Samsung evidently went back to the drawing board for its next pair of Galaxy Buds wireless earbuds.
Android Authority spotted some iconography in the latest leaked build of Samsung's upcoming One Ui 8.5 OS update that point to redesigned Galaxy Buds coming potentially in the near future. Specifically, an icon with the file name "list_ic_earbuds_buds4" can be found in the One UI 8.5 build, which shows an illustrated silhouette of a pair of earbuds that Samsung has not actually announced yet. For reference, the Galaxy Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro came out in summer of 2024, so a refresh might be in the cards soon.
Anyway, the icon shows a wireless earbud with an AirPods-like stem (maintained from previous Galaxy Buds models), though the body of the earbud is angled differently from before. Interestingly, there's also what I assume to be a silicone ear tip, which is something the base Galaxy Buds 3 lacked. The Galaxy Buds Pro had those, so maybe Samsung is bringing some design parity to the next base model of Galaxy Buds.
Aside from that, there's very little to glean from this leak. There's no telling when the next Galaxy Buds will be announced or launched, though the existence of this iconography certainly suggests it's going to happen at some point.
Alex Perry is a tech reporter at Mashable who primarily covers video games and consumer tech. Alex has spent most of the last decade reviewing games, smartphones, headphones, and laptops, and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. He is also a Pisces, a cat lover, and a Kansas City sports fan. Alex can be found on Bluesky at yelix.bsky.social.
