Apple announced several new devices during its September event, including the iPhone 16 models, but while the shiny new handsets might have been the headline announcement, the entry-level and mid-level AirPods refresh CEO Tim Cook also introduced could arguably be considered the stars of the show.
Replacing the AirPods 2 from 2019 and the AirPods 3 from 2021 in one fell swoop, the two new pairs of AirPods 4 simplify Apple’s earbud offering and bring its non-Pro models bang up to date. Essentially, one offers active noise cancellation (‘AirPods 4 with ANC’) while the other does not (‘AirPods 4’). So how do they look, feel and sound? We were at the Apple event to give them a first try and see how they compare to the flagship AirPods Pro 2.
Price
The standard (non-ANC) AirPods 4 cost £129 / $129 / AU$ 219. The AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation, meanwhile, cost £179 / $179 / A$299.
Logically, both undercut the AirPods Pro 2’s price, as well as that of premium rivals such as the Sony WF-1000XM5 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra. The standard model is nicely priced as an entry point into the AirPods line, while the pricier pair has plenty of competition from the increasing influx of mid-range noise-cancelling earbuds.
Both models are available to pre-order now and will go on sale from 20th September. They both come in a white finish only, as has been the case for in-ear AirPods for years, and they both can be engraved for free should you wish to add your own personal stamp to the otherwise plain, and now very small, charging case.
Build & design
When Apple’s AirPods first launched in 2016, they were a mixed bag. The design was questionable at the time, despite going on to be prevalent in the market, and the sound quality wasn’t the highest calibre either. It wouldn’t have been unfair to liken their aesthetic to that of the toothbrush heads you pop on your Oral-B.
That design has been refined as the years have passed, however. The AirPods 3 that arrived three years ago stuck with the open-ear (eartip-less) fit but reduced the length of the stem quite significantly, as well as changed the shape of the earbud itself, offering subtly different contouring. Most of our in-house reviews team got on with them like a house on fire, although some did complain that after a while their inner-ear cartilage felt like it was on fire.
For both AirPods 4 models, that iconic, white, open-ear design has been further refined. At first glance, they don’t look all that different from the AirPods 3, but this is an updated design and one that Apple claims is its most comfortable ever. We put the buds in our ears at the Apple event in California and they fit snugly and securely, instantly feeling like they belonged.
Apple settled on this refined design using a data set compiled from thousands of ear shapes and over 50 million data points that have been precisely mapped and analysed. They were very comfortable based on our brief listening experience, but testing earbud comfort properly requires spending hours (rather than minutes) with them in your ears. Still, if you are asking us now whether they are the most comfortable of the in-ear AirPods range, first impressions would agree that they are.
The open-ear design does, of course, mean that you don’t get the acoustic seal that you do from the eartip-inclusive AirPods Pro 2 and similar competitors such as the aforementioned Sonys and Boses and Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4, but it’s also a matter of personal preference as to whether you find the more intrusively burrowing eartip design more comfortable and nicest to wear long term or not. The AirPods 4 do have a vent system to help with pressure equalisation, though, and we are glad that they are adequately IP-rated (IP54) for dust, sweat and water resistance.
Much like the AirPods 3, the AirPods 4 have short stems that feature a force sensor allowing for various controls. There is no volume control as there is on the AirPods Pro 2, but you can press and hold to switch between modes – more on those in a second – while a simple press will let you pause or play music. Double-pressing skips forward tracks, while triple-pressing goes back a track. These gestures can also be used to answer, end and mute calls.
The charging case has also been redesigned for the AirPods 4 and is 10 per cent smaller than the AirPods 3’s case. Honestly, their predecessor’s charging case isn’t exactly what we would call big, but the AirPods 4 case is certainly compact in the flesh. It ditches the pairing button on the rear, which does make us a little nervous as sometimes physical buttons are useful for rebooting devices or forcing connections, but we hope this won’t be an issue. The LED on the front of the charging case will also only light up when the case is open, rather than indicating charging as it did with previous iterations.
The charging case for the AirPods 4 with ANC model has a couple of neat features that the standard model’s case doesn’t. Firstly, a built-in speaker makes it easier to find using Apple’s Find My function if you misplace it – an inevitability if you have ever had a pair of AirPods! This is also a feature of the AirPods Pro 2’s case. And secondly, it is also Qi-wireless charging compatible too.
