MSRP $299.00

“The Ozlo Sleepbuds are the most comfortable sleep earbuds I’ve worn and provide an array of useful, reliable features to help you sleep peacefully through the night.”

Pros

• Supremely comfortable to wear
• Battery lasts for multiple nights
• High-quality Sleep Sounds
• Bluetooth audio streaming
• Uncluttered app

Cons

• Sleep Monitoring feature still missing
• Slow initial connection process
• Abrupt alarm

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Ozlo Sleepbuds: design

Ozlo Sleepbuds: audio and sound

Ozlo Sleepbuds: app and a missing feature

Ozlo Sleepbuds: battery and charging

Ozlo Sleepbuds: price and availability

Are these the sleep earbuds to buy?

Sometimes, sleep eludes me, and at those times, I reach for a pair of “sleep” earbuds. For years, the Bose Sleepbuds 2 were my go-to, and I considered them the best you could get — until Bose decided to discontinue them.

Step forward Ozlo, a company founded by those who worked on the Sleepbuds project at Bose, and the Ozlo Sleepbuds. They look and feel very familiar, promise just the right features, and share the same in-ear shape that made the Bose model so good. I’ve been finding out if they’re worthy of the Sleepbuds name or not.

Ozlo Sleepbuds: design

The Bose Sleepbuds 2 (left) and the Ozlo Sleepbuds Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The fact that the Ozlo Sleepbuds look almost exactly like the Bose Sleepbuds 2 is no accident. Ozlo was founded by three engineers who worked on the Sleepbuds at Bose. After the product’s cancellation, the team licensed the technology and got the rights to the name. This isn’t a homage or a copy — it’s as close to a continuation of the Bose Sleepbuds as we’re ever going to get.

They’re so similar that a Bose Sleepbud fits in the Ozlo Sleepbuds case and vice versa, and when you mix and match the buds in your ears, it’s impossible to tell which is which by feeling alone. There’s perhaps a slight reduction in the depth of the earbuds’ body, but it’s very small.

Soft silicone is wrapped around the tiny body, complete with little wings that hold the earbud in your ear and a tip that has a different, more oval shape compared to ones used for the best true wireless earbuds designed for music. The box includes four sets of silicone outer shells to help you get the right fit.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The result is a wonderfully comfortable shape. I have been testing the Ozlo Sleepbuds for about three weeks now, and I mostly sleep on my side. The earbuds are unobtrusive and haven’t kept me from getting to sleep at all. Due to the flush-fit design, I can lie with my head and ear against the pillow without any discomfort, and I’ve regularly slept with them for more than seven hours. I have not noticed any sweat buildup (there’s no water resistance rating, so this is probably a good thing), they have not made my ears itchy, and they have not fallen out. They can work themselves loose just through natural movement, though.

None of this has been a surprise. The Bose Sleepbuds 2 were the most comfortable sleep earbuds I’ve used, and seeing as the Ozlo Sleepbuds are basically the same, they should be very good indeed. Before they arrived, I’d been using the 1More Z30 Sleeping Earbuds again, which come close to matching the Ozlo Sleepbuds’ comfort levels, but I do find that they can dig into my inner ear and cause some discomfort if I’m not careful with my position.

There’s nothing like that with the Ozlo Sleepbuds. Just like the Bose Sleepbuds that came before them, these are the comfort champions of the sleep earbud world, and I’ve had many uninterrupted, peaceful nights of sleep wearing them.

Ozlo Sleepbuds: audio and sound

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

While the design and comfort match the Bose Sleepbuds, the features have changed. You can stream either Ozlo’s own Sleep Sounds — there’s a choice of 10 sounds, including rainfall, a fireplace, or the ocean — or directly from a source of your choice. The available sounds are high quality and pleasant to hear, with Crimson Cloak, Stratus, and Soar all providing the type of sound-masking white noise I like. Oddly, when using these, the volume is set in the Ozlo app, not with your phone’s volume control, which does not affect the sounds.

If you want to use your music library or an app like YouTube or Spotify, everything is controlled using the app and your phone’s regular controls, including the volume. The Ozlo app provides three different Bluetooth profiles and you can tailor their operation overnight to your preference. One disables streaming entirely, one enables both streaming and sleep sounds, and the final option enables streaming for 10 minutes to help conserve battery. You can also tell the app to switch from streaming to a Sleep Sound after a set amount of time.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

I’ve been playing podcasts directly from my iPhone 16 Pro Max’s music library and using Ozlo’s in-app timer to stop playing after a set amount of time. This is configurable between a few minutes to many hours. There’s plenty of volume adjustment, too, and it can be set to just above a whisper if that’s how you like it.

The earbuds get quite loud, but even at upper volumes, they don’t distort. For earbuds not designed for critical listening, they’re surprisingly controlled and balanced. The number of different settings and options makes it very clear that the Sleepbuds have been designed by a team that understands what people want when using earbuds to help promote sleep. It’s a polished and feature-rich, but never irksome experience.

The Ozlo Sleepbuds versatility suits how I like to use them at night, but it’s not perfect. Connecting the earbuds to the app when you want to use them takes longer than I’d like, to the point where I will wonder if it has failed, while staring at the app next to the open case, waiting for it to pair.

There is also an unusual sound that comes through the earbuds when they are not playing anything. It’s like odd, unwanted white noise, reminiscent of the hiss you’d get from a blank cassette tape — and it’s there regardless of how the Sleepbuds are set up or what has been playing. It’s not something you can hear when other sounds are playing, though, and it hasn’t woken me up, but it’s there, and you will notice it when you first put the earbuds in.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

There’s no active noise cancellation and the Sleepbuds rely on passive sound isolation to keep outside noise from interrupting your sleep. I’ve found that the Ozlo Sleepbuds are very effective at helping me relax before going to sleep, and I have not been woken up by the sounds of my neighbors leaving for work early in the morning while wearing them.

On the subject of waking up, the app has an alarm feature, but it’s very jarring and always makes me jump when it suddenly goes off in my ear. Disappointingly, there’s no option to have it slowly bring you out of your slumber, despite wording on the website indicating otherwise.

Ozlo Sleepbuds: app and a missing feature

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Ozlo Sleepbuds app is free to download and has no subscription service attached. It’s neatly designed and clearly shows the amount of battery life remaining in the earbuds and the case, your current choice of Sleep Sound, and the settings for your alarm and timer on the main page. Aside from it taking a while to connect, the app has been reliable and easy to use — essential for a product used just before going to sleep.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

When Ozlo announced the Sleepbuds, it made a big deal about the earbud’s case providing sleep monitoring through various sensors. It also advertises this on its website. A section named My Sleep sits in the menu bar, but unfortunately, the feature is only “coming soon” and is not available at the time of writing.

Considering that I first spoke to the company about the feature in August 2023, and the product is available to buy now, this is disappointing. I asked Ozlo for the current timeline for the My Sleep feature and was told it’s expected during the first three months of 2025. However, given it has been missing for this long, a further delay wouldn’t be a surprise.

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

While the Ozlo Sleepbuds work and perform their intended purpose very well, the absence of the My Sleep monitoring feature impacts the product’s value, which I’ll discuss more in a while. Having a section dedicated to a feature that doesn’t exist in the app isn’t a good look either, and you certainly shouldn’t purchase the Sleepbuds on the promise of the My Sleep feature. Outside of this, the Ozlo app is easy to use and isn’t a barrier between you and your sleep, despite some idiosyncrasies around the volume control that take getting used to.

Ozlo Sleepbuds: battery and charging

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Anyone who used the Bose Sleepbuds 2 will likely recall the poor battery management, where the case and earbuds would suck battery power while not being used, which usually meant them not being charged when you wanted to use them. This is not a problem that affects the Ozlo Sleepbuds at all.

On a single charge, the earbuds easily cover about seven hours of sleep with 30 minutes streaming from the music app on my phone. Each earbud still has around 15% remaining in the morning, so they should last for at least eight hours. The case contains around three or four full charges before it needs to be charged up. This is done using a USB-C port on the back of the case. Each earbud is magnetically held inside the case, which has a slide-back cover to keep them safe. The underside of the case is covered in sticky rubber to stop it from sliding around.

A size comparison showing the Ozlo Sleepbuds (bottom) with the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

A size comparison showing the Ozlo Sleepbuds (top) with the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Bose Sleepbuds 2 (left) and the Ozlo Sleepbuds Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

While sufficient, the battery life is a little shorter than the Anker Soundcore Sleep A20 earbuds and the 1More Z30 Sleeping Earbuds, the product’s main competitors, and it’s unclear why. I’m using them in almost the same way as these other two models, but I have been more mindful of the remaining battery life. At least the app makes the amount of charge left in the case and earbuds obvious, and it appears to be very accurate, so you’re unlikely to be caught with an entirely flat battery.

Ozlo Sleepbuds: price and availability

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Ozlo Sleepbuds cost $299 and are available to buy now. If you purchase from the company’s own online store, there is an alternative way to use the Sleepbuds called Ozlo Flex, where for $19 per month, the company gives you a set of Sleepbuds, with the option to cancel and return the earbuds at any time. It could potentially be useful for traveling or if short-term noise events like construction are disturbing your sleep.

At $299, the Sleepbuds are more than three times the price of the 1More Z30 Sleeping Earbuds and twice that of the Anker Soundcore Sleep A20. They’re even $50 more expensive than the Bose Sleepbuds 2 were. The missing My Sleep monitoring feature hurts the value proposition here, but it won’t be unique even when it does arrive, as the Anker Soundcore Sleep A20 have a similar sleep=tracking feature that is built into the earbuds rather than the case.

The Ozlo Sleepbuds are unquestionably the most comfortable sleep earbuds I’ve worn.

If you’re keen on adding sleep tracking to a pair of sleep earbuds, a great alternative to buying the Ozlo Sleepbuds and waiting for the company to deliver the monitoring feature would be to buy a RingConn Gen 2 smart ring and the 1More Z30 Sleeping Earbuds. This combo isn’t that much more expensive than the price of the Ozlo Sleepbuds alone, and you’ll get all the health-tracking benefits that come with a smart ring along with a great set of sleep earbuds.

Are these the sleep earbuds to buy?

Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Ozlo Sleepbuds are unquestionably the most comfortable sleep earbuds I’ve worn since the Bose Sleepbuds 2, and the supreme in-ear fit is the number one reason you should consider buying them. The included Sleep Sounds are high quality and streaming audio has been faultless, plus there’s enough battery life to last a few nights without any worries. Although it’s anecdotal, I’ve had many lovely, sleep-filled nights while wearing the Ozlo Sleepbuds, and I have found they isolate me from the outside world without any sweatiness or uncomfortable pressure in my ears.

However, the 1More Z30 Sleeping Earbuds come very close to matching them and cost a lot less, and that’s a problem for the Ozlo Sleepbuds. It makes them a luxury buy, and even if the sleep-monitoring feature eventually arrives, I’m not sure it’ll be enough to justify the high price purely when comparing them, spec-for-spec, to the other options available.

This isn’t how we always buy luxury products, though. I value comfort over anything else when I try to sleep. I buy sheets of good-quality cotton and decide against laying on a burlap sack for the same reason. If you want the most comfortable sleep earbuds and are prepared to pay a premium to get them, the Ozlo Sleepbuds are the ones for you. Just ignore the fact you’d probably be fine with the cheaper ones, and don’t buy them on the promise of what a currently missing feature may one day offer.

Pros

• Good for smaller ears
• Great value in terms of sound quality
• Effective passive isolation
• Good app support
• More pocket-friendly case
• More affordable price

Cons

• No noise cancellation
• No wireless charging
• Limited options for onboard controls
• Phone calls are tough in louder settings

Sony knows how to make good earbuds, as evidenced by its flagship WF-1000XM5 that is top of the class in just about every respect. It can also deliver value for less money to stand out as an alternative in terms of both comfort and performance. The $60 WF-C510 attempt to do just that, relying on Sony’s audio pedigree and the customizability in the Sound Connect app in a smaller package than ever.

The WF-C510 is the successor to the WF-C500, a pair of earbuds that followed the company’s Road to Zero initiative to achieve a zero environmental footprint. To get there, Sony had to cut plenty out. Now that there’s a sequel, did it manage to take a little more off the top without sacrificing functionality and performance? Let’s see.

The Sony WF-C510 (left) next to the previous WF-C500. Ted Kritsonis / Digital Trends

With the case that’s about a third smaller (still without wireless charging, unfortunately) and earbuds that have shaved off some girth, the WF-C510 look more refined out of the box. Sony doesn’t quantify exact figures on how much smaller they are, but the difference was obvious when I put them side by side.

Sony says it used “extensive ear shape data” to ensure comfort for most people through a rounded design and matte finish. I would say they succeeded in improving on the WF-C500 in that regard for a couple reasons. First, the newer WF-C510 have elongated necks due to the reduced size of the earbud module. This makes them easier to not only place in your ear and rest on the concha, but also to maintain a tighter seal. Second, the weight distribution just feels different. The WF-C500 feel like they take up more space, with most of the weight falling onto the part that sticks out most. That hasn’t been the case for me wearing the C510s.

