Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro Full Review - Best Earbuds of 2026?

[00:02] Pro and they are without a doubt the best Galaxy Buds I have ever tried. These are going to be very recommendable and I'm really enjoying these earbuds. And by the way, this is not a first impressions video. I had these in the

[00:14] them and put them through their paces. And so in this video, I'll share with the active noise cancellation. I'll actually give you some numbers on that. do a microphone test, talk about the features, the design, and everything

[00:29] earbuds. And of course, as you can tell, the design is quite different from the last generation. Now, before we get into the first category, this video is not sponsored. No brands had any editorial privileges. Samsung did send a loner

[00:43] unit over ahead of launch so I could test it, but that doesn't impact my pros and cons in this honest review. So, let's get started with the sound quality of these earbuds. It's very customizable in the app. You can choose the codec,

[00:56] show you the app later in the video, and you also have a nine-band equalizer, but the earbuds themselves again have dual drivers, so woofer and tweeter. We have 24-bit audio with 96 kHz uh if you're using the Samsung codec that again you

[01:11] can use with Samsung phones. But the woofer is now 20% larger or has a 20% larger effective area. And that gives us a better control of the bass while still having very powerful and very deep lows. We have a slightly larger planner

[01:25] and just kind of better clarity on the sound in general. I'm actually kind of the litmus test before talking about my full experience of listening is I tend to listen to these at a lower volume which is kind of just an indication that

[01:38] they sound good. I don't need to turn the volume up to look for instruments that are eclipsed by other frequencies. So that's a very positive first listening for a while, you'll notice you

[01:50] pleasant balance, decent clarity, and they're not too muddy or bloated like so many other earbuds are. And while these are not excessively bassy by default, the dual driver architecture definitely presents a very powerful and capable

[02:04] bass that if you wanted to could definitely rattle your head if you crank it up in the EQ. Like I said, very capable drivers. And if you really push the bass, it still stays punchy and tight and controlled at even high

[02:17] levels. And the EQ is surprisingly good with a nineband custom EQ or six presets don't have a lot of distortion or anything really going wrong with the EQ there. To me, it sounds like I mean, I only had a really subtle adjustment

[02:31] here. I felt like it could lose use a little tiny boost in the lower mids around like 300 to 500 hertz. And aside from boosting the lower mids, I also turn down the highs very slightly. For my own personal taste, they can be a

[02:43] a personal preference there, but otherwise, symbols are not too sibilent. I think compared to the previous generation, that is definitely an rich. We have a nice instrument separation here. Overall, I'm quite

[02:57] impressed by the sound quality of the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro. And really my only that they can be a little bit harsh as I mentioned and I would like to see a little bit more detail in the high-end of these. Now I'm excited to talk about

[03:10] the ANC and the microphone and some really big changes Samsung made in the features, but I think we need to kind of rewind and talk about the design here. much more in line with a lot of the other Galaxy Buds and that kind of

[03:23] square case. And I'm actually kind of happy Samsung returned to this style. It You don't have that awkward like leaning at an angle thing, and you can still see the case, on the back, you have USB type-C charging. We have a button that

[03:38] the one on the previous generation, and we have wireless charging on the bottom. the whole thing comes in three different colors. You've got black, you've got white, and there is a kind of secret hidden online exclusive colorway. All

[03:52] you want to check out the latest prices, it'll all be down there. But there's an online one that's like a a pink gold, basically a rose gold essentially, which actually looks pretty neat. The earbuds themselves, I mean, the stems are here

[04:05] allows Samsung to optimize the fit, battery, uh maybe aesthetic if you want to count it as that, the connection, the microphone, and there's other reasons as well that they're keeping this blade design here. So, the blade design seems

[04:18] to have won out, at least in Samsung's opinion. The blade is a bit different, definitely a bit different, in my opinion, improved over the previous generation. And while they look a little bit less like a Cybert truck, which I

[04:31] generation, they now have their own very Samsung kind of rounded bubble aesthetic. And really, the main benefit here is going to be the the shape of that stem or that blade now where it's a lot easier to find the controls. These

[04:46] are also IP57 water industrious resistant earbuds, which is very strong. I review a lot of earbuds that are just IPX4, so that seven rating really goes a long way. As far as the fit and the comfort go, I separate these. Fit, I

[04:59] essentially say how long, how well they stay in my ears. And comfort is like does it actually feel like? So, fit. Some people may be sad that we don't have wing tips on here like we did on, you know, Galaxy Buds FE or Galaxy Buds

[05:12] original, but I actually find that these fit in my ears really well. They stay in well and unlike a lot of, for example, the original AirPods Pro always fell out earbuds do, but these I don't have that problem. They stay in quite well on both

[05:27] my ears. I could do workouts with these. The geometry is really pretty optimal, different ears, but they seem to not have any issues for me. As far as sleeping with these go, um, they're not going to be great for side sleepers. I

