Open-ear audio has been a big thing in the past few years, but if there’s one category within that niche that’s really seen some interest, it’s clips. Clip-on wireless earbuds, in case you’re not familiar, are like regular wireless earbuds but in clip form. Instead of shoving a piece of silicone into your ear canal, clip-ons wrap around your ear (like a clip), and a driver rests outside.
There are quite a few advantages to that form factor, but probably the most major are comfort—again, they don’t stuff your ears up with silicone ear tips—and the ability to hear your surroundings while you listen to audio. That last bit means they can be useful when you’re biking, running, or taking calls. The downside is they don’t have active noise cancellation (ANC), but if you’re buying them for your ability to hear your environment, that likely won’t matter.
Because of those advantages and the surprisingly high-quality audio you can get with clip-on wireless earbuds, they’ve attracted quite a few big names. Shokz has a couple of pairs; Bose has a pair; Sony recently made a pair; and now there’s a potentially even larger shark in the clip-on waters: Samsung.
Leaks suggest that Samsung has made its own pair of clip-on wireless earbuds called the Galaxy Able. There’s not a ton of information about what the headphones will entail, but early references to the earbuds found in Samsung’s One UI firmware portray a distinct clip vibe and the inclusion of bone conduction, which might make them well-suited for exercise. Again, there’s not much to go off, but there’s a chance they could arrive soon, potentially during Samsung’s next Unpacked event this month.
Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Buds Able, spotted in One UI firmware, feature a unique clip-on bone conduction design that keeps your ears open while delivering sound in a whole new way.
Would you trade premium sound quality for more awareness and comfort in your daily listening?…
— SammyGuru (@sammygurus) April 20, 2026
Even if we don’t know what Samsung has to offer in the clip-on space, its potential entrance speaks volumes. The announcement of Sony’s LinkBuds Clip earlier this year was a major indicator of a shift in the open wireless earbuds space towards a clip design, especially given the fact it shed the previous donut look of its LinkBuds Open. Samsung might be even more pivotal, though. Not only does Samsung sell more wireless earbuds globally than Sony, but its cultural reach is arguably much more far-reaching, given its huge ecosystem of products.
Those keeping track of the personal audio space might know about clip-on wireless earbuds, but most people who only have the big-ticket products in their spectrum, like Galaxy Buds and Apple’s AirPods, might not even know that the open-ear style exists. With the “Galaxy” branding behind clip-ons, though, that could change quickly.
Clip-on wireless earbuds have been around for some time—Huawei arguably started the whole trend in 2023 with its Huawei FreeClip wireless earbuds—but if the Samsung rumors are any indication, clips are nearing a tipping point. Samsung might just be the one to tilt things towards the mainstream. If I were a betting man, I’d wager that we’re about to hear a lot more about clip-on wireless earbuds in the year to come.