I’m confident those with smaller ears will appreciate how Sony slimmed things down here. It’s part of a broader trend for its earbuds, most of which used to look bulky, but are becoming more svelte and contoured these days.

The specs

The WF-C510 left earbud (white) next to WF-C500 in black. Ted Kritsonis / Digital Trends

Getting the sizing right is all the more important for earbuds that don’t have any active noise cancellation (ANC). A stable and effective passive seal can do a good job ensuring you don’t have to blast your tunes to hear them, though the lack of noise cancellation can be tough when you find yourself dealing with all sorts of loud background noise.

Sony still includes Ambient Sound Control via the Sony Connect app on iOS or Android. It’s a mode with a sliding scale from 1 to 20 to allow the onboard mics to filter in ambient sounds around you. A “voice passthrough” toggle works to amplify outside voices while “suppressing noise” to make them more audible. The catch is it’s only as effective as the amount of ambience you let in. If you’re struggling to hear what someone’s saying, you either have to crank it to 20 or just pause playback altogether.

The mode acts much like ambient modes do on any other pair of earbuds. What Sony doesn’t mention is that playback volume is a factor in how well the mode can possibly work. If you’re listening at a louder volume while walking outside and you go to talk to someone, the audio often drowns out the material effect of the voice passthrough. Where it’s most valuable is in hearing what someone’s saying after you’ve already paused your tunes.

Despite that, Sony tries to be generous with the rest of the feature set in the app. Pairing the earbuds is easy enough, as Google Fast Pair works for Android devices. Heck, it even threw in Swift Pair for quick pairing with Windows PCs. No such luck with Apple’s devices (naturally), though these earbuds are definitely AirPods competitors once you use them with an iPhone or iPad.

Multipoint allows them to stay paired with two devices at the same time. Switching between them feels pretty straightforward, like getting a phone call from your work phone while listening to music from your personal one, as an example. I didn’t run into any issues.

The Sound Connect app gives you the same five-band equalizer you get to use with Sony’s more expensive earbuds, and I suggest doing so. You may like how the WF-C510 sound out of the box, but I would recommend tinkering with the EQ to breathe some life into them. You have the option to also go through the app’s “Find Your Equalizer” test to personalize output, except I did better by tweaking things myself. These are budget earbuds, after all, but they don’t always sound like that, which is a testament to Sony’s ability to deliver improved sonic performance in a smaller design.

Crowd-pleasing audio

Ted Kritsonis / Digital Trends

You’ll likely need to give the bass a boost off the bat, but the mids aren’t muddy and the highs don’t feel flat, either. We’re talking about crowd-pleasing audio here, and I can see the results satisfying most everyone, apart from bass lovers who want a deeper sound. While the AirPods 4 now have ANC variants, the WF-C510 simply sound better in a passive-versus-passive situation, even if you’re better off tweaking Sony’s buds first.

Sony includes its DSEE proprietary technology to enhance the quality of compressed codecs like MP3 and AAC —  which is as good as it gets when there are no hi-res codecs on board. It works on its own once you toggle it on in the app, impacting the mids more than any other part of the spectrum. Regardless of whether you understand what it’s doing or not, you can hear the “boost” it provides to whatever music you’re listening to.

Sony offers 360 Reality Audio for a semblance of spatial audio (without head tracking), only you can’t really do much with it. You have to go through Peertracks, Artist Connection, nugs.net, or 360 Reality Live to set it up.

The only other integration I can speak to is Spotify Tap, should you choose to enable it. If you’re a Premium subscriber, you can set it up through Sonic Connect so that double-pressing the left or right earbud’s button starts a recommended Spotify playlist. I’m not particularly fond of the feature myself, but can confirm that it works fine with the WF-C510.

Button control grouping can be limiting

Ted Kritsonis / Digital Trends

Speaking of buttons, the physical ones here are reliable no matter which function package you pick. You’ll need them since there are no wear sensors to automatically play/pause music when removing either earbud. Moreover, for some baffling reason, Sony forces you to choose among a slate of controls rather than pick and choose what you’d like to have. For example, under the Ambient Sound group, a single press on either earbud turns Ambient Sound on or off, whereas it plays/pauses under the Playback Control group.

If you’re sticking to the latter, a double-press skips a track, a triple-press repeats one, and a long press activates your phone’s voice assistant. Repeatedly tap on the right to raise volume and on the left to lower it. A potential downside with the controls is inadvertently skipping or repeating a track if you’re not precise in pressing either side four times. Another problem is that Sony’s rigid control-grouping approach imposes difficult choices you shouldn’t have to make. If you like Spotify Tap and Ambient Sound, you shouldn’t have to shuffle through control schemes to simply make them accessible directly from the earbuds.

Ted Kritsonis / Digital Trends

Phone calls operate at what I would typically expect from earbuds in this range. The good passive isolation made it easier for me to hear callers, but I could do little to offset what they might hear around me unless I moved to a quieter space. These aren’t ideal for longer conversations while venturing outside.

With battery life, there are other caveats to consider. Sony says the WF-C510 can go up to 11 hours, except that’s only if you turn off Ambient Sound, DSEE, and Find Your Equalizer. Any combination of those knocks the number down closer to six or seven hours basedon how loud you go. That’s still very acceptable for cheaper earbuds, and while the case only provides one additional charge, you know where you stand on battery through the app. There is no “Find My” functionality here, like you see with other earbuds, including the AirPods, so if you lose these, you have no way to track them.

Ted Kritsonis / Digital Trends

Apple users might look at the Beats Solo Buds as a better alternative, much like Android users could look at the Samsung Galaxy Buds FE as an option. Having listened to all three, Sony makes a good bang-for-the-buck case, with the WF-C510 by undercutting both on price. The tougher competition comes from the budget earbuds that include ANC, like the Earfun Air Pro 4 and Soundcore Space A40, both of which cost more, but expand features and customization further.

Still, for $60, these earbuds are hard to pass up for any bargain hunter. You should pass if you want rumbling bass, but if your expectations are more modest, you’re likely to come away liking what you hear for both your ears and your wallet.

MSRP $130.00

“The Liberty 4 Pro are easily one of the best values in the audio world.”

Pros

• Very attractive price
• Slick, smart charging case
• Big, bold sound
• Very good noise cancellation
• Excellent call quality
• Multipoint, fast charging

Cons

• Mirror finish mars easily
• No Auracast support
• Lackluster spatial audio

If you’re unfamiliar with Anker’s Soundcore brand of audio products, allow me to bring you up to speed. For several years, Soundcore has been killing it with wireless earbuds that offer great performance and features for far less money than the brands you probably are familiar with.

Their wireless earbuds lineup is loosely organized into two tiers, with its Liberty Pro models acting as the brand’s flagships.

To say that we were impressed with the second and third generations of Liberty Pros is an understatement. We loved them. So when I got my review model of the Liberty Pro 4, my expectations were already sky-high. With only a few small caveats, Soundcore has met those expectations.

The price is impressive at just $130 — 23% less than the cost of the previous gen — but as you’ll see, you’re actually getting more features too.

Making a case for more smarts

The first thing you notice when you unbox the Liberty Pro 4 is the case. Soundcore loves to use sliding lids on its charging cases, and I’m fully on board. It lets you open the case single-handedly and it provides excellent access to the earbuds once it’s open. The earbuds are oriented in the case such that you can grab them and put them in your ear in one fluid motion, unlike the Pro 3, which require an awkward set of movements.

However, if you want your case to keep looking its best, you may want to consider the white version. It’s the only one of the three color options (the others are light blue and black) that doesn’t use a mirror finish on the lid. The mirror finish looks stunning until you touch it. Moments later, it’s a greasy mess of fingerprints that needs constant cleaning.

On the black and light blue models, the case screen is visible through the lid. Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

The second thing you notice is visible beneath that slick lid through a translucent window: there’s a color OLED display mounted to the front of the case’s interior. Tap the front touch bar once (or open the lid) and the display gives you a detailed battery readout, showing the percentage remaining for each earbud, and a horizontal bar for the case’s battery. Given how vague (and/or confusing) most earbud battery indicators can be, this one feature might have some folks chanting “take my money now.”

Once the earbuds are out of the case, the touch bar and screen can control several additional features. By default, you get noise cancellation (ANC) with a sliding scale of 1-10, where 1 is full transparency, 5 is “normal” (no ANC or transparency), and 10 is full noise canceling.

You can also add other functions via the Soundcore app, including spatial audio, find my earbuds, camera trigger, and something called atmospheric, which I’ll touch on later.

The touch bar is very responsive, making it easy to navigate. It only reacted to my skin — not fabrics or other objects — which should keep it from inadvertent actions in your pocket or purse.  You tap once to wake the display, swipe left or right to get to the control you want, and double-tap to enter that mode. I got used to it quickly, though it’s not as intuitive as using a touchscreen like the kind you’ll find on the JBL Tour Pro 3’s case.

It’s worth noting that some of these features are also accessible from the Soundcore app and some can be assigned to controls on the earbuds themselves. This raises the obvious question about smart case features: Why do we need them?

Ordinarily, I’d say we don’t need them at all, but I love the battery gauges, and the camera trigger can be very handy if you don’t own a Bluetooth remote or a smartwatch.

Specs

Stems are the new black

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Soundcore seems to be agnostic when it comes to earbud design. It has made (and continues to make) models that are stemless (Soundcore Space A40), models with stems (Liberty 4 NC), and models in a variety of other shapes. However, for its top-tier wireless earbuds (the Pro series), it has now standardized a stem-based shape. Whether that’s a good thing is subjective, but I find them more comfortable, if somewhat less stable, than stemless designs.

The most important factor in getting any set of wireless earbuds to fit and perform their best is finding the right size of silicone eartip for your ears. The Liberty 4 Pro ship with six sizes — twice as many as the Apple AirPods Pro 2 — which should help greatly with that task.

As is often the case, the preinstalled medium tips fit me the best, and I was able to wear the Liberty 4 Pro for hours, pulling them out only when they inevitably made my ears itchy.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

The controls are a carbon copy of the AirPods Pro: pinch the stems to control playback and calls, or swipe up/down on the flat inner surface for volume adjustments.

The pinch gesture is easy to perform, but the slightly oval shape of the stems isn’t as conducive to getting it right as the round, barrel shape of Apple’s buds. With bare fingers, it was rarely an issue, but adding gloves to the mix made it a lot trickier.

You get a few customization options in the Soundcore app, but not every function can be accessed. Spatial audio and the camera trigger features, for instance, aren’t available.

To supplement these controls, you can take advantage of both wear detection (for auto-pause/resume when you remove a bud) and Easy Chat, which listens for your voice and automatically dips the volume and shifts from ANC to transparency mode. I like the Easy Chat feature — Sony and Apple have similar features on their earbuds — but it gets triggered too easily. Clearing your throat, coughing, or sneezing are often interpreted as speech.

Big, bold sound

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

In all of its products, Soundcore consistently delivers audio quality that punches well above its weight, and the Liberty 4 Pro follow in that tradition. Despite a redesigned acoustic layout that uses two dynamic drivers instead of one dynamic and one balanced armature, the sound is essentially unchanged from the third generation. That’s fine by me since the 3 Pro are superb.

It’s a big, bold sound signature with copious bass and clear, detailed highs. The earbuds aced my usual bass torture test, courtesy of Billie Eilish’s bad guy, and conveyed all of the warmth and tone I expect from tracks like Dire Straits’ You and Your Friend.  The word immersive is overused these days, but it captures the feeling of listening to these buds, even before you start playing with the optional spatial sound modes.

Maybe I don’t need to say it, but I will anyway: These $130 earbuds put the sound quality of Apple’s $249 AirPods Pro to shame.

Out of the box, they’re enjoyable, but I encourage you to try out Soundcore’s HearID personalized EQ tool, which is one of the best I’ve used. After a brief listening test and a series of A/B comparisons while listening to a sample track, HearID created an EQ curve that suits me perfectly — boosted lows, a slight bump in the upper mids, and an uptick in the highs.

If you don’t get similarly good results, the app has tons of additional EQ tweaks, including a big selection of presets, plus a full eight-band equalizer.

You can also try out Soundcore’s spatial audio mode. Like Bose and Apple’s version of this tech, it “spatializes” stereo, which creates the sense that your two speakers are somewhere in front of your listening position. It’s not as effective as either Bose or Apple, but it’s the head-tracking option that needs the most work. Unless you move your head slowly, it can lag behind — an unpleasant sensation.

A quick note on hi-res audio: The Liberty 4 Pro support Sony’s LDAC codec on Android phones, and it can make a difference in detail and nuance. You’ll need a quiet location and access to lossless audio to hear the effect, though.

Unfortunately, you can’t have LDAC and Bluetooth Multipoint running simultaneously, and LDAC use will use battery life much faster than standard SBC/AAC codecs.

