The AirPods 4: Sound Signature, Power, and Battery Life — What I’ve Learned and Where I’ll be Using Them

But I’ve been genuinely impressed by what they are capable of. If you just put the AirPods 4 in and turn on noise cancellation without any audio playing, you might not be wowed. You’ll hear… well, absolutely everything — but the din is less overwhelming. The ANC is best at tackling lower-frequency noises from airplane cabins, city traffic, and those random hums at many offices. The sound of the ferry engines at the pier was cut down by the new AirPods 4.

These are the best regular AirPods yet. The overall sound signature isn’t much different from the predecessors, but the AirPods 4 provide a thicker bass layer than their predecessors, and there’s more clarity to the upper range. The AirPods Pro maintain a leg up when it comes to overall fidelity, but I’d have no issues living with the AirPods 4. And again, the regular and ANC models are identical in this department.

I’m not a huge fan of Apple’s basic headphones, and I see them everywhere. They’re not good earbuds in either specs or design anymore, and even with a new H2 chip and noise canceling added to the higher end of the AirPods 4, they’re still not great.

The battery life can last up to four hours with noise cancellation or five hours without it. Add in the charging case and you get a total of 20 and 30 hours, respectively. Since there is no ANC, the cheaper AirPods 4 get the longer numbers. I haven’t used them long enough to extensively verify those estimates, but they’ve seemed on point so far. Sadly, Apple still hasn’t made repairability a priority with the AirPods 4, so inevitably, there will come a time when that endurance starts to wane.

The AirPods Pro: Adding More Features to the Audio Experience in Bluetooth Low-Cost Microscopic Speakers for Wi-Fi Wireless earbuds

You can get more features on top of that, including audio sharing, automatic switching between devices, hands-free “Hey Siri” commands, and more. I still very much wish that Apple would include genuine multipoint support so you could pair to two products at once, but at this point, the decision to leave it out seems like a philosophical choice that’s not going to change.

The new head gestures feature with the AirPods 4 is not available on the other set. When toggled on, you can respond to Siri by nodding your head up and down to engage with notifications or answer a call; shaking your head side to side will also dismiss them. I’m not someone who likes having my earbuds pester me with notifications, but in my brief tests, my head movements were detected accurately, even when they were fairly small. Some people might really come to like this way of dealing with Siri, but I’ll be sticking with the more traditional methods.

I still have to be intentional and twist these AirPods into my ears just right if I want them to stay put. But once they’re in, they’re fairly snug, even when I’m rushing down the subway station stairs to catch a train. With the AirPods Pro, I can just sort of cram them in without giving it any thought. The AirPods 4 are more comfortable over long sessions, even though I admit.

There are benefits for the higher priced AirPods 4. The case works with either Apple MagSafe pucks or any Qi compatible charging station. A built-in speaker on the case can emit sound when you are trying to locate it with the Find My app. These features are missing from the standard $129 AirPods 4. I don’t mind losing the speaker, but having to go without wireless charging in the base model hurts their value.

The first AirPods deserved praise simply because they were among the first wireless earbuds to actually work—earlier models from various other brands were plagued by connection woes. The problem Apple created by removing the headphones was solved by the AirPods, but the company did not solve it well enough.

Because they didn’t seal out the world, the tipless design had many flaws, but one benefit. In the years since, newer wireless earbuds don’t just work well and sound great, they have fixed said transparency issue. Each pair of Jbuds ANC have eartips, noise canceling, and a transparency mode so you can chat without adjusting your buds.