It turns out the big news from last week wasn’t that Samsung finally ditched the bizarre bean design for its wireless earbuds, it’s that the company plans to dominate the ‘kids of the late ‘90s’ demographic with a charging case cover that camouflages the Galaxy Buds Pro as a retro clamshell mobile phone.
Days after a new product category is announced accessories for said products start trickling out, and if you’ve been using a set of Apple AirPods for a few years you’ve probably seen hundreds of ways to adorn and protect their tiny charging case. But accessory makers tend to flock to the most popular products, and last year’s Samsung Galaxy Buds Live aren’t that yet. That’s probably why out of the gate Samsung itself has created a couple of fun protective cases for its new Galaxy Buds Pro turning the wireless earbuds into a (nonfunctional) retro Samsung Anycall T100 or Anycall E700 mobile phone.
Some sites are reporting that the Anycall charging case covers are only available as in-store gifts when the Galaxy Buds Pro earbuds are purchased in-person in retail outlets in South Korea. But the Samsung website does list them as being an optional add-on if you purchase the Galaxy Buds Pro online, adding about $40 to the cost of the $349 headphones. That’s not exactly cheap, you can actually get an entire pair of decent but basic wireless buds for $40), but for those of us who got our first mobile phones 20 years ago, the nostalgia here might almost be impossible to resist.