These are the two new models of AirPods 4. They may look extremely similar and they do share a lot of the same features, but AirPods 4 come with a base model of $130. I think several improvements over the AirPods 3, but not as many features as the new AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation. Not only is that noise cancellation a big differentiator, but there's some other differences under the hood, like better find my integration, a speaker built into the case, and wireless charging.
And by the end of this video, I'm going to help you decide whether or not to get noise canceling with AirPods 4. or if you should jump up to the AirPods Pro 2. First, let's talk about sound quality. I've had every AirPod generation so far, and I have to say that these AirPods 4, I think, are improved in sound quality over the AirPods 3. The AirPods 4 now have an 11 millimeter driver inside, which is actually the same size driver that you'll find in AirPods Pro 2. I've spent the last 12 hours listening to music, podcasts, and some of my favorites. I'll put a link to my go-to playlist with a lot of regular songs I use to test things like the Sonos over-the-ear headphones and now AirPods 4. That link is in the video description.
But I was pleasantly surprised how much bass you get without an isolating ear tip like on the AirPods Pro. It's present, it's punchy, and listening to pop music like from The Weeknd or some of my personal favorites like Fantasy from Earth, Wind & Fire, it sounds clear, crisp, and still has that punch in the low end. No headphone is going to be able to get that low end and punchy bass that you can once you have a complete seal on your ear, which is what the AirPods Pro offers. But for these kinds of headphones without a seal, I think they sound really good. And this is a big similarity between the new AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with noise cancellation.
Sound quality is going to be equal between the two, but noise cancellation does make a difference with what you're listening to. I'm going to dive into the specifics of the noise cancelling experience, but I do want to mention the fit of the AirPods 4. Apple went to great lengths during their last event to talk about how they re-engineered the design of AirPods 4 to fit more kinds of ears. Again, that's one of the benefits of something like AirPods Pro that has either silicone tips, which will fit all kinds of ear canals, Or what I personally use is these Comply ear tips, which these are actually earplug like foam material and they make the AirPods Pro much more comfortable for me.
I'll put a link to these ear tips on Amazon in the description below. And just to compare, I actually have a pair of AirPods 3 here, the previous generation base model AirPods. And you can tell, especially once you turn them about 90 degrees, that the AirPods 4, which is here on the right, definitely has a thinner profile overall. Not as bulbous, I guess you could say. And there's a little different angle to the stem.
AirPods 4 here on the right, 3 on the left. But when it comes to these kinds of AirPods, they either fit and stay in your ear or they don't. Apple said they've tested these AirPods 4 on many different kinds of ears, even internally, trying to find the best shape that will fit the most ears.
Now, coming from my AirPods Pro, which I've been using since they came out with those Comply ear tips, putting the AirPods 4 in my ears, it felt like they were going to fall out, to be honest. But surprisingly, I shook my head pretty violently, shook it to music, tried to really just shake an AirPod out of my ear. and I could not get them to fall out. So despite feeling like they're right on the edge, at least in my ears, they never actually fell. And I actually went and tested these for noise canceling to the grocery store.
Not once did I ever think they were slipping or falling out of the ear. From what I remember when testing the AirPods 3, that wasn't the case back then. So it turns out this shape might actually be better for more ears. One other thing I've noticed, and Apple didn't say anything about this, but it seemed like the magnets in this case might be a little stronger when holding these AirPods 4 in. They're easy to get in and out.
There's no struggle there. But if you ever dropped previous AirPods models or your AirPods Pro, you know if this case falls to the ground, these AirPods are flying in every direction. I was actually getting out of my car earlier, these fell out of my pocket, and I fully expected both of these AirPods 4 to just scatter in all directions, but surprisingly, they stayed firmly in the case. Had to get them out with a broom because it was pretty far under the car, but it seems like these might be improved and not eject as far or as wide as previous models. Just to show you, both models of AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 all share the same H2 chip, Major differences here have to do with noise cancellation, which we'll get into in a moment.
You'll see that the AirPods 4 have a force sensor rather than touch control, and that means you can kind of click the thumbs and get some haptic feedback whether you want to pause or maybe answer a call. But it doesn't have the touch control of the AirPods Pro 2, where you can actually slide up and down the stem and change volume. AirPods Pro 2 do get a little more time when listening outside the case. There are some charging differences, which I'll get into in a moment. All three models have the same dust, sweat, and water resistance.
