C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Samsung decreased earbud battery capacity slightly in the Galaxy Buds 3 series, compared to Buds 2 models.
- With the Buds 4 lineup, the base model could lower capacity further, while the Buds 4 Pro may get a larger battery.
- An earlier report claims only a modest increase to Samsung’s charging case battery capacity.
When we’re anticipating the next generation of one of our favorite mobile devices, we get very excited when the first specs start arriving. Right away, we’re going to be comparing those against existing models, looking at what’s getting better, what’s staying the same, and what — god forbid — is getting a downgrade. Lately we’ve been uncovering some details about Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro, and to those we can now add a few battery figures.
Battery life is one of the most critical considerations when we’re talking about wireless earbuds, and while some of that comes down to hardware efficiency, the biggest and easiest metric to compare is battery capacity. With the existing Galaxy Buds 2 and Galaxy Buds 3 models, here’s what typical capacity has looked like for the earbuds themselves:
- Buds 2 – 61 mAh
- Buds 2 Pro – 61 mAh
- Buds 3 – 48 mAh
- Buds 3 Pro – 53 mAh
Even with that rated decrease year-to-year, when SoundGuys evaluated battery life, the two generations performed quite similarly, each lasting about 5 hours on a charge (non-Pro models).
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Samsung One UI 8.5 leaks have been revealing a lot of early details about Galaxy Buds 4 hardware and software, and that trend continues today, as we spot some code strings that offer the typical capacity ratings for Galaxy Buds 4 batteries:
- Buds 4 – 42 mAh
- Buds 4 Pro – 57 mAh
So: one up, one down. The good news is that for the “down” we’re talking a whole lot less down than before, with only a 12.5% year-to-year dip (versus the 21% decrease last time). That means we should probably pay close attention to Buds 4 battery life tests, but odds are we’re not looking at any major difference. And with the Buds 4 Pro, it seems like we don’t have anything to worry about at all.
That’s well and good for the earbuds themselves, but what about their charging case? We haven’t spotted any new evidence shining light on what to expect there, but an October report from Galaxy Club claimed Samsung is planning only minor changes, increasing capacity by around 3%. Combined with what we’ve uncovered, it doesn’t sound like battery life is going to be a problem for the Galaxy Buds 4 family.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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