3 hours ago
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Planar magnetic drivers produce fast, accurate, and detailed sound
Dedicated woofers produce strong bass
Tweeters to produce better mids & highs with a separate bass channel
24-bit 98KHz Bluetooth connection and UHQ audio streaming carry over lossless audio
ANC isn’t very strong and sound leaks easily through the earbuds
Seamless device swapping for only Samsung devices
Apple users get only AAC and lower sound quality
Only six hours of battery life with ANC
In a crowded field of wireless earbuds, the $249 Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro stand out with a new set of planar magnetic drivers and dedicated woofers. Add a higher-bandwidth 24-bit 98KHz Bluetooth signal with Samsung’s new ultra-high-quality audio streaming, and these are the most high-fidelity wireless earbuds for listening to lossless audio. The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro will let you hear a new level of clairity and detail, thanks to its faster, more accurate planar magnetic drivers. The dedicated woofers also add a bigger punch of bass while allowing the tweeters to produce better highs and mids.
If you weren’t a fan of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, the Buds 4 Pro feature a cleaner and industrial design that just rides the edge of being generic. Thankfully the controls are much better with new pinch controls and improved swipe registration.
Some of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro’s downsides is it’s ANC needs work as I could easily hear the subway train and conversations leak through. You also only get seamless device swapping for Samsung devices – there’s no Multi-Port connectivity with other Windows laptops, Macs, iPads, or iPhones. Lastly, all of the Buds 4 Pro’s planar drivers, discrete subwoofer, and high-bandwidth streaming Bluetooth all comes at the cost of battery life that’s at most six hours with ANC turned on.
All of these faults make the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro hard to recommend compared to other wireless earbuds. Especially when its $249 price puts it right in line with the AirPods Pro 3.
📐 Simplified design. The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro look quite a bit simpler and cleaner than the previous sci-fi edge-looking Buds 3 Pro. Compared to the angular shape and distinct lights of Samsung’s previous buds, this new model looks downright generic. That said, they don’t feel cheap at all. The exposed speaker grill and brushed metal panel give the earbuds an industrial feel. Even the white plastic is elevated with a pearlescent finish that makes it look more like a pearl.
🤏 Touch controls done right. While I’m 50/50 on the new design, Samsung knocked it out of the park with the Buds 4 Pro’s greatly improved touch controls. Play, pause, skip track, and all the usual touch controls require a more deliberate pinch of the earbud stems. The pinch controls are fantastic as they prevent accidental touch commands that happen all too often on most other earbuds. The volume controls never accidentally triggered, as they required a more deliberate swipe.
🔊 Planar sound. Samsung has also made the Buds 4 Pro audibly distinct by adding planar magnetic drivers, which are renowned for their clean, accurate, and detailed sound reproduction. Planar magnetic drivers also have the advantage of reacting faster to signals, so there’s less impedance from similar-sounding notes strung closely together. This all helps most with complex tracks like Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, which I heard with greater clarity from the Buds 4 Pro.
🫨 Separate woofer for bass. Most earbuds use a single driver to produce all the highs, mids, and lows; the Buds 4 Pro, however, feature a separate, dedicated bass speaker. What’s more, both the 11mm super wide woofer and 5.5mm planar tweeter inside each earbud are powered by their own amplifier. This all gives the Buds 4 Pro the strongest and clearest bass I’ve ever heard. Having dedicated woofers also allows the earbud tweeters to produce better highs and mids. I can hear a new level of separation between the bass and low-pitched vocals in songs like Haley Williams’ True Believer and Halou’s Honeythief.
🛜 Hi-Fi wireless. Another factor that elevates the sound quality of the Buds 4 Pro is its higher-bandwidth 24-bit 98KHz Bluetooth connection. It’s a nice step up from the usual 16-bit, 48KHz band that most Bluetooth headphones and earbuds use, so you can better enjoy lossless audio streaming from Spotify. Of course, you’re still going to lose some amount of data over Bluetooth versus using headphones like the Apple AirPods Max and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Gen 2 that support lossless audio via an analog cable. Samsung’s UHQ (ultra high quality) audio also only works with Samsung Galaxy S23 or Galaxy Z Fold/Flip 5 phones or newer – sorry, Apple users, but it gets worse for you!
👂 ANC sound leak. Samsung claims it has greatly improved the active noise cancelling on the Buds 4 Pro to block out higher frequencies, especially noise from commuting, but the sound of the NYC subway bled through these earbuds throughout the week I tested them. The ANC available on the Buds 4 Pro blocks out some noise, like office banter and some road noise while in the car, but it’s nowhere near as isolating as the Apple AirPods Pro 3 or Sony WF-1000XM6.
🔗 Multi-port for Samsung devices only. The Samsung Buds 4 Pro can connect to multiple devices and seamlessly switch to them if they’re all Samsung devices. If you want to quickly swap your audio source to your laptop, iPad, or iPhone you’ll have to do it manually everytime. Also, if you’re connecting these earbuds to an iPhone or iPad, you’ll miss out on most of the Buds 4 Pro’s best features, including the aforementioned UHQ audio. The lack of multi-port support for non-Samsung devices seems like a huge miss when its so readily available with most other earbuds today.
📱Natural companion for the Samsung Galaxy S26. The Buds 4 Pro also pairs especially well with any of the latest Samsung Galaxy S26 phones. You can invoke the phone’s AI agents hands-free and you can use Head Gestures like nodding to accept a call or shaking to decline. We’ve tried it in demos at Samsung’s Unpacked event and it worked smoothly even if you look ridiculous while doing so.
🪫 Competitively shorter battery. The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro only boast six hours of battery life, which falls short of the eight hours available to the AirPods Pro 3 and Sony WF-1000XM6. This isn’t due to a battery size issue as the Buds 4 Pro pack 61mAh of capacity, which is higher than the AirPods Pro 3’s 56mAh batteries. The shorter battery life is largely due to the more power-hungry Planar Magnetic Drivers. Battery life is also cut to an even shorter 4.7 hours while streaming UHQ audio from a Samsung device due to the more demanding high-bandwidth Bluetooth signal. The battery case, meanwhile, provides the earbuds with an additional 26 hours of battery life.
You want to hear more clairity and punchier bass with your music
You want more detail from lossless music
Your main phone is from Samsung
You have more non-Samsung devices than those from Samsung
Blocking out all outside noise is absolutely essential for you
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.
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