The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live and Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus may have similar names, and released one after the other, but these true wireless earbuds couldn’t be more different.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus look a lot like what you’d expect from a pair of true wireless earbuds.

Conversely, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live are not at all what you’d expect a pair of true wireless earbuds to look like.

However, where the interchangeable rubber tips made the Galaxy Buds Plus comfortable for a wide variety of ears, Lily found the Galaxy Buds Live uncomfortable after just a little while, as the one-size-fits-all approach caused quite a bit of strain on her outer ears.

Both the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live and Galaxy Buds Plus are true wireless earbuds, and thus use Bluetooth to connect to compatible devices.

Many of the various features the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus sports, like direct Spotify integration, custom EQ settings, ambient sound adjustments, game mode, and more come to earbuds through the Galaxy Wearables app.

This Android app, it turns out, also fully supports the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live, so it’s hard to contrast these earbuds on this front too (as long as you accept all terms of use)—don’t worry they’ll get easier to differentiate later.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus isolate the listener even more effectively than the ANC Galaxy Buds Live.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live don’t necessarily struggle with battery life, lasting for about 5 hours, 15 minutes on a single charge.

However, where the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live are just average, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus are best-in-class.

Both the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live and the Galaxy Buds Plus feature speakers tuned by AKG, and while their frequency response charts follow similar patterns, the Galaxy Buds Live is a little more extreme.

The dynamic drivers of the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live just can’t keep up, especially coupled with how establishing a decent seal is basically a crapshoot.

Where the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus show a slight over-emphasis around 1000Hz, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live also over emphasize sound, but much louder and for more of the high end, until around 4000Hz.

As the charts show, while the bass range attenuation of the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus doesn’t do a lot, the mid and high range sound result absolute dwarfs the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Live has a very solid microphone array for making calls.

At full price, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus are $50 cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live