When you hear the phrase “back to basics,” you might think of a lot of things. It’s a phrase of self-improvement, or sometimes a backhanded way of saying, “You’re screwing up the little things.” Or maybe it’s a way of saying things were overcomplicated before, and sometimes, simple is actually better.
When I hear “back to basics,” though, I actually hear the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro—and, to me, basics sound pretty damn good.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro
The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are great-sounding wireless earbuds with good ANC. They feel great in your ears, too, but lack a “wow” factor.
- Excellent sound
- Good ANC
- They fit great in your ears
- Love the new look
- No “wow” features
- The battery life is middling
- Call quality could be better
Looks good, but sounds better
One change you might notice right off the bat is the look. The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro switched up the design over the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro with a flat stem as opposed to the more angular blade design of yore. I’m a big fan. I love the polished metal on the outside and prefer the stems for tactile reasons—they’re better for swiping and squeezing compared to the angular Galaxy Buds 3 Pro stems. The case is also different, with a clear lid that opens flat instead of just from the top. The buds also lie flat when they’re inside, similar to the design of the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.
© Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
It’s a significant design shift and one that I like overall, not just because it looks sleek and premium, but because it differentiates from Apple a bit, too. People will probably still accuse Samsung of copying AirPods for one thing or another, but I think it’s landed on a unique design language in the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro that really works. As an added bonus, I find the swipe and squeeze controls to feel a lot better on your fingers since you’re not rubbing them on a sharp angle like before. Sensitivity-wise, I find both squeeze and swipes to be adequate—nothing to write home about, but if there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, then don’t fix what ain’t broke.
See Galaxy Buds4 Pro at Samsung.com
See Galaxy Buds4 Pro at Amazon
However significant the design shift is, the new sound is even more significant. This time around, Samsung has a “super wide” woofer and a 5mm planar tweeter inside the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro (the Galaxy Buds 4 have just one 11mm dynamic speaker), and the emphasis on audio quality is noticeable the second you pop the wireless earbuds in your ears. In rock genres, guitars are perfectly centered and present in the mix, while vocals are clear and unmuddled. I listened to the Pixies’ “La La Love You” and loved how clean and distortion-free the whole song felt. Bass, in particular, was driving and present without feeling overpowered or artificially amplified.
In quieter, less chaotic genres, like smoother jazz/soul, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro were equally as adept. Guitars panned to either side in songs like Masayoshi Takanaka’s “Malibu” were so well-balanced they felt like delicious little snacks on either side of my ears, while strings—which can often get washed out in less careful wireless earbuds—felt ambient and audible. While I didn’t get a chance to test the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro on a Samsung phone, I can only assume that these earbuds would sound even better since Galaxy Buds get to enjoy double-bandwidth Bluetooth streaming on Galaxy devices.
© Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
I did get to enjoy “enhanced” adaptive EQ, though, which tailors the frequencies to the Galaxy Buds’ fit in your ears and your sound environment at the time. It’s hard to say how much work adaptive EQ was doing, but the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro sounded great in a range of environments and across all sorts of genres, so I’m willing to wager that it works.
If there’s one audio quality area I can knock Samsung for, it’s call quality. While the company seemingly put effort into making the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro microphones superior to the regular Galaxy Buds 4, the ultimate quality is a bit middling. I asked a friend to rate my call quality in a several-minute conversation out of 10, and the answer came back as either a six or a seven. While the volume was fine and the background noise wasn’t overpowering, they reported that my voice sounded a little “fuzzy.” Needless to say, that’s not an ideal rating.
Even without that, though, these are some of the best-sounding wireless earbuds I’ve listened to all year—and I’ve listened to a lot. If sound quality is your number one priority, then the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro should be on your radar.
No noise, no discomfort, no nonsense
Another particularly bright spot for the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro is in the active noise cancellation (ANC) department, which Samsung says is enhanced this go-around. These wireless earbuds really work on the ANC front, which is great if you live in a loud city, like I do. I tested the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro on the subway in New York and at home with simulated city noise blaring from my MacBook Air at full volume, and was really impressed with how well it canceled out sound in real-life and simulated environments.
© Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
I suspect that’s partly due to Samsung’s software acumen in ANC, but also because of the amazing fit on these wireless earbuds. Having just transitioned from reviewing the Sony WF-1000XM6, which were not a great fit in my ears, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro were a complete 180. Not only do they fall right in with no twisting or pushing, but when they’re actually inside my ears, they create a great seal. That seal is critical for passive noise cancellation, which is equally (arguably more) important than ANC. Software is great, don’t get me wrong, but it can only do so much when loud city trains are involved.
