AirPods 4 with Active Noise Canceling
September 28, 2024
When Apple first announced AirPods 4, I couldn’t have clicked the pre-order button any faster than I did.
My AirPods Max — which I loved — were flaky as hell for the better part of 2 years (pretty much since AppleCare expired). They actually stopped working for about a year and then I threw them in the freezer for an hour and it brought them back to life, but that’s a different story and something that should be completely unnecessary for $549 headphones.
With those on the shelf, I was using a pair of 2nd-gen AirPods Pro and I’m not gonna lie… they drove me nuts. The tips made my ears itch terribly and I couldn’t find a way around that, but I suffered through them because they were what I had on hand and they had active noise canceling. That said, I reaaaalllly wanted something different.
My girlfriend has a pair of AirPods 3 and suggested I try those to see how they fit. They felt MUCH better than the AirPods Pro and I knew AirPods 4 were rumored to be right around the corner, so I waited patiently for the announcement and release
My initial thoughts:
- Wow, these things are tiny!
- The design is a little different than AirPods 3 and they fit very comfortably in my ears
- They sound great
- ANC works really well in my situation (basically I just need to silence the kids and the air conditioner that is 6 feet behind me). The true test will come in December when I get on a flight to Portland for work.
I’ve been very happy with these new AirPods so far and even happier that my ears aren’t so itchy that I want to rip them off.
If you’ve been holding out for a new pair of AirPods, I highly recommend the AirPods 4 with ANC.