[05:41] don't think any earbuds are really going to be, but they're surprisingly decent, if you like sleep on your arm or something. I was able to sleep with and uh they were really quite comfortable. The soft silicone ear tip

[05:54] doesn't give me a lot of fatigue. And that kind of brings me into comfort. them right in your ears, very easy, very, very comfortable, and almost no ear fatigue at all. Now, getting back to the controls, like I mentioned on the

[06:08] previous generation, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, I liked the controls, but because it was this weird like kite or diamond shape, sometimes you would like touch control them. It really took a little bit of time to get used to that. These

[06:22] are much more intuitive. It is much more like it's basically a rectangle and you have a dimple where the control actually is. So, nice locating feature there. You can pinch it once, twice, or three times. You can pinch and hold. You can

[06:34] have nod and shake gestures, and there's also swipe for volume as well. I actually really appreciate that. And it is, like I said, very easy to find that the pinch and hold is customizable in the app to uh toggle between noise

[06:46] controls, the digital assistant if you wanted to, or instead you could set it up for apps like Spotify interpreter, which is the translation thing we'll talk about in features, or mindfulness. We also have voice commands on here, so

[06:59] you can summon Bixby or Google Assistant quite easily. And I guess that kind of easiest way to show you this is just to open up the app, which by the way, on a an app for these. It's just baked right into your settings. You go to settings,

[07:12] you can see right there, Mike's Galaxy Buds 4 Pro. Very easy. If you have another Android phone, Pixel or whatever, you'll have the app, and it's does have a few extra features they reserve for themselves. So, in the app,

[07:25] on the top. We can toggle between ambient sound, active noise excited to get into those tests in just a second. Below that, we have the detect turn on transparency whenever it hears a siren or a voice, for example? That's a

[07:41] you are. We can customize earbud controls, as I mentioned before. We have set this up with Google digital assistant. So Google Assistant/Gemini. Bixby is actually getting a pretty big overhaul now powered by Perplexity. So

[07:55] should be significantly better. And we do have voice command options here as well to, you know, manage kind of like playback controls. Below that, we have quality, there are a ton of things you could do. We've got the 360 audio, so

[08:08] kind of like a spatial setup there. We have the equalizer, as I mentioned, nine-band EQ and six different uh preset EQs. We have loudness normalization. You advanced quality options. So, that's where I said before, you can go to

[08:23] essentially a higher resolution, that 24-bit 96 kHz there. And we do have in a microphone test in just a minute. And then down here, adapt sound. This is talking about where it can actually adapt based on your age. So, uh, certain

[08:37] frequencies are just not really commonly able to be heard above certain ages. And based on your age. You can manage your connections. And while these do have devices, they do not have a true multi-point connectivity. Meaning, if

[08:50] not going to seamlessly switch between your phone and your laptop. We have the option to listen to an OraCast broadcast and that's really well connected in have OCCast, but it's not usually very well uh integrated or very accessible.

[09:04] This one definitely is. Find my earbuds lets you play a sound, but they're now case. Without the case, they're just going to chirp when they're in the case. Your phone is going to search for it nearby. And of course, we have the

[09:16] that before. If you pinch and hold the right earbud, so I'll do it right now. interpreter app. So, if you have a Samsung phone, you can already check out works. And there's two main settings that you can use here. One is going to

[09:29] be conversation mode, which would be like if you're in a taxi and the taxi driver is talking to you. Realistically, you can do this without the earbuds just through the speaker. But it is kind of well integrated. I have to admit that if

[09:42] you're wearing the earbuds and then they talk, it'll play through your earbuds then if you talk, it'll listen with your earbuds. It'll play back through your play the same audio through the same device for both. And again, it's kind of

[09:56] listening mode, that's what I would And this would be like if you're listening to a lecture or a guided tour to listen to the whole thing and just always translate one direction. Okay.

[10:10] cancellation and the transparency. So, ANC is a little bit smarter now. So just like in the last generation, it is able to detect sirens or voices and a transparency mode so you can hear those surroundings. But uh if you just

[10:25] toggle that off, doesn't matter either way. It is still smarter in identifying uh what level of ANC it should actually be using. So in the previous generation, adaptive ANC 1.0 is what they called it was very algorithmic. It would

[10:37] essentially just detect is this like on a plane, is this outside? Like it's going to detect a couple bins of sounds and work based on that. This is adaptive ANC 2.0 which should be like real-time kind of AI based analysis and should

[10:51] really uh adapt to more situations than 1.0. But just talking about full-blown adaptive. You don't do anything. You just turn it on A&Z full blast. How powerful is it? Well, I played the sound of a jet, set distance away, turn the

[11:05] volume up until the earbuds are no longer really able to block it out. And for reference, a lot of earbuds I test are in like the 50 to 55 dB. A lot of the really good ones are like 55 to 60 and the absolute best in the industry.

