I tested the best wireless earbuds of 2025

AirPods Pro 2 vs Galaxy Buds 3 Pro vs Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4!

AirPods Pro 2 vs Galaxy Buds 3 Pro vs Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4 review

So in this review, I’ll be talking about three of the best wireless earbuds you could find in 2025. Which includes Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 (review), the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro from Samsung, and Huawei’s new FreeBuds Pro 4.

All three of them promise the best audio, the best noise cancellation, and just… the best wireless earbuds experience in general. You get the idea. And to figure out which is actually the best of the lot, I’ve been using them side by side by side for a little over a week now. I have so much to discuss so let’s get started right away.

The best wireless earbuds of 2025: Specifications

AirPods Pro 2 Galaxy Buds 3 Pro FreeBuds Pro 4
Weight 5.3 grams (earbud) 5.4 grams (earbud) 5.8 grams (earbud)
50.8 grams (case) 46.5 grams (case) 47 grams (case)
IP rating IP54 (buds + case) IP57 (earbuds only) IP54 (earbuds only)
Audio driver Custom high-excursion driver + amplifier 10.5 mm woofer + 6.1 mm planar tweeter, Dual amplifiers 11 mm dynamic driver + planar diaphragm tweeter
Codecs AAC, SBC AAC, SBC, SSC AAC, SBC, LDAC, L2HC 4.0
Microphones 3 mics per earbud 3 mics per earbud + reverse bone conduction mic
Noise cancellation Yes, dB unspecified
Control Press/pinch controls Press/pinch + tap controls
Connectivity Bluetooth 5.3 Bluetooth 5.4 Bluetooth 5.2
Battery life Up to 6 hours of playback (with ANC) Up to 4.5 hours of playback (with ANC)
Companion app N/A Galaxy Wearable Huawei AI Life
Price in Nepal NPR 39,000 NPR 31,999 launching soon
(Buy here) (Buy here)

Oh, and I’ll also be assigning points across different categories by the way, so that you have a clear idea of how they compare in terms of everything.

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The best wireless earbuds of 2025:

With all that sorted out, I wanna kick things off with their design. And there really isn’t much to talk about here I guess since pretty much all of them look the same. They all have the classic stem design but with a few tweaks here and there so that they don’t literally look like the AirPods.

Design and build

Yes, you heard me right. Even Samsung gave in to the AirPods aesthetics this time. That’s honestly kinda sad considering how every other pair of Galaxy Buds that came before used to have their own distinct design instead of something that feels like a copy of the competition.

But what’s done is done.

AirPods Pro 2 vs Galaxy Buds 3 Pro vs FreeBuds Pro 4 - Design 2
Left: Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4 | Center: AirPods Pro 2 | Right: Galaxy Buds 3 Pro

The Buds 3 Pro may look a lot like the AirPods Pro but as I said before, Samsung has done just enough to stand out. So as you can see, its stem is more angular versus the AirPods, there’s this neat little blue-and-orange accent to tell the left earbud from the right, while Samsung also added these LED lights for some reason.

I know I know… that thing is mostly pointless, although I can definitely see it being useful in case I ever have to use the “Find My Earbuds” feature in the dark ‘cause of the light.

A lot of similarities

Okay, unlike the Buds 3 Pro, I kinda dig how Huawei didn’t try anything fancy with the FreeBuds Pro’s design. The gold accent around its flat stem is a nice touch though and I also absolutely love how Huawei ships both silicone and foam ear tips in the box. It’s always an “either this or that” with literally every other pair of earbuds I’ve seen so this was a nice surprise.

But I suppose it’s only fair that all of them share a point in this round since — at the end of the day — the AirPods Pro 2, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, and the FreeBuds Pro 4 all have their own little design perks no matter how similar they look. Or how comfortable they feel when I have them in my ears.

‘Cause besides everything I just talked about, the AirPods Pro also has a more versatile charging case with its built-in lanyard loop and a speaker so that you can find it more easily. The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro brings the best water resistance out of the bunch with its IP57 rating, whereas the FreeBuds Pro’s classy design is simply unmatched.

AirPods Pro 2 Galaxy Buds Pro 3 FreeBuds Pro 4
Design (1) 1 1 1

Controls

And since they all have the same design, the way you control these earbuds is the same as well. Using press or pinch gesture… whatever you wanna call them. I’m pretty used to this on the AirPods Pro since that’s been my daily driver for all this time so yeah, I didn’t have any issues there. I can change playback, switch between noise cancellation modes, and even adjust volume right from the buds on all three of them, which is just fantastic.

Galaxy Buds 3 Pro - Stem
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro

But personally, I found the Buds 3 Pro’s controls to be a lot more finicky than I was expecting. Mostly because its triangular stem requires a bit more effort to actually press the thing — and when I do so — I can also feel the buds themselves slightly dislodge in my ears.

