Are Apple’s new AirPods 4 its best-value earbuds? Our tech critic found out

AirPods 4 is the name given to Apple’s latest true-wireless in-ear headphones. There’s the regular version, reviewed below, and the souped-up model called AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation. There’s no visible difference between the two versions of earbuds, though the case is different, inside and out.

For this model, you can charge wirelessly on a MagSafe charger, for instance, or an Apple watch charging puck. And because it has MagSafe built in, it will snap in place with either of these. There’s also a speaker on the bottom of the case so if you lose your AirPods, you can cause the case to make a sound to help you find it.

The buds themselves look different from previous generations. They don’t have the exchangeable silicone tips found on the AirPods pro, but the stem is short and has a flat edge, which allows you to turn noise-cancelling on or off by a long squeeze.

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The grilles and speakers on the bud are different, with the new design meant to make the AirPods more comfortable for longer wear. They are definitely comfortable, though to be honest, the last models suited my ears just fine, too.

Audio quality is strong. These are open earbuds, and they don’t have the silicone tips of the AirPods pro 2 which offer a snug fit and noise isolation, so it’s no surprise that the pro model sounds better. Active noise cancelling here is not as strong as on the pricier pro 2 model either, though it seems to be roughly on a par with the original AirPods pro. That said, sometimes on a phone call, when you’re using an iPhone with voice isolation turned on, the call can sound a bit more compressed than it does on the AirPods pro 2, though it certainly quells background noise effectively, even in noisy places like a café or the street.

The microphones are the same on both the AirPods with noise cancellation and the AirPods pro 2, so some of the difference may come down to the open design.

The AirPods 4 use the same H2 chip found in the AirPods pro 2, which has neat extras such as personalised spatial audio that offers a decent surround-sound effect. You can also answer or get rid of a phone call when Siri announces one in your ears just by nodding or shaking your head.

Listening to music is exemplary, even with noise-cancelling off, offering decent breadth of sound and fidelity in vocals and mid-range notes. Bass is fine, though not as heavy as some competitors.

Turn on noise-cancelling and the background noises dim nicely, though jet engine noise while you’re on a plane may still be audible. Over-ear headphones like AirPods max (£499, Amazon.co.uk) tend to work better for overcoming these noises when you’re in the air, for obvious reasons.

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You can also turn on ‘Conversation Awareness’ which lowers the playback volume when you start speaking, raising it again when you’ve stopped chatting. This works well, though I’d still say it’s more polite to remove your earbuds when talking to someone. And given that AirPods, since the very first release, have sensors which know when you’ve taken them out of your ear, and pause the music when you do, there’s good reason to pop them out.

Noise cancelling reduces the battery life, unsurprisingly. Apple says the earbuds last five hours without noise-cancelling, four hours with. That feels about right from my testing. Putting buds back in the charging case for just five minutes or so gives up to an hour’s more listening time.

The regular AirPods 4 are the direct successor to AirPods second-generation and represent a very big upgrade for almost the same price. They do more, they sound better and they look neater than the second-gen model. They also have the same tiny case as AirPods 4 with noise cancellation.

Because they have the same H2 chip as the noise-cancelling model, they have access to many of the same features such as personalised spatial audio, voice isolation and the nodding/shaking mechanism to respond to Siri.

Like the other model they also offer neat features like audio sharing, so that more than one person can hear the same music from the same source.

The earbuds look identical across both AirPods 4 versions, with the same comfortable fit and intuitive controls where you press to pause or play, for instance. I find it works best if I squeeze rather than press, but either way, it’s easy to get used to.

For AirPods 4, you recharge by cable only, using a USB-C cable (as of this week, no AirPods in the current range use the lightning cable any more). And it’s worth noting that there is no USB-C cable in the box, nor a charger. That’s the same for the model with noise-cancelling, too.

In both cases, the earbuds and the case are water-resistant and dust-resistant, with an ingress protection rating of IP54.

Audio quality is the same as the other AirPods 4 when those have noise-cancelling turned off, unsurprisingly, which is rich and faithful, sounding good in most situations, but best in quieter environments, of course.