AirPods 4 with ANC review: More pro for less dough

Price When Reviewed

$179 with Active Noice Cancelation

Best Prices Today: Apple AirPods 4 (with ANC)

AirPods sure have come a long way in the eight years since its debut. So much so that their iconic status has waned a bit as the competition (including Apple’s own Beats product line) has caught up–some may even say surpassed. What can Apple do to compete?

Easy: Offer a model that delivers more with better design at an excellent price. That is what Apple has done with the AirPods 4: They offer many of the features found in the AirPods Pro 2, have a better fit than their predecessor, the AirPods 3, and have the same $179 price tag.

Overall, Apple has made the AirPods 4 a better value than the version they replaced. How they literally fit, however, does play a major role in whether you should pay the extra money and step up to the AirPods Pro 2. 

AirPods 4 with ANC: Design and fit

The AirPods have been redesigned with each generation, each one promising a better fit. The AirPods 4, according to Apple, has a design with “a natural and secure fit for more people than ever.” The company said it used an “unparalleled data set” to make “the most comfortable AirPods ever.” 

Can “50 million individual data points” be wrong? In my specific case, the AirPods 4 are closer to being a proper fit than the AirPods 3, but I have a personal issue where the right earbuds fit better than the left ones, and that is still the case here. Both stayed in my ears while walking, but the left one fell out when running upstairs.

Overall, however, they’re a vast improvement over the original AirPods from 2016, which I’ll admit, I hated. They barely stayed in either of my ears and I spent more time bending over and picking them off the ground than actually listening to them.

For me, the AirPods Pro with silicon ear tips fit a lot better and securely. However, there are some situations where I want the open design of the AirPods, so I’m not giving up on the AirPods 4 in those situations. (I acknowledge the luxury of having two sets of AirPods at my disposal.) I’d like to say the AirPods 4 will fit your ears but every ear is different (even for one person) and how they fit will be the determining factor in your buying decision. If you can, try them on first before you buy.

AirPods 4 with ANC: Active noise cancelation and sound quality

Apple offers the AirPods 4 in two variations: a $129/£129 model and a $179/£179 model with active noise cancelation. Within active noise cancellation are two sound isolation modes: Adaptive Audio and Transparency. They also get Conversation Awareness, which was previously only available on the AirPods Pro.

Whether you get the AirPods 4 with or without Active Noise Cancelation, the hardware looks identical on the outside. Inside they’re basically the same as well with Apple’s newest H2 chip and an identical feature set aside from active noise cancellation. It’s not clear if the $129 AirPods 4 have a modified H2 without the feature or if Apple is simply not enabling it through a software block on it. But either way, that’s the only difference.

In use, the effectiveness of the AirPods 4’s active noise cancelation is heavily affected by the open design. For example, while walking down a busy street, I found that the AirPods 4 cut down a majority of traffic noise to a point where you’d have to pay close attention to notice it. The AirPods Pro 2 do a better job, but it’s close. The AirPods 4 don’t absolutely cancel the noise around you, which might be preferable, depending on your situation. If you’re in conditions where you need to muffle as much as possible, you’ll want to turn to the AirPods 2’s snug ear tips. 

My favorite feature is Conversation Awareness, where the volume automatically lowers when the AirPods 4 detect your voice and keeps it lowered as long as you are talking. The feature did a good job when I had one-on-one conversations, but when I was in a group where multiple people often talked at the same time, the volume would turn back up. It would turn back down again when I spoke in the group. The feature is really meant to be used for short person-to-person encounters, like at a store checkout or a discussion with a kiosk representative.

The overall sound quality is quite delightful for general-purpose, open earphones. The AirPods 4 handle loaded tracks like 311’s “Need Somebody” and Buñuel’s “Crack Shot” with ease; these songs sound like a muddled mess on lesser earbuds. The bass in Real Boston Richey’s “Help Me” is clean, heavy, and most importantly, lacks distortion. Katy Perry’s “Woman’s World” and glaive’s “minnesota is a place that exists” exude the energy you want from pop tracks. And the guitars in acoustic tracks like Fog Swamp’s “Split the Sky” and Indigo Girls’ “Romeo and Juliet” are crisp and clear.

