Samsung has unveiled its latest premium Galaxy Buds, promising enhancements that go beyond just a design update. The newly released Galaxy Buds 4, priced at $249.99, boast upgraded woofers for a superior hi-fi audio experience, a revamped blade design, improved call clarity, and enhanced noise cancellation. While they don’t represent a massive leap from their predecessors, the Buds 4 refine the strengths of the Buds 3 and address many of its shortcomings, particularly for users of Samsung Galaxy devices.

Similar to how AirPods Pro 3 is optimized for Apple devices, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro delivers the best experience when paired with a Galaxy device. This pairing unlocks the full suite of features, including hi-res audio support, Gemini and Bixby voice activation, head gestures for calls and Bixby control, interpreter translation, Auracast, automatic switching, and HD voice calling. While some features are accessible with an Android device via the Galaxy Wear app, users of iPhones, Windows, and gaming consoles will only have access to basic audio functions, calls, and ANC toggling. This strategic decision may limit the full enjoyment of the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro to a narrower audience.

A significant improvement in the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro is its more balanced sound profile. Previously, the Buds 3 Pro had a tendency to overemphasize certain vocal frequencies and high pitches, making prolonged listening uncomfortable. The Buds 4 Pro addresses these issues, offering a smoother midrange that enhances listening pleasure. Songs like Chris Cornell’s “Black Hole Sun” and “Superunknown” showcase this improved audio quality, with instruments and vocals delivered with clarity and depth.

The bass performance of the Buds 4 Pro sits on the brink of being too powerful, varying with the type of music played. In Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” the bass kick might feel slightly pronounced, yet it adds an engaging pulse to the track. Conversely, the heavy bass in Muse’s “Uprising” might overwhelm some listeners. Fortunately, users can adjust the bass to their liking using the 9-band EQ available in the app, allowing for a personalized listening experience.

For Galaxy device owners, the Buds 4 Pro supports 24-bit / 96kHz high-resolution audio streaming, enhancing the listening experience for those using apps like Qobuz. Tracks such as Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage” benefit from this feature, offering a richer and more expansive soundstage, particularly noticeable in the layered vocals and instrumentation.

The active noise cancellation (ANC) of the Buds 4 Pro has been notably enhanced, effectively minimizing low-frequency noise such as airplane engine hums. While its performance doesn’t quite match the level of the AirPods Pro 3, Bose Ultra, or Sony WF-1000XM6, it marks a substantial improvement over the Buds Pro 3. Users can fine-tune both ANC and transparency modes via the app, providing flexible options to stay aware of surroundings during use.

The Galaxy Buds use an array of six microphones and a voice pickup unit that helps the mics focus on your voice, and during calls they do an excellent job isolating my voice and blocking out things like wind, traffic, nearby people, or loud noises. So much so that my friend wasn’t able to hear a car alarm across the street during our call, or any of the traffic as I walked down a busy San Fernando Valley street. The tradeoff was a hefty dose of compression added to my voice, but I was still easily intelligible.

For those with a Galaxy device, Samsung includes a super wide band for voice option, which increases the bandwidth of calls to 16kHz and can be turned on in the Buds 4 Pro menus. I recorded multiple phone call samples — one with the super wide band turned on with a Galaxy S26 Plus, one with it turned off (while still using the Galaxy phone), and one with an iPhone — all while I walked the same few blocks of a busy street during rush hour. The super wide band makes a minor improvement to vocal quality, but I only noticed it listening to the samples back-to-back. Is it nice to have? Sure. Critical for calls? Absolutely not. There’s no reason not to turn it on if you have a Galaxy device, but those without one aren’t missing much.

The Galaxy Buds still have the AirPods stem design they first adopted with the Buds 3, but Samsung made some changes that are for the better. The silly LEDs along the stem are gone, replaced with a metal strip Samsung refers to as a “blade design,” and they’ve added a third online-exclusive color, pink gold, to go along with white and black. The metallic strip looks as if it’s capacitive, but in fact is just decoration. The capacitive controls are on the sides of the stem and work with both swipe (for volume) and pinch motions (for ANC toggle, pause/play, track controls, assistant activation, and call controls). Which earbud controls what can be customized in the Buds 4 Pro settings on your device, if it’s Galaxy or Android.

There are only three ear tip sizes that come with the Galaxy Buds, while many other earbuds are starting to include additional smaller and larger options. I was able to get a secure fit with the medium tips, and I never worried about them coming loose even when I went on a run. And since the Galaxy Buds are IP57, they make a good set of workout earbuds.

Carried over from the Buds 3 is a transparent top charging case, so you can show off your earbuds as they charge (do people do this?). It’s a clamshell design with wireless charging that fits well into small pockets and is smaller than the cases for the AirPods, Sony WF-1000XM6, and XM5, and much smaller than the bulky Bose Ultra Earbuds.

Yes, the Galaxy Buds are still, much like Apple’s AirPods, essentially a device built primarily for a walled garden — that of the Galaxy ecosystem — but now their performance measures up far more favorably against those iconic earbuds. They sound really good, have ANC performance now worthy of their price, and — if you’re using a Galaxy device — include features like Auracast, high-res audio, and auto switch.

But that exclusivity means the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro aren’t for everyone. I certainly wouldn’t recommend them for an iPhone user (in the same way I wouldn’t recommend AirPods for anyone but an Apple user), and non-Galaxy Android users should also consider the Technics AZ100, Sony -WF1000XM5, or Bose Ultra Earbuds. For anyone with a Galaxy phone, though, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are the top choice.

Photography by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge