Apple’s AirPods line has always held a special place in my heart. I adore my AirPods Pro 2 and their stunning noise canceling, as they get me through almost every journey I take on the train. My AirPods Max are the best way to get incredible sound from my TV when the rest of my household has gone to sleep, and I’ll forever remember the magic of the AirPods 2 connecting to my iPhone for the first time.
My relationship with them hasn’t been perfect — the AirPods 3 were disappointing, and sometimes I wish that my AirPods Pro 2 could last a little longer than 6 hours when I reach my 9th hour traveling. Overall, however, my experience with Apple’s line of headphones and earbuds has been an affectionate one.
So when Apple launched the AirPods 4 with ANC, I was excited. I couldn’t wait to see what the latest version of the buds might bring, especially when I read the specs sheet. Open-style buds with noise canceling? Color me intrigued. A new sonic architecture? Sign me up. The H2 chip from my beloved AirPods Pro 2? Now I’m hooked.
My experience, however, has been an interesting one — and I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about them. Do I love their slate of new features, or do the sonic issues hold them back from me giving them a wholehearted recommendation? Our reviewer, the ever-wonderful Kate Kazuch, absolutely loved her pair when she wrote her Airpods 4 review. They've even made their way onto our best cheap earbuds list: But how have I found them?
The Good
Let’s start with the good bits. I really like the design of the new AirPods 4. That tiny case is a masterful earbud triumph, fitting into even the tightest of pockets with no problem at all. The buds themselves nestled inside are tiny and immaculately shaped, and, just like every other AirPods model that’s come before them, fit perfectly in their plastic homes. Apple says that they’re more comfortable as well, although I’ll get to that bit and my ears later.
You’d have thought that a tiny case like that would be easy to lose — and while yes, it is easier to misplace, the active noise canceling model comes with Find My functionality so I can track them around my house with a ping, and even find out if I’ve left them at my desk or a coffee shop table when I stand up. The cheaper one doesn’t have that feature, so you’ll want to be a bit more careful when you leave them lying around — if they disappear down the side of the sofa, they’re gone.
I also like the active noise canceling on board. No, of course, it’s nowhere near as good as the noise canceling in the AirPods Pro 2 and it’s passively sealing silicon tips, but it does a relatively good job at keeping annoying noise out while I’m trying to work or listen to my favorite playlists. The other noise canceling modes are also good, including adaptive and transparency mode — although I do wish there was a way to switch them with the force touch panels on the stems.
I find the touch panels useful as well, although they are more limited than those on the AirPods Pro 2. You can press once to play/pause, squeeze twice to skip, squeeze thrice to skip back a track, and press and hold to conjure Siri. They’re a whole lot better than traditional touch controls because they require some force to activate — no more accidental touches that skip tracks when you just want to adjust the fit of your buds. It would be nice to be able to activate and reactive noise canceling with them, or change the volume, however.
The new features make a great value proposition when you look at their prices. The low-cost $129/£129 variant are still packed with those touch panels and Spatial Audio, and the $179/£179 model adds that lovely ANC. They're easy to find as well. You can grab them from the Apple Store and Amazon, amongst other retailers.
Unfortunately, not everything with the AirPods 4 is such plain sailing.
The Bad
While I’d hesitate to say that the AirPods 4 sound bad, there are definitely better-sounding options out there for the price. Let’s break it down and have a quick deep sonic deep-dive into the AirPods 4 to work it out.
There’s a massive emphasis on the mid-range frequencies, which has become both a strength and a weakness. For guitars and vocals, the buds are stellar, with clarity to voices and depth to guitar parts. There’s also more bass extension to them, so you can hear extra bits of the lower registers on your tracks. Think big bass drums in classical orchestras, or kick drums in rock music.
Unfortunately, those bass notes lack impact, so as soon as the mids kick in they melt away into the background. Then there’s some weirdness in the high-end — cymbals on drum kits and high notes on pianos and trumpets are susceptible to some unfortunate sibilance, sometimes to the point of being painful.
The timpani (that’s those massive drums you see at the back of an orchestra) in Beethoven's Ode to Joy, for example, completely disappear amongst the rest of the ensemble, rendering the experience feeling flat. The trumpet solo in Miles Davis’ Autumn Leaves gets painful the more he dances up his scales, and the cymbals hiss as they decay. There are some issues here sonically — and while it’s not going to be a big problem for most people, it’s still worth highlighting that there’s some work to be done here.
Then there’s the fit. Now, I should admit that I’ve always struggled with Apple’s open-fitting AirPods, but I was hoping for this to improve with the AirPods 4. It is better, but there still remains the need to reseat the AirPods in my ears whenever they feel like they’re getting loose — which happens more when I turn my head. This creates a new issue with the noise canceling, which now has to re-center itself to account for the bud's new position in my ears. It’s remarkable how quickly it does it, but it’s still distracting.
The Ugly
Unfortunately, I’ve had some technical issues with my copies of the AirPods 4, mostly while connecting them to my iPhone. I’ve absolutely adored the way that previous AirPods have connected to my iPhone, connecting like magic when I open their case in close proximity.
With the AirPods 4 — both the ANC and non-ANC varieties, I should add — I’ve had issues. Opening the cases near my phone hasn’t immediately brought up the magic connection window, and when it does finally appear, it’s empty. De nada, there’s nothing there bar a cross to close it. Instead, I have to hold the capacitive pairing button on the front of the case, and pair them manually within the settings of my iPhone.
Now, this could be because I’m running a Beta version of iOS 18.1, but you’d hope that even then, Apple’s normally excellent interoperability would be relatively untouched. I did manage to get them to work properly with my iPad instead, but still, even then I had issues getting them to show up on screen, as I frantically opened and closed the case and factory reset them (which is more of a faff than ever thanks to their capacitive touch panel) multiple times.
Multipoint point connection has been uncommonly strange as well — the buds seem to struggle more than my other AirPods with recognizing when I’m using them on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, and when I want to use them on my iPad or MacBook Pro. It doesn’t happen all the time, far from it, but enough that I remember it.
So what do I think?
I can’t tell you the AirPods 4 are a bad pair of buds. If you love the way that the AirPods 2 and 3 fit, then the new model is going to be a great thing to stick in your ears and listen to music. The ANC is better than it has any right to be, blocking out plenty of noise and making the commute a little more tolerable. The case is tiny, and will fit into almost any pair of trousers, any bag, or anywhere else you might want to hide them away. Our review is a great picture of what the buds offer, and Kate had a great time with her pair — as many users also probably will.
But I can’t help but feel there is still room for improvement. The sound is below par, I’m not a massive fan of the way they sit in my ears, and the technical problems have me shaking my head. I’m not going to say ‘don’t buy the AirPods 4!” — but I will tell you to check out the best wireless noise-canceling earbuds, and have a really good think about whether you might be better off with something from the competition.
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