Airplane ANC

Noise canceling is also very good. There are a few higher frequencies that escape its clutches, but for the most annoying daily sounds, you’ll hear a big difference with ANC on. A few times I noticed a very faint, intermittent buzzing sound when I wasn’t playing any audio, but it didn’t bother me. However, there were also times when the ANC sounded like it was shifting intensity on its own. Walking down the street, traffic noise got louder, then quieter again, and I couldn’t figure out why.

During my test period, Soundcore issued a firmware update that improved this situation a lot, but didn’t entirely eliminate it.

There’s an optional airplane mode for ANC. It uses a barometric pressure sensor to compensate for diminished ANC performance due to the reduction of air pressure you experience in a cabin during flight. Soundcore says that with airplane mode enabled, the earbuds can improve the cancellation of sounds under 300Hz by 178%. Sadly, I had no flights booked during my time with the Liberty 4 Pro so I can’t verify this claim, but as soon as I get a chance, I’ll try it out and update this review.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Strangely, transparency mode is a little worse than on the previous generation. As with the Liberty 3 Pro, you’ll hear external sounds very clearly, but your voice won’t sound as natural (to you) when you’re talking.

This is also true when making calls in transparency mode, but your callers will thank you for using the Liberty 4 Pro. They do a great job of canceling out distracting surrounding noise that would make it harder to hear you — it’s noticeably better than on the third-gen earbuds.

Battery life on the Liberty 4 Pro should easily get you through your day, or even your week. Soundcore claims you’ll get 7.5 hours in either ANC or transparency mode per charge, with another 30 hours when you include the charging case. If you turn both features off, this rises to 10 hours and 40 hours, respectively.

Keep in mind, that playing at louder-than-50% levels or turning on LDAC will reduce these numbers by as much as 3 hours per charge.

Ordinarily, that would be a nuisance, but the 4 Pro can recharge very quickly. A 5-minute recharge gives you a claimed 4 hours of playtime, which is excellent by wireless earbuds standards.

In my experience, it’s hard to go wrong with Soundcore earbuds, regardless if you go entry-level or spring for the company’s flagships. Once again, the best thing about the Liberty 4 Pro is the value. With the possible exception of missing Auracast compatibility (which I’d love to see in future Soundcore products), you get it all. And the price? It’s lower than any previous Liberty Pro model, making them a very enticing upgrade.

The smart charging case is a fun extra. The battery gauges are easily its best feature, though depending on your lifestyle, you may find its other functions handy too.

If you don’t value what the smart case offers, I still think the Liberty 4 Pro are an excellent choice given their strengths in sound quality, ANC, and call quality. However, you may want to consider saving some money by going with either the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC ($100) or the Earfun Air Pro 4 ($90). They can’t match the 4 Pro’s sound, but they come close and cost less, and the Earfun work with Auracast.

MSRP $200.00

“The Sony LinkBuds Open are some of the best open earbuds available.”

Pros

• Comfortable fit
• Much better balanced sound
• Surprising passive isolation
• Plenty of custom options
• LE Audio for Android
• Superb battery life

Cons

• Spatial sound is terrible
• Awkward voice controls
• Phone calls can be tough with background noise

Open-ear earbuds continue to proliferate, carving out a segment within the wireless earbuds category. Sony, one of the early innovators in the space, believes in it enough to take a second kick at the can — this time with the LinkBuds Open.

The original Sony LinkBuds were an intriguing design that appeared strange at the time, but now look like a step in the right direction. Refining an idea often takes an iteration or two, and I feel those refinements when wearing the LinkBuds Open. Would you feel the same way? Let’s take a look.

The Sony LinkBuds Open (left) and original Sony LinkBuds Ted Kritsonis / Digital Trends

The LinkBuds Open share a similar name to the LinkBuds Fit, but those earbuds have silicone eartips, making them easily distinguishable. They otherwise share a lot of design traits, particularly that they nestle into your ear’s concha. Sony tries to make these buds adaptable with its “Air Fitting Supporters” — or “fins” as I prefer to call them — just not out of the box.

You have to pay $10 extra to get replacement fins. They come in different colors, mind you, so there’s some personalization involved, depending on whether the standard ones fit for you or not. Same goes for case covers, which cost an extra $20. My white review unit suffered smudges on the glossy top that I couldn’t remove, so a case cover could either cover that up or keep it from happening in the first place.

Ted Kritsonis / Digital Trends

In any case (no pun intended), the LinkBuds Open will feel familiar if you’re coming from the original model, and unique if you’ve never tried a pair before. The key is that they have to feel comfortable in your ear before you’re even convinced they’ll sound any good. It’s one thing to have nothing burrow into your ear canal and another to have something sitting on your concha. Open-ear buds have often tried avoiding the inner ear altogether by resting outside the ear, which is why this design feels like a middle ground.

Sony’s basic premise hasn’t really changed. A spherical base attaches to the ringed-shaped driver that ultimately funnels audio toward the inner ear. Once in your ears, they’re supposed to feel lightweight without pinching or suffocating your ear canal. The key lies in the fins more than any other part because that’s what applies the most stability. I could wear these buds for hours, but they could also suddenly wiggle free, like they did multiple times when I laughed during a call with a friend.

Specs

Sony’s Sound Connect app is an important arbiter of how useful the LinkBuds Open can be. Pairing them with an iOS or Android device (via Google Fast Pair) is simple through their respective Bluetooth settings. From there, the app recognizes them and presents the variety of features and settings. It’s interesting that in spite of developing good hardware Sony can’t seem to figure out how to design a more intuitive app. The Android version is messy, while the iOS one is only marginally better.

At least you can find what’s available, and Sony wisely includes explanations for what some of the features do, presenting you with choices. One of my personal favorites is Speak-to-Chat, which automatically lowers audio playback volume when you start talking before resuming again after a preset amount of time, which could be five, 15, or 30 seconds.

On the audio side, Sony pretty much throws everything into these buds. Spatial sound and head tracking requires a process where you raise the phone to eye level and follow the same up-and-down head movement onscreen to come up with a reading and create a personalized profile. It’s quick and doesn’t need to be repeated when you connect the buds to other devices.

Speaking of other devices, with multipoint support, the LinkBuds Open can connect to two devices simultaneously. Switching between them in the app is one of the more seamless processes I’ve seen on any earbuds to date.

Background Music Effect is interesting in that it tries to emulate listening to music away from your ears, like in a café, living room, or any standard room, by creating the illusion that themusic is affected by the virtual acoustics associated with those rooms. It’s kind of gimmicky, but also neat in how it works, so it’sdefinitely worth trying.

Sony even adds DSEE, its proprietary upscaling technology that enhances quality when listening to compressed audio like MP3 and AAC. Toggle it on and you can hear a difference, particularly a boost to the mids in these earbuds. The effect is modest, though you may notice it with some genres more than others.

Ted Kritsonis / DIgital Trends

Wide Area Tap expands tap sensitivity

There are other audio settings, but I want to touch on the controls first. Or should I say, tap on them.

With the silicone fins covering the outer portion where a touch sensor would normally live, the LinkBuds Open use built-in accelerometers instead. These are sensitive enough to detect taps on the body of the buds.

By default, double-tapping the left earbud plays/pauses and a triple-tap skips a track. On the right earbud, double-tap skips a track while a triple-tap repeats one. Repeatedly tap on the right to raise volume and on the left to lower it.

You can also enable Sony’s Wide Area Tap mode to expand the sensitivity so that nearby tapping on your cheek or ear still registers an action. It’s a neat way to control the earbuds when wearing gloves, but also with your knuckles if, say, your fingers are dirty, like while eating, for instance.

You don’t have much control beyond that. Sony limits you to choosing between control groups, not assigning individual controls the way you want them. It tries to supplement that with Voice Control and Voice Assist. With Voice Control, say “Hey Headphones” followed one of several commands, which can be “play music,” “skip song,” or “raise the volume,” among others. For some reason, Sony chose to make the feature more verbose than necessary. Why force people to say, “pause music” when just “pause” would suffice?

At least wear sensors automatically pause when you take either earbud out, and resuming again when putting it back in. You can optionally turn on head gestures, which let you answer or reject incoming calls, but it needs work and can be prone to false positives if you’re not careful.

Ted Kritsonis / Digital Trends

With Voice Assist, you can use Voice Control to activate your phone’s assistant. You’ll need to say “Assistant” to wake it up, which doesn’t feel natural. People have been conditioned to say, “Hey Siri”, “Hey Google” or “Alexa” for years, so it takes time to remember the all-important first word. I messed it up multiple times, but eventually caught on, though I often felt weird saying it.

Open buds, open sound

Open earbuds don’t really stand a chance in busy and noisy environments — or at least they’re not supposed to.  And yet, the LinkBuds Open proved surprisingly good at passive isolation despite the ambient sounds that naturally pass through. Wearing them while walking through busy city streets, music came through with some verve, and even podcasts didn’t feel drowned out.

With Sony’s design, there’s more audible bass and less ambient noise squeaking through. That’s my biggest takeaway after listening to a range of content while wearing them.

Ted Kritsonis / Digital Trends

Still, you may need to make a few tweaks to maximize bass response. In the Sound Connect app, you can use the 5-band equalizer to adjust the overall sound or Find Your Equalizer to tailor something specific to your ears. I found the latter less effective than simply creating a custom EQ preset or two and sticking with those most of the time. It’s hardly a surprise that one of my presets bumped up bass by almost eight points, as it was the only way to ensure the lows resonated under varying conditions.

Adaptive Volume Control increases or regulates volume levels based on your surroundings. Since there are no noise cancellation or transparency modes, the focus on volume can feel both welcome and irritating depending on where you are. It doesn’t blast audio into your ears in noisy places, but the swings between louder and quieter situations can feel pretty immediate. Walk or sit still for a minute and you might hear it go up or down multiple times based on what’s happening around you. It’s best when listening to a podcast or audiobook because fluctuating voices won’t feel as jarring compared to music.

Clearly, Sony has voices in mind by including LE Audio support (through the LC3 Bluetooth codec) for low-latency playback when watching shows or gaming on Android devices. The feature doesn’t work with iOS devices. It’s in “beta” anyway, so it’s not entirely refined as of this review. I experienced the odd cutout here and there, but it was otherwise solid and consistent.

Ted Kritsonis / Digital Trends

With spatial audio, you can also watch shows or movies with head tracking, though it’s not all that exciting. Nor is it elaborate since Netflix and YouTube are your only real options. Compatibility with Sony’s 360 Reality Audio format looks good to have on paper as a spatial audio substitute, except you need access to PeerTracks, Artist Connection, nugs.net, or 360 Reality Live to experience it.

As for phone calls, there’s an interesting mix. Callers didn’t complain about hearing me, but they could also hear background noises, so the LinkBuds Open are more reliable in quieter places. Without any kind of active noise cancellation (ANC), you will also find quieter locales make it easier to hear the person on the other end of the line.

Still, thanks to the Open’s in-the-ear fit, they serve both ends of the call better than other open earbuds that sit outside the ear based on my experience.

Ted Kritsonis / Digital Trends

On the bright side, you won’t have to charge these buds as often as others. I easily hit eight or nine hours at about 60% volume on average, which is superb for any pair of earbuds. The case has an extra 13 hours, so you can count on at least one extra charge. If you’re in a rush, a quick three-minute charge can give you 60 minutes of playback. Otherwise, it takes 90 minutes to fully charge the case and earbuds.

Like the LinkBuds Fit, the LinkBuds Open are part of Sony’s attempt to create some audio synergy between its products, including its $180 LinkBuds Speaker. Auto Switch in the Sound Connect app lets you push audio from the earbuds to the speaker, and vice versa. If Sony believes in this process, it needs to streamline it, plain and simple. It’s just baffling that it forces you to run through the setup by going to a web browser instead of simply laying out the details in the Connect app. It’s just another reason for Sony to improve its app.

Ted Kritsonis / Digital Trends

It’s not bad once it starts working, even if it doesn’t always feel seamless. Bluetooth is the culprit in causing the delay to the audio handoff, so it’s not exactly a smart speaker arrangement. Sony’s voice commands don’t work, nor does your phone’s voice assistant — odd omissions when the built-in mic works with phone calls.

Sony packed everything it could into the LinkBuds Open. It sees these open-ear earbuds as part of its more elite product lines, which is why they share some of the same aforementioned features with flagships like the WF-1000XM5. They are nothing alike as far as actual sound goes, but the bevy of features and settings makes the Open serious competitors in this space. And it is a growing arena of competitors, with models like the Shokz OpenFit and Beyerdynamic Verio 200 in the same price range.

Sony expands on what’s possible with open earbuds by developing the combination of comfort and sonic performance that eluded those pairs. They’re an upgrade over the original LinkBuds in how they sound, especially in how much bass they can produce. Throw in Bluetooth LE, better battery life, and increased customization and you have open earbuds worthy of their $200 price.

MSRP $129.00

“Apple once again gives its faithful AirPods fans exactly what they want with the AirPods 4.”

Pros

• Comfy, with no silicone eartips
• Great call quality
• The best semi-open sound quality
• Fun head gestures and spatial audio

Cons

• Not great for noisy locations
• No wireless charging
• No Bluetooth Multipoint or Auracast

Apple’s AirPods are everywhere. The iconic white wireless earbuds are so popular that I’m guessing most folks won’t bother reading a review before grabbing the latest model: the AirPods 4.

I get it. At $129, they’re not cheap, but neither do they require a lot of research — especially if you’ve owned AirPods in the past. As with all previous generations, the best part about the AirPods 4 (assuming you’re an iPhone user) is their simplicity. Charge ’em up (or don’t — they come with most of a charge in the box), flip open the lid, and watch as your phone instantly recognizes them and lets you connect them with a single tap. Pop ’em in your ears and start listening. Seriously, what could be easier?

There’s a lot more to the AirPods 4 story, but before I dig into the full review, I want to offer some historical perspective.

The AirPods 3 (middle) were a big change from the AirPods 2 (left), with a shape and sound that was much closer to the AirPods Pro (right). Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

When I reviewed the AirPods 3 in 2021, I gave them a 4.5/5. In hindsight, that was probably too generous, but two highly influential factors contributed to my enthusiasm. First, the third-gen really were a big improvement over the second-gen. Fit, sound quality, controls, spatial audio, wireless charging, water resistance … there was a lot to like. And while $179 still felt like a lot of money for what you were getting, at least it was consistent with Apple’s AirPods pricing at the time if you included wireless charging.

Second, I maintain that there are two big groups of wireless earbuds buyers: those who like (or who are at least OK with) silicone tips that seal your ear canals, and those who hate them.

If you were in that second camp in 2021, you had very few options. Semi-open models like the AirPods were hard to come by, and those that existed weren’t great (though they were often very affordable). The open-ear earbud category, which has grown by leaps and bounds, had barely begun.

Given those two realities, I concluded that even if the AirPods 3 weren’t perfect, they were the obvious choice for iPhone owners who don’t like the feeling of silicone crammed in their ears.

The Apple AirPods 4 (left) and AirPods 3 Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

OK, fast-forward to 2024. If you’re upgrading from a first- or second-gen model, the AirPods 4 are a big step up in all the ways I described above, plus they offer a few more perks I’ll discuss in a moment. However, third-gen owners will be less impressed. The shape is nearly identical, sound quality is so close it’s hard to pick a winner, and you may not even notice the more significant changes like Personalized Volume, the H2 chip, and the USB-C-equipped case. OK, the case is really small — you’ll probably notice that.

My advice to third-gen owners is to stick with what you have or spend a bit more to get the AirPods 4 with ANC. They’re the only semi-open earbuds with active noise canceling that actually works — it’s quite an accomplishment. Plus you get wireless charging, something that the AirPods 4 lack.

I’d also like to point out that open-ear earbuds are a fantastic alternative to the AirPods semi-open design. Most use an earhook shape, so that could be a deal-breaker for some people, but that also makes them ideal for running or workouts. You’ll hear even more of the outside world and they won’t work themselves loose after a few minutes. I know you’ll probably end up buying the AirPods anyway, but I think you’ll be impressed by the huge variety of options.

Design and shape

The AirPods 4 (left) and AirPods 3 Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

At a glance, it’s nearly impossible to tell the third-gen and fourth-gen AirPods apart. Look carefully and you may notice that the AirPods 4 have slightly thicker stems, a slightly thinner in-ear profile, and that the speaker opening is aimed slightly upward when compared to the third-gen.

About the only change I noticed while wearing them is that the third-gen feels fractionally more secure thanks to its larger profile. But I can see this going the other way too, where some people find the AirPods 4 more comfortable. But we’re talking about a very small difference either way.

The new charging case, by contrast, is noticeably smaller and it now (finally) has USB-C for charging. The charging/pairing LED is still there, but now you can’t see it unless it’s lit. And Apple has removed the physical button from the rear of the case. Instead, you now tap right below that invisible LED for pairing and factory resets.

One small note: In the box, you get the AirPods and their charging case. That’s it. Apple has stopped shipping its earbuds with charging cables. Most folks, the company reasons, already own a USB-C charging cable. I’m 100% on board with that philosophy for the AirPods 4 with ANC and higher as these models have wireless charging cases. But given the standard AirPods 4 only charge via USB-C, it would be nice if Apple let you add a cable to your order for a small fee.

Controls

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

I really like Apple’s pinch controls — they’re the perfect balance between the seamlessness of touch controls and the tactile feedback of physical buttons. They work just as well on the newest AirPods as on the other models that use this design. Still, I’m going to chirp at Apple for not including the AirPods Pro’s swipe gesture volume control. It’s crazy that you still need to reach for your phone or talk to Siri to change the volume on the non-Pro AirPods.

On the other hand, you now get optional head gestures for answering or declining an incoming call. At first, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever use them, but then I received several spam calls in a row and — I’m not gonna lie — it was really satisfying to shake my head and make them go away.

As with all AirPods, the AirPods 4 have wear detection should you choose to use it. However, Apple has abandoned the skin-sensing tech it used on the third-gen earbuds, opting for the infrared version it used on the original models. Does that matter? It depends on if you like to shove your buds in a pocket (instead of the case) when you remove them from your ears. If you do, it matters.

The specs

Bluetooth quality

The AirPods 4 have Bluetooth 5.3, an upgrade from the third-gen’s 5.0. In practical terms, you probably won’t notice a difference. Bluetooth 5.3 is supposedly more stable, with fewer dropouts, but I haven’t found this to be a problem with 5.0.

Apple remains steadfastly opposed to offering Bluetooth Multipoint for simultaneous device connections. Instead, it uses its iCloud-based handoff feature for seamless switching among Apple devices. As long as you’re all-in on Apple, it’s a good alternative.

With Bluetooth 5.3, Apple could have added support for LE Audio and Auracast on the AirPods 4, but sadly, these two handy technologies are also no-shows on the new buds.

Sound quality

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

With the exception of the AirPods 4 with ANC (see above) there’s a physical limit to how good a set of semi-open earbuds can sound. The design will always let in some external noise, degrading detail (and usually the low-end bass frequencies) of your music.

Apple’s Personalized Volume attempts to compensate for noisy environments by adjusting the volume, but it can only do so much. If you manually push volume higher, that may help, but it comes with its own risks (noise-induced hearing loss is a very real danger).

Still, the AirPods 4 sound as good, if not better, than any other semi-open earbuds I’ve tried. Bass — typically the Achilles’s heel of semi-open designs — has a solid presence and comes across as warm and resonant. I can’t detect any meaningful difference between the third-gen and fourth-gen, so I’ll quote myself because this is still true about the Airpods 4: “As long as you’re in a quiet location, the AirPods 3 sound every bit as good as the AirPods Pro.”

Of course, if you’re not in a quiet location — gyms, public transit, coffee shops, etc. — be prepared for a less-than-hi-fi experience.

Spatial audio

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Not everyone likes how spatial audio sounds (especially for music), but since it’s entirely optional, I see it as a fun extra on the AirPods 4. Again, it works exactly the same as on the AirPods 3, which is to say you can make stereo tracks sound more open and airy. Some tracks benefit from this, while others don’t — it’s a very subjective thing.

The available head tracking is a great feature, but again, it works better in some situations than others. While listening to spatial audio music, I found it distracting. But using it to make the home theater experience more realistic when watching movies on an iPhone or Apple TV 4K is really cool. And when it comes to FaceTime calls, I think head tracking is a game changer.

Call quality

Speaking of FaceTime calls, voice calling on the AirPods 4 is a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that Apple has made further improvements to its background noise cancellation algorithms. During my testing, I walked down some very busy streets, with plenty of traffic and construction. None of these sounds were captured in my recordings, so your callers may never realize you aren’t indoors. More good news: The semi-open design actually benefits you on calls because it lets you hear your own voice naturally, unmuffled by silicone eartips. However, that’s a double-edged sword. That same transparency lets in everything else too, so you may end up asking your callers to repeat themselves.

Battery life

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

By now, most AirPods fans know the deal when it comes to battery life. It’s fine, but it won’t win any awards for endurance. Apple says you’ll get up to 5 hours of listening time on a single charge, with up to 30 hours when you include the case’s capacity. That’s actually a little worse than the AirPods 3, which were rated for up to 6 hours on a single charge. On the bright side, the fast-charge feature works well: 5 minutes in the case buys you an extra hour of listening time.

So I’ll wrap up where I started: For a lot of folks, the AirPods 4 are a no-brainer purchase. They may not win any innovation prizes, but they’ll work seamlessly with all of your Apple devices, they’re comfortable, and if you must have a set of semi-open earbuds, they provide very good sound and call quality.

I’m annoyed that at $129, Apple couldn’t throw in wireless charging. Though I suppose — given what it was charging for the AirPods 3 ($179) as recently as August 2024 — the AirPods 4 are actually a good deal by Apple’s standards. You get almost all of the third-gen’s features (plus a few extras), minus the wireless charging, for 27% less money. In fact, maybe the AirPods 4’s price is their biggest innovation.

For everyone else, I encourage you to explore the many awesome wireless earbuds alternatives that are out there.

MSRP $200.00

“The LinkBuds Fit are Sony’s most comfortable earbuds yet.”

Pros

• Excellent long-term comfort
• Detailed sound
• Excellent transparency mode
• Great for calls
• Fun and convenient extras

Cons

• Might not fit small ears
• No wireless charging
• No Auracast support

“Unrivaled comfort.” That’s how Sony positioned its new LinkBuds Fit noise-canceling wireless earbuds when they debuted alongside the company’s two other new LinkBuds products, the LinkBuds Open and LinkBuds Speaker.

That’s a bold claim. It’s also pretty accurate. I don’t know if they’re the most comfortable wireless earbuds you can buy — maybe you have weird ears? — but as far as my ears are concerned, they’re easily in the top three.

Now that we have that out of the way, what about the LinkBuds Fit’s many other characteristics and features?

Let’s check ‘em out.

The LinkBuds Fit (left) and LinkBuds S Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

First a note on where the Fit sit in Sony’s earbuds lineup. It’s tempting to think of these buds as successors to the 2022 LinkBuds S. But since Sony plans to sell the two products side by side for the foreseeable future, they’re more like siblings. The Fit offer a few more bells and whistles — some of which come directly from Sony’s $300 flagship, the WF-1000XM5 — yet with the same $200 price as the S.

Design-wise, the Fit may not win over S fans. Sony has used a lot of silicone on the LinkBuds Fit, mostly in the form of the new, hook-shaped “Air Fitting Supporters” (which is a terrible name). It’s a very different look. It’s also a different shape.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

The S employs a dual-chamber design, with a small spherical module sitting close to the ear canal and a larger coin shape placed in the outer concha. For those with smaller ears, like my daughter, it lets the silicone ear tips penetrate deeper into the ear, providing a snug and secure fit.

By contrast, the LinkBuds Fit have a larger, more traditional shape. It proved to be too big of a difference for my daughter — the Fit just don’t fit.

The new charging case adopts a clamshell design, offering excellent access to the earbuds. Sadly, there is still no wireless charging and I’m not convinced it’s any easier to pocket than the S. The hinge works well, but the magnetic closure isn’t as strong, which may lead to inadvertent openings in a purse or backpack.

You can get the air supporters and case bottom/top covers in several colors. Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

I’m on the fence when it comes to Sony’s optional silicone case covers. I’m not a big fan of customizing the look of my accessories (I’m probably not part of the target market), but I do like the extra protection they afford. My black review unit’s glossy case lid became marred with fingerprints as soon as I removed it from the box.

The specs

Because Sony has wrapped the entire outer portion of the Fit in silicone, the controls use accelerometers to detect tap gestures. This has several benefits. First, it enables Sony’s Wide Area Tap, a cool feature that heightens the accelerometers’ sensitivity to movements created when you tap on your cheek, near your ear. It also means that the controls are glove-friendly — no capacitive touch needed. Finally, it all but eliminates inadvertent pausing or other unwanted commands when you adjust or remove an earbud.

I enjoyed this system on Sony’s first-gen LinkBuds (not the S model), and it works just as effectively on the Fit.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

The downside is that Sony has also kept its frustrating control scheme from the LinkBuds: You can customize two gestures per earbud, but you can only pick from preassigned gesture groups. These include ANC control, playback, song selection, voice assist, and several others. If you pick ANC control on the left earbud and playback on the right, you don’t get access to song selection.

Thankfully, Sony has added a persistent volume control gesture (repeated taps on the left or right earbud to raise/lower volume), so that’s one less reason to reach for your phone.

Sony’s new Voice Assist feature, should you choose to use it, makes up for the limitations of the gesture groups. Saying “Hey Headphones …” followed by a command such as “turn noise canceling on” does exactly what you’d expect. There are voice options for nearly every function, including a handy battery check command. It works well and I love that you don’t need to tap an earbud first, but it’s not very smart. If you want to pause your tunes, “Hey Headphones … pause” doesn’t work. You need to complete the phrase “pause music,” or “pause song.” The wear sensors are the other way to do this, as they auto-pause your tunes when you remove an earbud.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Also new to the Fit are call management head gestures. When a call comes in, you can nod to accept or shake to decline it. I found the nodding gesture worked consistently, while the shaking motion seemed to require a more exaggerated movement.