Automatic switching. And you'll see when it comes to a lot of the audio quality features, everything from adaptive EQ and the amplifier and driver, both AirPods 4 models and AirPods Pro 2 have very similar features. But let's get into the noise cancellation, which is the biggest differentiator between all three of these models. AirPods 4, the ones that don't have a speaker in the case. don't have any noise canceling.
These are the $130 models, again which sound great for those base model AirPods, but absolutely no noise canceling and because they don't isolate with silicone tips, it lets in a lot of noise. But how does an open ear AirPod without that silicone tip fare when it comes to noise canceling? Well for that I went to the one environment I test weekly, the grocery store. Every week when I do the groceries I bring my AirPods Pro 2, noise canceling the entire time and there is a significant difference from the environment around me to what I'm hearing in my headphones.
which is usually a podcast. And right before I talk about the noise canceling, I will mention that AirPods 4 with noise canceling also has a transparency mode, which might not make much sense, but there is a difference when you're in an environment with lots of different noises. I found that once you enable transparency mode, I heard more things like fan noise, the store music over the loudspeakers got louder, I could hear conversations around me more clearly, so that transparency mode actually brings more into your ears than when you just have it off entirely. Now, when it comes to noise canceling, when I use my AirPods Pro 2 in the grocery store, everything goes quiet.
I mean it is almost silent and I can have the volume very low on a podcast or music. I can hear it clearly and nothing else around me. Obviously that is not the case with AirPods 4. Now there is a difference once I enabled noise cancelling. With AirPods 4 in the grocery store anything that was like white noise, whether it was fans, air conditioning units, all of that faded away. Some of the crowd noise lowered and the store music was still audible but it was much more faint than when it was in transparency mode or just nothing active at all.
The biggest difference is you can still hear things like hustle and bustle of people, any kind of cart noise around the grocery store. All of that still comes through the noise canceling of AirPods 4. But if your goal is to have a better listening experience, whether it's music or podcasts, and there is noise going on around you, the noise canceling did make a significant difference. Now, while I was at home, I was using them here in my studio, and my son was actually playing video games with a friend right on the other side of this wall. And it seemed like voices, because it changes in pitch and timbre and volume, definitely come through more with the noise canceling on AirPods 4 than with AirPods Pro 2. AirPods Pro 2 really cut out almost everything, only the loudest sounds or high-pitched noises you might hear faintly, but it is a stark difference than the AirPods 4. Again, you're talking about a full seal around the ear as opposed to an open space around the AirPods 4. But if you want some of the benefits of noise canceling, like being able to just hear your podcast and music better and cutting out some of the white noise sounds, and you don't like the in-ear feeling of a silicone tip in your ear canal? Well, I think the AirPods 4 with noise canceling is a great choice.
Because they stayed firmly in my ear and it cut down on a lot of the room noise around me, I found doing a little grocery shopping was much more enjoyable having that noise cancellation on with AirPods 4 than not. So if you were debating between the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with noise canceling, I would recommend get the noise canceling versions. I think there'll be times when you use it. When you're on a plane or some other place where there's really loud white noise, it's not going to cut all of it out.
you'll still be hearing a lot of that environmental sound, but it will lower the volume of those extraneous sounds, helping you hear your content better. But the buying decision between AirPods 4 with noise canceling and AirPods Pro is a little harder of a choice, and we'll get to that in a second. There are some other differences between the two models of AirPods 4 that also come into play.
Now, find my between AirPods 4 models are very different. The base model AirPods 4, it can tell you the last place you left it, basically the last time your iPhone saw them close by, but that's about it. The AirPods 4 with noise cancellation, it actually does the Bluetooth Find My, much like the Apple TV remote, and it will tell you approximately how far away it is, and then of course you can ping it.
Now both of these fall short of the Find My for AirPods Pro 2 because these actually have an ultra wideband chip in them and it will actually give you that precision tracking. So if you lose your AirPods a lot and you really want to be able to track it precisely, AirPods Pro 2 still went out. But between the two models of AirPods 4, it's at least nice to have that kind of proximity Bluetooth on the noise canceling version. Also there are differences in charging.
Now AirPods Pro 2, if you buy one today, and both models of AirPods 4 have USB-C. So they all charge with the USB-C cable, that's great. But the base model AirPods 4 does not have Qi charging. So you cannot wirelessly charge the base model AirPods 4, you have to use that cable. But that's not true of the noise canceling version.
