The bottom line with the Apple AirPods 4 is – Only buy it if you want to stay in the Apple Ecosystem and do not want to spend an arm and a leg for a pair of the Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation, which two years after its launch is retailing only a couple of thousand bucks off its launch price. Or you cannot stand TWS with in-ear design and you own an iPhone or a Mac or an iPad.
The fit is tricky to sit well with a majority of people; the case has a glossy finish, which attracts a lot of scratches, and the battery life is mediocre at best. What you are getting is fairly solid sound and ANC for a pair of half-in-ear earphones. If you are willing to spend ₹17,900 for this, please don’t.
Buy a cheaper pair of TWS earphones with a half-in-ear design like the Nothing Ear (stick), or just go for a much better sounding and widely compatible pair like the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro2 (which is MUCH cheaper than the AirPods or the Sony WF-1000XM5, which are literally the best pair of earphones you can get your hands on under 20K if you manage to get the right offers online, at least at the time of writing. Or just hit us up on our Instagram handle, @digit.in, and we will give you a list of in-ear earphones that are better than the AirPods. And, trust me, you will get used to the design pretty quickly.
At their Glowtime Event in September, Apple unveiled their latest lineup of iPhones, their new Apple Watch Series 10 and the refreshed Apple AirPods 4, which now come with ANC. The launch event had a mixed bag of reactions coming from the fans.
Even the Apple fanboys were in split minds about the new launches, especially the AirPods 4 with ANC. Given that they have a half-in-ear design, the efficacy of the ANC and the sound reproduction were things that everyone wanted to evaluate and see how they performed. They are packing the new H2 headphone chip and a price tag of ₹17,900, which pits them against some of the best offerings from competitors outside the Apple ecosystem.
While the other two devices, the iPhones and the Watch Series 10, are being put through the churner at the Digit Test Labs, I finalised my review of the Apple AirPods 4 with ANC and here’s what I found out –
Apple AirPods 4 follow the Apple design book to the T
The design of the Apple AirPods 4 is not much of a departure from that of the other earbuds in Apple’s lineup. The case has a familiar feel to it, though much narrower now, and the quality of materials is in line with that of the Apple AirPods Pro Gen 2, Apple’s flagship TWS and my daily drivers. Having used the AirPods Pro Gen 2 for a couple of years, the number of scratches that the case has picked up, brings the glossy finish of the new Apple AirPods 4 into the radar of my scrutiny. So be careful when using these in-ear earphones. Either plop them in a case or use them with utmost care.
Out of the box, the case looks beautiful and is a treat to the eyes with its monochrome white finish and a nice metal accent on the hinge at the back. Apple has also done away with the paring button on these in-ear earphones, which eliminates a place where, over time, there was scope for dust and gunk to get caught in.
The case has a nice heft to it and, in typical AirPods fashion, is fairly easy to open. Kudos to Apple.
Now, coming to my second gripe with the design of the Apple AirPods 4. The design of the earbuds. Apple has retained the overall form factor of the earbuds, but instead of going with an in-ear design, they opted for a half-in-ear design, eliminating the driver duct. This means that the fit of the TWS will not be as comfortable or universally adaptable for many consumers.
This kind of earbud design is a pure gamble from brands in the modern age. Many manufacturers who use this design language tend to skip out on ANC because this kind of design is a hit and a miss for many, meaning that users who do not get a good fit will have to settle with sub-par ANC.
That was the case with me. Neither I nor the folks whom I passed these TWS to got a great seal, meaning the ANC performance of the AirPods 4 suffered. More on that later. Even when I forced these earbuds into my ear, the fit got slightly better, but the seal was not what I would get with a pair of truly in-ear earphones, and my ear started hurting.
I was also scared of these earbuds falling off most of the time. Here, I would like to quote what I wrote in my review of the Nothing Ear (stick), another half-in-ear design earphones from a prominent brand – “Now we understand that this issue is very subjective, and there would be individuals who find the fit super secure. But when you are looking at a product that has been made for the masses, we believe that a design with a more universal fit would be the better way to go.”
TL;DR
The case is well-built but will pick up scratches in the long term. You should definitely try the Apple AirPods 4 before buying to ensure that the fit is good for your ear shape.
Did they do a good job with the features?
