Samsung delays Galaxy Buds3 Pro release over quality concerns
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The first time I changed the silicone tips on a pair of Apple earbuds I really expected them to rip because so much force was needed to get them off. But they didn't. Probably did lots of testing and redesigning before sending them out into the retail world.
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Why does anyone buy a Samsung anything? Especially appliances - they’re true dumpster fires of defects and design flaws.
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If you're publishing a support page telling people how to not damage something you shipped that most other merchants have never published for similar items, you're making the thing wrong.
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Oh boy, I pre-ordered these and they're arriving today. I guess that's what I get for pre-ordering.
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It reminds me of their TVs a couple years ago that came with what looked like a protective film over the screen. Except when you peeled it off, oops, that's actually part of the screen!
Just incredible self-owns.
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This seems like a weird mistake for a company that hasn't...exactly...started manufacturing consumer electronics yesterday to make.
Obviously even experience doesn't always save you; but it's not like this is some dude with a kickstarter and a dream taking his first steps into the grim horrible world of scaling up manufacturing. This is a company that has put a lot of assorted projects out the door(how much they do internally and how much they do by knowing how to keep pet ODMs and contract manufacturers in line, no idea; but either approach is a flavor of manufacturing experience).
It's not as though elastomeric silicones are some kind of novel, ill-characterized, material just out of the lab that nobody has ever handled before.
Obviously even experience doesn't always save you; but it's not like this is some dude with a kickstarter and a dream taking his first steps into the grim horrible world of scaling up manufacturing. This is a company that has put a lot of assorted projects out the door(how much they do internally and how much they do by knowing how to keep pet ODMs and contract manufacturers in line, no idea; but either approach is a flavor of manufacturing experience).
It's not as though elastomeric silicones are some kind of novel, ill-characterized, material just out of the lab that nobody has ever handled before.
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You're not wrong on appliances—I took advantage of recent sales to upgrade some kitchen items in my house and the rep I was working with at Home Depot outright said: Buy what you want, but I wouldn't recommend the Samsung version of any appliance at any price. He said it's their job to promote them because Samsung offers huge sales incentives, but the number of repeat problems is astounding. I've heard this over and over again from people who work in appliance repair and sales: Never, ever Samsung.
That being said, it's always worthwhile to remember that "Samsung, the company that makes electronics" and "Samsung, the company that makes appliances" may as well be just that—two entirely different companies. Samsung the electronics company has the chops to get stuff like this right, and acknowledging a problem before the product ships is the right decision (even if, perhaps, the problem shouldn't have occurred in the first place). Now if only if the folks over in appliances would do the same...
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I remember that being a thing with the Galaxy Fold; did they do something similar with TVs, too?
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Whenever I see the word “Galaxy” I just read it as “Copycat”. Samsung Copycat Buds Pro 3. Samsung Copycat Tab 4. Samsung Copycat Watch Ultra.
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I never paid that much attention I guess but recent press, articles, comments on Reddit etc have kind of opened my eyes. I'd always thought they made a good phone with stupid software choices. But now I know it's way worse than that.
So yeah, I'd say their rep has gotten smacked pretty hard. For me it's been recent... but it sounds like it's just the truth finally boiling over. It's always been there, it's just been covered up pretty well. Till now.
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Honestly, the bit that makes this surprising is more the Samsung phones that nobody cares about: the totally random A-series stuff that comes with cheap prepaid plans in the US(not sure if it has the same model names/numbers internally) and generally duels on price with at least the more recognizable Chinese outifts(not sure if anyone really does price competition with the real mystery-slab outfits).
That stuff is boring, and reviews and fanboys don’t care; but down there is where you get the margins where you really need things to go smoothly, no warranty service, no recalls, no delay-launch-for-rework, an acceptable percentage to of the time unless you want to lose money.
That’s also where you might get away with somewhat lower standards, you aren’t going to have chattering gadget bloggers using the -gate suffix about mediocre backlight uniformity on A03s showing up at Wal-Mart for $50; but Wal-Mart would be pissed if an atypically high percentage of those came back as returns; and you probably aren’t making the fat margins on each one that would survive the cost of many warranty repairs or exchanges.
‘Premium’ demands that you execute or your reputation suffers; commodity garbage demands that you execute or you lose money. It doesn’t necessarily demand that you execute to the same level; but you’d better hit the mark consistently.
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Had a Samsung refrigerator. Never again will I buy a Samsung appliance. Our neighbor has a refrigerator that is similar to the one we had and it's doing the same to them that it did to us. I expect it out on the curb in a month or so. When we went to Home Depot to get a new refrigerator and we told the sales guy what we were replacing he was not surprised at all.
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Mr. Samsung said:
Now, I may not have an NBA but I thought you were meant to ensure all products meet quality standards BEFORE packaging and distributing them.
I suppose this is why I'm not running a multi-trillion won company.
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Would sure love if one of these companies would partner with Comply and just sell a Comply version of their buds...or sell the buds and tips separately to avoid all the waste of 3-4 different sized ear tips, only 1 of which will ever be used...or zero, for people like me who immediately order Comply tips.
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As funny and sad as it sounds, it's somewhat refreshing to see a company screw up and instead of shipping their product anyways they own it and delay.
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I’ve had a similar experience with my Jabras. Really worried I would tear the material getting the tips off the headphones, but the material just bounced back into place.
In spite of silicone materials tending to be advertised as just “silicone”, there are a variety of formulations, which can include non-silicone ingredients to fine-tune material characteristics. I guess how easily torn is one of those characteristics that can vary.
As an aside, the watch band my Garmin came with is silicone, and caused a rash. Pure silicone shouldn’t do that, but as I pointed out to my sister, at the very least they had to put in a dye, since silicone is not naturally forest green, and probably there were other non-silicone additives to get just the flexibility (and/or some other characteristic) they wanted. The replacement silicone band I bought hasn’t caused a rash, heavily supporting the idea that’s it wasn’t the silicone in the first band that was the problem.
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Or maybe just design their products with commonplace nozzles like nearly every other audio IEM uses instead of this "captive ring" type of design.
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Apple fanboy 101
Ars Tribunus Militum
They were selling these things 50$ more than AirPods Pro, while copying the design and using cheaper materials. Samsung are thieves.
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I wish that I had read your warning before I bought my Ig Nobel prize. Now people just laugh at me.
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The two cheapest A series phones are ODM made. By a company called Wingtech.
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I can’t speak to any of their other products but I’ve been very happy with my LG OLED TV. That’s been excellent.
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The weird thing is that the earlier buds design was much nicer, and since the mics on these worked well I've got no idea why they switched.
None of the leading makers of wireless buds that I can think of (e.g. Sony, Bose and Jabra) use that style either.
So random, Samsung.
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macosandlinux
Ars Tribunus Militum
It's a standard replacement item in in-ear-monitors, solved ages ago (even with the Chinese HiFi vendors). Many eartips (sizes/materials/fits) are available on the market.
There might be an inherent design flaw in how the tip attaches to the nozzle on the Samsung model or their QC on the material is very lacking?
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Samsung is a corporation looking to maximize its profit, just like Apple. There is nothing illegal about incorporating a design characteristic from your competitor while trying to skimp on material costs, your username not withstanding.
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I like Samsusng and I really enjoyed their buds 2 pro (on which I did replace the tips for spinfits).
It's a shame they released something so fragile, but I like that they are at least trying to own it.
I've had an endless amount of Samusng phones, which I love, but haven't made any meaningful advancement since the S10 (at least from my usage perspective).
I've had a few Samusng TVs and monitors which also always did well...
Lately I feel the internet is like politics, if you can make noise about something, doesn't matter what the issue is, how complex, how it's being handled ora ny factual information about it, then by all means, let's make a splash.
I hope they fix this issue for their consumers. I'm not planning on buying these since they break the only real value they had over the Apple ones, they didn't stick out of your ear and were useful even in bed.
It's a shame they released something so fragile, but I like that they are at least trying to own it.
I've had an endless amount of Samusng phones, which I love, but haven't made any meaningful advancement since the S10 (at least from my usage perspective).
I've had a few Samusng TVs and monitors which also always did well...
Lately I feel the internet is like politics, if you can make noise about something, doesn't matter what the issue is, how complex, how it's being handled ora ny factual information about it, then by all means, let's make a splash.
I hope they fix this issue for their consumers. I'm not planning on buying these since they break the only real value they had over the Apple ones, they didn't stick out of your ear and were useful even in bed.
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I suspect that the "cool" apple/samsung/whatever ones have different design so standard tips don't work.
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Of course.
The gray three-flange is the normal Etymotic design that just presses on snugly but can be removed witha bit of force without tearing anything.
The Buds Pro are oval-shaped and keyed so you can't press them on with the long/short side mixed up. The tip has a bit of a lip inside, but the grip is not very strong and it'll sometimes come off by itself. I just lost one a few days ago when I held the buds in my hands for a few minutes.
The cheapo JBL I bought when I forgot my regular ones have a two-piece design with a very firm inner tube and softer outer flange and reaquie quite a bit of force to take off/on. I've done it without a few times without damaging anything thouhg just fine.
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Lately? I have now avoided Samsung products for 15 years now. Every time I do get one, the QC is horrible and I have to deal with a problem that is uniquely Samsung.
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Apple fanboy 101
Ars Tribunus Militum
I didn’t say it was illegal. But to me it’s quite laughable, how they’ve continually copy Apple over and over for. Apple but also other companies like Dyson or Sony. Not all brands need to pretend to be at the forefront of design innovation or design for posterity, and we do need brands that are cheaper so that everyone can enjoy tech. But Samsung is doing neither : they sell expensive products while copying other people’s designs, and not having as big an ecosystem as others. Samsung has half their work done by Google, and yet their phones are as expensive or more expensive than Apple’s! Thieves.
Well there is nothing random here. They copied Apple like they always do. When they eventually introduce their AR headet it will feature a front facing glass panel just like the Vision Pro.
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