AirPods 4 reviews: Impressive noise cancellation in an open-ear design

3 months ago 21

The first reviews of Apple’s all-new AirPods 4 have arrived. As a refresher, AirPods 4 are available in two versions: one lower-end model priced at $129 and a higher-end version priced at $179 with Active Noise Cancellation.

Here’s what the reviews say…

The obvious focus of most AirPods 4 reviews is the Active Noise Cancellation performance. After all, these are Apple’s first pair of earbuds with an open-ear design to offer noise cancellation. Chris Welch at The Verge says ANC works “surprisingly well.”

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 AirPods 4 even did a fairly remarkable job of cutting down the rumble of ferry engines at the pier near our office.

You’re always going to hear a fair amount of ambient sound if you’re not listening to something, but once the music starts, that’s where the ANC proves its worth. I’ve found that I can keep the volume at around 50 percent and barely notice any distractions. With past AirPods (and with the non-ANC AirPods 4), I routinely find myself cranking the volume to combat my surroundings.

Jake Krol at TechRadar praises the performance of Transparency mode on the AirPods 4 as well:

I’ve long thought that the AirPods Pro offered the best transparency mode, in which they intelligently let environmental sounds in and lower the decibels so as not to harm your ears. I think the AirPods 4 outpace those, though – with transparency mode enabled here, any sense of roboticness or noise being piped in is pretty much removed; with Conversation Awareness turned on, you can also effectively have conversations with folks quite naturally, at times even forgetting these are in your ears. Your own voice, or in this case my voice, sounds a bit more natural and less processed as well.

Engadget’s Billy Steele says that audio performance is consistent across both versions of AirPods 4, save for the lack of Transparency mode and ANC on the lower-end model.

The “richer bass, crisp highs and even more instrument separation” are all claims that hold true when compared to AirPods 3. There’s more low-end tone than the previous model right out of the gate, and the punchier treble opens the sound stage so it’s wider and more immersive. The improved frequency response is on full display with Dolby Atmos content (movies, music and TV), but the AirPods 4 are also more sonically adept with non-spatial tunes and video.

Audio performance is consistent on both sets of AirPods 4. Like I already mentioned, both are equipped with Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking and Adaptive EQ. So, in terms of base sound performance, there are no sonic sacrifices between the two.

Nicole Nguyen at The Wall Street Journal notes that the fit of AirPods 4 plays a big role in both sound quality and ANC performance.

If they can stay in your ears, music sounds detailed and crisp. The AirPods’ real feat, though, is active noise cancellation, or ANC, meaning they use microphones and signal processors to negate outside sounds. When ANC is on, the AirPods can mask the buzz of an office or the rattle of a train. Voices from nearby talkers sound distant. Clanking dishes or honking cars have less of an edge.

The noise-blocking powers on the AirPods 4 are about the same as the first-generation Pros. The ANC mode doesn’t completely mute the outside world, but it does help me focus. In a bustling coffee shop, I didn’t have to crank up the volume of my music to drown out the sounds around me.

However, Nguyen also points out one of the biggest disappointments of AirPods 4: battery life.

On a single charge, the AirPods 4 with ANC can last five hours (same as the basic AirPods 4 model), and four hours in the more battery-intensive active noise cancellation mode. The older AirPods 3 actually had better battery life, at six hours. The Pros can get up to six hours—with ANC on.

This means the AirPods 4 battery life is fine for intermittent use between meetings or classes, and less so for long-haul flights.

David Carnoy at CNET also points out the battery life disappointments:

One thing that’s a tad disappointing, though, is that Apple wasn’t able to improve on battery life, and it’s actually slightly worse than the AirPods 3’s battery life. You can get up to 5 hours of battery life with noise-canceling off and 4 hours with it on. The case gives you an additional 25 hours with ANC off and 16 hours with it on.

Both versions of AirPods 4 are available to order now with the first pre-orders arriving on Friday, September 20: