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![samsung-galaxy-buds3-pro-hero](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/samsung-galaxy-buds3-pro-hero.jpg)
Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro
It’s hard not to get hyped as yet another generation of high-end earbuds gets released. Samsung really tried to throw in everything but the kitchen sink with the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro, but are they any good? Complicated products with lots of features make that question a little harder to unpack — but if you’ll give us some of your time, we’ll unwind it for you.
Samsung has issued a pause on shipping the Galaxy Buds3 Pro
After this review was posted, Samsung halted shipping the Galaxy Buds3 Pro. The company provided this statement to SoundGuys:
“There have been reports relating to a limited number of early production Galaxy Buds3 Pro devices. We are taking this matter very seriously and remain committed to meeting the highest quality standards of our products. We are urgently assessing and enhancing our quality control processes. To ensure all products meet our quality standards, we have temporarily suspended deliveries of Galaxy Buds3 Pro devices to distribution channels to conduct a full quality control evaluation before shipments to consumers take place. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.” — Samsung
If you’ve pre-ordered or purchased the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro online, you may have to wait until late August for your units as the current batch of earbuds undergoes quality control evaluation. Though it might be frustrating to have to wait longer, the upside here is that Samsung is standing by its product, and ensuring it meets its standards. These things can be painful, but to go this far means Samsung is taking these issues seriously. Expect more updates to the review should our unit fall under this inspection and if we get asked to re-test with a new unit. If you already have your earbuds, be sure to contact Samsung if you notice any issues with your product.
Editor’s note: this article was updated on July 19, 2024 to provide a statement from Samsung about its decision to investigate quality control issues further.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro is primarily for Samsung phone owners who want to make the most of the Samsung Galaxy Wear features in their phones. Though the earbuds are compatible with iPhones and non-Samsung devices, many of the features baked into the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro are platform-exclusive.
What’s it like to use Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro?
The Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro are very easy to use, and build upon many of the design lessons learned from Apple — for better, or worse. For starters, the lollipop and stem design is a clever way to hold earbuds in place by snaking a hard physical object through your tragus and antitragus, and the ear tips with the completely removable nozzle ensure that people of varying ear shapes will be able to use the earbuds without much discomfort. I was able to listen for about an hour at a time before the unseasonably hot weather in British Columbia made me sweat enough that a fit was difficult to maintain.
![samsung-galaxy-buds3-pro-hand A photo of the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro being held in a man's hand.](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/samsung-galaxy-buds3-pro-hand.jpg)
Hidden away inside the casing of each earbud are two channels — a dynamic driver and a planar magnetic one — and dual amp to power each driver. On paper, the specs are impressive, but that much hardware has a power cost. This showed up in our battery testing, but more on that later.
The earbuds come stuffed into a rather small, wireless charging-enabled case with a clear window for a lid. This case will fit easily into just about any pants pockets, as it’s quite small and thin. On the bottom of the case is the USB-C charging port, which is a little strange, but given the fact that the earbuds have a door keeping them in, you don’t have to worry about knockouts when you set your earbuds on the desk like you would with other models that share this design feature.
![Samsung Galaxy Buds3 pro with Flip6 Samsung Galaxy Buds3 pro with Flip6](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Samsung-Galaxy-Buds3-pro-with-Flip6-scaled.jpg)
New to the Galaxy Buds Pro design is the blade-shaped lollipop stems, which serve as a vehicle for interesting lights as well as controls. If you don’t want to use a series of taps and swipes to control your earbuds, you can also bark orders to them — just be aware that it won’t be a complete picnic if you have cheeky friends. I had to avoid keeping this feature toggled because my five-year-old, sweet as she is, sees any piece of technology as a way to call other people. Because the earbuds have a tendency to allow anyone speaking the commands to control your earbuds… it was wise to avoid giving up that kind of control.
![samsung-galaxy-buds3-pro-nozzle A photo of the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro with its removable ear tips.](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/samsung-galaxy-buds3-pro-nozzle.jpg)
These earbuds are a solid choice for workouts. Because of the IP57 rating, the secure fit, and ambient sound modes that allow sirens to pass through, the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro would do as well on a commute as they would if you decided to run to work instead.
