Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro Review: Air Pods Pro for Android | WIRED

Overview

The Galaxy Buds were always envisioned as Samsung’s answer to the Air Pods: a stylish audio solution custom-made for people who like Samsung phones. Early on in their evolution, the buds brandished their own unique designs, including the delightfully egg-shaped Galaxy Buds 2 and 2 Pro. More recent models have stripped all pretense of individuality, essentially conceding to the world (like so many brands) that Apple’s stem-like design is superior.

Like the latest Galaxy phones, Samsung’s flagship buds lean into Apple’s best traits, from slick and minimalist design to excellent noise canceling and a barrage of brand-first features. As you’d expect, they keep a few standout design cues, like a flashy compact charging case and Samsung’s dynamic dual-speaker audio system.

Details

What was most striking in my two-week test as my daily headphones is how well the buds conjure up some of that Apple magic: They’re fun, comfy, and insanely convenient to use, especially when paired with a Samsung phone. A few drawbacks, like six hours of battery life, and controls that aren’t as responsive (or malleable) as I’d like, keep them from fully embodying the best earbuds for Apple phones. But even as an i Phone faithful, after testing these buds with a new Galaxy S26, it was hard not to consider an ecosystem switch.

It’s uncanny how similar the Buds 4 Pro feel to the Air Pods Pro 3, especially in the pearlescent white colorway I tested. (Unlike Apple’s monolithic Pods, these also come in black or pink gold). The oval-shaped ear tips, the black sensor dots and vents along the housings—it’s all very déjà vu. The metallic plastic strip along the stems almost feels like a last-minute addition to prove these are not, in fact, Apple buds.

The cube-shaped charging case is where you get some real differentiation, stepping back from the Apple-esque rectangular design of 2024’s Buds 3 Pro to forge its own path. The transparent lid could easily come off as cheap, but feels hearty instead, as does the matte base that offers both wireless and USB-C charging.

Popping the top auto-pairs the buds to your Samsung phone (you’ll need to locate them in the Bluetooth settings for other devices), and placing them in your ears prompts a cool, futuristic tone. The fit is fantastically light at just 5.1 grams per bud, letting me wear them for hours of listening over multiple days with no discomfort. IP57 dust and water resistance make them sport and weather friendly (excluding the case). Beneath the housings are two separate drivers per side, including a newly crafted “woofer” for deeper bass and a specialized tweeter for sharp-cut details in the high end (where strings and cymbals shine).

The Buds 4 Pro’s battery rating of six hours of playback with active noise canceling (seven hours without) is a minor bummer considering contemporaries like the Air Pods Pro and Sony WF-1000XM6 offer eight hours. In testing, I actually pulled a little more than six hours with noise canceling on, and around seven hours in Ambient Sound mode (the mode that's designed to keep you aware of your environment). The tiny case claims to hold just over three recharges, which was right in line with my tests. One issue: Battery life for the case only pops up in the settings when you first connect, which made it more of a hassle to gauge than the constant feedback I got for the buds themselves.

The biggest disappointment I have is the lack of accessories. You’ll get no charging cable in the box, and three ear tip sizes which are tough to remove, requiring you to unfold them outward and pull rather hard. Luckily, the default medium size was nearly perfect for me.

Another minor gripe: the controls are super simple, but less responsive than I’d like. There are pinch controls for play/pause and song skip, and a hold to cycle between sound modes, but I misfired relatively often over several days. The volume setting, adjusted by sliding your finger up or down, was more consistent, but I found switching levels was often just too loud or too soft. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it's frustrating for sensitive listeners. Sadly, it’s one of the few features that can’t be customized. Folks like me will stick to the volume controls on our phones.

The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro do a commendable job keeping out and letting in the world around you with their Active Noise Canceling (ANC) and Ambient Sound modes, respectively, especially considering their small profile. There’s even an Adaptive mode that automatically adjusts between the two as the earbuds sense certain sounds. It works pretty well for noises like a kitchen fan, but tends to overreact to quicker hits like dog food clinking in a bowl. I preferred the manual modes to relying on the buds to decide.

ANC proved adept at suppressing most daily annoyances, from dog barks to HVAC sounds, and even my gas lawnmower—especially with some music playing. They’re less effective than the highest-end pairs for voices and higher-pitch sounds like my boorish Roborock vacuum. Taking them into my acoustically treated sound room with professional monitors provided similar results.

They held up well in A/B tests against top-tier noise-canceling buds like the Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra and Sony’s last-gen WF-1000XM5, especially for lower drone sounds like my go-to Airplane test, but couldn’t quite match them against sounds like key clicks or vocal chatter. Still, this is high-quality canceling that adjusts quickly on the fly.