If adaptive ANC is your thing, Samsung also offers some features on that front. I tested out adaptive ANC at home and appreciated features like voice detection, which is the equivalent of Apple’s Conversation Awareness. Basically, software and microphones recognize when you’re speaking and turn down your in-ear audio while also amplifying ambient sound. The combo is meant to make it so you can speak with someone naturally without taking your wireless earbuds out. I was a fan for the most part—the volume adjustment was usually timely, and there was adequate time between stopping and restarting audio to make sure the experience wasn’t stilted (i.e., switching playback on before a conversation is done). Sometimes the ANC and audio came back a little too early, but not enough for me to stop using voice detection out of frustration.
© Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro’s transparency mode for hearing conversations with your wireless earbuds by using the on-device mics was also pretty solid and not nearly as tinny as some other cheaper earbuds. Apple’s AirPods Max still take the crown here, but the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro hold their own. I also tested the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro’s “siren detection” feature, which lowers the volume of music when sirens are, well… detected. It works! I just used a simulated siren on my laptop, which meant I had to hold the speakers pretty close to the wireless earbuds for it to activate, but I assume if you were in a real-life scenario with a real-life volume siren, it would work just fine.
With better-than-average ANC, solid transparency, and useful adaptive audio features, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro definitely earn the “Pro” moniker.
Not much “wow” factor
While the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro nail the fundamentals of any great pair of wireless earbuds, there aren’t any real “holy crap” features like the AirPods Pro 3. Apple came out swinging, adding new health features like heart-rate monitoring, pushing the boundaries of what wireless earbuds really are. In the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, you’ll see no such agenda. For most people, that’s fine, but it does make Samsung feel a little behind in some ways.
While the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro have lots of features you’d expect, like granular and preset EQ, adaptive ANC, voice detection, swipe and pinch gestures, and voice control, and an in-ear fit test, I can’t say that the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro really push the boundaries in any one direction. All of those features are carryovers from the last generation, by the way. In some ways, I’m actually okay with that. If there’s one thing that we don’t need more of, it’s AI bloat. In other ways, I’m left wanting just a little bit more.
© Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
Speaking of wanting a little more, while the Galaxy Wear app is functional, it’s pretty bare-bones. Other competitors in the personal audio space are doing a lot more with their companion apps, offering additional content and even more features. While most people might not take advantage of those features, the ones that do (like me) appreciate a little more nuance.
Compounding that lack of “wow” factor is the fact that there’s also the somewhat annoying ecosystem lock-in, which prevents non-Galaxy users from taking advantage of features like hi-res audio. Since Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro use a proprietary codec, they’re not compatible with other hi-res streaming formats like LDAC or AptX. For Galaxy phone owners, that’s fine, but for everyone else it’s a drag. To be fair, Apple’s AirPods are the same story, but it’s annoying in either case.
As long as we’re talking about middling aspects of the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, it’s also worth noting that the battery is alright, but not great. The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are rated for about six hours of battery while ANC is activated, and the case provides an additional 26 hours with ANC on. Those estimates seem to track in my testing. With ANC on, I played the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro for about three hours (with some pauses) at a little over halfway volume, and they wound up at 65%. That’s not a bad battery life, but it’s far from “wow.”
© James Pero / Gizmodo
Sure, there are features like head gestures for answering calls and controlling playback, which are at least a little interesting (not novel, though), but I wouldn’t say any one feature moves the needle to make Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 4 Pro feel like a big step. But hey, I guess I should be careful what I ask for. Adding more for the sake of more is usually a one-way ticket to bloat-town, and I’ve already seen enough of that verdant hamlet for a lifetime.
Should you warp to another galaxy?
Whether you should upgrade to the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro will depend a lot on your priorities. If you’re satisfied with your current earbuds’ sound and ANC, then there’s no reason to jump ship, but if you’re curious about what else is out there, then the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro should be on your radar. The sound on these buds is excellent, the fit is fantastic, and the ANC/adaptive EQ is also good. The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro nail almost all of the things you’d look for in any pair of wireless earbuds.
If you’re looking for more cutting-edge features, though, these aren’t the wireless earbuds for you—Apple is pushing the boundary on that front with the AirPods Pro 3. That being said, I’m willing to bet most people fall into the former camp, which makes the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro a more-than-solid entry into the wireless earbuds space and worth the $250 price tag for many.
See Galaxy Buds4 Pro at Samsung.com
See Galaxy Buds4 Pro at Amazon
