Samsung's Galaxy Buds Plus shown off in hands-on video ahead of launch

What you need to know

• New hands-on video shows off the Galaxy Buds+ ahead of launch.
• Much of what was already leaked has been confirmed, such as the larger batteries, lack of ANC, and the use of an additional audio driver.
• The Galaxy Buds+ are expected to launch at Samsung's Unpacked event on February 11, 2020, for $169.

Samsung's Unpacked event is scheduled for February 11, 2020, where we expect it to launch the Galaxy S20, among other products. One of those being the Galaxy Buds+, which have already been shown off in a hands-on video, thanks to European retailer that shipped them early.

The video comes to us courtesy of WinFuture's Roland Quandt, where he unboxes the new true wireless buds and then gives a quick tour of the product and the app. He also details some of the improvements over last year's Galaxy Buds, confirming much of what has already leaked out.

One of the most significant changes is the larger batteries used in the buds and the case this year. By using an 85mAh battery in the earbuds, play-time has increased from 6 hours to 11, according to Samsung. It will also provide you with an overall 22 hours of battery life when combined with the charging case.

In Quandt's follow up tweets, he mentioned that the battery life had dropped to 54% after "about 3.5 hours of loud punk rock music." That doesn't quite live up to Samsung's optimistic 11-hour rating, but battery life will differ depending on the volume and other factors.

Audio quality should also be improved on the Galaxy Buds+ by using two drivers, one tweeter and one woofer, instead of only one like in the Galaxy Buds. According to Quandt, the sound quality was fine, but he did find music to be a little tinny and had to enable bass boost within the app.

Another upgrade over the original Galaxy Buds is the inclusion of a third microphone for clearer voice calls. However, in Quandt's experience, people told him he sounded like he was on a walkie talkie. They also mentioned ambient noise as being an issue, but Quandt admits these calls were made from a moving train without VoLTE, which could have attributed to this.

Source: Roland Quandt/Twitter

Despite all the upgrades, the Galaxy Buds+ lack one very important one, active noise cancelation. That could be a deal-breaker for many shopping for new headphones, but Quandt says that the fit is so snug that "not having ANC doesn't even really matter."

With all that has been improved, some things have stayed the same. Like the Galaxy Buds before them, the Galaxy Buds+ will use Bluetooth 5 for connectivity, and the charging case will use wireless Qi charging. Although Fast Charging is said to be even quicker this time around, giving you 60 minutes of playback after only three minutes of charging.

In his video, Quandt also mentioned that the price of the Galaxy Buds+ was €169 ($169), which makes them a little more than the original Galaxy Buds, which were €149 ($149).

Now that just about everything has been revealed, there shouldn't be much to learn about the Galaxy Buds+ at Samsung's Unpacked event tomorrow. However, we'll still be tuning in to get all the details on the Galaxy S20 lineup and a possible appearance of the Galaxy Home Mini.