For years, Sony was a laggard in the Bluetooth Multipoint department. But those days are now behind us. The newly redesigned Sony Sound Connect app (previously known as the Headphones Connect app) does a great job of showing you the LinkBuds Fit’s currently connected devices. You can also bump the earbuds back into pairing mode from the app so you can add another device to the list. I guess good things come to those who wait.

The LinkBuds Fit apparently possess Sony’s best ambient sound (transparency), in part because of their Integrated Processor V2 chip, which first debuted in the WF-1000XM5. I hesitate to co-sign that claim. I agree that there’s a difference in the Fit’s ambient performance when compared to both the LinkBuds S and even the WF-1000XM5, but an improvement? I’m not so sure.

As with most of Sony’s ambient products, you can hear the outside world with impressive clarity when it’s engaged. I think I’m on board with the notion that the Fit does this part marginally better than those other earbuds. However, part of the transparency formula is how well you can hear your own voice. The Fit are certainly no slouch in this department, but I prefer the LinkBuds S version — they’re more natural-sounding to my ears.

On the other hand, when it comes to noise cancellation, their performance is nearly identical to the LinkBuds S, which is to say, perfectly adequate, but not as capable as the kind of quiet you’ll get from the XM5 or even Bose’s new $180 QuietComfort Earbuds.

One thing’s for sure: Sony’s Adaptive Sound Control, which attempts to guess whether you need noise cancellation or transparency based on a variety of factors, is as annoying as ever. For some reason, it can’t handle the idea that you might want the benefits of ANC while walking and always turns on transparency mode. Your mileage may vary, but I tend to turn it off and leave it off.

Conversely, speak-to-chat is an available option (there are so many available options in the Sound Connect app!) and it does an excellent job of sensing your speech without reacting to other sounds like sneezes, coughs, or the clearing of throats. It quickly moves you from ANC to transparency and halts your tunes within a second or two of detecting speech, while letting you decide how long it waits after it senses you’re done talking (5, 15, 30 seconds, or never) before returning you to ANC and music.

Sound quality is yet another area where Sony believes the LinkBuds Fit excel. It claims that the V2 chip and the Fit’s “Dynamic Driver X” architecture were both inherited from the company’s 1000X series. If that’s true, I guess it’s proof that there’s more to the XM5’s sound than these two ingredients.

I have absolutely no complaints about the Fit’s sound. It’s exactly what I’ve come to expect from Sony’s midrange offering, with the kind of clarity and bass resonance that keeps earning Sony praise year after year. But make no mistake, they don’t deliver the class-leading performance of the XM5.

Swapping back and forth with the LinkBuds S, I was hard-pressed to tell the difference between these models, except in one area: Sony’s LDAC Bluetooth codec.

With the LinkBuds S, I didn’t detect much difference between LDAC and AAC, but the Fit are a different story.

For this listening session, I paired the LinkBuds Fit to an iPhone 14 (AAC) and a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (LDAC) and hit the same three hi-res FLAC tracks using Tidal. It was Lusaint’s haunting cover of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game that best demonstrated LDAC’s extra detail. A deep echo effect is applied to Lusaint’s voice at the end of each of the six opening lines of the song. On the iPhone, the decay of that echo felt like a shadow of the vocals that produced them. On the S23, the decay had an audible texture and shape, giving the echo an eerie personality — you could hear it fighting against the inevitable oblivion.

The Sound Connect app gives you access to Sony’s standard equalizer function with its collection of presets, manual settings, and bass boost adjustments. You can use it to perform extensive tweaks if you want, but I was content with the balance right out of the box.

Speaking of EQ, Sony has added something called “background music effect” to the Sound Connect app. It gives you a choice of three simulated environments: My Room, Living Room, and Cafe. Each one modifies your music to give you more or less “space” to the sound. With My Room, the sound is placed very close to your ears — you may not even notice a huge difference versus no effect. But once you get to Cafe mode, there’s a very distinct sense of being in a large space, with sound that is coming from further away. Sony says it helps with relaxation and focus. Thankfully, there are no simulated Cafe patrons.

Sony’s approach to spatial audio mirrors that of Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2, but that’s not a compliment. Sony doesn’t offer spatialized stereo (stereo made to sound more immersive via software) and it only supports head tracking via a limited set of Android-only apps like Netflix and YouTube.

Like the S and XM5, you can improve the spatial effect by uploading photos of your ears to the app. Once analyzed, the app uses that data to optimize streaming apps on your phone that supports Sony’s 360 Reality Audio (360RA) format . That might not be a bad thing if it were easy to access 360RA content, but it isn’t. Currently, the only major service that supports it is Amazon Music. Your other choices are nugs.net, PeerTracks, Artist Connection, and 360 Reality Live. And at the moment, Amazon Music can’t be optimized.

Making calls using the LinkBuds Fit is generally excellent. The high quality of the transparency mode minimizes the fatigue associated with not hearing your voice clearly. Your callers will hear you clearly too — and with better resolution than many other earbuds. The performance is slightly better than with the LinkBuds S. With the Fit, noisy backgrounds are silenced more effectively while keeping your voice stable. In quiet locations, there’s not much difference between them.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Sony pegs the battery life on the LinkBuds Fit at 5.5 hours per charge with ANC on, and 21 total hours when you include the case. If you need more, you can turn off ANC and those numbers rise to 8 and 30, respectively, which is very competitive with other earbuds.

Sony’s optional features can take a big bite out of the available stamina. Enabling LDAC, speak-to-chat, voice commands, and Sony’s DSEEE upscaling (on top of ANC) could drop battery life to as little as 3 hours per charge — possibly less if you like to listen loud.

Cleverly, Sony has added a new option called Auto Battery Save. When it’s turned on, it will automatically shut down all of these extras except LDAC when your remaining battery life hits 20%.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

I’d be remiss if I didn’t offer some thoughts on how the LinkBuds Fit work with Sony’s new $180 LinkBuds Speaker. Though the speaker can very much be thought of as a standalone product, it’s clear that Sony sees it as a companion to its LinkBuds and 1000X series earbuds.

Using the Sound Connect app, you can enable Auto Switch if you own both the Speaker and any compatible Sony earbuds/headphones (currently the LinkBuds S, Fit, Open, and WF/WH-1000XM5). With that option engaged, music can be transferred seamlessly between the earbuds and the speaker.

Getting Auto Switch set up proved trickier than I had expected. For some reason, the Sound Connect app kicks you into a browser window where you’re expected to read the instructions on Sony’s website, instead of simply walking you through the process.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Still, once I figured it out, it worked well. If you’ve got music playing on the LinkBuds Speaker, it instantly transfers the moment you put the Fit in your ears. If you return the buds to their case, the Speaker takes over, but not instantly — there’s about a 3 second to 4 second delay as the Speaker reconnects to your phone.

Keep in mind that this is all performed via Bluetooth — unlike a smart speaker, the LinkBuds Speaker doesn’t have its own Wi-Fi connection.

This leads me to my biggest critique of the Speaker. Despite having a built-in mic, which lets you use it as a speakerphone for calls, the Speaker doesn’t support Sony’s voice commands, and there’s no way to trigger your phone’s native voice assistant.

To summarize this very lengthy look at the Sony LinkBuds Fit: These earbuds offer a much more comfortable wearing experience thanks to their shape and silicone Air Fitting Supporters — unless you have small ears. Overall, they deliver very similar performance to the LinkBuds S in terms of sound, ANC, transparency, and calling. However, for the same price as the S, you get some fun extras like voice commands, head gestures, and Auto Battery Save. Plus, the movement-sensitive controls are a great choice for those who routinely wear gloves.

They’ve been designed with color customization in mind, but these silicone accessories add to the cost and I’m not convinced they’re a strong reason to choose the Fit over other models. Plus, you can bet that Amazon will soon have plenty of third-party options at much lower prices.

The continued absence of wireless charging at this price is a disappointment. And given that Sony sees its LinkBuds lineup as “all-day” devices, I’m surprised that Sony hasn’t jumped on the Bluetooth Auracast bandwagon yet. If you’re looking for an alternative to the LinkBuds Fit, the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds are a little less expensive and offer better ANC.

MSRP $399.00

“The B&W Pi8 earbuds are a great upgrade from their predecessors, boasting a refined design, improved comfort, and exceptional sound quality.”

Pros

• Full-body sound
• Relaxing fit
• Good touch controls
• Bluetooth Multipoint
• Retransmission feature

Cons

• Pricey
• Lower than average battery life
• Some sound crackling during calls

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 are among the best sets of earbuds I’ve worn.

Founded in 1966, B&W has released many successful audio products, including speakers, headphones, and, more recently, earbuds. The company’s new Pi8 earbuds go beyond their predecessors — the Pi7 S2 — in terms of looks and features. They are strikingly similar in other areas, which isn’t necessarily bad.The PI7 and Pi7 S2 were B&W’s previous top-tier true wireless earbuds. The earlier models were sleek and beautifully designed, with metallic top plates.

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 (left) and Pi7 S2. Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Bowers & Wilkins has taken a “less is more” approach with its design for the Pi8, resulting in a sophisticated aesthetic that exudes understated elegance. Gone are the flashy tops, replaced by a refined combination of high-quality matte plastic and subtle metallic accents. This design shift gives them a more timeless appeal.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

The Pi8’s available color options — Anthracite Black, Dove White, Jade Green, and Midnight Blue — further emphasize this refined aesthetic. These muted tones, complemented by delicate accents, perfectly capture the essence of premium simplicity.

The redesign extends beyond a new look — these earbuds are plenty functional, too. Like the Pi7 S2 before it, the Pi8 earbuds incorporate a touch-sensitive multifunction area on the top face of each earbud. However, B&W repositioned the microphones and sensors, tucking them away in a subtle indentation around each earpiece.

Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

As someone who finds the standard AirPods uncomfortable and can only tolerate the fit of the AirPods Pro, I wanted to see how they compare to the Pi8. I was pleasantly surprised by the exceptional comfort of the Pi8. After hours of rigorous testing in various scenarios — walking, working, even exercising — I can confidently say that the Pi8 ranks among the most comfortable earbuds I’ve ever worn.

The earbud’s silicone eartips account for a lot of that comfort. Along with those that ship already on the earbuds, the Pi8 comes with three additional sizes of tips, making it more likely that you will find one that gives you a secure fit.

The specs

Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

Battery life

Each Pi8 bud offers 6.5 hours of listening time with ANC on a single charge. The wireless charging case can fully recharge the earbuds slightly more than twice, providing a total of 20 hours of playtime. This surpasses the battery life of the Pi7 S2, which offered five hours per charge and 21 hours of total time, but those numbers assumed ANC wasn’t in use.

The case isn’t just for charging. It also has an audio retransmission feature, letting you connect the case via a cable to audio sources that lack Bluetooth, effectively transforming wired devices into wireless ones.

Imagine experiencing hi-fi from in-flight entertainment systems, gym equipment, or even newer iPhones without dealing with wires. This feature is so seamless that testing it almost feels unnecessary — it just works. Connect the two included cables, and the case will handle the rest, effortlessly streaming audio to your Pi8 earbuds.

The feature isn’t new — the PI7 and Pi7 S2 could do this, too. But B&W upped its game with the Pi8 by providing a USB-C cable for digital sources, in addition to the previous 3.5mm cable for analog sources. Plus, the case now transmits using the aptX Adaptive codec, which brings a big bump in quality compared to the PI7’s aptX Low Latency codec.

Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

Functionality

The capacitive buttons let you control playback and track skipping, plus call accept/reject. However, the B&W Music app for iOS and Android lets you customize the tap-and-hold gesture with your choice of volume up/down or a combo of ANC and access to your phone’s voice assistant.

Unfortunately, you have to pick. There’s no way to get volume and ANC control at the same time, like you can on other earbuds, such as the AirPods Pro, which can perform all of these tasks without having to customize one of the gestures.

Still, the Pi8 are an improvement over the previous model. With the Pi7 S2 earbuds, volume control wasn’t an option at all.

Despite the limitations, the touch controls on the Pi8 earbuds worked very well. I was able to move back and forth between settings with ease. I was especially impressed that even during a run, the earbuds responded precisely as I wanted with a single tap.

The B&W Music app lets you turn ANC off entirely (to save a bit of battery life), adjust the EQ (see below), install firmware updates, and more.

Bryan M. Wolfe / DIgital Trends

The Pi8’s best features its sound quality, as it should be. One reason for this is B&W’s Carbon Cone driver, which is debuting on a pair of the company’s earbuds for the first time. This technology is also featured in the company’s Px8 headphones and 700 Series speakers.

Carbon fiber composite is significantly stiffer and lighter than traditional materials like paper or plastic. The carbon fiber cones are designed to reduce sound distortion and produce more accurate audio reproduction.

You will love the way the audio unfolds on these earbuds. I could detect subtle nuances on my favorite tracks and a clear separation between instruments.