The adjustable Ambient Sound (aka transparency mode) is even more impressive, sounding so natural I was able to use them on dog walks in place of my favorite open earbuds, which keep your ears clear naturally, with no real sacrifice to awareness or comfort. On a tougher test, hiking up my local volcano park on a semi-windy day, the Buds 4 Pro handled moderate wind gusts with poise, keeping me aware of cyclists and foot traffic, while still engrossed in the Walton Goggins Smartless interview.

There aren’t many other features the Buds 4 Pro don't offer in some form, all accessible in your Galaxy phone’s Settings menu by tapping on the buds icon. Owners of other Android phones can control most of them with the Galaxy Wearable app, but as with Apple gear, you really want to stay in-brand to max out your options.

Tap on Sound Quality and Effects, and you’ll find a nine-band EQ and presets to control the deepest bass to the highest treble frequencies, an Earbud fit test, and high-resolution audio support via Samsung’s UHQ (Ultra High Quality) audio feature (available with newer Samsung phones). The 360 Audio setting, similar to Apple’s Spatial Audio, can make sounds feel more immersive, with available head tracking that anchors the sound to your phone’s position to emulate speakers.

Back in the main menu, you can turn on head gestures to answer phone calls hands-free, voice controls to wake up Google Assistant or Bixby, engage accessibility settings, and more. In-ear detection, which auto-pauses sound when you pull an earbud out, is one of the few standard conveniences off by default, requiring you to go into Advanced Features. Otherwise, you can tweak as much or as little as you’d like. The buds also tout a Live Translate feature, though it really just leverages the Galaxy S26 phone's own app, much like Google's earbuds do with Android phones.

Having spent a fair bit of time away from Samsung gear, I was delighted to see that Find My Earbuds works just like Apple Find My, pinpointing your devices via GPS (once you’ve allowed a host of tracking permissions, of course). In a similar vein, the buds will auto-switch between Samsung devices, though there’s no multipoint pairing to swap between devices outside Samsung’s ecosystem, which is a bit lame.

Samsung’s top buds go big on bass and treble, with mostly sweet results. The lower frequencies are especially revealing compared to similar buds, giving everything from heavier beats to weird microphone rumbles in my favorite poorly recorded podcasts, like Threedom. Bass is flashy and thunderous in songs like Raye’s “Escapism,” where the beat at the end almost seemed to rumble my seat. I ended up pulling the first few bass bands in the equalizer down a few decibels, but no judgment if you want to let it ride.

Up top, the treble sparkles, but the midrange, where vocals and guitars sit, is sometimes snappier than I’d like. I generally prefer the smoother, more full-bodied sound of options like Sennheiser’s Momentum 4 or Technics’ EAH-AZ100. Instruments like acoustic guitars, horns, and percussion are all splashier than more neutral-sounding buds, but there's impressive resonance in each instrument's sound down low and up very high.

Samsung's dual-speaker setup is a clear asset (most buds, including Air Pods Pro, use just a single speaker) for power and clarity, and you can feel that when playing music. The nine-band EQ means that they're reasonably customizable even if you want things a bit more neutral, but as I mentioned earlier, factory tuning is pretty fun too.

Pair the vibrant sound with some of the best calling I’ve heard from earbuds in recent memory, including fabulous microphone quality and exceptional noise reduction, and the Buds 4 Pro make a great pair of everyday earbuds that function well for both listening and work.

There are absolutely better options for noise canceling and sound quality individually, but none pair better with Samsung devices. The Buds 4 Pro are comfortable, intuitive, and sound better than most. For Samsung phone owners after the same convenience and features Air Pods Pro offer to i Phone owners, it’s hard to imagine getting closer than this.

Key Takeaways

• The Galaxy Buds were always envisioned as Samsung’s answer to the Air Pods: a stylish audio solution custom-made for people who like Samsung phones
• Like the latest Galaxy phones, Samsung’s flagship buds lean into Apple’s best traits, from slick and minimalist design to excellent noise canceling and a barrage of brand-first features
• What was most striking in my two-week test as my daily headphones is how well the buds conjure up some of that Apple magic: They’re fun, comfy, and insanely convenient to use, especially when paired with a Samsung phone
• It’s uncanny how similar the Buds 4 Pro feel to the Air Pods Pro 3, especially in the pearlescent white colorway I tested
• The cube-shaped charging case is where you get some real differentiation, stepping back from the Apple-esque rectangular design of 2024’s Buds 3 Pro to forge its own path