AKG earbuds come free with the Samsung Galaxy S8

OVERVIEW

Release date

4/28/2017

Price

$99

Dimensions

N/A

Weight

N/A

Model Number

N/A

Waterproof

No

POSITIVES

Decent build
Free

NEGATIVES

Average sound quality
Sub-par microphone

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is finally here and Samsung did something a little different. Instead of removing the headphone jack like some other phones have been doing recently, they threw a pair of ”premium” earbuds in with every phone. So instead of getting a crappy pair of gas station gummy earbuds with your phone, you get a pair made by AKG, a pretty well-known and popular headphone manufacturer. So are these headphones really better than what would normally come with your phone or did they just stick a trusted brand name on a standard pair of headphones?

Build & Design

AKG and Samsung are both known for good build and design, but considering these are basically an add-on item I wasn’t expecting great quality. Though I wouldn’t say these feel and look “great”, they’re definitely really good. They meet somewhere in between cheap and premium, which considering that they cost $99/1000MAD alone makes sense.

They don’t offer the best noise isolation so you’re still going to hear the people next to you on your commute (unless you swap out the ear tips with something a little better than the plastic ones they come with), but they do have a really solid feeling mic and remote. It’s thin and does a good job of staying out of the way and not weighing down the earbud. Besides that, the buttons are super clicky. I was never left wondering if I actually clicked the button or not.

Connection

The growing trend in smartphones seems to be removing the headphone jack, but as we mentioned before Samsung kept the standard on the new Galaxy S8. You can plug into anything with a 3.5mm input be it your phone, gaming console, or musical instrument. The control module has a mic and playback controls built in, but the controls differ depending on the device you use.

Sound Quality