Of all the iconic products Apple has launched – at least visually speaking – the first generation of white, wired earbuds must be up there. I can still picture that ad campaign with silhouetted figures dancing against splashes of colour; wearing a pair marked you out as an iPhone enjoyer at a time when Apple was the undisputed king of cool in the tech world.
Since then Apple has done more than its fair share to kill wired headphones – or at least shove them into an audiophile niche – by ditching the headphone jack. But at least, with the AirPods 4, it’s now bringing super high quality wireless earbuds to the masses.
The reason we’re reviewing these over the AirPods Pro 2 (also just released) is that this is the first generation of Apple’s entry-level earbuds that, for an additional £50 (£179 vs £129), come with active noise cancellation (ANC), once the reserve of the Pros. As a writer for a commuter newspaper, earbuds without ANC are virtually useless, struggling to be heard over the rattle of the Underground.
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So, how do they sound? Well, the ANC is really good. Even without a rubber seal, they still satisfyingly suck the noise out of a room (I’ve taken to wearing them without any audio to drown out the ceaseless chatter of my colleagues) and they dull the terrible clanking of the Northern Line such that you can comfortably listen to a podcast. The sound is decent without quite threatening the Pro version; Apple redesigned the ‘acoustic architecture’ to provide more velvety bass and crisper high notes, and the soundscape feels full and chunky.
The ANC version of the Airpods 4 also come in a new, more compact case with Find My functionality (including a little speaker) so you can work out where you lost them, plus USB-C and wireless charging, which is a great quality of life improvement. The bad stuff? Battery life isn’t great, with the ANC versions only clocking around four hours of continuous use – for long flights you might wanna break out the cans. I’d also be tempted to shell out the extra £70 for the AirPods Pro (£250).
But these are an undeniable win, a cracking set of buds that manage to hit that price-to-quality sweet-spot.
• Airpods 4 are available now from the Apple website