I was also impressed with the clarity and volume of voice recordings in podcasts and during phone calls. I didn’t think voices would be as good as with the AirPods Pro with their ear tips–it’s not, but it’s close and I can say the AirPods 4 produced excellent voice quality. The AirPods 4 has the same H2 chip as the AirPods Pro 2 so it seems logical to think that the sound generated is the same quality, with the major difference being the effect of open earbuds versus ear tips.

AirPods 4 with ANC: Charging case

The AirPods 4 USB-C case is also where you’ll find Apple has made differences between the two models. Like the AirPods Pro 2 case, the $179 model has a speaker to play alerts through Find Mys. It also supports USB-C or wireless charging–it works with the Apple Watch charger as well as Qi chargers. (It doesn’t support MagSafe like the AirPods Pro case, but a MagSafe charger will work as long as you place the case in the dead center of the charger and balance it, since it doesn’t make a magnetic connection to stay in place.) The $129 model’s case has only wired USB-C charging.

The case is a bit smaller than the AirPods 3 case, but still wider than the original AirPods case. But compared to competitors in the market, the AirPods 4 case is solid and most importantly, very compact. Some of the cases out there are way too big for the earbuds they are housing.

In a strange move, Apple also decided to get rid of the setup button on the back of the case. Instead, you press the area in front of the case, below the status light. Apple notes this in the AirPods 4 documentation, but since most people don’t read manuals, there will be more than a few users wondering what to do if they’re having setup problems. At least with a visible button, there’s an intuitive sense to push it when troubleshooting. But to be fair to Apple, I can’t remember the last time I had to push that button on any AirPods cases that I’ve had.

AirPods 4 with ANC: Battery life

If you use active noise cancelation, it shortens the AirPods 4’s battery life—when fully charged, Apple states a 4-hour listening time with the earbuds and 20 hours of charge with the case. Turn off ANC, and fully charged earbuds can last 5 hours, and the case adds 30 total hours.

I got a bit better than that. To test the earbuds battery, I used the AirPods 4 until the earbuds ran out of power, switching back and forth between the different active noise cancelation modes. I set the volume to six clicks below the full volume and listened to a variety of songs and podcasts, and chapters from an audiobook.

The earbuds lasted 4 hours and 16 minutes, a few minutes longer than the stated battery life with active noise cancelation on. When I put the earbuds in the fully-charged case, their battery life was at 27 percent after five minutes–Apple says that a five-minute charge provides an hour of life.

AirPods 4 with ANC: Price

The AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancelation in this review are $179/£179. Apple sells the AirPods Pro 2 at its list price of $249/£249, but it’s not difficult to find it at a discount at third-party retailers such as Amazon. For example, during this review, Amazon in the U.S. was offering the AirPods Pro 2 for $190, only $10 more than the AirPods 4. If you want “full” noise cancellation and you’re comfortable with silicon ear tips inside your ear canal, it’s worth the extra $10. Another bonus: the AirPods Pro 2 will soon get the new hearing aid support, which is not coming to the AirPods 4. Third-party retailers will eventually offer the AirPods 4 below its list price, likely in the $150 range, which makes the decision a bit harder.

AirPods 4: A cheaper alternative

Throughout this review, I’ve mentioned the AirPods 4 without ANC several times. In the interest of helping you make your buying decision, here’s a summary of what these are and what they aren’t.

Apple identifies this product as the AirPods 4, and they are priced at $129. The earbud and case designs are the same as the $179 AirPods 4 with ANC. However, the $129 AirPods 4 does not have the following features:

Active Noise Cancelation (as well as Adaptive Audio and Transparency mode)

Conversation Awareness

Wireless charging case

Speaker on the case for Find My alerts

Otherwise, they’re the same. The AirPods 4 have an H2 chip like the ANC model as well as the same audio quality, fit, and features. So you’ll have to consider if those features listed above are worth the extra $50. I think they are.

Should you buy Apple AirPods 4?

The AirPods 4 with ANC for $179 are a much better value than the 3rd-gen AirPods with numerous pro-level features. They sound great, the active noise cancelation is extremely useful and works surprisingly well, they fit better than previous AirPods, and the wireless charging and Find My speaker on the case are much-welcomed conveniences. In short, the AirPods 4 are a great, all-around set of earphones. As long as they can stay in your ears.