Samsung's Galaxy Wearable app code has a name and model number for an earbud nobody's seen yet: Galaxy Able, model number SM-U600. It breaks from everything Samsung normally does with its earbuds. Every Galaxy Buds product carries an SM-R prefix and an internal codename pulled from a classical composer, Handel and Bach among them. SM-U600 drops both, which points to Samsung treating this as a new product line instead of another Buds entry.
Early reports pointed to bone conduction, a method that sends sound through your cheekbones instead of your ear canal, but leaked design art shows a clip-on shape that looks a lot like Sony's LinkBuds Clip. Sony's product doesn't actually use bone conduction to play audio. It uses bone conduction to pick up your voice more clearly on calls. Samsung already does something similar in its Galaxy Buds4 Pro for call quality, so Able working the same way is just as plausible as it being a true bone conduction product.
Open-ear earbuds are having a moment regardless of which version Able turns out to be. Shokz led the open-hook category with 25% market share in the first quarter of 2026, and Huawei led open-clip designs at 22%. Analysts expect open-hook shipments to grow 34% this year and open-clip shipments to grow 72%, while regular earbuds are on track to shrink 2%. Apple wasn't in the top ranks of either category.
A second pair of earbuds built for staying aware of your surroundings instead of blocking everything out is an easy upsell to anyone already inside the Galaxy ecosystem. Apple holds about 23% of the global earbud market right now, and open-ear is one of the few corners of that market AirPods haven't touched.