Noise cancellation is a leap forward

The design of Apple’s AirPods is iconic. So iconic that it’s spawned thousands of “homages” to its aesthetic, which draws inspiration from classic iPod earbuds and EarPods. With the AirPods 4, this latest iteration brings with it a host of features not normally available in this earbud format.

These are now officially Apple’s cheapest noise-canceling option. They’re great for people who don’t like silicone tips in their ears, and the only downsides are inherent to the style of the earbuds.

Apple AirPods 4 Review

First impressions

The first thing I noticed was how much smaller the case is compared to the last generation of regular AirPods. The design of the earbuds is almost identical to the third generation, except for the size.

These are noticeably smaller, which is a good thing, as the 3rd generation was too big for some people’s ears. They’ve retained the shorter stem design of the 3rd generation AirPods and 2nd generation AirPods Pro, leaving the longer, more iconic stem of the first two generations of AirPods well behind.

The fact that the case can wirelessly charge with the Apple Watch charger instead of MagSafe is new and unusual. It’s due to the size of the case, but it’s interesting to see the Watch charger being used for something else.

Setting up the AirPods is still as intuitive as ever, walking you through a handy tutorial on how to use the features. Overall, it’s great.

Apple AirPods 4 specifications and prices in Australia

Processor	H2 Headphone Chip
Features	Active noise cancellation (ANC model) Adaptive Audio (ANC model) Transparency mode (ANC model) Conversation Awareness (ANC model) Voice isolation Personalized spatial audio with dynamic head tracking Adaptive Equalizer
Weather resistance index	IP54 Dust, sweat and water resistant
Battery	Headphones : Up to 5 hours of listening time on a single charge with noise control off Up to 4 hours of listening time on a single charge with active noise cancellation enabled With the charging case: Up to 20 hours of listening time with active noise cancellation enabled with the charging case Up to 30 hours of listening time with noise control off with charging case
Price (PVP)	$219 (non-ANC version) $299 (with ANC)
Guarantee	One year
Official website	Apple Australia

There are a few things to note here. One is that I’m specifically reviewing and talking about the noise-canceling version of the AirPods Gen 4 ($299), but there’s another AirPods Generation 4 that doesn’t have noise cancellation, transparency mode, or a wireless charging case (with a speaker for Find My) and costs $80 less ($219). Everything else is the same except for those three things.

On paper, all the specs sound great. I would have liked a bit more water resistance, and five hours with each earbud is less than the six you get on the Pros. That drops to four hours if you use noise cancelling, so enough for a domestic flight (provided you’re not flying east to west), but not much else.

The case’s extra 30 hours (20 with ANC) will keep you going. Five minutes of charging the case from empty gives you one hour of normal listening time, so you can keep traveling on an international flight.

Audio quality

When it comes to headphones, there are several factors that can affect audio quality: the drivers, the form factor, the fit, and the firmware. With headphones, especially those that sit in the ear, the better the seal, the better the audio sound.

You can’t really get a good seal with this style of AirPods (Apple calls them “open ear”, but I would associate that more with the Shokz OpenFit style earbuds which leave your ear completely free, they’re more like earbuds).

So expectations for the AirPods 4 should be completely different than those for wireless in-ear or over-ear headphones. Each of them has its place and for each format, there is at least one person who swears that it is the best and most comfortable.

That said, considering the price and size, I’m pretty impressed with the sound of the AirPods 4. It’s a big step up from the AirPods 3. The bass isn’t as present as I’d like from in-ear headphones, and there’s more background hum than I’d like. But for everyday listening, they’re perfect. I especially like that I don’t have to turn them up too loud to hear the song in detail.

Odesza’s “Light of Day” is a pretty delicate song. The driving bass is there, but doesn’t overwhelm the deliberately distorted vocals. The sense of hope is there. It’s conveyed well, if not perfectly.

My favorite song to test the earbuds on is Hayley Williams’ “Simmer.” On the AirPods 4, I can’t make out all the ghost notes on the snare in the intro, which is disappointing. But the snare hits are on point, and her vocals are rich and powerful.

On heavier tracks, like Conquer Divide’s “Santa Tell Me,” the bass is as strong as you’d hope for from this type of headphone. It’s neither muddy nor overly distorted.

Overall, they offer better and fuller sound than their predecessor, the AirPods 3, which is always a good thing. The AirPods 4 really push this earbud format to its limits.

Noise Cancellation

I just had a conversation with my wife and found the clicking of my keyboard a bit loud, so I turned to my phone to turn on noise cancellation, only to find it was already on. Not a good sign. However, I did miss the sound of my daughter waking up and crying, which isn’t great from a parenting perspective, but pretty impressive for headphones.

For that again, back to that joint. Active noise cancellation works by broadcasting the opposite frequency of what’s going on around you to “cancel” the noise. No clear noise. Getting this to work on a pair of headphones is a true “sell your soul to the devil” level of black magic. The fact that it works this well is absolutely incredible. The reason it’s not perfect is that even Apple is confined to the laws of God and man.

The noise difference is noticeable, though it’s not a perfect solution. It’s much better than nothing. It’s not as good as headphones that are designed completely differently, but if you wanted different headphones, you wouldn’t buy these.

If you want earpod style headphones, this is the best noise cancelling I’ve ever heard in this format.

Transparency mode

The opposite of noise cancellation is transparency, and Apple has been absolutely unrivaled when it comes to transparency mode for years. Nothing even comes close to the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) transparency mode in terms of natural sound and clarity.

The idea is to amplify the world around you with near-zero latency, and then make it sound natural. This is incredibly difficult to achieve with headphones that have passive noise isolation. It should be completely impossible with in-ear headphones, because they already let some of the sound through, and the slight delay of the microphone processing the rest of the sound should create an echo.

But that is not the case.

Instead, it feels like you’re not wearing headphones while still listening to music. The amount of math and precise engineering required to make this work is incredible.

In the same way that we gave Sony flowers for its industry-leading noise reduction, Apple deserves the same level of praise (if not more) for this transparency mode. If, in 20 years, it’s revealed that Apple has a goat-sacrificing department similar to Wolfram & Hart’s Angelno one should be surprised.

Comfort and fit

When I tested the third generation of AirPods in 2021, I was deeply disappointed by the enormous size of the earpiece. They barely fit in my ears. They did not fit my wife’s small ears at all.

I’m happy to report that the AirPods 4 don’t have this problem. They’ve returned to a normal size. Small enough to fit small ears, but not too small that they don’t fit large ears. They’re now back in the Goldilocks zone. They fit perfectly in my and my wife’s ears. I couldn’t find any larger ears during the review period, but I’m pretty sure they’d fit those as well.

I wouldn’t necessarily want to run with them, as my ears don’t have a perfect grip on them and I found myself adjusting them a lot, even while riding a Peloton. But I have to say that when I hit my head, my glasses fell off long before an AirPod fell off, so maybe that’s just me being overly cautious.

Who are AirPods 4 for?

The AirPods 4 with noise cancellation are for people who want true wireless earbuds with noise cancellation, but don’t want silicone tips shoved into their ear canals.

If the AirPods Pro Gen 2 (often available on sale) are out of budget, there are cheaper options for wireless in-ear headphones with noise cancellation, so I don’t think these are the budget option in this scenario.

The non-noise-canceling pair would be a good budget option if you want AirPods without the bells and whistles. But the AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation aren’t a budget option to settle for, they’re a premium offering that pushes the form factor to its limits.

The noise-canceling AirPods 4 aren’t the kind of headphones you settle for, they’re the kind you go after because you want the features.

While these headphones aren’t audiophile-level, they are a marvel of engineering.

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