Apple AirPods 4 Wi-fi Earbuds, Bluetooth Headphones, with Lively Noise Cancellation, Adaptive Audio, Transparency Mode, Personalised Spatial Audio, USB-C Charging Case, Wi-fi Charging, H2 Chip

Great ANC in a comfortable, portable package
If you’re an Apple fan, you’ve probably already put these in your cart, regardless of reviews. But I am not an Apple fan. In fact, I kind of hate the brand for a plethora of reasons and would not own any of their devices in a perfect world. However, my philosophy is to purchase items that are the best at what I need them for, regardless of brand. Keeping this in mind, I can say that I am very happy with my 4th gen Airpods with ANC. If you are looking for an actual review of this item from someone without the Apple-colored glasses on, keep reading.I bought the 2nd gen Airpods (not the pros) in 2020 because they were pretty much the best true wireless, non in ear earbuds in the market at that time. The “non in ear” part is the biggest requirement for me. My 2020 Airpods have lasted me 4+ years so far, even after I dropped one in water. They’re still working great and I have no need to replace them, but I wanted to get a new, upgraded pair and then I can keep the 2020 ones in my bag at all times as a backup.When I saw that these had ANC, I was skeptical but excited. I have Bose headphones for ANC like when I’m working or on a flight, and honestly having ANC has been great. But Bose headphones are big and clunky and uncomfortable, all things that make them not the greatest for daily use. Reviews for these Airpods said the ANC was pretty good, so I decided to pay the little bit extra and get them. Worse case was that I would never use the ANC and I’d have just overpaid for the same product but 4 years newer. Luckily, best case happened and that is that I am very happy with my purchase and use the ANC modes all the time.I know not everyone is a fan of the fit of non in ear earbuds like the Airpods have, but for me it’s great. In ear earbuds hurt my ears in just a few minutes. Earpod style earbuds (where it points into your ear canal but doesn’t insert in) are much more comfortable. The earbud part on these are a bit larger than my 2nd gen Airpods, but still fit decently. They feel pretty stable in/on my ear for my day to day usage, but I don’t think I would trust them to stay put for vigorous exercises like running or jogging.The ANC is fantastic. I wore these on a plane recently and when I had previously flown with my Bose headphones, the ANC made loud popping and crackling noises from time to time, and especially on take off and landing. But the Airpods’ ANC did not do that at all. They cancel out outside noise very well, just as well as my Bose headphones, and have less of a “eardrum pressure” feeling than my Boes headphones do.I like the multiple ANC modes. It has off, on, transparent, and adaptive. Off means it’s just normal earbuds, on filters out almost all outside noise, and transparent lets in all the extra noise so you can hear (similar to open ear headphones like bone conduction ones).Adaptive mode is great. You may think that it will dynamically choose the level of noise you get based on the name, but it doesn’t do that actually. There is a “conversation awareness” feature you can turn on or off that can reduce noise and amplify speech, but it only activates after *you* talk, instead of if someone talks to you. The way the adaptive mode works instead is that you can select the level of noise that you want allowed in. This is great because I have it tuned so I don’t hear environmental noises like the dehumidifier, heater, or my roommate working, but I can hear her talk. While using my Airpods with adaptive mode on a recent flight, I could hear the announcements and flight attendants, but the engine sound was greatly reduced and I could hear my music.Audio in general sounds pretty good. I’m no audiophile by any means, but I know what good quality sounds like. The profile to me is pretty flat, and with a basic EQ I’m able to get the sound I like. There’s not too much lag between video and audio, but there’s a very noticeable gap for a split second when you first start playing audio after having none playing. For example, a Slack notification on my Macbook might pop up, and then a second or two later the notification sound will play through my airpods. I’ve seen this same behavior in other Bluetooth headphones and earbuds so I guess it must be a technical limitation or a side effect of some sort of standby state on the connection.Battery life is pretty good. I went about 5-6 hours recently with ANC Adaptive mode on and music playing before I got a low battery bleep. My gen 2 Airpods could go a bit longer, and I’m guessing these have longer battery life if I were to turn off ANC. The case keeps you charged quickly on the go, and the case itself charges pretty fast. Plus it charges with USB C now, thank god. Practically everything in my life uses C now, except those gen 2 Airpods which use Lightning. I’m glad the EU made Apple finally add C.The controls now require you to squeeze the stem of the airpods instead of tapping like the gen 2 ones. Because I haven’t had the gen 3 Airpods or any of the pro models, maybe that’s the way it’s been for a while, but honestly I preferred tapping to pause or change songs. I was able to change the squeeze speed at least because it was a bit cumbersome at first and I kept dislodging my earbud before I got used to it.The Airpods work well with my Android (Pixel) phone, and really there’s no loss in functionality when using them with my phone or PC vs an Apple device. I think the only 2 features that I can’t use is 1) use Siri with them (ohhh noooo however will I survive) and 2) pause my music automatically when I remove an earbud (oh well). But all of the various settings and tweaks can really only be changed using an iPad, iPhone, or Mac. I luckily have an iPad (best tablet for digital art) and Macbook (very nice experience for coding or watching movies) so I set them up there, but you can also just use a friend’s device or probably a demo model at a store. There are some apps for Android that allow you to make some tweaks, but as of Jan 2025 I think only one of them has partial support for 4th gen Airpods with ANC. With my Pixel, phone calls are clear sounding for both me and who I’m talking to.Overall, I’m very happy with my purchase. I do think they’re overpriced (as is everything from Apple), but I also think that based on the 2 months I’ve been using them, they’ve been worth the money. If these last 4 years too, then they’ll be beyond worth it. If you are looking for ANC non in ear earbuds with good sound and decent battery life, these are in my opinion the best choice.

Sound great with surprisingly good noise “cancelling”
Bass is great, microphones are great, charging case is compact. Everything feature and sound-wise about these is pretty great for the price. The only question mark is with noise cancellation since these don’t have the in-hear tips that AirPods Pro have to truly seal out sound. You’d think the noise cancellation would be bad or nonexistent, but no; it works pretty good. I work in a warehouse with loud forklifts and smashing hammers and dropped pallets, and with noise cancellation turned on, I can definitely still hear everything, but the loudness in severely reduced. And in fact, I might even say the fact that the noise cancellation is a step below the Pro is a feature. Being in a warehouse, for safety, I can’t block out ALL sound, but loudness reduction is appreciated. And to be quite honest, with ANC on and the volume somewhat up, it easy to erase sound around. Even if you don’t work in this type of environment, blocking out a lot of sound so that you can then listen to media at a lower volume is good for ear health. My biggest issue is the fit: they’re constantly falling out of my ears hour 2 or 3, and it’s exacerbated by me chewing gum and regularly looking up and down my inventory racks. Even given that, I 100% recommend AirPods 4. These are really great.