The Galaxy Buds 3, Buds 3 Pro, and Galaxy Ring are Samsung's first wearable devices to use the latest Bluetooth 5.4 standard. But what does that mean for the users?
The short answer: not much. Here's all you need to know if you plan on buying one of Samsung's latest wearables and are looking forward to Bluetooth-related improvements.
You won't know the difference
Regarding the consumer experience, Bluetooth 5.4 doesn't offer any benefits compared to Bluetooth 5.3. For the most part, the new core specification adds features that relate to security and ESL (Electronic Shelf Labels). ESL devices are used by retailers to display pricing information on store shelves.
These new Bluetooth 5.4 features bring no benefits to the Galaxy Buds 3, Buds 3 Pro, for obvious reasons, but Samsung used the latest standard anyway, which isn't a bad thing. With Bluetooth 5.4, you get the same great characteristics Bluetooth 5.3 has.
If you are presently using a pair of Galaxy Buds 2 Pro earbuds, which support Bluetooth 5.3, you won't get any Bluetooth-related advantages by switching to the Galaxy Buds 3 or Buds 3 Pro.
However, if you are using a pair of older wireless earbuds based on Bluetooth 5.2, such as the Galaxy Buds FE and Buds 2, you will benefit from upgrading to Bluetooth 5.4, just as you would from Bluetooth 5.3.
The newer standards above Bluetooth 5.2 have lower latency, suffer less interference when other Bluetooth devices are nearby, and boast lower energy consumption.
More details after the video
In closing, it's worth clearing some possible confusion regarding Qualcomm's Bluetooth 5.4-based S3 Gen 2 Sound Platform. Firstly, it doesn't seem like Samsung's Galaxy Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro use the Sound Platform, given that the earbuds don't have aptX.
Secondly, even though Qualcomm's S3 Gen 2 Sound Platform boasts a lower latency of less than 20ms, that's not a Bluetooth 5.4 specification but a Qualcomm optimization. So, unless Samsung borrowed a page from Qualcomm's book and worked some magic under the hood, Bluetooth 5.4 shouldn't bring any latency benefits to the Galaxy Buds 3 series compared to version 5.3 on the Buds 2 Pro.