These actually charge via Qi charging, but not really MagSafe. And that is an unfortunate change to the AirPods 4. I used this Belkin Qi 2 charger. I'm going to be doing an accessory roundup for iPhone 16, so get subscribed, that's coming soon. But AirPods 3 actually had a magnet strong enough to take advantage of those MagSafe pucks. And even if you had a vertical stand like this, you could charge it and it would stay on.
AirPods Pro 2, same deal. Stays on a MagSafe charger like that, very secure. But the new AirPods 4 does not have those strong magnets to actually stay on the charger. Oh it actually didn't fall off that time but it's not going to charge that way.
So you can charge the AirPods 4 with noise cancelling wirelessly but it's going to have to be laying flat on a charger. Now there's lots of 3-in-1 chargers that will work with this. I do reviews on a ton of them.
I'll link one of them above. But there are times where I would use a MagSafe puck like this. Here at my desk I have an Anker charger and it has one of those MagSafe chargers but it's at an angle and unfortunately this is not going to stick to it.
Oh, and lastly, before we get to the full conclusion, I do like how small the case is for AirPods 4. Just to compare, that was the AirPods 3 before it, significantly larger, and there's the AirPods Pro 2 case. So AirPods 4, really love how compact that case is. So which model should you get?
AirPods 4 with noise canceling or AirPods Pro 2? Right now, all models are available on Amazon, and it is that $50 difference between just the base model AirPods and the ones with noise canceling. I would recommend going with noise canceling.
In testing a few environments, I feel it does make a significant enough difference cutting out a lot of white noise and making it more enjoyable to listen to your podcast or music. If you ever think you're going to be in a situation where you'll use it, maybe like an open air office plan or co-working space, it's probably worth the upgrade of $50. I also bet the AirPods 4 with noise canceling is going to be on sale on Amazon probably around Black Friday. We could even see it get down to $150, making the choice even easier. But here's the harder choice.
AirPods 4 with noise cancellation. $180. AirPods Pro 2, the newest model with USB-C, $190.
Just to show you that again, it is a $10 difference, and the AirPods Pro 2 are very often on sale on Amazon. This is not a rare occurrence. So is it worth upgrading for $10? And the answer to that is strictly an only preference.
If you don't mind in-ear headphones, like the AirPods Pro 2, and let me encourage you again, if you've only ever tried them with the silicone tips they come with, They fall out of my ear. I highly recommend trying AirPods Pro with the foam comply ear tips. Again, those are linked down in the description. But once I change to those tips, I use the AirPods Pro 2 all the time.
I never have a desire to use another earbud or AirPod. They sound better. The noise canceling is obviously better because it's sealing around the ear. Bass is better, again, because of that seal. These are just incredible headphones, especially for $190 on sale.
But that's not to say there aren't reasons to get the AirPods 4 with noise canceling. Some people just... don't like things in their ear. Inner headphones are either irritating, bothersome, or maybe you sweat a lot.
And let's be honest, I live here in Florida, and if I ever walk outside for any amount of time, I sweat a lot. And sometimes AirPods Pro can be a little uncomfortable when you're sweating that much. For that reason, I'll probably keep the AirPods 4 around because it is more comfortable if I'm sweating, or maybe if I'm going to the beach. I rather have ones that just are hard tips, no silicone or foam to go in the ear.
So bottom line, there is a reason for both. If you don't own any AirPods right now and you don't mind in-ear silicone tips or foam tips like this, the AirPods Pro 2 are obviously the best sounding, best noise cancelling AirPods you can get. Aside from AirPods Max, but we're not going to get into that.
But if you don't like things in your ear or maybe you find them uncomfortable, the AirPods 4 with noise cancelling is a great option. The noise cancelling is noticeable and makes a difference in a lot of environments. And while the AirPods 4 can't match the AirPods Pro sound quality, it does sound incredibly good, especially for non-ceiling.
earphones like this. If you have any questions about AirPods 4, AirPods Pro, or anything Apple, leave comments below this video and make sure you subscribe and hit that like button. More accessory videos for iPhone 16 are coming soon and I have a ton of videos on all the updates that came to iOS 18. I actually did an entire video giving 95 plus features in iOS 18. You can check that video out right up here.
And like I mentioned, if you're looking for a 3-in-1 charger that can wirelessly charge your new AirPods 4 and your iPhone and Apple Watch fast charging, I have a bunch of reviews like that on the channel. I'll leave one of them right up here. Thanks for watching.
I'll catch you next time.