Samsung Galaxy Buds4 and Buds4 Pro hands-on: First impressions from Unpacked

Samsung has officially unveiled the Galaxy Buds4 and Galaxy Buds4 Pro at Galaxy Unpacked. Overall, they still resemble the big design changeup we saw with the Buds3 lineup, but with a few improvements built to go toe-to-toe with Apple’s AirPods — an unsealed model with ANC at $179, a sealed Pro at $249, and plenty of ecosystem-exclusive perks like instant-pair.

Design: A better stem, and back to the clamshell

My last favorite Galaxy Buds were hands down the Galaxy Buds2 Pro. They and the non-Pro 2 were both small, bean-shaped earbuds, each with multiple sizes of ear tips, and came in a compact clamshell case. With the Buds3 lineup, Samsung decided to copy Apple in implementing a stem design and removing the eartips from the standard model. The new 4 lineup basically iterates on that new formula, but with the return to the flat clamshell case, it gets us a little closer to the glory days.

The Galaxy Buds4 still has an open, unsealed design with no ear tips. The Buds3’s fit reliability was our main complaint. The earbuds would dislodge easily with too much skin oil and movement, ANC would cut out, and bass response would fall off a cliff without a proper seal. None of that will change with the Buds4, and they also drop from IP57 to IP54, meaning less water resistance.

The Buds4 Pro, as before, is the only model in the current lineup with silicone ear tips, which is frustrating for those who want a good seal without spending more. However, if you do spend more, the bulb of the earbuds here has been redesigned to be smaller, and they fit more snugly in my ears than the Buds3 Pro do, providing a better seal and passive isolation.

Both models also get a redesigned stem. It now has a flat surface instead of triangular, with an engraved pinch area on the front-facing side for swipe, tap, and pinch gestures. Samsung says they ran 10,000 simulations to refine the fit, and the result is a stem that’s a little easier to grip and operate than the Buds3 were. Gone are the Blade Lights, so if you liked that flashy aesthetic, you’re out of luck. But you do get a nice brushed metal surface in its place, which looks and feels pretty premium.

The case also gets an improvement: the Buds3’s vertical cradle is replaced by a return to the flat clamshell, but with a transparent lid. I always preferred this design because it’s easier to open, drop the buds into, and clean. However, the transparent lid is extremely prone to fingerprints and scratches, visible on nearly all the sample units I handled at Unpacked.

One highly requested feature that seems to have fallen on deaf ears is a speaker in the case to help with Find My. This is something other companies like Google do, so you would think Samsung could as well.

How do they sound?

The Galaxy Buds4 Pro has improved audio hardware over the Buds3 Pro, with Samsung claiming the woofer’s effective area is nearly 20% larger. Both generations use a dual-driver setup — a dynamic driver plus a planar —, but the Buds4 Pro bumps the configuration to an 11mm dynamic driver and a 5.4mm planar driver. In my brief listening experience, that translated to better bass precision and more sub-bass extension compared to the Buds3 Pro’s overemphasized bass response against our house curve.

The standard Buds4, by contrast, uses the same single 11mm dynamic driver as the Buds3. Both models support 24-bit/96kHz audio, but that requires Samsung Seamless Codec (SSC) on a compatible Galaxy device — non-Samsung users are limited to SBC or AAC, same as before. There is still no LDAC or aptX support. When I asked Samsung why, they maintained that SSC offers comparable near-lossless audio with better connection stability.

Improved ANC processing

The Buds3 Pro’s ANC was a step back from the Buds2 Pro, and our lab measurements confirmed weaker sub-bass and treble attenuation. In my usage, I could still hear ambient noise while walking into the office. Samsung’s response is Adaptive ANC 2.0 on the Buds4 Pro, described as real-time processing for more precise cancellation across everyday situations. The standard Buds4 gets ANC 1.0, the same generation as the Buds3 non-Pro.

The microphone array on the Buds4 Pro is still the same (3 SNR mics + VPU + SWB), meaning the ANC improvement is algorithmic rather than a hardware upgrade. Better processing can absolutely move the needle — but we won’t know whether it’s enough to beat the Buds2 Pro’s benchmark, let alone close the gap with the new Sony WF-1000XM6, until we get them in our lab for testing.

A bump in battery life

Both models deliver roughly one additional hour of playback per charge compared to the Buds3 generation, which was the second most-requested improvement from Buds4 readers (31% of votes) and the top request from Buds4 Pro readers (38%). The Buds4 Pro is rated for 6 hours with ANC on and 7 hours with ANC off; the standard Buds4 is rated for 5 hours with ANC on and 6 hours with ANC off.

Note that Samsung’s battery life has historically run short of their claims compared to our lab results, so treat these as a ceiling until we test. For reference, the Buds3 Pro was rated at 7 hours but measured 4.5 hours in our standardized test.

Better microphones and more Galaxy AI

HD Voice is the most meaningful new feature for taking calls. It supports audio up to ~16kHz compared to the standard 8kHz ceiling, which in theory means clearer calls on both ends. There is a catch, however: HD Voice requires both devices on a call to support the feature and both carriers to enable it. Apps like WhatsApp have separate requirements on top of that. So it could be an improvement when all conditions align, but it won’t be a universal experience out of the box.

Samsung also confirmed that the Buds4 Pro will use bone conduction sensors in its microphones to better pick up your voice during calls. We’ve seen this in a few recent earbuds, such as the Sony WF-1000XM6 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2, and our testing of those thus far shows that capturing the vibrations of your voice does contribute to better overall call quality.

Samsung has also added the ability to record 360 Audio from the earbuds’ microphones themselves when capturing video with a Samsung Galaxy phone. This is a feature I haven’t seen before — the idea is that the audio captured will better reflect the POV experience in the recorded video, and I’m eager to try it out in the field.

Both models expand Galaxy AI integration with Gemini and Perplexity hotword support alongside Bixby, enabling voice activation to turn on and control your Samsung phone entirely hands-free. Head gestures are a new addition — a feature we’ve seen on other earbuds such as the Sony WF-1000XM6 — letting you nod to accept a call or shake to decline, and going further than basic call control to extend to AI assistant responses, notification handling, and dismissing alarms and reminders.

Interpreter mode is back, now covering 22 languages, working during phone calls, and triggerable via pinch-and-hold without pulling out your phone.

All of these features are Galaxy phone exclusives. Non-Samsung users get standard Bluetooth audio and no multipoint without the Samsung Wear app. There is still no LDAC or aptX support for either model.

The bottom line (for now)

With the Buds4 lineup, Samsung seems to be doubling down on last generation’s design philosophy to mirror Apple’s earbud playbook — not just with the stem design, but also by offering an unsealed model with ANC at $179 and a sealed Pro at $249, both with a growing suite of ecosystem-exclusive features.

So far, I think the Buds4 Pro are an improvement over the Buds3 Pro, with a more compact case, better fit, improved adaptive ANC, and a less-fatiguing bass response. Whether that’s enough to warrant an upgrade depends on your needs, but if you are deciding between the two, I would recommend the Buds4 Pro.

That said, I’m still not sold on the non-Pro Buds4. I understand some people find this format more comfortable, but the problem is that an unsealed design will always compromise sound quality and isolation. The smart play, once again, might be to wait for the inevitable Galaxy Buds 4 FE, which, if history repeats, will likely bring sealed ear tips and all the key features at the lowest price of the bunch.

Full reviews with lab measurements are on the way.