A Redditor walking into a local Walmart and buying a piece of unreleased, unannounced tech sounds like a made-up story. But according to a post on the social platform, it actually happened.Â
Redditor Plastic_Development1 said they walked into a Walmart and bought a pair of Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro earbuds, which are expected to be shown off during Samsung's yearly Unpacked event, which takes place on July 10.
The interesting part of this story is that the earbuds haven't even been formally announced yet. And while we're expecting myriad announcements in the form of a new Galaxy Z Fold 6, Galaxy Z Flip 6, the highly anticipated Galaxy Ring and a whole host of things about Galaxy AI, we're also potentially about to see a set of earbuds.Â
Plastic_Development1 said they purchased the earbuds from their local Walmart for $250. That would put them in the same neighborhood as the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, which retailed for $230 when they launched in 2021. Price hikes are commonplace, and an increase of $20 from the previous generation doesn't sound too farfetched.Â
Samsung didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Redditor also posted some photos of the purported Buds 3 Pro connected to their Galaxy Z Flip 4, and the connection screen on the phone refers to them as the Buds3 Pro. They also posted a screenshot of the earbuds connected that shows some of the controls. If it's a fake post, it's pretty convincing considering that the Galaxy Wearable app connects only to Samsung wearables.Â
The purported Galaxy Buds 3 Pro look like AirPods
The most noticeable thing about the supposed Galaxy Buds 3 Pro is that they have a similar aesthetic to the third-generation Apple AirPods, down to the straight stalks and the black cover on the back of the earbud. Ostensibly, this is where the Buds 3 Pro's noise cancellation microphones and various sensors will live, as they do in the AirPods. Plastic_Development1 posted a photo of them wearing a pair and they do look similar.Â
Fortunately, there are some differences. The stalks on the rumored Samsung offering look more angular, and the entire earbud has a more industrial look to it. In the photos, the Redditor has a gunmetal gray color, though Samsung will likely offer these in several other colors.Â
The purported Buds 3 Pro also appear to have blade lighting along the outside, which lines up with prior leaks. Samsung seems to have changed the charging case too, with a transparent lid.
In terms of performance, Plastic_Development1 said that "noise cancellation is on par with my AirPods Pro 1st gen" and that the sound was bass heavy. Prior leaks said that the buds should have Bluetooth 5.4, an IP57 certification, 360 audio support, SmartThings Find integration, and 24-bit 96 KHz audio support.Â
We'll learn more next week at Samsung Unpacked 2024. Samsung is also promoting Unpacked with deals for preordering new phones early.Â