The Pi8 truly excels in the midrange. The vocals are warm and intimate, capturing the emotion and texture of the notes. Depending on your preference, the bass is deep, but certainly not overpowering.

Bryan M. Wolfe / DIgital Trends

Codecs

The Pi8 earbuds support high-quality Bluetooth codecs to provide audio. Leading the pack is aptX Adaptive, which many consider the most advanced codec currently available. It adjusts the bit rate on the fly, adapting to your connection quality to deliver audio fidelity and balance.

You need a supported device to utilize aptX Adaptive. Unfortunately, neither of my new phones, the iPhone 16 Pro Max or Google Pixel 9 Pro XL, supports aptX Adaptive. Neither do Samsung phones. However, select phones from Motorola, ASUS, Xiaomi, Vivo, and Nothing do.

To test aptX Adaptive, I used the case’s retransmission feature and then compared the sound to the same music when listened to through Bluetooth on my iPhone in AAC format.

Indeed, the sound using aptX Adaptive was slightly more robust than through AAC. It also seemed to have a slightly lower latency, which I noticed the most when playing a game on my MacBook Air.

Overall, however, I can honestly say the sound I got when using the earbuds were crystal clear, no matter the codec. Others might hear a huge difference, but I did not.

Besides AAC and aptX Adaptive, the Pi8 earbuds support aptX Lossless, aptX Classic, and SBC.

Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

The B&W Music app has a five-band equalizer. This allows minor adjustments across the frequency spectrum, letting you to tailor the sound signature to your preferences or specific music genres.

You can customize the tone of your earbuds using the app’s advanced EQ option, which allows you to use sliders to make subtle tweaks. Alternatively, you can set your Pi8 earbuds to “True Sound” mode, which delivers the audio as the artist and B&W intended without any tonal customization. I didn’t notice significant changes as I adjusted these settings in various ways. Instead, I used the default “True Sound” setting, which B&W offers so everyday audio listeners can enjoy balanced sounds.

It should also be noted that the Pi8 do not support spatial audio like other true wireless earbuds, such as the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4.

Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

With the Pi8, there are three available Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) modes: ANC on, Pass-Through, or ANC Off. The ANC on the Pi8 is truly impressive. During my tests, it effectively silenced most environmental noise, creating a peaceful sonic bubble even when I was walking near a somewhat crowded city street. While some low-frequency sounds like truck engines were faintly audible, the Pi8 did an exceptional job of neutralizing the distracting hum of passing cars and other everyday noises.

B&W’s implementation of Pass-Through, its version of transparency mode, is equally remarkable. Unlike some earbuds that introduce an unnatural “sucking” sound when transitioning to transparency, the Pi8 maintains a smooth and natural audio profile. The ambient sound is seamlessly blended with the music, providing just the right awareness of what’s happening around you without compromising audio quality.

Bryan M. Wolfe / DIgital Trends

In use

For testing, I tried the Pi8 with various songs to see how well they performed in different scenarios.

At the front of the queue was Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. This incredible piece of music, with its changing dynamics and rich harmonies, challenged the Pi8s to demonstrate their capabilities. But the earphones managed to navigate the intricacies of the song with elegance. They produced an excellent sound field where Freddie Mercury’s voice stood out amid the detailed musical arrangement. Every guitar melody, piano note, and opera-like climax came through distinctly. I was genuinely amazed by the performance.

I then headed over to Hotel California with the Eagles. I listened to this rock song to test how well the Pi8s could handle powerful guitar solos, harmonies, and a robust rhythm section. The sound quality was good overall. However, I noticed that the bass didn’t have as much depth as I thought it would.

Digging deeper into the frequency range, I played Teardrop by Massive Attack. Its captivating bassline and detailed sound arrangement make it a standout in the trip hop genre. The earphones accurately portrayed the song’s layered bass without overpowering or drowning out the other music components. This experience demonstrated the earbuds’ attention to detail and commitment to faithfully reproducing music.

I decided to switch things up and listen to Miles Davis’ album Kind of Blue next. This iconic jazz piece is known for its dynamics and beautiful harmony among the instruments. Thanks to how well the earphones captured the intimate essence of it all, I could immerse myself in the intricate interplay between the trumpet, saxophone, and piano.

I turned up the volume one last time with White Stripes‘ Seven Nation Army. The catchy bassline and lively vibe of this rock classic put the Pi8 earbuds to the test when it came to handling frequencies. I was impressed by how these earbuds produced a bass performance that was clear and powerful enough to drive the song without making the overall sound muddy or distorted.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

I didn’t have the opportunity to compare the sounds between the Pi8 and Pi7 S2. However, I did compare how well B&W’s earbuds performed against the AirPods Pro 2.

During my brief test, I listened to the same song (Miles Davis’ Freddie Freeloader) on Qobuz via Bluetooth with both earbuds and ANC turned on. The Pi8 earbuds sounded fuller and more punchy than the AirPods, providing a more immersive experience. This surprised me, so I tested again with Billie Eilish’s bad guy, which has a prominent bass line. Once again, there was no comparison. The Pi8 earbuds sounded more robust, hands down.

I used the voice memo app on my iPhone to test how well the Pi8 earbuds performed when making calls. Doing this, as opposed to making an actual call, gives you a better idea of how good the earbuds are by removing factors like cell connection quality from the equation.

Unfortunately, I heard some occasional crackling noises, especially when I was outside. Those noises occurred whether I was using ANC or transparency and when neither option was active.

Although the earbuds and the charging case didn’t require it, I charged them to 100% to see if that would improve the call quality. It did, actually, so take that for what it’s worth. During further testing, I didn’t hear anything significant, so go figure.

By the way, when making actual calls, my teenage daughter said the sound was nearly perfect with barely any background noise.

You can pair your Pi8 earbuds with up to eight devices via Bluetooth, including phones, tablets, smart home devices, computers, smart televisions, and more. The easiest way to do this is through the B&W Music app, which keeps track of all those devices so you don’t have to. Depending on the device, you can also pair the earbuds using your device’s Bluetooth settings.

With Bluetooth Multipoint, you can connect to two of these devices simultaneously. This convenient feature automatically switches between devices in certain scenarios. For example, I use multipoint when I’m listening to music on my Mac with my phone nearby. When I receive a call, the earbuds automatically switch to the phone so I can take the call. At that time, the music on the computer automatically pauses. Once the call is completed, the music resumes playing on the computer. It works really well.

The bottom line

The B&W Pi8 earbuds boast a refined design, great comfort, and exceptional sound quality. Thanks to the innovative Carbon Cone drivers and high-quality Bluetooth codec support, they deliver a truly immersive listening experience, regardless of the type of music you enjoy. While the price is higher than that of many alternatives, the Pi8’s combination of audio excellence, sophisticated aesthetics, and smart features like retransmission and Multipoint make them a compelling choice for those who love music.

If I had a magic wand, I would want the Pi8 earbuds to have a longer battery life, more customization options for its capacitive buttons, and to be available in a range of brighter colors.

However, the B&W Pi8 are still among the best wireless earbuds on the market.

MSRP $229.00

“You’ll be surprised how much of an upgrade gets packed into a smaller package.”

Pros

• Incredibly light and comfy
• Stellar noise canceling
• Great sound quality
• Fun Google Gemini integration

Cons

• No hi-res codecs
• Limited spatial audio

Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 earbuds are smaller, lighter, and have better battery life than their predecessors. They’re also powered by a new brain: the Tensor A1 chip. While those are praiseworthy improvements, the second-gen Pros are also $29 more expensive, narrowing the price gap that made the first-gen Pros so attractive.

The Google Pixel Buds Pro (left) and Pixel Buds Pro 2 Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

For most folks, the biggest difference between the Pixel Buds Pro and the Buds Pro 2 will be their size, weight, and shape. Google says the new buds are 27% smaller and 24% lighter, and there’s no question about it — they feel tiny. Almost disconcertingly so.

Perhaps it’s because after a decade of reviewing these devices, I’m used to cramming objects the size of unshelled almonds into my ears. The Buds Pro 2 are so small and light, that they just didn’t feel securely seated. And yet, they were — a fact that my Google Pixel 7 Pro confirmed through its built-in fit test.

Now that I’m used to them, I think they’re the most comfortable closed-style earbuds I’ve ever worn.

By the way, we classify earbuds as “closed” when they use silicone tips to seal your ear canal, e.g., the AirPods Pro. We say “semi-open” when they don’t use silicone, like the AirPods line, and “open-ear” when they don’t sit directly in front of the ear canal, like the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds.

The Google Pixel Buds Pro (left) and Pixel Buds Pro 2 Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

The default medium eartips worked just fine for me, but thankfully, Google includes three other sizes (XS, S, L) to improve the chances you’ll get a good fit too. That’s a small but important difference: the Pixel Buds Pro only came with two extra sizes.

What you don’t get are different sizes of stability wings. Like the Pixel Buds 2 and A-Series, the small, crescent-shaped silicone protrusion is built into the buds and isn’t replaceable. Google says the buds have IP54 water and dust protection  (perfect for workouts but definitely no swimming) while the case is rated IPX4 (water protection only).

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

And as with the Pixel Buds Pro, there’s no USB-C charging cable in the box. You likely have lots of these already. But if you don’t, the Buds Pro 2’s case has wireless charging. At a minimum, you might be able to flip your phone around and use reverse charging — or battery sharing, to use Google’s lingo.

Speaking of the case, it’s nearly identical to the previous model. It’s slightly thicker, and there’s now a tiny speaker opening on the bottom near the charging port for feedback tones and playing locating sounds for the Find My Device function. Oh, and here’s something I noticed immediately: the Buds Pro 2 are way easier to remove from their case than the previous version. They sit taller in their charging nooks and their mushroom-like shape is easier to grip than the Buds Pro’s seamless profile.

The Google Pixel Buds Pro (left) and Pixel Buds Pro 2 Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

I was mildly concerned that the Buds Pro 2’s smaller size might make it harder to use the touch controls, but it hasn’t been a problem. The tap gestures are easy to use (I remain a big fan of the swipe-based volume control), even though you still can’t customize them. All the basic functions are supported (playback, track skipping, call management, and voice assistant access), but there’s still no way to mute yourself while on a call. Google hopefully will add this on the next version.

You still get wear sensors, which do an admirable job of pausing/resuming audio when you remove or reinsert an earbud.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

If there’s one thing that really sets the Pixel Buds Pro 2 apart from their predecessors, it’s their ability to access Google’s Gemini AI hands-free, even when your phone’s locked and in your pocket. If you sign up for Gemini Advanced, you can also do real-time conversations via Gemini Live. Unfortunately, Gemini Advanced isn’t available in my location yet, so I couldn’t test that part out, but regular Gemini interactions via “Hey, Google,” worked seamlessly.

I won’t do a deep dive into everything Gemini can do, but I will say this: I’m glad you can double-tap the earbuds to stop Gemini in its tracks — some of its responses can be long-winded.

Google says that thanks to the Tensor A1 chip, the Buds Pro 2’s ANC is “twice as strong” as that of their predecessors. I couldn’t measure that claim, but after using them in a variety of noisy conditions, I’m inclined to agree. It’s most noticeable in mid-to-high frequencies. In my review of the first-gen Pros, I noted that they didn’t cancel these types of sounds as well as the first-gen AirPods Pro. Remarkably, the ANC on the Buds Pro 2 isn’t just better than the firts-gen AirPods Pro — it’s better than the AirPods Pro 2, and it’s only fractionally less potent than the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, which I currently consider to be the leaders for ANC on wireless earbuds.

Everything from the droning noise of air conditioners and vacuums to the unpredictable racket of traffic and construction was pleasantly reduced to a level that either disappeared entirely or was mild enough not to bother me. But here’s a (ahem) tip: The fit test in the Pixel Buds app may indicate that you have a good seal, but it shouldn’t be taken as gospel. Using the medium tips, ANC was noticeably better. But it wasn’t until I installed the large tips that the Buds Pro 2 showed me their full potential.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Conversation detection — a feature that was added to the Buds Pro in 2023 — works brilliantly on the Buds Pro 2. Just start talking when you’re in ANC mode and the buds shift smoothly into transparency mode while simultaneously pausing your media. Shortly after it detects you’re done chatting, it switches back to ANC and resumes whatever you were listening to.

It works really well. But if you listen to comedy podcasts and have a tendency to laugh out loud, be prepared for some false positives. (That might have happened to me more than a few times.) Keep in mind that this is for quick interactions, not long conversations where you remain silent as you listen to someone else talk.

I’m a bit disappointed Google didn’t include the reverse of conversation detection: loud noise detection, which flips you from transparency to ANC when it detects potentially dangerous loud sounds. Apple and Bose offer this on their flagship earbuds, and given the computational audio prowess of the Buds Pro 2’s Tensor A1 chip, it seems like it would be an obvious inclusion.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Transparency mode itself feels unchanged to me — which is to say it works really well. You can hear the outside world with excellent clarity and your voice will sound clear. However, as with the first-gen Buds, the Buds Pro 2 fall just shy of delivering the AirPods Pro’s magical feeling of not wearing earbuds at all.