The eartips are not particularly fragile, but the inclination to be gentle with the silicone bits has led some users to accidentally damage their Buds3 Pro. Most earbuds require the user to grip the sleeve at the base and work the ear tip off the nozzle, but because the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro are designed in a different way, you need to pull at them from the top instead. If you don’t, you risk tearing the tips where they’re weakest.
We didn’t run across any issues in the lab, as the good old “yank the ear tip directly off” method is what Samsung has identified as the correct way to go. Simply flip out the ear tip’s sleeve, and a gentle tug should dislodge it without damaging the earbud or ear tip. Samsung seems to have bad luck with users not reading the manual with some of their products (eg, people removing the included screen protector for the Fold line of phones when it’s a part of the display — predictably leading to screen damage), and this doesn’t seem to be the company’s fault either. However, it’s not impossible that you, in particular, have a faulty sleeve if you’ve broken yours. These mass-produced little rubber bits can be difficult to manufacture, and defects happen in any production line from time to time. If this happens to you, definitely reach out to Samsung to see what can be done.
If you’d like to control your playback from your phone, you can control it via voice commands, or a series of pinches and swipes. Just be aware that the location of the pinch area is closer to the bottom of the stem than it is the middle, which can be a little confusing.
Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro controls:
Input | Left earbud | Right earbud |
---|---|---|
Input Slide up / down | Left earbud Volume | Right earbud Volume |
Input Pinch once | Left earbud Play / pause | Right earbud Play / pause |
Input Pinch twice | Left earbud Track forward | Right earbud Track forward |
Input Pinch three times | Left earbud Track backward | Right earbud Track backward |
Input Long pinch | Left earbud ANC/ ambient mode | Right earbud ANC / ambient mode |
Mostly. The Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro only have an ingress protection rating of IP57, which means they can take a quick dunk and survive. However, the earbuds can’t spend much time underwater, and they definitely can’t be used while swimming.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro offer compatibility with Samsung’s entry into the AI world, Galaxy AI. Among the apps available through this platform is a live translator app that offers the ability to live-translate a conversation in a limited number of languages. I found the real-time interpreter function to be as good as you could possibly expect, although only the wearer of the earbuds will be able to hear the translation in their ear. The Samsung Interpreter app will allow you to use your phone to transcribe speech from both speakers and have the screen split so that both of you can read the output. It doesn’t do so hot when there’s a lot of noise around you, but in a pinch, this is a great way to communicate with the people around you if there’s an insurmountable language barrier. Sure, it’ll take a while to have a conversation, but at least you’ll be able to get a few things across. Just try to keep idioms to a minimum, lest you end up with another Darmok and Jalad-type scenario.
Should you use the Samsung Wearable app for the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro?
Yes, you should use the Samsung Wear app with the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro. Though apps can sometimes be a huge pain, the Samsung Wearable app is necessary to make use of the most advanced features of the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro, including voice commands, adaptive noise control, AI translation services, 360 audio, Find My, and more. Long story short: the earbuds just aren’t the complete package without the right hardware and software behind them — and that means using the app.
![Samsung Galaxy Flip6 equalizer with Galaxy Buds3 Pro Samsung Galaxy Flip6 equalizer with Galaxy Buds3 Pro](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Samsung-Galaxy-Flip6-equalizer-with-Galaxy-Buds3-Pro-scaled.jpg)
Though that might sound like a drawback, it’s not a huge one. If you’re looking at the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro to begin with, you’re likely someone who’s already got a Samsung phone, or at the very least an Android phone.
How do the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro connect?
![samsung-galaxy-buds3-pro-case-bottom A photo of the underside of the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro's charging case.](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/samsung-galaxy-buds3-pro-case-bottom.jpg)
The Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro connect to your source device via Bluetooth 5.4 over the SBC, AAC, Samsung Scalable Codec, and Samsung Seamless Codec. However, just be aware that unless you have a relatively new Samsung phone, you cannot use the latter codec for higher-bitrate listening. Though SBC and AAC are more than fine for most, much hay was made by Samsung for supporting a higher-quality codec at launch, and you should know that it’s not a given that you’ll be able to use it. If you’re hoping that your earbuds will provide you with lossless or near-lossless listening, you’ll have to have a relatively new Samsung phone in order to use it.