Both AirPods 4 charging cases are now compatible with Apple Watch chargers, however, which will no doubt come as good news for some.
Features
While the design of the two AirPods 4 are identical, save for those slight discrepancies in their charging cases, their feature sets are quite different, despite both models running on Apple’s latest H2 chip.
As the AirPods 4 offer active noise cancellation, it isn’t surprising that they also feature other related modes found on the Pro 2, including Adaptive Audio (which automatically adjusts levels depending on your surroundings) and Transparency mode (which lets external noise in when you want to hear something).
We tried out the ANC at the Apple event in an exceptionally noisy room with high ceilings that resulted in a lot of echo, and the pricier AirPods 4 pair seemed to perform very well indeed. That isn’t all that surprising when you realise they have the same sound-detecting microphones as the AirPods Pro 2, although Apple says the Pro model does have more advanced sound-blocking ability.
The background noise of the room was significantly reduced when we turned ANC on, allowing us to hear the track that was on the demo iPhone 16, but as with the comfort of the design, we need to spend longer with the AirPods 4 to determine how good the ANC is in the real world, including on planes, trains and out and about.
Conversation Awareness (another AirPods Pro 2 feature) is also present on the AirPods 4 with ANC but not the standard model. This automatically lowers the volume of the audio you are listening to when it detects you in conversation. It’s perfect for when you’re walking the dog, for example, so we’re pleased to see it arrive on the non-Pro AirPods, especially as even the premium AirPods Max over-ears don’t have it.
Elsewhere, the AirPods 4 have spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, which the AirPods 3 already had. Personalised Volume adapts media playback volume to your learned preferences and environment, while Voice Isolation prioritises your voice and blocks ambient noises when you’re taking calls or FaceTiming – they will come to both AirPods 4 models with iOS 18 when it arrives.
Then there’s Siri Interactions, which, again, is something that will arrive through iOS 18. It will come to the AirPods Pro 2 too but not the AirPods 3. Siri Interactions allow you to nod your head or shake your head to say yes or no when, say, a call comes in. We tried out the head gestures during the Apple event and it is definitely something we can get on board with. Let’s be honest, randomly blurting out “no” in the middle of the street to reject a call doesn’t exactly give you huge street cred.
Last but not least on the features front, Apple claims the AirPods 4 will offer five hours of listening time from one charge, which is in fact a little less than the AirPods 3 which offer six hours. That’s a little disappointing, as is the ANC-toting AirPods 4 offering only four hours with ANC turned on. That said, the charging case should offer up to 20 hours with ANC and (with both models) 30 hours without. You will get one hour of listening time from five minutes of charging, however, which is pretty good for a quick top-up.
Sound quality
Apple says that both AirPods 4 models offer an entirely new audio architecture with a low-distortion driver and high dynamic range amplifier, along with support for 16-bit/48kHz audio. The new earbuds have been designed to offer richer bass and crystal clear highs compared to the AirPods 3, but we couldn’t verify these claims in the short amount of time we had with them. Watch this space.
Based on what we did hear, we have high hopes that the AirPods 4 will justify Apple’s claims that they deliver “a massive improvement in sound quality” – but we will have to wait until we get a review sample in our test rooms to make a proper judgement on sound quality. Our in-house experts praised the AirPods 3’s balanced, clear and detailed sound, saying that they “sound better than the cheaper crop of ANC-less competition”.
However, we considered the spatial audio support the real bonus, particularly when it comes to watching movies, so we’re expecting the fourth-gen AirPods to better that conclusion.
Verdict
Based on what we have seen so far of the Apple AirPods 4, we are talking about a huge upgrade to the entry-level and mid-range AirPods line here. Not only can you now get active noise cancellation from an open-ear design, but that design has been refined and there is a range of features that have been brought over from the more expensive AirPods Pro 2.
Of course, you lose some of those features if you opt for the standard AirPods 4, but they still offer much more for their modest price tag than the AirPods 2 they replace.
If the AirPods 4 really do bring a big improvement to performance, we could be looking at the first pair of non-Pro in-ear AirPods to get a full five-star rating. We can’t wait to find out if that is the case.
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