Summary
Samsung’s Galaxy Buds On, a pair of clip-on earbuds that sit on the outside of the ear, will go on sale in the US in early November 2026 for $229, Samsung said on 28 October 2026. Each earbud weighs 6.65 g, plays music for up to 9.5 hours on a charge and answers a call when the wearer nods. The earbuds will be sold in a single colour, Black, and Samsung has not given a firmer US date. Samsung describes the Buds On as a second pair alongside in-ear models such as the Galaxy Buds4 Pro. It says the in-ear buds suit focused listening and noise cancellation, while the Buds On are for times when the wearer needs to hear what is going on around them, such as running outdoors. A band clips each earbud to the ear. Weight and battery Each earbud weighs 6.65 g and the charging case 41 g, according to Samsung’s specification sheet. The company quotes up to 9.5 hours of music playback from the earbuds and up to 38 hours in total with the case. Talk time is up to 5.5 hours, or 25 hours with the case. Those figures come from Samsung’s internal tests of pre-production units paired to a Galaxy phone on default settings. Samsung said it drew on more than 119 million ear data points and used physics simulations to shape the band for a range of ear shapes. The earbuds carry an IP54 rating for dust and freshwater splashes of up to five minutes. The case is not water resistant and Samsung advises against beach or pool use. Inside each earbud is an 11.3 mm speaker that Samsung calls TwinBoost, running on the Snapdragon S7 Gen 1 Sound Platform. Samsung says a feature it calls Audio Leakage Reduction sends reversed sound waves from the back of the speaker to cut the sound that escapes to people nearby. The earbuds connect over Bluetooth 6.2. Nod to answer Head Gestures let the wearer nod to accept a call or shake the head to decline one. The same gestures can dismiss an alarm or have a notification read aloud. Samsung says the feature is off by default and is switched on in the phone settings on devices running One UI 8.5 or later. Alarm dismissal and notification reading need One UI 9.0 or above. Saying “Hey Google, let’s talk live” starts a Gemini Live conversation through the earbuds, according to Samsung. Gemini Live needs a Google Gemini account and an internet connection, and Samsung says it is limited to users aged 18 and over. A long press on an earbud records a Quick Voice Memo, which Bixby can then search by voice. For calls, three microphones work with a Voice Pickup Unit, a vibration sensor that detects when the wearer is speaking from bone and skin movement. Samsung says a machine learning model trained on sounds such as car horns and construction strips out background noise. Galaxy phone owners connect the earbuds by opening the case, with no need to install the Galaxy Wearable app. Volume and equaliser settings are then adjusted from a Buds shortcut in the phone’s Quick Panel. Samsung lists compatibility as Android 12 or higher with more than 1.5 GB of memory. Sources: