The AirPods 4 is the only pair that gets a meaningful hardware upgrade this year. They now come in two variants - standard AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancellation. As with every generation of new Apple products, the AirPods 4 are touted as the best-sounding non-Pro AirPods so far as well as the most comfortable ones. Apple has used special mapping technology to examine a large pool of users' ears and make the earpods more comfortable. The company also implemented a new acoustic design that drastically improves sound quality. Personalized Spatial Audio is also a new feature and it's supposed to improve sound quality to your liking even further.
Arguably the most important update to this
year's AirPods is the addition of active noise cancellation. The once Pro-only
feature has now trickled down to the AirPods 4 ANC. And ANC works both ways too
- it will tone down your surroundings during music playback and calls. The ANC
comes with additional features such as Transparency Mode and Adaptive Audio.
The former amplifies the outside noise so you can hear your surroundings more
clearly, while the Adaptive Audio intelligently selects the appropriate mode
depending on your environment. For instance, if the system detects that you are
engaging in a conversation, it will turn on Conversation Adaptiveness and lower
the music volume.
The case has also been revamped and Apple
says it's the lightest and most portable one yet. With the said case, the buds
can go for 30 hours of continuous playback, so no compromises in battery life.
The case also gets a small speaker so you can find your AirPods 4 easily or
notify you of incoming calls, for example. Right next to the speaker, Apple has
added a USB-C connector for charging. Now, the AirPods can be charged wired or
wirelessly.
The standard AirPods 4 without ANC will go
for US$ 129, while the ANC version will ask for US$ 179. Shipments will begin on
September 20. Pre-orders start as early as today.