[11:18] There's only three in that category really. Those are like 62 to 67 dB. They're definitely the outlier, not the norm. These were getting 59 dB. So very very high. Um but not in the same like three leading the entire industry. So if

[11:33] Sony, Bose, and AirPods Pro 3 are leading the pack, these are not far behind. although definitely observably just one notch below their level. As far as high voices go, another test I did because low droning sounds are generally

[11:46] what ANC is quite good at, but higher frequencies are equally as important in my opinion. People talking, you know, things like that. Uh, these are able to block about 47 dB, which is approximately on par with the AirPods

[11:58] Pro 3 and a lot of other earbuds out there. So, I think that that was quite impressive in a quiet environment. Do these have any white noise? Is there any static or hissing or anything? Well, you do hear some very faint only if you

[12:10] music playing. You can hear some very faint ANC sounds and it does worsen very slightly as the volume increases. But I mean, you really have to be looking for So, for example, if I'm sitting at my desk and there's traffic outside and the

[12:25] road's wet, you know, traffic's a little bit louder, then it's not totally silent in the earbuds. It's close, but it's not a pure silence. There are five levels of the ANC, which is excellent. You can adapt it to exactly what you want or you

[12:38] pretty neat. Personally, I just like know, there's other modes for other people. And then, of course, we have ambient sound mode. This is incredibly natural sounding. Wearing these, I'll do

[12:51] it right now. Wearing these and talking with them, my voice sounds so natural. I can hear all frequencies. Like, you could watch TV with these. And it's very ears. It's adjustable to five different levels. And although the levels are very

[13:04] subtly different, it's nice you can tailor it to exactly the volume you volume. It's not too loud and you really don't have basically any white noise at all. There's if if I sit quietly and I really listen closely, there's a slight

[13:19] like static sound, a slight like hissing, but it's relatively minimal in my opinion. You can also tell where sounds are coming from. So, this feels, think this is one of the better ambient sound modes I've tested. And speaking of

[13:33] that, that's probably related to in large part the microphones on these so let's get into a microphone test. These are the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro indoors in a studio environment. From my testing before filming this, I noticed that they

[13:47] two reasons. One, first of all, they're obviously not compressing the sound a really compress the sound when you're on phone calls, even if you're in a quiet environment like this. And that tends to end up with a really weird, unnatural

[14:01] sound. You can use them obviously on phone calls, but also like Samsung wants you to be able to film uh videos using these as a microphone with your phone if you go into pro video mode. So, you have spatial audio with them. Uh as things

[14:13] move around you while you're recording, it's going to record that in like a 360 thing I was going to talk about with this is that the microphones are now 16 kHz instead of 8 kHz. So, significant improvement there. That should improve

[14:27] the more difficult sounds like the very sibilent kind of letters like S's and this sounds. We'll go outside and I'll record with pro video mode uh so you can hear the surroundings and and see what that sounds like. And then we'll also do

[14:40] a phone call as well. All right. So, here is a microphone test in front of a fairly busy road. It's not really that windy out right now, but I'm using the camera app, the Pro Video Mode on the Galaxy S25 Ultra synced up with these. I

[14:53] have the setting toggle to have higher resolution. So hopefully this should actually doing with the background sound in a video like this and I'll also do a well. Okay, so now I'm outside near that same busy road. There's a car going by.

[15:07] The road is wet. It's windy outside. Uh I'm on a call. So see if this is able to block out any of the sound behind me like that car again. Uh honestly I feel here. But we'll see how this does. Okay, so let's talk about some pros and some

[15:22] cons. The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are extremely recommendable. I absolutely and the comfort are incredible. The impressive. And they have pretty much every feature I would want. These are

[15:35] a master of quite a few as well. They also have both Bixby and Gemini baked in. And because Bixb is getting some major improvements with Perplexity, it's going to be a lot more usable. But not everything is perfect about these

[15:48] to see improved that I'll chalk up on the the con side. One is that there's still no true multi-point connectivity. You have seamless switching among Samsung devices and devices that have Galaxy Wear app on them, but not between

[16:01] all devices out there. Here's there's still no precision finding using ultra wideband like a like a Galaxy Tag for example. I would love to see that, blade lights on the blades of these. So, just slightly harder to find and I lose

[16:15] my earbuds quite often. So, that would be nice to see. But otherwise, like I said, there's not much to dislike about these earbuds. These are very, very impressive. And I'm excited to compare these to some other earbuds. Let me know

[16:27] compare these to. And by the way, Samsung's also launching another pair of earbuds, the Galaxy Buds 4 regular. They're an open pair of earbuds, and future. If you want to see that, be sure to subscribe to my channel. I always do

[16:42] this. I'm editing the video now. I never even mention the price. These are $249. The other earbuds, the Galaxy Buds 3 regular, are $179. Pretty familiar prices on them. Also, for what they are, $249 is no small

[16:57] chunk of change, but they're competing pretty well with some $350 or $400 pairs pretty well with some $350 or $400 pairs of earbuds.