The Pixel Buds Pro 2 sound terrific. Much better than the first-gen (which I thought were already pretty good) and way better than the AirPods Pro. There’s more detail, and better clarity throughout, and bass response is more robust. And that was my take using the default EQ setting right out of the box. Google lets you tweak it with several presets and a simplified equalizer, which lets you mix your own EQ formulas and save them for future use.

They sound remarkably similar to the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro 3 when both buds are connected to a Pixel phone. However, Google’s refusal to include high-quality Bluetooth codecs puts the Pixel Buds Pro 2 at a disadvantage compared to the Galaxy Buds Pro 3 when both are used with a Samsung Galaxy phone. Galaxy Buds and Galaxy phones communicate via Samsung’s Seamless Codec (SSC), which can preserve more detail from lossless audio sources. If you’re a Spotify listener, it won’t make much of a difference due to its lossy stream quality. But with Apple Music, Tidal, or Amazon Music (plus a quiet place for listening), the Galaxy Buds Pro 3 sound better, something that Galaxy phone owners may want to keep in mind if you’re considering both products.

If the Pixel Buds Pro 2 were merely average-sounding, I wouldn’t even bring this up. But when a set of earbuds sounds as good as the Pixel Buds Pro 2, I can’t help but wonder how much better they’d sound with a little help from hi-res codecs.

On a related note, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 also lack support for Bluetooth LE Audio, which means you can’t use them with Auracast. For now, that’s unlikely to matter. But as more public places begin to offer Auracast broadcasts (e.g. airport terminals, gyms, and movie theaters), Google’s lack of future-proofing may feel shortsighted (especially when Samsung has already embraced it.)

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

The Buds Pro 2 work with spatial audio and head tracking. Sort of. Google added it to select Pixel phones and the Pixel Buds Pro via a software update in 2023. Disappointingly, it remains limited to just a handful of video streaming apps like Netflix and Disney+, which offer 5.1-channel soundtracks. Not that I consider spatial audio to be a requirement on a decent set of earbuds, nor do I necessarily think that spatial audio sounds better than stereo. However, I do think that if you offer it as a feature, it should work with all kinds of media, not just movies or TV shows with multichannel soundtracks.

When the first-gen Buds Pro were released, spatial audio was in its infancy. Today, it’s mainstream, and Google needs to do better.

Still, for what it’s designed to do, it works well, providing a greater sense of immersion when watching videos on your phone. I tried it with movies like The Matrix on Netflix, and Iron Man 3 on Disney+ and it performs the same virtual home theater trick that Apple does with its AirPods when watching select content on iPhones, iPads, or the Apple TV 4K. They’re not identical, however. Apple’s head-tracking is more refined and seamless, while the Pixel Buds Pro 2 can feel notchy and abrupt as you turn your head.

The Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 wirelessly charging from a Google Pixel 7 Pro. Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Making calls on the Pixel Buds Pro 2 will be good for you and your callers. Shifting to transparency mode lets you hear your voice naturally, thus reducing fatigue. The environmental noise-canceling algorithms do an excellent job of keeping background sounds at bay, though at times, they can be a tad too aggressive and end up scrambling your voice when your environment is especially loud.

I tried using Google’s Clear Calling feature, which supposedly improves both your voice clarity and that of your caller, but I can’t say that my few test calls demonstrated this capability.

The new Pixel Buds Pro offer a significant bump in battery life despite their smaller size. The first-gen delivered a claimed seven hours of playtime with ANC on, and a total of 20 hours when you included the case. The second-gen buds can now get eight hours per charge (a modest improvement), but the case’s capacity has been greatly increased: total playtime is now 30 hours.

However, for those who like to wait until the very last minute to charge, the biggest improvement may be the addition of a quick-charge function. Fifteen minutes in the case will now extend playtime by up to three hours.

My relatively short five days with the Pixel Buds Pro 2 wasn’t enough to push the limits on endurance, but so far, Google’s numbers seem accurate.

All in all, the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 are excellent wireless earbuds. If you’re a Google Pixel phone user, they’re the obvious choice, especially if you want easy voice access to Google Gemini/Gemini Live. For some folks, the improved comfort offered by their tiny size will be worth the price of admission, but everyone will benefit from their outstanding noise cancellation, transparency, and sound quality.

I still think there’s room for improvement. The spatial audio feature is too limited and Google’s engineers should look for ways to further improve call clarity. But these are small things; if you’re leaning toward buying the Pixel Buds Pro 2, they shouldn’t get in your way.

MSRP $179.00

“The new QuietComfort Earbuds deliver a top-notch Bose experience at a much more affordable price.”

Pros

• Excellent noise canceling
• Top-notch transparency
• They have the “Bose” sound
• Multipoint and wear sensors
• Wireless charging
• Great comfort/secure fit

Cons

• No hi-res codecs
• No Auracast support

Bose has earned a reputation for making some of the best noise-canceling wireless earbuds and headphones you can buy. Unfortunately, it also has a reputation for being more expensive than the competition. Not so with its second-gen Bose QuietComfort Earbuds. Bose has priced them at just $179 — $100 cheaper than its first-gen QC Earbuds, and $120 cheaper than its current flagship, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds.

I was concerned that Bose might have cut too many corners with such a dramatic price drop. But those fears were put to rest. Not only do they deliver superb sound and silence, but they also add hands-free voice commands that don’t rely on Siri, Google Assistant, or Alexa.

If anything, these earbuds are so good that I’m beginning to question why anyone would want to spend more on the QC Ultra Earbuds.

theBose QuietComfort Earbuds (2024) (right) and QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Bose’s earbuds might not be as compact and slender as Apple’s AirPods Pro, but they nail the balance between a comfortable and stable fit. The QC Earbuds are a bit bulkier than their pricier QC Ultra Earbuds siblings (and thus not as sleek), and yet the critical portion that sits in your ear uses a nearly identical design and shape. The silicone eartips create the needed seal for sound quality and noise cancellation, while the silicone stability bands provide a large contact area inside your ear’s concha.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Along with a short USB-C charging cable, Bose includes three sizes of both the eartips and stability bands in the box, which should help most folks get a comfortable combo. For me, the fit was perfect right out of the box with the default medium eartips and small bands. I was able to wear them for three hours continuously without any discomfort or pressure. Water protection is rated at IPX4. Avoid showering with them — immersing them in water is bad — but sweat and rain should be no problem if you wipe them down before storing them.

Aesthetically, bigger earbuds might not be everyone’s cup of tea. But that extra size comes with benefits: The touch control surfaces are impossible to miss and the buds are easy to grab when you open the charging case.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Speaking of the case, it’s on the bulky side, too. It’s smaller than the first-gen QC Earbuds, but that’s not saying much. The first-gen’s case was famously large. Thankfully, this time Bose has included wireless charging — a feature that Bose didn’t incorporate into its QC Earbuds II or QC Ultra Earbuds.

The new case also feels better built than the QC Ultra Earbuds. The lid is held closed by magnets that are strong (but not too strong), and the hinge doesn’t wiggle in either open or closed positions.

Getting the QC Earbuds connected was a cinch, and so was using Bluetooth Multipoint to add a second simultaneous connection.

So far, so good. But what about the stuff that really matters, like ANC and sound quality? I’m happy to report that the QC Earbuds are awesome on both fronts.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Sadly, I haven’t had a chance to fly with these buds. But if their performance in other noisy conditions is any indication, they should be excellent in-cabin companions. Traffic, background voices in coffee shops, and droning sounds like fans or air conditioners were all greatly reduced. I don’t have any way to measure it, but subjectively, it felt like they were just as effective in daily situations as the QC Ultra Earbuds, Apple’s AirPods Pro 2, and Sony’s WF-1000XM5. I’m guessing that professional equipment would show slightly poorer attenuation of specific frequencies, but unless you’re an ANC connoisseur, I doubt you’d notice.

Still, lots of wireless earbuds do a good job of ANC. Transparency mode is where the big differences show up. Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 remain the king of the hill when it comes to that magic feeling of not wearing any buds, but I’m stunned at how close the new QC Earbuds get.

Even when earbuds let ideal amounts of outside sound in, they often fail to let you hear your voice naturally. With the QC Earbuds, this isn’t a problem, making them excellent for both in-person and call-based conversations.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

I have only one critique: You can’t switch back and forth between ANC and transparency modes without first toggling through a “normal” mode. This should be an easy thing for Bose to address. But for the time being, it will remain a minor inconvenience. I’ll balance that objection with a positive: switching between these modes is very fast, especially when you assign mode switching to the single-tap command (more on control customization in a moment).

As with ANC, the QC Earbuds’ sound quality comes incredibly close to the QC Ultra Earbuds, with one caveat. You get that classic Bose sound — deep, resonant bass response coupled with high-energy mids and highs. There’s lots of detail, a pleasingly wide soundstage, and no discernible distortion that I could hear. One thing I noticed is that the amplification (or perhaps the drivers’ response to the amplification) isn’t as even as I’d like. At 40% to 50% volume, they sound restrained. I was actually a little concerned by it. But pump them up to 60% and they spring to life, and at 65% to 70%, they’re in their acoustic sweet spot.

Bose lets you make small, but noticeable tweaks using four presets, or one customizable setting (via a simplified five-band equalizer). This is more control than Bose offers on the QC Ultra Earbuds (four presets/three-band equalizer), but I just wish we could save more than one custom setting.

The caveat comes into play if you use the earbuds with an aptX Adaptive- or Snapdragon Sound-capable Android phone. The QC Earbuds only support SBC, AAC, and LC3 Bluetooth codecs, while the Ultras layer on aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless for hi-res audio and CD-quality sound.

However, since the iPhone doesn’t support those aptX codecs, it puts the two earbuds on a level playing field: iPhone owners shouldn’t feel the need to spend more on the Ultras from a sound quality perspective.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

For Android owners, it’s a different story. Allow me to briefly quote my QC Ultra Earbuds review:

“With aptX Adaptive (and a reliable Bluetooth connection), you can get far greater fidelity. It’s not theoretical. When listening to the QC Ultra on a Xiaomi 12 Pro and a Motorola ThinkPhone, the soundstage took on noticeably better precision, depth, and detail versus listening on an iPhone 14 (AAC only). It’s the same bump in quality that I’ve heard when using other equally capable wireless earbuds or headphones.”

The QC Earbuds also lack Bose’s Immersive Audio (its version of spatial audio with head tracking). I think Bose’s take on the technology is the best you can get at the moment. The company has hinted that it could add Immersive Audio to the QC Earbuds, which would be great. But take that with a massive dose of skepticism. Bose made similar promises about future features (e.g., Bluetooth Multipoint and aptX Adaptive for the QC Earbuds II) and failed to deliver.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

I remain convinced that physical buttons on earbuds are preferable to touch controls (fewer inadvertent commands, easier to use with gloves). And yet Bose has done a great job with the QC Earbuds. For starters, there are four available gestures per earbud: single, double, and triple taps, plus tap-and-hold. Each can be configured with your choice of command — a small, but very handy feature the QC Ultras lack. The only thing I miss is the QC Ultra’s excellent swipe gestures for volume control.

By default, ANC is controlled by a tap-and-hold gesture. But as I noted above, assigning it to a single tap makes mode switches way faster. Everything you’d normally expect to be able to control (calls, volume, track skipping, etc.) is available, plus one command you don’t see very often: camera shutter control.

Bose calls it Remote Selfie, but it’s not just for selfies. As long as your camera app is open (even if your phone is otherwise locked), you can use this command to trigger the shutter.

With four gestures per earbud, that’s a total of eight possible commands. Want to control more than eight actions? You can use the wear sensors for instant pause/play when you remove an earbud. And let’s also “talk” about those hands-free voice commands I mentioned in the introduction.

Once you enable them in the companion app, you can say, “Hey headphones …” followed by phrases like …

• “… play”
• “… pause”
• “… next”
• “… volume up”
• “… Aware on.”

Basically anything you can trigger with a tap control on the earbuds can be triggered with a voice command. It works well out of the box, but Bose recommends you take the additional step of training it to recognize your voice (it takes less than a minute).

The one thing you need to be aware of is that pausing after you say, “Hey headphones,” is mandatory. Only after you hear a tone that confirms the earbuds have heard you can you then proceed with the command itself. I learned this the hard way after several failed attempts.

I’m not a big hands-free voice command user, but I absolutely see the value here for those who are.

When I first learned that Bose had created a new standalone app for the QC Earbuds (appropriately named Bose QCE) I was a bit annoyed. Why not just use the existing Bose Music app that already controls most of the company’s existing wireless headphones, earbuds, soundbars, and more?

And yet, it’s hard to argue against the decision once you use the new app. Its interface is clean, and well organized, and it makes almost every setting available with just a single tap.

Better yet, the various cards act as both an explanation of a feature as well as the quickest way to adjust it. As such, some can be a bit duplicative (Noise Control, Fast Mute, Assistant, and Remote Selfie are essentially the same thing as the Touch Controls card), but I think a lot of folks will appreciate the approach.

