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

The first reviews of Apple’s new AirPods 4 have arrived. As a reminder, the AirPods 4 come in two versions: an entry-level model priced at $129 and a premium version priced at $179 with active noise cancellation.

Here’s what the critics are saying…

Most AirPods 4 reviews focus on 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 the ANC is working “surprisingly well.”

If you just put the AirPods 4 on and turn on noise cancelling with no sound at all, you might not be impressed. You’ll hear… well, absolutely everything, but the din is less overwhelming. ANC is better at combating low-frequency noise from airplane cabins, city traffic, and that random hum in many offices. The AirPods 4 even did a pretty remarkable job of reducing the rumble of the ferry engines on the dock near our office.

You’ll still hear a fair amount of ambient noise if you’re not listening to anything, but once the music starts, that’s where the ANC really shines. I found that I could keep the volume at around 50% and barely notice any distractions. With previous AirPods (and with the non-ANC AirPods 4), I regularly found myself cranking the volume up to combat my surroundings.

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

I’ve long thought that the AirPods Pro have the best Transparency mode, where they intelligently let ambient sounds through and lower the decibels so as not to damage your ears. I think the AirPods 4 outdo them, though – with Transparency mode enabled here, any sense of robotics or piped noise is virtually eliminated; with Conversation Awareness enabled, you can also have effective conversations with people quite naturally, sometimes even forgetting they’re in your ears. Your own voice, or in this case mine, also sounds a little more natural and less processed.

Engadget Billy Steele claims that audio performance is consistent across both versions of the AirPods 4, with the exception of the lack of Transparency mode and ANC on the lower-end model.

The “richer bass, clearer highs, and even greater instrument separation” are all claims that hold true when compared to the AirPods 3. The bass is more present than the previous model right from the start, and the punchier highs open up the soundstage to make it wider and more immersive. The improved frequency response is on full display with Dolby Atmos content (movies, music, and TV), but the AirPods 4 also sound better with non-spatial tracks and videos.

Audio performance is consistent across both sets of AirPods 4. As I mentioned before, both feature custom spatial audio with dynamic head tracking and adaptive EQ. So, in terms of basic sound performance, there’s no sonic sacrifice between the two.

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

If AirPods stay in your ears, music sounds detailed and clear. But their real power is active noise cancellation, or ANC, which uses microphones and signal processors to cancel out outside sounds. With ANC on, AirPods can mask the hum of an office or the clatter of a train. The voices of people talking nearby seem distant. The sound of dishes or car horns has less of an effect.

The noise-blocking capabilities of the AirPods 4 are about the same as the first-generation Pros. ANC doesn’t completely block out the outside world, but it helps me focus. In a busy coffee shop, I didn’t need to turn up my music to drown out the sounds around me.

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

On a single charge, the AirPods 4 with ANC can last five hours (the same as the base AirPods 4 model) and four hours in the more battery-hungry active noise-canceling 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 that the AirPods 4’s battery life is sufficient for intermittent use between meetings or classes, and less so for long-haul flights.

David Carnoy at CNET also highlights disappointments with battery life:

One thing that is a bit disappointing, however, is that Apple has failed to improve the battery life, which is actually slightly lower than that of the AirPods 3. You can get up to 5 hours of battery life with noise cancellation off and 4 hours with it on. The case gives you an additional 25 hours with noise cancellation off and 16 hours with it on.

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