Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro Review

Design

• Plush level of comfort
• IP57 rating
• White, black and pink gold finishes

Samsung has toned down the AirPods-vibe though, at the end of the day, these are a pair of stem-based wireless earbuds – there’s not much you can do with the actual design.

But Samsung has tried and the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro do look nice, the silver ‘real metal blade’ finish of the stem feels suitably premium. Comfort levels are very good. I’ve worn these for hours and not felt any discomfort. Small, medium and large ear tips are provided, with medium as default.

I do, however, find that the seal for these earbuds can come loose while walking. Even munching on food can cause the fit to loosen and require a push back in.

Samsung continues with gesture/pinch controls. I’ve never been a big fan and I can’t say the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro have persuaded me to think otherwise. I find it fiddly, and often when I’ve tried to play/pause a track I’ve ended up lowering the volume. I often just use the controls in-app than use the onboard controls – it’s much easier for me.

The charging case differs from the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and is different from the Galaxy Buds 4 launched alongside the Pro version. Compared to the 3 Pro, this new case is more compact but also slightly taller – the see-through case is a nice visual touch. Rated at IP57, these earbuds put out a stiff hand against water, dirt and dust (more so than most premium true wireless), though the case doesn’t sound like it has any protection.

Colours come in white and black, but buy directly from Samsung and there’s the option of a Pink Gold (which looks like it costs the same).

Noise-Cancellation

• Galaxy AI-supported features
• 26 hours battery life with ANC
• Galaxy Wearable app for customisation

In general, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro’s adaptive noise-cancellation is good, very good even, especially in terms of how consistent the performance is.

Whether I’m on the Victoria Line, a train, a bus, an aeroplane, the DLR or walking outside with traffic going past, the level of quiet and calm has always been very high. The barometer I have with ANC headphones is whether I need to raise the volume to mask more noise and I never felt the need to do that with the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro.

Cars are reduced to hums, the Underground is no longer a constant noise machine, and compared to the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, these do thin out noise better.

But against the Sony WF-1000XM6, Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds 2 and Technics EAH-AZ100, they’re just a step beyond the Samsung, with more noise peering in when wearing the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro during a pink noise test. They’re not too far off though.

The transparency mode sounds clear – big and broad in terms of what you can hear, and it sounds natural enough, though again perhaps not to the same levels of Sony and Bose produce.

Call quality is very good. With Samsung Galaxy phones there’s a Super Clear Call feature that enhances clarity and reduces noise, but even using a OnePlus smartphone the performance was very good.

Background noise was reduced and though my voice did sound muffled – at times it was hard for the other person to hear some words – but overall the performance is good for use when you’re outside.

Features

• Galaxy smartphone exclusive features
• Wear app for non-Galaxy smartphones

The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro aren’t short of features, though you’ll need to have a Galaxy smartphone to get the most out of them, especially one that’s been updated to the One UI 8.5, as that has access to features not present in previous versions.

Like with Apple’s AirPods, the Galaxy Buds’ UI is built into the Samsung smartphone UX, but for everyone else, you’ll need to download the Galaxy Wear app.

Wirelessly there’s Bluetooth 6.1, which brings some enhancements over Bluetooth 5 (everything is just better, in simple terms), and I’ve found the connection to be strong wherever I am (and that’s without a phone that supports Bluetooth 6). Instability and interference have barely been an issue.

The headphones support an interesting array of codecs for the Bluetooth fans out there, with SBC, AAC, LC3, and Samsung’s own SSC and SSC-UHQ, the latter acting as Samsung’s high quality codec of choice against Sony’s LDAC and Qualcomm’s aptX. SSC is only available on Samsung Galaxy phones though.

You can toggle it on in the app/settings and it lets loose 24-bit/96kHz audio over a Bluetooth connection – though don’t take that to mean it’s lossless. It’s very likely to be lossy (which means detail is lost).

There’s 360 Audio with Head Tracking that builds on top of immersive audio formats such as Dolby Atmos music. The head tracking works well when listening to Sarah Kinsley’s Truth of Pursuit and Brent Faiyaz’s Other Side on Tidal, but there’s possibly the slightest lag when moving my head and waiting for music to respond.