I’m also a big fan of the Battery Prediction section. I’ve never seen remaining battery life expressed as both listening time and talk time. This is how every company should display these numbers.

Being able to see and manage paired devices is the one thing that the QCE app doesn’t do as well as the Bose Music app. You can enable or disable Multipoint, but that’s about it.

Simon Cohen / Digital Trends

Call quality on the new QC Earbuds might just be the best Bose has ever managed on a set of wireless earbuds. This is to say, it’s still not perfect, but it nonetheless improves on the QC Ultra. There are still times when an especially noisy environment can distort your voice to the point where it’s unintelligible, but we’re talking about extreme examples, like having an 18-wheeler thunder by. However, unlike with the Ultra, your callers won’t be distracted by those sounds — they don’t get picked up at all.

In quiet settings, the QC Earbuds also have a slight advantage in clarity.

Battery life is yet another area where the QC Earbuds break the traditional Bose mold. With up to nine hours of playback stamina with ANC enabled (8.5 according to the official specs) and a total of 31.5 hours when you include the case, these are easily the longest-running earbuds the company has ever made.

However, those numbers assume a 50% volume level. As you may recall from earlier, I don’t think 50% cuts it from a sound quality point of view, so you can expect slightly less time if you play them louder.

If and when Bose adds Immersive Audio, these numbers will likely take a hit when using the feature — it reduces the QC Ultra’s stamina by a third.

The one thing missing here is a quick-charge option, but then again, Bose has yet to offer quick charging on any of its QuietComfort wireless earbuds.

If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve probably guessed that I’m a big fan of the new Bose QuietComfort Earbuds. There’s just one teensy little thing that might give you pause: a lack of support for Auracast. You may not be familiar with this relatively new Bluetooth audio-sharing platform, but it’s about to play a big role in our wireless audio lives. In terms of future-proofing, it’s the one thing I wish Bose had included.

Still, if we set that one omission aside, the new QC Earbuds are a fantastic set of daily-wear earbuds. Better yet, they’re available at a price that’s not only more accessible than that of any previous Bose earbuds, but that also challenges the prices set by Bose’s traditional competitors. If I were Sony, Sennheiser, or maybe even Apple, I’d be sleeping a little less soundly right now.

MSRP $179.00

“The Apple AirPods 4 with ANC offer the best ANC on the market for folks who hate eartips.”

Pros

• Surprisingly effective ANC
• Improved fit/comfort
• Solid sound quality
• Excellent voice/call quality

Cons

• Best for Apple device users

The Apple AirPods 4 with ANC are an entirely new product from Apple. They’re a departure from the previous entry-level AirPods, but not quite up at the level of the AirPods Pro (which, by the way, still remain in their second-generation status from 2022). And the awkward name has meaning because there actually are two versions of the AirPods 4. These, which include active noise cancellation, or ANC, and the base model that does not — and sheds $50 in the process.

We’re focusing on the ANC version here, and you’ll definitely see why. And we’re also going to take a look at whether you should consider shelling out another $70 for the AirPods Pro. And we’re also going to examine whether you should even consider these earbuds if you’re not also using an iPhone.

The new AirPods 4 (from left) and the second-generation AirPods Pro. Chris Hagan / Digtial Trends

The most obvious and critical difference between standard AirPods earbuds and AirPods Pro earbuds is that standard AirPods don’t have a silicone or foam eartip to really seal in the sound (or to keep out what’s going on in the world around you).

Apple refers to this lack of an eartip design as an “open-ear design,” which could get confusing since there’s an entirely different kind of open-ear headphone design where nothing goes into your ear at all, like you see in our Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 review, or in or OpenFit Air review. But for the sake of simplicity, I’m going to use that open-ear term loosely to refer to these as having a “standard AirPods design.”

AirPods 4 with ANC Review | vs. AirPods Pro 2

That lack of eartip has always been a pretty critical design point. On the plus side, you don’t have to worry about whether the eartips will fit into the opening of your ear canal. Also, a lot of folks find eartips really uncomfortable, so this open-ear design is their only realistic option. On the down side, not having an eartip sealing up your ear canal means that getting good audio quality is harder to achieve. And without the security of that eartip in place, the size and the shape of the earbud takes on all the responsibility of helping keep them in your ears (unless you add a “fin” or something).

It’s really tough to get one shape to work for everyone.

And that’s where things get tricky. This portion of the ear where open-ear earbuds sit is different on everyone. It’s really tough to get one shape to work for everyone. And that includes my ears, which are not your ears. What fits well for me might not fit well for you.

Apple says the AirPods 4 models required advanced modeling tools like photogrammetry and 3D laser topography to map thousands of ear shapes using over 50 million individual data points (that’s 5 million more than Google says it used for the Pixel Buds Pro 2, but that’s neither here nor there). And from that, Apple created what it believes is the most comfortable-to-wear shape of this earbud style. That’s a tall order.

Apple also says it changed just about everything about the acoustic architecture for these earbuds, from the little speaker driver inside, to its positioning and how it aims more directly into your ear than before. Apple even promises there are fewer internal sound reflections, which helps improve the sound quality. There’s also a new amp powering that speaker driver.

The new AirPods 4 look more like AirPods Pro, but lack eartips to create a seal in the ears. Chris Hagan / Digtial Trends

The AirPods 4 also get Apple’s H2 chip, which unlocks a lot of features not previously available, like personalized spatial audio, dynamic head tracking (which makes it seem like the sound is coming from a specific point in space), voice isolation (which eliminates background noise for clearer calls), and Siri interactions so you can nod or shake your head to answer or decline a call. They also get a new force sensor you can click.

Latency is meant to be lower, so there are fewer lip sync issues. You get all of that with either of the AirPods 4 models.

Note quite AirPods Pro

The AirPods 4 with ANC bring a lot more, though. And this is where they start to look a lot like the AirPods Pro, at least on paper.

Both models have a USB C charging case now, but the AirPods 4 with ANC have a find-my speaker built-in, and the case supports wireless charging. The case also has no back button. Instead, to reset or pair the AirPods with a non-apple device, you double-tap the hidden LED.

Chris Hagan / Digtial Trends

Battery life is a claimed 5 hours with the ANC off, and 4 hours with it on. With recharges from the case, you can get about 30 hours total without ANC, or 20 hours with ANC before having to plug anything in. My experience lines up with those claims.

Along with the active noise cancellation comes other expected features like transparency mode, adaptive audio, and conversation awareness. That’s all stuff found in the more expensive AirPods Pro.

Add all that up and it seems like the only real differences between the AirPods 4 with ANC and the AirPods Pro are that the Pro have an eartip that provides a seal in your ear and a force sensor that lets you swipe to adjust volume. Down the road, the AirPods Pro will also get some hearing aid features, too, but we’ll come back to that, along with how important having an eartip is for noise isolation and noise canceling.

For anyone who doesn’t like eartips or can’t get the AirPods Pro style of bud to fit, the AirPods 4 with ANC are going to be a godsend for air travel.

For now, let’s talk about how the AirPods 4 with ANC work on their own merits. But first we need to reiterate: Because the AirPods 4 with ANC are the open-ear design with no eartip, the experience is going to vary from user to user much more than the experience with the AirPods Pro. It’s acoustics and biology.

We’ll start with comfort. Apple has worked to make these buds as comfortable as possible for the widest range of ears possible. There’s no doubt they are significantly better than the previous generation of AirPods, which I didn’t much care for wearing.

Chris Hagan / Digtial Trends

But there’s just no avoiding that some folks will experience pinch points ranging from barely existent to significant. Put me in the middle of that camp. I can wear the AirPods 4 roughly 2 to 2.5 hours before I feel a tinge of pressure. When I first put them in, I barely feel anything. After a couple of hours, I feel them. And by three hours, I want a rest. I take ’em out, put them in their charging case, and 15 minutes later not only have I added about one hour of playtime, but I can use them for another 2.5 to 3 hours.

I think for day-to-day use, this is fine. For a flight where you might want to wear them for 5 or more hours? It’s … fine. But I’d personally rather wear the AirPods Pro for long flights, at least in terms of comfort. But for anyone who doesn’t like eartips or can’t get the AirPods Pro style of bud to fit, the AirPods 4 with ANC are going to be a godsend for air travel.

Noise cancellation

Next, let’s talk about the noise cancellation because the ANC in these buds has a very dramatic influence on the perceived sound quality.

I was legitimately surprised at how effective the ANC was during a brief demonstration at the launch event at Apple Park. I wore the AirPods 4 with ANC during most of my flight home and I continued to be very impressed.

Using the ANC feature alone — with no other sound coming through — these open-ear earbuds did a remarkable job of quieting down the plane noise, just like they did in that Apple Park demo. When I played music, the plane noise was essentially inaudible. For an earbud that offers far inferior passive noise isolation compared to one with an eartip that seals up your ear, this is straight-up astounding.

Chris Hagan / Digtial Trends

I did, however, feel a fair amount of sound pressure. This didn’t come from the cabin pressurizing — it came from the ANC in the earbuds. This is likely due to the fact that the open-ear design of the AirPods require that they crank out more sound that’s 180-degrees out of phase with the plane noise than an earbud with more passive noise isolation would have to put out.

Eventually, that pressure went away. I don’t know if the AirPods 4 with ANC adapted, or if I adapted. But eventually, it was a nonissue. Weird? Yeah. But I’ll take it.

But what about everyday noise? Like noisy annoying people around your workspace. Or a coffee shop. Or street noises.

High frequencies are quick to pierce what little barrier is provided by these buds.

Well, certain high frequencies do sneak in. There’s just no avoiding that. It’s the physics of the situation. There’s no seal to block them out, and high frequencies are quick to pierce what little barrier is provided by these buds.

So, there are these little anomalies. But, let me tell you about this walk I went on. I was walking down the street in a small business district listening to music at a pretty healthy volume, and I didn’t hear much of anything but the music, save for the nasal sound of some of the louder voices around me. Mostly, I didn’t hear the cars whizzing by. Only the whine of a big bus punched through.

What was more impressive was when I was walking through a residential neighborhood. I did hear the faint whiz of a weed-whacker. And when I paused the music, I could make it out clearly enough to know it was a weed-whacker. But I was shocked at how loud it actually was when I pulled the earbuds out.

Chris Hagan / Digtial Trends

The same experience happened when I come upon a massive commercial wood chipper. From 50 yards away with music playing, I heard nothing. As I got closer, I could faintly hear the chipper chipping. When I stopped the music, I could very much hear it. But when I took the AirPods out? Again, I was shocked at how much of the sheer loudness of the wood chipper that the AirPods 4 were canceling out.

Not only do I think that you just can’t ask for more effective noise canceling from this kind of earbud design, but I’m frankly amazed at how effective it is.

The ANC in the AirPods Pro is more effective. There’s no debating that. They’re better at blocking high-frequency noise, and they are more effective at blocking out noise when no music is playing. I wear the AirPods Pro to bed sometimes to block out noises in the neighborhood, particularly in the morning when garbage trucks post up right outside my door. I don’t think I’d swap in the AirPods 4 with ANC for that job.

If you want the more effective noise-canceler, the AirPods Pro are it. They seal up your ear. But if you can’t do eartips? I don’t think there’s better noise-canceling available in an open design like this.

Audio quality

It’s a similar story with the audio fidelity. The AirPods 4 do sound better than the previous generation. And the AirPods 4 with ANC sound even better by nature of the fact that they so successfully remove outside sounds from the sonic canvas.

Their sound quality is going to please a massive audience. However, my fellow audiopiles should not waste breath balking. These AirPods 4 are not made for us. But I think anyone who hears these will have to respect they way they sound. They do indeed have prodigious bass with a significant amount of punch. And they have a lot of snap, too. I listened to some music with some really well-recorded congas and bongos, and timbales, and you could hear the snap and pop of the skins on those percussion instruments, right along with the punch of the kick drum.

There is no better ANC in an open-ear earbud.

Brass instruments had shimmer, shine, and grit. Saxes had some bite. Vocals were open, clear, uncongested. There was some occasional sharpness to sibilants — like when singers would hit a hard S. But it didn’t go too far. When an earbud is too sharp, you’ll hear it with the consonant T on a lot of recordings, and I didn’t get that.

Snap, shine, clarity, shimmer, punch, and richness. Yeah, I think the sound quality paired with the ANC performance, bundled with all the Apple-friendly features, definitely gets you your $179 worth. I’m just not aware of another product on the market that can do what these do.

What about non-Apple folks?

What if you aren’t an Apple user? What then? Would you want to use these with an Android device? I mean, you certainly can, right?

The AirPods 4 with ANC, like all the AirPods products, lose a lot of their luster when not paired with Apple devices. Most of the benefits beyond basic Bluetooth earbud functions go away. For most Android users, I think there are better options.

But one thing remains constant: There is no better ANC in an open-ear earbud. So, again, if you can’t do eartips, but want ANC — on iPhone or Android — I feel like the AirPods 4 with ANC are the option.