Audio quality up to 24bit/96kHz’ is available on Galaxy S24 series, S23 series, Z Fold6, Z Flip6, Z Fold5, Z Flip5 and Tab S9 series with One UI 6.1.1 or above.
Additional devices may be supported in the future. — Samsung, on the product page for the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro
We had a few issues managing devices in the lab, as we had to pair and re-pair the earbuds to the test computer and phone to do things like change EQ, presets, or turn the ANC on/off. But there weren’t any dropouts, or other common issues with Bluetooth earbuds, so that’s a plus. It was only when we tested the buds with a new phone that we experienced our only stutters in playback. If that edge case is what it takes to get some of these hiccups, a firmware update might be able to handle it.
New to the world of Samsung earbuds is Auracast support, which is a bigger plus for you down the road than it is now. Auracast can be used to broadcast and share your tunes, as well as hear venue-specific announcements and more.
If you must connect to your source device manually, the process is pretty straightforward.
- On your source device, open the Bluetooth menu and scan for new devices.
- On the bottom of the charging case, find the circular button near the charging port, and depress it for 3 seconds, or until the lights on the front start going crazy.
- Select the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro from the list of available devices to pair.
How long do the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro’s batteries last?
Withstanding our standardized battery test for 4 hours and 31 minutes, the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro chew through battery a bit faster than we’d hope — but it’s still well beyond what’s needed for a commute. International travelers might want to take note, as this short battery life would require several charge cycles to last an intercontinental flight (depending on how long that actually is).
Having products with poor battery life also means more frequent charge cycles, and could end in a battery that loses its ability to recharge as well as you need it to. True wireless earbuds only last so long, and models without replaceable batteries tend to end up as e-waste pretty quickly compared to other kinds of personal audio products.
No fast-charging is listed by Samsung on the product page, but we expect the earbuds to charge pretty quickly, given the relatively small size of the battery cells in just about every set of earbuds out there.
How well do the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro cancel noise?
The Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro are quite good at blocking out noise, and decent — not amazing — at canceling it. With a good fit, you can expect about 57% of outside noise to be hushed without ANC, and about 76% when the unit is enabled. While that’s fine enough for most, it’s definitely a cut below what other products at this price point provide, and it’s unclear whether a firmware update will fix this or if this is as good as it gets.
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For those of you interested in more advanced features, Samsung baked in a few goodies into the Wear app to attempt to make the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro’ ANC a little more useful in daily life. However, when it’s as poor as it is, some of these features — namely, siren detection — are probably not necessary. As a gut check with newer earbuds, sometimes I pass around new products around the office, and my colleague Adam confirmed it wasn’t just me: the ANC isn’t quite as good as it was on the Galaxy Buds2 Pro. He had no trouble hearing things around him while walking into the office.
The ambient sound feature that the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro use is quite decent, even if it’s not going to make you believe you’re not wearing earbuds. Though Samsung does add Sidetone to the ambient mode — thereby sidestepping the impossible-to-ignore reality that plagues most transparency modes — you’ll still have the feeling of blocked ears, even if you can hear yourself fine.
How do the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro sound?
Samsung has a lot of institutional knowledge on how to make personal audio products that sound good, and it shows with the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro — with relatively high scores across the board, most people will like the sound of the earbuds.
Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS)
The chart below shows how the sound of the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro was assessed by the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Score (MDAQS) algorithm from HEAD acoustics.
![Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro-MDAQS This chart shows the MDAQS results for the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro in Default mode. The Timbre score is 4.9, The Distortion score is 3.3, the Immersiveness score is 4.7, and the Overall Score is 4.8).](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Samsung-Galaxy-Buds3-Pro-MDAQS.png)
The simulated panel of listeners returned high scores for Timbre and Immersiveness, with a merely “okay” level of distortion. Remember that this sample, in particular, was not recorded using Samsung’s proprietary codecs, so this should be viewed as the performance floor of the earbuds. Depending on your tastes, you may also perceive different EQ presets to be better or worse than this.
![Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro (Clear EQ)-MDAQS This chart shows the MDAQS results for the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro in Clear EQ mode. The Timbre score is 4.9, The Distortion score is 4.2, the Immersiveness score is 4, and the Overall Score is 4.9).](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Samsung-Galaxy-Buds3-Pro-Clear-EQ-MDAQS.png)
For example, the “Clear” EQ preset — the preset that most closely aligns with our Headphone Preference Curve among the provided options — posts a higher Distortion score with only a mild hit to Immersiveness (but is still rated positively). This EQ mode slightly edges out the default behavior by one-tenth of a point, so it’s entirely possible you won’t really care too much about the difference. Any way you slice it, though, the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro will likely be a crowd-pleaser.
- Timbre (MOS-T) represents how faithfully the headphones reproduce the frequency spectrum and temporal resolution (timing information).
- Distortion (MOS-D) represents non-linearities and added noise: higher scores mean cleaner reproduction.
- Immersiveness (MOS-I) represents perceived source width and positioning: how well virtual sound sources are defined in three-dimensional space.
Reviewer’s notes
Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.
Objective Measurements
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The default sound of the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro is pretty much what you’d expect out of a set of earbuds nowadays, with a 5dB bass overemphasis to compete with outside noise and more masses-friendly tuning. There really isn’t much more to talk about until you get to the highs, where there’s a rather pronounced over-emphasis from 4kHz to 9kHz. We’ve seen this one before, and it’s unlikely to truly sour anyone’s listening experience — just make a mental note of it, and if you find that music with lots of high-end is fatiguing, try another EQ preset if you like.
I am heartened to see as much treble extension as I do, as many earbuds tend to tail off a bit earlier than the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro do. The upside here is that it’s much easier to tone down something that you don’t want to hear than it is to rescue an underemphasis — especially when it comes to wireless audio products. Sure, this does depart from our preferred response, but if there’s anything we’ve learned from the last few years, it’s that different responses can attain similar listener preference scores. Given that Samsung has access to a lot of research from very talented audio engineers, I’m unsurprised to see a response that differs in the specific ways that the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro do.
Bass boost EQ Preset
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The bass boost EQ preset does exactly what you’d think it does, and boosts bass to a rather silly degree. Some may like this, we do not.
Smooth EQ Preset
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This preset has a rather pronounced bass shelf that starts pretty high, at about 400Hz. Highs are a little tamped down, but to more reasonable levels than the default behavior.
Dynamic EQ Preset
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This preset has a similar bass shelf to the one exhibited by the Smooth preset, but with more emphasis in the highs.
Clear EQ Preset
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Our preferred EQ preset, the Clear EQ preset has the most palatable response in our opinion, and deviates from our preference curve in ways we’ve come to expect as “normal.” For example, many other earbuds have a slight dip at 500Hz as shown above, along with some rolloff in the highs past 10kHz.
Treble boost EQ Preset
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Much like the Bass boost EQ preset, the Treble boost EQ preset does exactly what’s on the label: by toning down bass a little and boosting highs, leading to a perceived treble emphasis.
Balanced EQ Preset
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This preset has a strong bass emphasis but also a more-restrained high end.
Can you use the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro for phone calls?
Yes, you can use the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro for phone calls, and they come with a number of advanced features as well. For example, you can use “super wideband call” functionality that will allow you to record up to 16kHz instead of the usual 8kHz. The intended consequence of this is improved call quality, but there are a number of factors, including your network, that will determine what your conversation mates actually hear. Below are samples we collected in the lab.
Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro microphone demo (Ideal conditions):
How does the microphone sound to you?
Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro microphone demo (Office conditions):
Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro microphone demo (Street conditions):
Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro microphone demo (Windy conditions):
Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro microphone demo (Reverberant space):
For whatever reason, we couldn’t get much noise reduction out of the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro, but that might be one of those things that requires certain apps to be used with the earbuds, as the Windows computer and voice notes app by Samsung had similar results. Though the samples above might not reject outside noise all that well, it’s entirely possible that you’re going to have different results based on which client you use, or which device. It’s also possible that a firmware update could ameliorate this.
Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro?
