AirPods 4 with ANC

A new design and Active Noise Cancellation make these a must-have

- Rob Mead-Green

£179 FROM apple.​com/uk FEATURES H2 headphone chip, Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), dust, sweat and water resistant to IP54, charging case with USB-C and wireless charging, up to 5 hours battery life (AirPods)/30 hours (Charging Case) with ANC off

While Apple added new hearing health features to the existing AirPods Pro 2 at its ‘Glowtime’ event in September, it was the company’s cheaper AirPods that got the biggest overhaul. Still only available in de rigeur white, the new AirPods 4 are available in two different guises: regular AirPods 4 for £129 and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) for £179. It’s the latter we’re looking at here.

While it looks familiar, the design of the AirPods 4 is all-new. Apple has tweaked the AirPods’ contours, shape and size to make them more comfortable to wear for longer periods, and they’ve now been fitted it with Apple’s next-gen headphone chip, the H2, promising improved sound quality with better sound separation, deeper bass and clearer highs. You can see whether that holds true later on in this review.

The biggest change, of course, is that these new AirPods are available with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), which is real game-changer when it comes to your listening enjoyment. Previously only available on the pricier AirPods 2 Pro and AirPods Max, ANC helps drastically cut down the amount of background noise, not only giving you a better audio environment to listen to your favourite music and podcasts, but also enabling you to listen at lower volume – the AirPods 4 may not have the AirPods Pro 2’s hearing health’s bells and whistles, but listening at lower volumes certainly helps.