Introduction:
So there are two types of people in this world: either AirPods fit in your ears, or AirPods don't fit in your ears. There are two types of people in this world: you either love silicon tips in earbuds, or you hate silicon tips in earbuds. There are two types of people in this world: people who really need noise cancellation and people who don't really care about it.
But Apple wants both people's money, so there are two versions of the new AirPods this year. It was kind of confusing the way they announced it at the keynote, but essentially, for $129, there's the base AirPods 4, and for $179, there are AirPods 4 with noise cancellation. But that is not the only difference between them. So now that I've been testing them for a few days, I can give you the verdict on them, what the differences are, and if they're actually worth it.
Firstly, let's just start with the AirPods themselves. They've tweaked the shape of these buds again, and so they've gotten some new curves and some new angles, and the driver points a little bit more directly into your ear with fewer reflections.
The stem is also a little bit shorter. But otherwise, I mean, yeah, they still look like AirPods—they're very familiar. They have IP54 dust and water resistance, up from IPX4 last year, and they still have the in-ear detection.
Microphones all the way around, but my biggest question personally before anything else was actually just this: does this slightly new shape actually fit better in my ear? I have not had any luck with hard-tipped AirPods ever, really, since they first came out.
The latest version was the closest—like, I could put them in my ears, but if I jogged for more than about 10 seconds, they would just slowly fall out. So, are the fours actually better for me? Uh, slightly, but not really. I put them in my ears, trying to see if this is actually better.
I kind of twist them a little bit, do the classic, like, you know, get them seated in my ear, but it's not for very long. They still slowly—even when I'm just sitting around—feel like they're coming out of my ear. So, I think if you had problems with previous AirPods, you'll probably still have problems with these. But if they fit in your ears, then these will also fit in your ears.
Now, all of what I've said so far is true about both the base AirPods and the active noise-cancelling version. They're the same size, same shape, and everything—you can't tell the difference from the outside of the buds. Where the differences start, though, is this new case. So, let's look at the case. The case is a little bit smaller.
Basic:
It is USB Type-C—thank God—but with the base version, that's it. It's just a case with USB-C. With the noise-cancelling headphones, the case also gets a small speaker at the bottom so it can chime when it's charging. They make a noise when they're lost, and they have wireless charging on the back as well, which is super convenient.
One thing I've noticed, though: it doesn't have MagSafe anymore. I think it's because this case is literally just slightly too small now. The last generation of AirPods, the case with wireless charging, would actually align and stick to the back of a MagSafe charger, which was really convenient for just dropping it on the charger and not thinking about it.
But this year's case, slightly smaller, I think is just a little bit smaller than the magnetic ring, so that's gone. It'll still charge on any Qi charger, but it does not stick to it for any sort of alignment, which is kind of a bummer. So, if you got one of those upright chargers, and you try to stick it to it, it'll just slide off.
Now, USB Type-C: upside. MagSafe gone: downside. I also have noticed—and maybe it's just because they're brand new—but it feels like the magnets holding them into the case are just more secure. I think that's a good thing.
And this case still works with Apple Watch puck chargers, by the way. Fun fact: this isn’t a normal Qi charger at all. It literally only charges Apple Watches and AirPods. But hey, they still do magnetize, so maybe that’s worth something.
And then for the hidden feature that nobody’s mentioned in any of the presentations or keynotes or anything: remember the back of AirPods 3? There was a little pairing button, so if you were manually pairing it to a phone.
Features:
Headphones that have active noise cancellation should also have transparency mode, and these do. This might be the best transparency mode I've ever heard on any AirPods. It sounds supernatural, probably because literally some of the outside environment noise is already getting in, and so what it boosts through the microphones should sound just like it.
Some other small tidbits about these: battery life does technically get slightly worse with ANC on, so it's rated for 4 hours—still respectable—but a total of 20 hours with the case with noise cancellation. These also now join AirPods Pro with USB-C as the only other headphones to have the ultra-low latency support for Vision Pro, so thanks, H2 chip!
Precision finding is useful, and that speaker does really help if they’re kind of underneath something or inside a bag where you need to find them but don’t really have a visual on them. I love having the speaker on the case. And then, if you were paying really close attention in the last Apple keynote, you might have caught that there was actually also an AirPods Max refresh alongside these.
But I use the word "refresh" very lightly, just because all they really did was make it USB Type-C and add some new colors. That’s it—literally, that’s it. They didn’t do any other updates: no mesh updates, no case updates, no on/off switch, no material updates, no driver updates, no sound quality changes, no new features, no H2 chip—just USB-C. That’s absolutely ridiculous, and I will not be reviewing those headphones.
What I did see, though, were some comments of people asking, like, wait, what is the H2 chip even all about? Does it matter that the new ones didn’t get the H2 chip? Let me break down what that’s for. The H2 chip inside these AirPods is basically doing all the processing, especially from these microphones. So, all the improved background noise reduction for phone calls, all the active noise cancellation, transparency mode, and adaptive audio are thanks to the H2 chip.
It also now lets you nod or shake your head to answer Siri questions. If there’s an incoming call, and it announces a new call, you can literally nod your head to answer it instead of talking out loud. Or, if you get a text and Siri asks if you want to respond, but you don’t want to, you can literally just shake your head. It actually works super well.
But then, it’s also just a matter of principle. There’s no way your brand-new flagship $550 over-ear noise-cancelling headphones shouldn’t have all the latest and greatest parts internally and externally—but here we are.
Anyway, the sound quality of these new AirPods is perfectly solid. Some people were surprised at my opinion about this last time, but the AirPods 3 did take a pretty respectable step up. While there still is no EQ anywhere and there’s not a lot of customization to the sound, they do a good job of sort of being decent at everything because these have to do phone calls and podcasts, which have a lot of vocal frequencies, but they also have to do movies and music.
Conclusion:
Personally, I'm still a silicon ear tips person just for my own AirPods like they fit in my ears so much better the seal is so much better it makes a noise cancellation dramatically better, so I'm still leaning AirPods Pro for myself matter of fact you can get AirPods Pro on Amazon for like $1.99 right now so it's only 20 bucks more than these.
But I still think people will happily save the 20 bucks and get the hard tip ones they still get beat in individual categories by others in the wide world of other earbuds available out there like some will have a better fit in the ear which will be better for working out and running and stuff some others will have better battery life and even some others will have better sound quality.
Especially for music, but these are still AirPods which means they work best with the ecosystem with the seamless switching between all the Apple devices in your life, and they still have that sort of generic useful frequency response across the range for everything that's what they're good at now if you're thinking of picking up a new pair of AirPods.
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It adds this extra layer of grittiness that's hard to describe and this isn't just some random pattern apparently brand put an actual topographical map of Area 51 on here because of course they would, so there are three different colorways of it there's red yellow and black, and I'm usually all in on matte black, but this is a nice yellow looks pretty sick and these new Area 51 Skins are available for a ton of different devices, so I'll leave a link below if you want to pick one up for yourself, but that's basically it thanks for reading, and I'll catch you very soon in the next one peace.