Otherwise, I’m rather impressed in terms of clarity – immersive audio tends to sound less detailed and softer but the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro do a good job of keeping clarity levels high.

There are Head Gestures for accepting and rejecting calls (just added to One UI 8.5). and Earbud fit test (much less annoying than the Sony Sound Connect version): customisation of controls, battery life indicators and swapping through noise-cancelling modes, EQ options and Audio Broadcast (Auracast by another name). There are voice controls (mainly through Bixby) and accessibility controls if needed.

Want to translate words from a different language? You can read a transcript of what the earbuds hear, translated to your language via Galaxy AI, speaking of which, Samsung seems to have calmed down the AI narrative and rightly so. I don’t need to be told about AI, I just need it to work in the way it’s meant to.

You can switch to nearby devices without having to jump into pairing mode, though the fine print indicates these need to be connected to your Samsung account. With that in mind, Bluetooth multipoint is a slight mystery in that it is supported (with Samsung devices) and isn’t (with anything other than Samsung). I can’t have the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro connected to a Galaxy smartphone or OnePlus model at the same time.

Lose the earbuds and you can locate them through Samsung Find, although it seems to think I’m not in my house but next door – close enough I suppose. The Adapt Sound feature is not what I initially thought it’d be. It tunes the sound for how old you are, boosting frequencies based on your age. You can add a personalised sound profile by going through audio tests to determine your hearing.

Battery Life

• Six hours per charge
• Wireless charging

Samsung claims the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are capable of six hours with ANC on, which doesn’t sound the most progressive (and isn’t), with a total of 26 hours with the charging case (without ANC it’s 7 and 30 hours).

Perhaps Samsung have erred on the safe side but I’ve found battery life pretty strong. An hour’s listening saw both earbuds fall to 87%, which would put the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro at around 8 hours, not six.

There’s fast-charging for those in a fix, and wireless charging support as well.

Sound Quality

• Clear, detailed, spacious sound
• Wide soundstage
• Balanced, warm approach

Not too dissimilar to the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro feature a two-way speaker that’s been redesigned from before.

There’s now a wider woofer alongside a precision tweeter, with the aim of delivering deep, textured sub-bass to extended highs with a “faster transient response, a rich midrange body and sharp detail”. Each driver has its own amplifier, which should lead to reduced distortion.

Paired with a non-Galaxy smartphone and the results are… fine. The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro sound on the rich side but the bass isn’t the most assertive, the highs don’t come across as the brightest and they’re not the most dynamic or energetic sounding pair I’ve ever heard.

Some of the traits carry over when paired to a Galaxy smartphone, but to unlock the highest level of performance from the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, you need to toggle on the SSC-UHQ feature. With that, these earbuds ascend to a higher level.

Which is not to say they match the Sony WF-1000XM6, which beat the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro for insight, detail and energy, but they have qualities of their own that aren’t to be dismissed.

The soundstage is very wide. Bass never hogs the limelight but I’d vote for having a bit more depth and energy to the low frequencies. With a track like Hard Life’s Skeletons, the bass performance leaves me wanting a bit more in terms of energy.

But it’s the clarity of these earbuds that impresses, as well as the natural tone they strike whether it’s with more upbeat K-pop tracks like ILLIT’s Magnetic or slower, more downtempo tracks like Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black – the wide soundstage, crisp tone to highs and levels of insight and detail with vocals stand out.

Andreas Ihlebæk’s Come Summer is a track I play to try and catch headphones out – the highs sound bright, but it can expose a lack of precision and detail, sounding soft and almost too bright if headphones get it wrong. The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro stay on the right side of balanced, bringing brightness and variation to the highs while maintaining higher levels detail and clarity.

However, are the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro better sounding than the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro? Initially there’s a question mark around that. The approach both take is similar but the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro eke out a little more insight and detail from tracks, administering a slightly more natural tone. It isn’t enough to necessarily trade the older model for the newer ones, but if you’re coming from the Galaxy Buds 2, this level of sound is a jump up

Should you buy it?