4 Earbuds With Better Battery Life Than The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro – BGR

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Bluetooth earbuds have become an extension of our everyday lives — almost as important as a mobile device. Between taking phone calls, listening to music, or even calling up a voice assistant, the functionality we expect to get out of these earbuds requires a lot of battery capacity. Battery life tends to vary from device to device, and they all feature charging cases to add a little extra time. If you’re disappointed with the recently released Galaxy Buds 4 Pro and the reportedly lackluster battery life, we’ve rounded up a few competing earbuds from Sony, Apple, and more that can give you a bit extra.

When looking at everything new with the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro — particularly the improvements to the design, audio, and noise cancelling — you may be tempted to purchase a pair. And it wouldn’t be a bad purchase, either, as the design is a little more modern and initial reviews indicate that the new 5-millimeter planar driver provides excellent sonic performance. However, the 6 to 7 advertised hours of battery life in the earbuds themselves isn’t a step up from the last generation, and may be a deal breaker for those who want to use their earbuds for long, continuous listening sessions. So what are your alternatives?

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a list of the best Bluetooth earbuds that doesn’t mention Apple’s latest AirPods. These earbuds provide some of the most-loved audio quality out there, both from tech reviewers and actual customers. Even better, one of the best features of the AirPods Pro 3 is their excellent battery life. According to Apple’s spec sheet, you can expect around 8 hours of listening, and that’s with active noise-cancelling activated. This offers an extra hour or so on top of the equivalent performance from the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro. You can also expect 24 additional hours with the charging case.

The solid battery life on offer for the AirPods Pro 3 is made more impressive by the sheer number of extra features these earbuds add for listeners. In our AirPods Pro 3 review, we lauded just how much Apple has packed in. There’s spatial audio processing as well as standout sonic performance, and the noise cancelling is still among the best we’ve heard. These AirPods are also known for their excellent microphone performance for call quality — an important feature for modern earbuds. Of course, at $250, they aren’t the cheapest, and their circular ear tips don’t fit everyone’s ears perfectly. However, for the amount of tech packed in, it’s surprising to see just how much battery life they can muster.

Bose has a long history of providing excellent audio devices for rich sound, and their QuietComfort line of earbuds and headphones add solid noise cancelling to that pedigree. While the Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 Pro earbuds (which made our recent top earbuds list) are great, they have the same advertised battery life as the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro earbuds. So, if battery life is the most important feature for you, we’d recommend going for the base Bose QuietComfort Earbuds.

While the standard QC buds don’t feature all the flashy, flagship features of the Ultra gen 2s, their battery life climbs to up to 8.5 hours in a single charge. They do also offer solid noise cancelling, but some reviewers have confirmed that it’s not quite as good as Ultra-level earbuds. You also won’t get access to Bose’s “immersive audio” feature unless you shell out for the Ultras. But, again, if battery life is your top priority then the standard QuietComfort Earbuds are great to consider.

If you’re looking for a good deal in audio, Soundcore is one of the most popular brands to consider. The Liberty 4 Pro earbuds offer a lot, but perhaps most exciting is their sterling battery life. With up to 10 hours of listening on a single charge and a whopping 40 total hours when you factor in the battery charging case, these earbuds will have a great shot at taking you through a work week without even thinking about a charging cable. If they do run out of juice, they offer reliable fast charging that can deliver 4 extra listening hours with just 5 minutes plugged in.

The solid battery life comes with a host of great features. The Liberty Pro series from Soundcore is known for providing balanced sound thanks to a detailed attention to driver performance. These earbuds also offer great bang for your buck — Soundcore was even near the top of our ranking of cheap earbuds by quality. Going with Soundcore does mean you won’t be getting a flagship brand, however, as it lacks the name recognition of the other brands on this list. The design is also quite a bit different than other premium offerings, and that may be good or bad depending on your style.

The just-off-the-presses Sony WF-1000XM6 haven’t been out for all that long, but they’re already prominently featured on “best of” lists for all-around performance and functionality. Looking into the spec list, Sony offers up to 8 hours of listening on a single charge in the earbuds themselves. That’s a solid amount of listening considering just how high-quality the earbuds are themselves. It’s good to note that Sony only promises up to 24 total hours of listening with the battery case, so you can do better with other full packages, but the on-board battery life is quite impressive.

Early reviewers confirm that the audio quality is impressive — which isn’t that surprising when you consider that the last few generations of the WF series have also been well-liked in this regard. Sony also advertises a new AI-powered noise cancelling that, if the technology is to be believed, could provide more precise noise reduction. At a $329 retail price, these earbuds are definitely on the more expensive side, even when compared to Apple’s offering. So be sure that the high battery life of the buds themselves is a priority if you decide to pay that premium.

To select the options on this list, we used Samsung’s advertised battery life on its latest flagship earbuds as a starting point. Because the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro boast 6 to 7 hours on a single charge, all the earbuds we chose had to promise more than that. However, we were also aware of some anecdotal concerns with battery life from early buyers of the Buds 4 Pro, so we wanted to make sure that the earbuds we selected didn’t have widespread examples of that either.

Beyond battery life, every product on this list had to meet a certain threshold of quality and functionality. A couple of these earbuds are flagship offerings from their brands, but we also wanted to highlight an option or two (the Soundcore Liberty earbuds and the Bose QuietComfort) that feel a little more attainable from a price point perspective.