Samsung’s AirPods killers just leaked with a bean-like design

Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 — (Image credit: WinFuture)

It looks like Samsung is going to make you eat your beans — or at the very least, stick them in your ears. According to a new report, the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 will look a lot like kidney beans, and will look a lot different, and fit more snugly in your ear, than the current Galaxy Buds and Galaxy Buds Pro.

The report, from WinFuture, shows the legume-like buds from several angles, with what looks like a small microphone port on the outside, and audio ports and two metal contacts on the interior, the latter which we assume will either be used to charge the buds or to measure your heart rate. However, the new earbuds don't appear to have any silicone tips or adapters, so it's not clear how they'll conform to different ear shapes.

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Looking at the 3D renderings and images, it appears that the Galaxy Buds 2 — if that's what they're called — will fit almost flush inside one's ear; while definitely a low profile, we're curious to see how easy they'll be to insert and remove. The lack of any silicone seal also leaves us to wonder how good these earbuds will be at blocking ambient sounds.

Earlier reports about the Samsung bean earbuds have indicated that the new "bean" earbuds will also incorporate fitness-tracking features, such as heart rate, speed, distance, and more, similar to Samsung's Gear IconX earbuds from a few years back. This would also give Samsung's earbuds yet another advantage over Apple's AirPods, especially if the Galaxy Buds 2 were to connect with Samsung Fit or the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 smartwatch, which has a number of fitness-focused features itself.

Apple itself could be working on a new generation of AirPods with fitness-features too, as AppleInsider said at the beginning of 2019. While that was more than a year ago — and those features did not make it into the AirPods 2 — it wouldn't be presumptuous to rule out anything for the next iteration.

As with its current models, we would expect that the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 will also incorporate touch controls (though we found them to be a bit too sensitive in our Galaxy Buds Plus review), and at least 10 hours of battery life.

While WinFuture states that the new Samsung earbuds are still in the testing phase, we could presumably see Samsung launch them alongside the Samsung Galaxy Note 20, which might happen as early as August. With Covid-19 delaying many product launches, though, this date is still in the air.

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Michael A. Prospero is the U.S. Editor-in-Chief for Tom’s Guide. He oversees all evergreen content and oversees the Homes, Smart Home, and Fitness/Wearables categories for the site. In his spare time, he also tests out the latest drones, electric scooters, and smart home gadgets, such as video doorbells. Before his tenure at Tom's Guide, he was the Reviews Editor for Laptop Magazine, a reporter at Fast Company, the Times of Trenton, and, many eons back, an intern at George magazine. He received his undergraduate degree from Boston College, where he worked on the campus newspaper The Heights, and then attended the Columbia University school of Journalism. When he’s not testing out the latest running watch, electric scooter, or skiing or training for a marathon, he’s probably using the latest sous vide machine, smoker, or pizza oven, to the delight — or chagrin — of his family.