Staying connected to the real world is the hot new thing, or so it seems if you've been paying attention to the parade of new clip-on (or cuff-style) open earbuds arriving from Sony, Anker, and Bose, to name a few. The solution is so good when done well that you'll regularly see these buds occupying a healthy chunk of our best open earbuds buying guide. And now Samsung is joining the trend with its first pair: Galaxy Buds Open.

Unlike over-the-ear headphones or in-ear buds, open-ear options must deliver quality sound without the benefit of an audio seal betwixt your ear canal and the buds' driver housings, and all while not making you feel like you're wearing too-heavy ear cuffs (each earpiece here weighs 6.65g). As a Samsung exec told us, "Designing these buds is a complex challenge because of the unique anatomy of ears and the difficulty to find the perfect balance between a secure fit and a comfortable fit."

Part of that is acknowledging that every ear is different. Samsung told us it used AI and "analyzed 119 million ear data points to find the optimal fit for the widest range of users possible." Engineers used that information to optimize the components, including wire length, weight, bridge length, battery, speaker placement, and to select an alloy that flexes for the clip-on components but also stays secure. Samsung claims you could almost forget you're wearing them.

Samsung sounds confident in the fit, but it also had to do some fairly complex audio engineering to make these open earbuds capable of delivering high-quality audio that doesn't leak out to the person next to you.

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