I don’t have this problem with both AirPods Pro and FreeBuds Pro by the way, and I think Samsung knew this was gonna happen.

Which probably explains why the Buds 3 Pro has a voice command option too. I must say it works pretty flawlessly, although I wouldn’t be caught dead saying stuff like “stop music” to my earbuds in public. Ever. Instead, I love how Huawei was once again super smart with its “why not both?” strategy ‘cause — on top of the pinch gestures — I can even tap it to control music playback, and answer calls and stuff.

AirPods Pro 2 Galaxy Buds Pro 3 FreeBuds Pro 4
Controls (1) 1 0.5 1

Call quality

That reminds me, the FreeBuds Pro 4 has the best call quality I’ve ever heard from a pair of wireless earbuds as well. It’s… quite unbelievable. I tested it in a quiet room, on a busy street, and even with the wind brushing against my face but somehow my voice came off crystal clear in almost every single one of those situations.

Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4 - In ear
Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4

Huawei says this thing can block out up to 100 dB of noise during phone calls and that might just be true. The second-gen AirPods Pro and the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, on the other hand, try their best to cut out the background noise in challenging conditions but it seems they’re simply no match against the FreeBuds Pro. Especially the AirPods Pro.

AirPods Pro 2 Galaxy Buds Pro 3 FreeBuds Pro 4
Call quality (2) 1 1.5 2

Noise cancellation

Alright. So what about regular noise cancellation then?

Well… seeing how the FreeBuds Pro was so damn impressive at getting rid of the background noise during phone calls, I naturally had high hopes with its regular noise cancellation too. Mostly since I could also pair it with foam ear tips for a better seal, which ultimately means better ANC.

Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4 - Foam ear tips
Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4

But after going back and forth between them, trying to figure out which one gets rid of ambient noise the best, I’m gonna give it to the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.

Don’t get me wrong, they all get rid of those persistent low-frequency noises between the 50 – 1,000 Hz range like the one coming out of your air conditioner, passing traffic, and airplane engines just fine. And it’s not like the Buds 3 Pro’s noise cancellation is that far ahead either but I found it to be doing a particularly good job against human voices.

AirPods Pro 2 vs Galaxy Buds 3 Pro vs FreeBuds Pro 4 - Design
Left: AirPods Pro 2 | Center: Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4 | Right: Galaxy Buds 3 Pro

It almost feels like Samsung has consciously tuned these earbuds to cancel out the voices more aggressively ‘cause I can actually feel that transition in ANC level every time it detects human voices. The AirPods Pro’s noise cancellation is also some of the best I’ve seen on a pair of wireless earbuds, while I feel like the FreeBuds Pros let in just a bit more noise than I’d like.

How’s the transparency mode?

And I’m honestly a little shocked to find out how good the transparency mode on the Buds 3 Pro has gotten as well. Much better than what I was used to on older Galaxy Buds.

AirPods Pro 2 - In ear
AirPods Pro 2

Apple is still the best at making me feel as if I don’t even have the earbuds on me with its excellent, natural-sounding transparency mode, whereas everything sounds somewhat damp and occluded on the FreeBuds Pro. I guess it’s perfectly good enough to quickly get a sense of what’s going around you without having to take out the earbuds but yeah, the AirPods Pro remains the king of transparency mode even after all these years.

AirPods Pro 2 Galaxy Buds Pro 3 FreeBuds Pro 4
ANC (2) 2 2 1.5

Sound

Okay.

I wanna get into the main event now and talk about their audio quality. And just looking at their specs, you may think that the AirPods Pro is at a massive disadvantage ‘cause:

  • number 1, it doesn’t have two separate drivers to handle low frequencies (aka bass) and high frequencies (aka trebles) like the other guys.
  • And number 2, it doesn’t support high-res Bluetooth codecs for lossless or near-lossless playback either.

Well, technically speaking the AirPods Pro can do lossless audio if you pair it with a little something called “Vision Pro”, but I see the point. Although I wanna remind you guys that simply having more drivers or high-res codecs is never gonna guarantee great audio. It all comes down to how well-tuned they are.

And all three of them sound so good — and they have such a unique character of their own — that it ultimately depends on your listening taste to determine a clear winner here. And if you’re someone who listens to a lot of pop, EDM, hip-hop, or any other genre of music with a big emphasis on bass, then I’m sure you’re gonna love the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. Oh yeah.

Lows

‘Cause this thing clearly has the most noticeable bass response out of the bunch. And I won’t describe its bass response as “muddy” or “bloated” either since I found that the extended bass on the Buds 3 Pro really adds a lot of energy to the track.

Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro - In ear
Galaxy Buds 3 Pro

Like in The Weeknd’s “Out of Time”, for example. This is such a well-mixed song with a lot of diverse elements like that smoo…th, groovy bassline, the warm synth, flute, and all the other percussive beats on top of the vocals itself. And all of them are so nicely layered on the Buds 3 Pro — while still highlighting the bass — that listening to the same song on the AirPods Pro or the FreeBuds Pro is no fun at all.

The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro preserves a wide soundstage and I also noticed that Samsung has boosted the high frequencies by a bit here. But I have to say it cannot reproduce the subtle details in the treble region that well, like how those percussive beats on that Weeknd track I mentioned before don’t have proper detail or presence to them.

Mids

Whereas the second-gen AirPods Pro is still my go-to answer whenever someone asks me to name a pair of earbuds with a clean and balanced sound. And one with particularly faithful mids. What all this means is that Apple’s premium wireless earbuds work well with basically any kind of music you listen to. Especially in tracks with a lot of string instruments and vocals.

Trebles

But what it doesn’t have is the punchy bass attack like the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro or the FreeBuds Pro’s bright, sparkly treble. Now you might already know that I’m quite a fan of the extended treble response so yes, I’ve absolutely loved listening to this guy. Not just because of its bright sound in general, but also because it has equally impressive dynamic range, good separation, and a decent bit of “oomph”.

Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4 - Design
Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4

And one of my favorite Fleetwood Mac songs, “The Chain”, is probably the best example to showcase what these Huawei earbuds are capable of.

There are a lot of percussive pieces throughout the song, including snare drum, hi-hats, and cymbal crashes, all leading to a powerful climax that is reproduced so incredibly well on the FreeBuds Pro. The AirPods Pro tries its best to preserve all those finer details while the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro almost completely gives up near the end here.

Thankfully, I can create my own equalizer on the Galaxy buds to bring out more detail in the treble region. And I can also create a custom eq on the Huawei buds for better bass response as well. There’s no such thing with the AirPods — and if you care about high-res music — then you’re better off with the other two.

Is high-res music even worth it?

So the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro has Samsung’s own high-res codec called “SSC” that only works on Samsung phones. Whereas the FreeBuds Pro has “L2HC 4.0” codec with an even higher bitrate that only works with Huawei phones. The good news is that the FreeBuds Pro even brings LDAC codec for better audio, which is available on literally all Android phones.

So yes… I’m really, really loving that “why not both?” approach with these earbuds.

But I gotta say as someone who listens to a lot of music, someone who clocked in over 100,000 minutes of listening time on Spotify last year, I can’t seem to care about lossless audio at all.

Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4 - Charging case
Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4

I downloaded a bunch of high-res music and compared them with their Spotify version, and I couldn’t notice the difference in most of the tracks. On both the Buds 3 Pro and the FreeBuds Pro. Maybe someone with better-trained ears will appreciate this a lot more than me but yeah, this is such a niche feature that the vast majority of people won’t even care about it.

AirPods Pro 2 Galaxy Buds Pro 3 FreeBuds Pro 4
Sound (3) Lows 0.5 1 0.5
Mids 1 0.5 0.5
High 0.5 0.5 1

Battery

Finally, it’s time to talk about battery life.

And I’ll just say right away that neither of these has that impressive battery backup. Not for a pair of flagship earbuds at least. They all lasted me around 5 hours on average — and their case also holds a similar amount charge — so there ya’ go. There isn’t really a winner or a loser when it comes to battery life among these three.

AirPods Pro 2 Galaxy Buds Pro 3 FreeBuds Pro 4
Battery (1) 0.5 0.5 0.5

The best wireless earbuds of 2025: Final words

Alright. I better wrap it all up now. And taking a final look at the scoreboard, we can see that it was a super tight race between all of them. With the FreeBuds Pro 4 managing to stand out by the thinnest of margins.

AirPods Pro 2 Galaxy Buds Pro 3 FreeBuds Pro 4
Total (10) 7.5 7.5 8

Which means no matter which pair of earbuds you go with, I’m sure you’re gonna have a blast. They all have great audio, great noise cancellation, and everything.

AirPods Pro 2 vs Galaxy Buds 3 Pro vs FreeBuds Pro 4 - With phone
Left: AirPods Pro 2 | Center: Huawei FreeBuds Pro 4 | Right: Galaxy Buds 3 Pro

But of course, if you have an iPhone or a Samsung phone, going with the second-gen AirPods Pro or the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro still makes the most sense. ‘Cause of a…ll the ecosystem benefits you get as a bonus. The FreeBuds Pro 4 also has a couple of Huawei-exclusive features, although I love how it’s designed in such a way that you won’t miss out on a whole lot even if you don’t pair it with a Huawei phone.

So unless you really want all the ecosystem stuff, I think the FreeBuds Pro 4 is the most standout pair of flagship earbuds out here. I know it doesn’t have the best noise cancellation but other than that, it impressed me the most in two areas that matter the most: audio and microphone quality.

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