5 truly useful features Samsung's cheaper Galaxy Buds Plus have that Apple's AirPods are missing

Apple's AirPods have a few touch controls — you can, for example, double tap on the standard AirPods to answer a call, play a song, or skip forward. But there's no shortcut for launching specific music apps like Spotify, as there is on the Galaxy Buds Plus. Once the Galaxy Buds Plus are paired with an Android smartphone, you can program either the left or right earbud to launch Spotify after a long press.

Samsung's Galaxy Buds Plus fit more snugly in the ear than. providing a tighter seal than Apple's regular AirPods, which which rest on the ear canal. This means you'll hear less of the world around you, and more of what you're listening to. (The Galaxy Buds don't have active noise cancellation like Apple's $249 AirPods Pro, though.)

Samsung's Galaxy Buds Plus also have a feature called Ambient Aware, which lets you filter in sounds from the environment around you while listening, unlike AirPods. The AirPods Pro do have a transparency mode for allowing outside noise to pass through — but cost $100 more.

Samsung's companion app for the Galaxy Buds Plus also comes with an equalizer for tweaking the earbuds' sound, with filters for boosting the bass, adding a softer tone, and bumping up the treble among other options. (However, I often found that the Galaxy Buds Plus sounded best without these filters.)

When it comes to overall audio quality, the Galaxy Buds Plus and Apple's original AirPods sounded very similar. The pricier AirPods Pro felt richer and more full-bodied, but that's to be expected of a more premium pair of headphones.

Samsung claims that its Galaxy Buds Plus can provide 11 hours of playback, while the buds' charging case can hold 11 hours of charge without having to be plugged in. That means the Galaxy Buds should last for 22 hours total if they live up to Samsung's claims.

Apple claims its AirPods offer similar overall battery life, but with one crucial difference: Apple says AirPods offer up to five hours of listening time, but more than 24 hours of battery life overall when they're recharged in their case.

While I wasn't able to verify the 11 hours of playback on the Galaxy Buds quite yet, if both the AirPods and Galaxy Buds Plus live up to their claims, the Galaxy Buds Plus should offer more than double the playback time of Apple's AirPods before you need to recharge them. But AirPods should outlast the Galaxy Buds by roughly two hours when it comes to overall battery life provided through the charging case.

There are some places the Galaxy Buds Plus don't quite measure up Apple's AirPods.

The Galaxy Buds Plus can't automatically pause music when one earbud is removed from the ear the way that AirPods can. Instead, you must remove both earbuds to pause music playback.

And there isn't any option to access voice assistants like the Google Assistant or Samsung's Bixby hands-free, whereas you can trigger Apple's digital helper just by saying the "Hey Siri" wake phrase on second-generation AirPods and AirPods Pro.

Still, the Galaxy Buds generally offer every feature you'd want from a pair of wireless earbuds, and at a cheaper price than Apple's AirPods. They may be lacking a few capabilities that make AirPods so appealing to iPhone owners, but they offer crisp sound and more flexibility when it comes to comfort and customization.