At its latest Unpacked event, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and Galaxy Watch Ultra, which not only look like Apple products, but also look suspiciously like them. But now that the first shipments of the devices have started to arrive in customers’ hands, it’s pretty clear that Apple’s imitation is just a superficial one.
A photo posted by Redditor Ibuddhaa shows their new Galaxy Watch Ultra with a misaligned display with the fake depth markings on the bezel. It’s only a millimeter or two off, but it’s enough to make the watch look like a cheap knockoff of a high-end smartwatch. Ibuddhaa claims that every watch face is misaligned, suggesting that the problem is with the display. Several replies to the original post indicate that the issue isn’t present on their watch.
Last week, Samsung announced that it was delaying the general release of its AirPods Pro clone (also known as the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro) to “urgently” evaluate and improve its quality control processes, following reports that the ear tips were tearing during initial testing. For these devices, Samsung “has temporarily suspended shipments of Galaxy Buds 3 Pro devices to distribution channels to conduct a full quality control assessment prior to shipments to consumers.”
It’s unclear whether the Galaxy Watch Pro’s issues are a one-off or a symptom of a larger problem, but the earbuds issue certainly raises our eyebrows. And maybe the next time Samsung wants to take a cue from Apple, it should consider copying its build quality instead.
