Apple AirPods 4 review: A tale of two tones

Apple has refined the AirPods once again, with a more secure fit, better sound, and a few new features that make them feel like an upgrade over the existing second- and third-generation AirPods. That said, a few things have been cut back to make them smaller. However, if you like earbuds without silicon tips and live in the Apple ecosystem, these are the best buds to get.

I’ve been a fan of Apple’s headphones since the EarPods came out in 2012. I was on my first trip to Toronto shortly after they were announced, and my friend Brandon and I both rushed to the Apple Store to get the new headphones. These were the first earbuds without silicon tips that actually fit in my ears, and I used them for years after that. To this day, I still see people walking around downtown Toronto with them on.

The only earbuds I see more of are the wide variety of AirPods that have been on the market since 2016. The year Apple dropped the headphone jack on the iPhone 7S, it also released its first wireless headphones, and they took the world by storm. While they peaked in 2020 when everyone needed headphones to work from home, the AirPods arm of Apple is massive. Even in 2023, it sold a reported 75 million units, which at an average of $200 CAD equals more revenue than Spotify, Airbnb, or Snapchat.

Since then, Apple has refreshed them a few times with various charging cases, new designs, better sound, and more. The AirPods line has even expanded since its inception to mimic Apple’s other products—there’s an entry-level option, something more balanced between price and performance, something higher-end, and a top-end product with no holds barred.

The new AirPods replace the 2019 and 2021 AirPods to fit into entry-level and balanced categories. AirPods Pros and AirPods Max are the top-end models for users looking to get the most performance from their headphones.

The AirPods for everyone

The most exciting of the two new AirPods models is the AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation (ANC). They cost $249 in Canada, $10 more than the 3rd-Gen AirPods from 2021, but they bring ANC, the best feature of the AirPods Pros ($329), down to a lower price, which is a win in my books.

Alongside that, AirPods 4 have been redesigned in a few key ways to make them fit better in more ears, and the case is a lot smaller, making it fit better in more pockets. You have to look very closely to see the changes, but where the buds connect to the stem has a slightly sharper angle that helps them hook deeper into your ears so they move around less than before. The 2021 models were rounded and could be more easily knocked out of your ears. Plus, the bulbous shape didn’t let them sink as deep into my ears. The new design feels much more secure, and while they have the same weight, since they move less, I don’t notice them, giving the impression of them being lighter. It took a little while, but once I noticed these things, I could quickly tell the difference between the AirPods 3 and 4 models in my ears without looking.

The differences are even starker compared to the design of the 2016-19 models. The in-ear portion of the original AirPods is much smaller and a little lighter, so they shift around in my ears a lot more than both the third and fourth-generation models. The long stem doesn’t help or hinder much, but I can feel it more in my ears, so the newer options with smaller stems easily fade into the background. If you’ve got a pair of these, the new versions offer a host of improvements from fit to sound quality, making them an easy upgrade choice. Even the addition of the Force Sensor makes it easier to control audio playback than the finicky touch controls on the oldest AirPods.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The main improvement in these buds over the 3rd generation from 2021 is the addition of ANC, and it works better than you’d expect from a bud that doesn’t have a silicon seal. The redesigned sound channel pushes a tiny bit further into your ear canal using the natural shape of your inner ear to seal off the sound channel between you and the earbuds. It’s not perfect, but it’s allowed me to listen to the new AirPods at more reasonable volumes since I don’t need the loudness of the music to block out unwanted sounds. This is better for my eardrums and the longevity of the speaker drivers within the AirPods 4 with ANC. Overall, the ANC isn’t as good as AirPods Pros, but when I have music playing and my girlfriend tries to talk to me, I can’t hear a thing she says. Moving around the city, I found the buds did a really good job of dropping low-frequency noises like crowds and traffic. At Apple Park, I got to test the buds with Airplane sounds pumped into the room, and they performed well there. I think if you want dead silence without playing music or audio, AirPod Pros are still better, but for most, AirPods 4 are going to be more than enough.

Having said that, a few drawbacks make AirPods 3 a bit better than AirPods 4 in a few departments, which is kind of annoying. Chiefly among them is that Apple reverted back to a similar optical sensor from the original AirPods to tell if the earbuds are in your ears or not. The AirPods 3 use a skin sensor like AirPods Pros, and I find the skin sensor works better for detecting when the AirPods are in your ears. Both sensors allow you to take the earbuds out briefly and then put them back in to restart the music automatically, but the skin sensor works more consistently, especially in the dark or when you put the buds in your pocket.

The second drawback is likely less of a problem for most, but Apple removed the MagSafe charging ring because the smaller case isn’t large enough to have one. The new AirPods 4 with ANC can still be charged wirelessly, with a USB-C cable or on an Apple Watch charging puck, but if you’re like me and have a MagSafe dock that’s on a bit of an angle, you can’t stick your AirPods to it anymore. If your MagSafe puck sits flat, you can place and charge the AirPods on it, but I’m a sucker for magnetic things, and I’m sad to see it removed from these buds. But I don’t see a lot of MagSafe chargers in the wild, so I think most users will likely use USB-C and never realize the magnetic ring is gone.