In terms of features, the Apple AirPods 4 are packed with a solid feature set, which might not justify the price, but they do improve the day-to-day user experience of these TWS earphones. All the controls and customisations are tied into the Settings menu, which means that if you are planning to use these TWS earphones with a non-Apple device, then you won’t be able to access any of them. There are workarounds, but the route to attaining access to the features of the AirPods 4 is so convoluted that by the time you get around to getting your AirPods to work with an Android phone or a Windows/Linux PC, you would have sunk in enough time that you would be better off buying a pair of TWS from another brand.
*insert the Apple Ecosystem rant here*
Moving on. When you are in the ecosystem, you will have access to a ton of well-implemented features. Here’s a quick overview of my thoughts on the features of the Apple AirPods 4 with ANC –
| Feature | Remarks |
| Noise Control | You get four levels of noise control on the AirPods 4 with ANC – Off, Transparency, Adaptive, and Noise Cancellation. I will dive deep into the performance of these three modes in the next section, but the implementation of these features and the ease of switching from the Control Centre or the earbuds is quite fast and intuitive. |
| Control Customisation | In terms of control customisation, you get little. You can only change the press-and-hold action on either earbuds, to either switch between noise control modes or triggering Siri. |
| Personalised Volume | It adjusts the volume of your AirPods depending on the noise around you. When in use, it works well, but it takes some time to get used to, and the volume shifts can feel a bit jarring at first. However, if you are looking at conserving battery life, then I would say, keep it turned off. |
| Conversational Awareness | Conversational awareness works along the same lines as personalised volume, but it lowers the media volume and cuts down on background noise when you are speaking. Well implemented, but I could not fit it into my daily routine. I would rather take my earphones out. |
| Adaptive Audio | Again, on principle, it is the same as the personalised volume feature or conversational awareness. It dynamically responds to your environment and lets you control whether to let in more or less noise depending on your preference. It is definitely a great to have for the times when you are out for a walk on the road. |
| Personalised Spatial Audio | This needs no introduction. Personalised spatial audio builds a virtual soundstage around you. And, it definitely is a great addition to movie watch sessions. |
| Head Gestures | Honestly, very quirky when you use it. They work surprisingly well, but you will attract a few eyeballs when accepting or rejecting calls. |
| Optimised Battery Charging | I have been seeing more and more manufacturers in the audio space implementing this, and given the lack of repairability of these devices, it is a great feature, which will not only help you increase the overall performance of the battery, but also prevent your AirPods from finding their place in a landfill within a couple of years of your buying them. |
TL;DR
The Apple AirPods 4 fit right into the ecosystem without skipping a beat. You get a well-implemented and flagship-esque feature set. But, these TWS earphones are rendered useless when connected to a non-Apple device.
Performance – And engineering marvel, and the only saving grace
The performance of the Apple AirPods 4 was what I was the most keen to test; mainly because they have a half-in-ear-design. I have said it in almost all my reviews: ensuring a good fit is the key to getting good performance out of your personal audio products, both in terms of sound quality and ANC, if the device comes with this.
Apple added ANC to their base AirPods for the first time with this iteration, so I was keen to see how it fares in our tests.
Let’s start with the sound signature test of the Apple AirPods 4. The bass roll-off was what I expected to be the weak link when it came to the sound signature of the Apple AirPods because of their half-in-ear design. However, as you can see in the sound signature graph below, Apple has worked wonders with the sound signature of the AirPods 4.
They are far better than any other half-in-ear earbuds that I have listened to and definitely outperform one of the few half-in-ear earbuds to have hit the shelves in the last couple of years, the Nothing Ear (stick).
The bass has a fair amount of presence in tracks, and bass-heavy tracks like Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars do not sound hollow. The mids come fairly close to the base-line reading of the Pink Noise, which represents a flat sound signature, and when you get to the highs, you have a fairly significant boost, signalling an overpowering presence of sibilants in the sound coming from the AirPods 4. However, in the real world, the boost manifests itself in increased clarity of the instruments falling in that range. Truly an engineering feat by Apple.
The typical response of these TWS earphones makes them a perfect fit for genres where the vocals shine through, and metal and percussion instruments are also mastered with increased emphasis, including, but not limited to, classical, rock and metal.
In terms of the staging, the lack of the perfect seal, which you would get from a pair of in-ear earphones, means that the sound stage of the Apple AirPods 4 is relatively more open than their in-ear cousins. And, thanks to the inclusion of Spatial Audio, the staging is immaculate if you keep it in fixed mode. If you are switching to head-tracked Spatial Audio, then my friend, you are in for some rather unspectacular surprises.
With that out of the way, let’s look at how the Apple AirPods 4 fared in terms of their ANC.
While I did not get the best possible fit at all times, when I managed to push them into my ears to get me a decent enough seal, my mind was blown away by the ANC capabilities of these earphones. Thanks to the H2 chip, which is under the hood of Apple’s other flagships, you understand why Apple would dare to take the leap and add ANC to these earphones, which have a half-in-ear design.
On a recent flight, I carried my AirPods Pro 2nd Gen and the AirPods 4 to test, and the difference between the performance of the two, when the AirPods 4 had a good seal, was minimal. So, once you have tried them out and ensured that you are getting a good fit, the Apple AirPods 4 will not let you down with their ANC.
Lastly, the microphone performance of the Apple AirPods 4. I tested these earphones in a variety of different environments, and they held their own most of the time. But, what took me aback was their performance in the noisy office environment. When I was speaking rather quietly, the earphones picked a lot of noise around me, but when I was loud, to the point where I saw a few eyebrows raised around me, the earbuds cancelled noise as well as they did in most other environments. I am rather not doing justice to how stark the difference was, when expressing it in words, so listen for yourself –
TL;DR
If you manage to get a good fit, the Apple AirPods 4 will not disappoint you with their sound signature, which is a good fit for genres like metal, classical and rock music, where the vocals and percussion instruments, along with their sibilant brethren shine through. The ANC will hold its own, given a good fit, and the microphone will need a fairly loud input from you to be able to cancel out the background noise in busy environments.
What about the battery life of the Apple AirPods 4?
In terms of the battery life, there is not much to write home about. I can call it mediocre at best. Apple claims that these earphones will last up to 4 hours on a single charge with ANC on, and it came fairly close to matching what is already a mediocre battery life claim to begin with.
In my tests, where I played a plink noise loop on these earbuds with ANC on and volume set to 50 per cent, the AirPods 4 lasted around 3.5 hours, which is honestly disappointing. Add the other trinkets, like Spatial Audio with head tracking and Adaptive Audio, and you will see barely 2.5 to 3 hours of battery life. At least, that is what my mileage was in my time of use.
TL;DR
The battery life on the AirPods 4 in our standard test came to be about 3.5 hours, which can be considered mediocre at best.
Should you buy the Apple AirPods 4 with ANC?
The bottom line with the Apple AirPods 4 is – Only buy it if you want to stay in the Apple Ecosystem and do not want to spend an arm and a leg for a pair of the Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation, which two years after its launch is retailing only a couple of thousand bucks off its launch price. Or you cannot stand TWS with in-ear design and you own an iPhone or a Mac or an iPad.
The fit is tricky to sit well with a majority of people; the case has a glossy finish, which attracts a lot of scratches, and the battery life is mediocre at best. What you are getting is fairly solid sound and ANC for a pair of half-in-ear earphones. If you are willing to spend ₹17,900 for this, please don’t.
Buy a cheaper pair of TWS earphones with a half-in-ear design like the Nothing Ear (stick), or just go for a much better sounding and widely compatible pair like the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro2 (which is MUCH cheaper than the AirPods or the Sony WF-1000XM5, which are literally the best pair of earphones you can get your hands on under 20K if you manage to get the right offers online, at least at the time of writing. Or just hit us up on our Instagram handle, @digit.in, and we will give you a list of in-ear earphones that are better than the AirPods. And, trust me, you will get used to the design pretty quickly.
Apple AirPods 4 with ANC Key Specs, Price and Launch Date
| Release Date: | |
| Market Status: | Launched |
Key Specifications
Dimensions
8.2 x 8.2 x 3.3 cm
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Satvik Pandey
Satvik Pandey, is a self-professed Steve Jobs (not Apple) fanboy, a science & tech writer, and a sports addict. At Digit, he works as a Deputy Features Editor, and manages the daily functioning of the magazine. He also reviews audio-products (speakers, headphones, soundbars, etc.), smartwatches, projectors, and everything else that he can get his hands on. A media and communications graduate, Satvik is also an avid shutterbug, and when he's not working or gaming, he can be found fiddling with any camera he can get his hands on and helping produce videos – which means he spends an awful amount of time in our studio. His game of choice is Counter-Strike, and he's still attempting to turn pro. He can talk your ear off about the game, and we'd strongly advise you to steer clear of the topic unless you too are a CS junkie. View Full Profile
