If the Galaxy Buds On look instantly familiar, that’s because you’ve probably seen the Huawei FreeClip or Bose Ultra Open Earbuds. Announced on 1 October, these are Samsung’s first clip-on earbuds, designed for anyone who wants their music playing in the background without tuning out the outside world.
Instead of plugging straight into your ear canal, the Buds On cuff around the outer ear. Samsung’s pitching them for all-day wear and outdoor workouts, with sales kicking off in South Korea on 27 October before rolling out globally.
A crowded room for clip-ons
Open-ear listening isn’t brand-new ground for Samsung. Back in 2020, the company experimented with the bean-shaped Galaxy Buds Live, which nestled into the concha of the ear without silicone tips. Sony tried a different route in 2022 with the doughnut-hole LinkBuds.
Since then, the clip-on cuff has practically become its own category. Huawei landed first with the FreeClip in late 2023, Bose followed with the Ultra Open Earbuds in early 2024, and budget-friendly alternatives from Anker, Shokz, and Honor quickly filled in the gaps. Huawei’s even pushed out a second-generation FreeClip, while Sony joined the clip party with the LinkBuds Clip earlier this year.
Samsung isn’t pioneering the shape here. It’s arriving at a well-established party where comfort and real-world audio quality will make or break the product.
The fit and everyday controls
To get the ergonomics right, Samsung claims it ran thousands of ear simulations to balance the weight of the speaker up front with the battery unit tucked behind the lobe. The connecting bridge is tuned to stay secure without pinching, which could make them a lifesaver for people who get ear fatigue from standard in-ear tips.
Touch controls live on the back of each bud, but Samsung’s also leaning into head gestures: you can nod to pick up a call or shake your head to dismiss an alarm and skip notifications.
Tackling bass and sound leakage
Open-ear designs always face two major hurdles: weak bass and sound leaking out to everyone nearby.
Samsung claims its TwinBoost speaker gives the low end some much-needed punch, backed by dynamic volume tuning that shifts with ambient room noise. To keep your playlist private in quiet spots like offices or coffee shops, it’s also built in proprietary leakage-reduction tech. How well that actually holds up at higher volumes remains to be seen once real-world reviews roll in.
Under the hood, the buds run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S7 Gen 1 platform, with battery life rated at up to 9.5 hours on a single charge. For calls, three mics team up with a bone-conduction Voice Pickup Unit and noise-filtering algorithms to cut through wind and room chatter.
Smarter voice features
On the software side, pairing the buds with a Galaxy AI-ready phone unlocks hands-free access to Gemini Live, continuing the push toward multi-agent AI across Samsung’s latest hardware. There’s also a handy Quick Voice Memo shortcut: press and hold the earbud to dictate a quick thought straight to Samsung’s Voice Recorder, which you can later search through using Bixby.
If you’re already in the Samsung ecosystem, core controls like EQ and volume sit natively inside your phone’s Quick Panel, skipping the need to open the Galaxy Wearable app.
The Galaxy Buds On launch in black at 299,000 won in South Korea (around $220 or R4,000). There’s no word yet on South African pricing or availability, but once local details drop, we’ll see whether Samsung can undercut or outperform the clip-on rivals already on shelves.