I should also note that on my wireless charging dock, the buds recharged quickly, but the small case doesn’t dissipate heat as effectively as AirPods Pros or AirPods 3, so the buds were warm to the touch when I picked them up.

You can charge both versions of AirPods 4 with USB-C, but only the ANC version can charge wirelessly.

The final drawback is the battery life — the AirPods 4 only lasts for four hours with ANC enabled and five without it. The AirPods 3 could get you up to six hours of listening, as long as you’re not using Spatial Audio, which would bring the battery down to five hours. Testing out the new AirPods 4 with ANC and Spatial Audio using a similar testing method to Apple (volume at 50%, 256‑Kbps audio quality, Conversation Awareness off), you do get a little over four hours of listening, suggesting Apple’s estimates are slightly conservative. I never really had the buds in for more than a few hours at a time, but there are days when I really need to focus or have a long flight, and I have used other earbuds for longer. That being said, five minutes in the charging case gives the buds an hour of listening, and it takes around 20-30 minutes to fully recharge the buds with the case, so even when they die, you won’t have to be without your music for very long.

One of the best improvements to the AirPods 4 with ANC is a small speaker at the bottom of the case like the second-generation AirPods Pros. You can trigger this to chime in the Find My app, making it easier to find them if they’re lost. The Find My functionality doesn’t use an ultrawideband radio and instead relies on Bluetooth Low Energy, but in practice, this can help you get close enough to your AirPods case to trigger the chime so you can locate them with ease. I wish Apple had also added a lanyard loop to the case. I’ve attached a red Wii remote wrist strap to my AirPods Pros, and it makes it a lot easier for my girlfriend and I to identify whose AirPods are whos. Plus, I’m a sucker for adding a bit of personal flair.

Finally, the AirPods 4 with ANC feature the same Conversation Awareness and Adaptive Audio that was added to the AirPod Pros 2 in 2023, and these two features are amazing. When you turn on Conversation Awareness, the buds detect when you’re talking, lower the volume, and disable ANC. Then, when you stop talking, ANC comes back, and the volume goes back up. This feature is great for working in an office where you need to do a few quick chats throughout the day. Adaptive Audio is a really smart feature that many other buds have tried to replicate this year and haven’t even come close. This mode uses machine learning to listen to the world around you as you’re walking around outside and will modulate the ANC to not only block out all noise, but also let some sounds through to make sure you stay aware of your changing surroundings. If you only use AirPods at your desk or in your home, Adaptive Audio probably isn’t for you, but for someone who walks around a city all the time, I use this often since it lets me block out annoying city noises, but still hear subway announcements, someone shouting at me or bike bells. When I’m biking, I use Transparency since I need to hear everything in the world around me. On a plane, I kick on full ANC, but walking around the city, Adaptive is the perfect mode.

The new baseline AirPods 4

Apple says it scanned 1,000s of ears to make the new AirPods fit better than the previous version. AirPods 4 on the left.

These new AirPods 4 ($179) are meant to replace the 2019 AirPods (also usually $170) at the lowest end of Apple’s AirPod lineup. They don’t have many extra features, but like the 2019 AirPods, they offer a great listening experience at an attractive price tag and the core AirPods feature of being able to connect to every Apple product with ease makes them worth the price of admission. To clear up any confusion, all the features I mention these buds having are also available on the AirPods 4 with ANC too. This means they fit nicely and barely move once locked into the small notch at the bottom of my ear.

They don’t have ANC, the case speaker, to help find them, or the ability to charge wirelessly. That said, it does use USB-C, which should help more iPhone users align under the one universal charger. Since these buds don’t have ANC, the battery is listed as five hours of listening, and the case brings the total listening time to around 30 hours. My testing actually lasted slightly more than five hours, but depending on what you’re listening to and how loud it is, that could change.

Even in Toronto’s busy Union Station, the new AirPods 4 with ANC block out most background noises.

They do feature some more standard AirPods features that have been on other models (including the ANC versions), like the H2 chip to support Spatial Audio with head tracking, IP54 water/dust/sweat resistance, Adaptive EQ, great sound, and voice isolation for calls. Adaptive EQ uses the microphone in the buds to listen to sound reproduction in your ears and uses machine learning to make sure the audio is balanced. The sound quality of the new AirPods is fantastic, and they have great bass compared to previous models (especially the 2019 version).

