, cheaper options exist; but if you prefer to get the bells and whistles along the way, this pair of earbuds is a decent option to go for.

Special thanks to Samsung Malaysia for providing the Galaxy Buds3 FE earbuds for this review.