![samsung-galaxy-buds3-pro-case A photo of the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro sitting in their case.](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/samsung-galaxy-buds3-pro-case.jpg)
If you own a newer Samsung phone, there’s really not much downside to picking up the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro, as they’re the company’s vision of what earbuds in 2024 are meant to be like. But if you’re like me and don’t need AI in every damn thing, you should probably look for something a bit more affordable. Two hundred and fifty dollars for earbuds is a lot of money, and anybody asking that much needs to deliver a lot for the purchase to make sense. While the Samsung-only features are extremely useful to someone who travels a lot, they may not be as necessary if all you want is a simple set of ANC earbuds.
![Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro](https://clearbuy-cloud.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/9803/custom_filename.jpg)
For one thing, there are earbuds out there that are a little easier to control and block out more noise than the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro. Additionally, these can sometimes be difficult to fit, and if you don’t have a Samsung phone: you’ll lose access to some of the advanced features of the earbuds. If you own an iPhone or older Android phone: you should probably search for something else, instead.
How do Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro compare to Apple AirPods Pro 2?
![apple music with airpods pro 2 Apple music on iphone with airpods pro 2](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/apple-music-with-airpods-pro-2-scaled.jpg)
The Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro take square aim at providing a credible alternative to the Apple AirPods Pro 2 for Samsung devices, and it delivers — but should you still give Apple’s earbuds a look? Well, that depends entirely upon whether you’re using an iPhone or a Samsung phone. If you’re on the fence about jumping into one platform or another, then there’s a few things to consider. For example, whether you’re hoping your earbuds are going to be used more for entertainment or dealing with ever-changing demands from the world around you.
![Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro vs. Apple AirPods Pro 2 MDAQS A bar chart showing the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores recorded for the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro and Apple AirPods Pro 2.](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Samsung-Galaxy-Buds3-Pro-vs.-Apple-AirPods-Pro-2-MDAQS.png)
In terms of pure performance, the AirPods Pro 2 have the edge on ANC and battery, but sound quality is a bit of a push — though the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro do offer higher-bitrate listening with Samsung devices than the AirPods Pro 2 can accommodate. Given that Bluetooth codecs — and specifically AAC in particular — have come quite a ways, it’s not as big of a deal as it used to be.
How do the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro compare to the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro?
![Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro with Galaxy Buds2 Pro Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro with Galaxy Buds2 Pro](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Samsung-Galaxy-Buds3-Pro-with-Galaxy-Buds2-Pro-scaled.jpg)
Though it might annoy some, the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro are very different than their successors when it comes to ANC performance and features. Additionally, we found the older earphones slightly easier to fit than the newer ones. Both sets of earbuds are excellent, and if you aren’t crazy about AI features: you may want to just grab the older buds on sale if you can find them, $179 at Amazon.
![Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro MDAQS Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro MDAQS](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Samsung-Galaxy-Buds3-Pro-vs.-Samsung-Galaxy-Buds2-Pro-MDAQS.png)
As far as sound quality goes, both earbuds are great — though it’s slightly more likely that the newer Buds3 Pro will be more preferred by more people. However, the ANC is much better with the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro than it is with the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro. We’re unsure why there was a drop in ANC performance from generation to generation, but it’s noticeable.
What should you get instead of the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro?
Because the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro are so locked to a single ecosystem, listing alternatives will be difficult. To be sure, no alternatives are going to offer all the same features as the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro for Samsung phones, so you have to decide if the real-time translation, ultra-wideband mic, and higher-quality Samsung Bluetooth codecs really are worth the extra money. If you have an iPhone or non-Samsung Android phone: you can easily find something else.
![Sony WF-1000XM5 buds outside of case on table Sony WF-1000XM5 charging case open on the table with the earbuds placed behind the case](https://www.soundguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/DSC09555-scaled.jpg)
To wit, the JLab Epic Lab Edition ($199.99 at Amazon) might not offer all the bells and whistles of the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro, but they do offer very decent audio quality and a lower price tag. Alternatively, you could look to snag a Jabra Elite 8 Active ($229.99 at Amazon) on sale, or the somewhat-aging Sony WF-1000XM5 ($298 at Amazon) as credible competitors in the sound quality department. All of the above also edge out the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro in terms of noise canceling, though none of these options have the AI features of the Samsung buds.
Frequently asked questions
Yes.
Yes, the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro come with two additional sizes of ear tips.
Yes, though many of the advanced features may not work.
Yes.
Yes, should these earbuds fit you, they should make decent workout buddies.