Like AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 with ANC, these buds also support a smart new feature that is coming with iOS 18 called ‘Siri Interactions’ This allows you to shake your head yes or no to either confirm or deny a notification or a call. This is great for discreetly ignoring a call with a simple head-shake ‘no.’ On AirPods, Siri can also read out your texts and other notifications, and sometimes, when someone sends you a really long message, it will ask you if you want to hear the whole thing. Now, a simple head shake up and down to signify ‘yes’ will get Siri to read the whole paragraph you’ve been sent. This feature also works on iPadOS 18 and MacOS Sequoia. This feature has worked great so far for me, and the stereo sound effect that bounces between your left and right buds when you shake your head no is surprisingly satisfying.

Sound quality

How seamlessly AirPods connect to Apple devices makes them super easy to use.

Both new AirPods sound awesome, and coming from the AirPods Pro 2, I didn’t notice anything drastic about the AirPods 4, but once I went back and worked my way through Apple’s previous earbuds (EarPods, AirPods 2019, and AirPods 2021) I was really impressed.

The EarPods are fine, but you can tell the drivers aren’t as powerful, and the low-end bass is nowhere near the new AirPods. Plus, the AirPods 4 fit in my ear better to help block out more background noise.

The 2016-2019 AirPods design also held up better than I remembered. The sound quality was nice and offered a decently wide soundstage, but there was not a lot of low-end, which really made songs that are supposed to have big bass kicks underwhelming. The AirPods 4 overshadowed them handily, and the addition of Spatial Audio, if you use a streaming service that supports it, makes them sound like a concert in your ears next to the outdated and less powerful original AirPods.

The closest AirPod to the new ones is the AirPods 3, which also offers Spatial Audio and nice bass enhancements compared to the older generations of Apple earbuds. If you plan to upgrade to the AirPods 4 with ANC, then I’d say the ability to block out background noise makes the new AirPods sound a lot better, but if your AirPods 3 are still running fine and you don’t feel like you’d utilize the ANC features, then you probably don’t need to upgrade until your existing buds die out.

AirPods Pro 2, as expected, sound better with a bit more fullness and warmth, plus the enhanced ANC and silicon tips can block out even more background noise than the ANC AirPods 4. The Pros offer more features like skin sensors, hearing protection features, better battery life, better on-bud controls, and multiple ear tip sizes to help you get the perfect fit. Sadly I don’t have the first generation of AirPods Pro to compare with.

Overall, I like the sound quality of the AirPods 4. I was surprised with how much bass Apple was able to push into these little buds without upsetting the natural and balanced sound that AirPods often chase as their North Star. When you use Spatial Audio, the soundstage is nice and wide, and the 3D effect is really fun when a song takes advantage of it.

The Mic test

If you want to hear the AirPods 4 microphones stack up against almost every other Apple earbuds/headphone from the past few years and my favourite Android earbuds, watch the video below. If you don’t have time to tune in, rest assured that the microphones on the new AirPods 4 are phenomenal when used in a controlled space like an office.

Apple has some awesome vocal algorithms built in that, when combined with the mic hardware, reproduce my voice accurately while blocking out loud sounds, ensuring I sound natural and less robotic than the AirPods from 2019 and 2021.

Final notes

Even when jogging or riding a bike, the AirPods 4 are locked into my ears.

• The new AirPods 4 don’t have a pairing button on the case. Instead, you just tap twice on the front of the case while the lid is open to trigger pairing mode. It’s pretty slick. A triple tap is used to factory reset the buds.
• The charge/pairing notification light on the case is also hidden and shines through the plastic on the front, giving the case a super minimal look.
• The basic version of AirPods 4 should be called the AirPods SE to help Apple align its branding. The AirPods lineup has been confusing, with multiple charging cases for the same buds priced only $10 apart. The company was so close to simplifying things this year, but having two models, called AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC, is a mouthful and makes it hard to write about them.
• Auto pause when you remove the buds still doens’t work on Android phones.

The hidden button and light are small features, but they’re fun, so you know I’m a fan.

The AirPods lineup has grown likely beyond even Apple’s wildest ambitions, and while the new models help streamline the lineup by getting rid of the extra charging case nonsense with the 2019 and 2021 AirPods, I’m still flabbergasted that Apple would give both of these models the same name.

The ANC version is my favourite, and I know my girlfriend Alex is really hoping I can switch back to my Pros so she can take them from me. They’re light enough to be worn for hours, and the fact that they fit so snuggly in my ears prevents them from moving at all, making the fit feel awesome. Sure, they might not be as good as AirPods Pro 2, but they’re so close and cost only two-thirds the price, which is a great value to me.

In the future, I’d love to see Apple finally offer some AirPods 4 in fun colours, like the AirPods Max and if they could somehow add the lanyard strap to the charging case I’d be extremely happy. However, these are just things I want and the lack of them doesn’t detract from the excellent audio experience you can get with either model of AirPods 4.

AirPods 4 are $179, and AirPods 4 with ANC are $249. You can buy them from Apple or other popular retailers like Best Buy.