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The year 2024 Galaxy Buds 3 Pro it was quite impressive. With a dual-driver configuration and SSC codec, they produced audio with solid clarity and instrumentation, while offering users very well-implemented smart functions for on-board voice and gesture controls. This year’s Galaxy Buds 4 Pro is clearly an iterative improvement over last year’s, except in three key areas: sound quality, ANC, and durability.
The aesthetic subtleties built on the design of 2024 are remarkable. While I haven’t had this issue, some users have reported issues with the charging contacts on the underside of the Buds 3 Pro’s stems. This year’s new case design allows you to place the buds horizontally in their case, the pogo pins on the cases contact the filling surface instead of vertically, with the metal base on the case making contact with the filling pins on the bottom of the case.
The case still has a transparent cover, but Samsung has toned it down a bit and still supports wireless and wired charging via USB-C. How to make coin pockets in my jeans I actually prefer the case of the Buds 3 Pro sizes to carry, but I miss it a lot because both fit easily in my coin pockets. RIP, pennies.
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Categories |
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro |
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Relatedness |
Bluetooth® 6.1, Automatic switching |
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Drive units |
Upgraded 2-way (11mm Super Wide Woofer + 5.5mm Planar Tweeter) |
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Codec support |
SSC (Samsung Seamless Codec) HiFi, SSC UHQ (Samsung Proprietary), AAC, SBC, LC3 w/Auracast |
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Battery life |
Up to 6 hours / Up to 26 hours total (ANC on) Up to 7 hours / Up to 30 hours total (ANC off) |
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Filling up |
USB-C, wireless charging |
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Software support |
Android |
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Audio adjustment |
9-band EQ (app) |
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Microphone |
A total of 6 microphones |
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Colors |
Black, White, Rose Gold (online only) |
Taking the buds out of their box reveals shorter stems with metal poles that lack the last generation’s light bar. I loved the light show and the knives, I love edged weapons, so I will miss those two elements. However, the metal backs, while not unique, still look great with the large mesh ports on top. Very industrial looking.
I hate root-style earbuds that fit my ears, because whether or not they do appleSoundcore or otherwise, they never fit well. Samsung changed that with the Buds 3 Pro, and the Buds 4 Pro also fit perfectly in my ears. When I wore them during exercise, they stayed on, even during dynamic movements like burpees.
The more you sweat, the more you may find yourself repositioning them from time to time, which is more a drawback of the silicone earcups than the angle of the earcups. If I find this to be a big enough problem, I’ll pick up some Comply foam ear tips for the Buds 4 Pro (their website currently says “coming soon”).
One of the problems I find with exercise is that wet hands can interfere with the touch function. After wiping the sweat from my brow during a particularly sweaty HIIT workout, I’d run my finger over the volume accelerator (shown above), but it wouldn’t respond. This can be problematic for people who sweat a lot at the gym.
However, the durability has been upgraded from IP53 to IP57, meaning they now have more protection against dust ingress and can survive being plunged into a pool up to 3 feet deep.
The other controls should be largely immune to sweaty bumps and pool parties, as the stems are pressure-sensitive like the Buds 3 Pro, so all other functions are controlled to squeeze and squeeze and hold. You can customize many of them in the settings of the buds.
The biggest improvements to the Buds 4 Pro are volume and active noise cancellation. They still have two speakers inside, plus a planar tweeter. You get a new, wider woofer with about 20% more speaker area in a housing that doesn’t look any bigger than the Buds 3 Pro. It turns out to be an audibly superior sound this year.
Contributing to this is Samsung’s SSC UHQ codec, which plays 24-bit/96kHz audio on compatible Samsung devices. If you don’t have that, you’re down to SBC, AAC, or LC3, depending on whether your phone supports it.
KDot’s “Alright”, The Roots’ “Do You Want More?!!!?!?” and Skrillex’s “Supersonic (My Existence)” I thoroughly enjoyed the Boom Bap bass lovers listening experience. Paul Simon’s “Diamonds in His Shoes” has a beautiful soundstage with all the presence and reverb you want to hear when the 360 Audio feature is on.
Various rock genres sound delicious, like System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!”
Jazz is beautifully rhythmic and repetitive with solid imagery, although you can hear the cracks in the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro’s armor when listening to a frenetic rendition of Charles Mingus’ famous jazz tune, “Moanin’.” The image is still solid, and while the track outpaces many headphones and earphones, the Buds 4 Pro perform well on most except the most demanding parts. In those moments, some sounds tend to blend in instead of taking their place.
Finally, in almost any genre, you’re well-placed to tweak the sound to your liking, as you have access to a 9-band equalizer in the Settings/Wearables app.
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ANC is also quite impressive. While working through my playlists, active noise silenced the gardener outside my window with a leaf blower, but it couldn’t completely drown out the clicks of my mechanical Razer Pro Type keyboard. It will not defeat the ANC Sony WF-1000XM6‘s, but the Buds 4 Pro are $80 cheaper, and that ANC is better than the previous Buds Pro. It does an admirable job of dampening the sounds of airplanes, restaurants, and traffic.
The automatic switch to ambient mode also works as convincingly as it does on the Buds 3 Pro. Noise cancellation is temporarily disabled when a siren is detected or when you start speaking, re-enabling five seconds after the siren or speech sounds. You can also squeeze handles to restore ANC instead of waiting.
The six on-board microphones do a very good job of picking up sounds between substantial city street (70dB) and cafe noise (50dB). My voice was not only audible, but also clear and not muddy, although there were times when I felt that I was a little far away, not close to the microphones.
Battery life is very promising after about a week of testing, but I have more tests to confirm what I’ve seen so far. It looks like Samsung’s claims of seven hours without ANC and six hours with it may hold up if you disable the advanced audio and advanced ANC features. While some competitors see close to 8 hours with ANC enabled, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro at least make up for the battery life.
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Some features are not new, but are worth mentioning anyway you are new to the Galaxy Buds Pro line. Neck extension reminders are great and help you be more mindful of looking at your phone for long periods of time, which is bad for the spine/neck.
Onboard and offline volume controls are an exceptional way to interact with key functions such as volume up/down, play/pause music and track skipping. Head gestures it is new this time and work very reliably for call functions, making them a great hands-free way to interact with your headphones and phone by nodding or shaking your head.
Live translation has also improved since the Buds 3 Pro, allowing you to customize the pinch-and-hold option to activate Translator mode. After activating the gesture mode, the application opens on the screen Galaxy S25 Ultra i use It worked perfectly the first time I tried it while playing an educational Spanish chat on YouTube. When I tried a Russian language video, it didn’t automatically recognize the Russian language, so I had to set the source language to Russian in the translator program.
While the Spanish translation was solid, the Russian was average. Not a problem with buds, but worth noting. Also, it takes a few seconds to provide voice translation, so I wouldn’t rely on it as a mission-critical translation offering.
Samsung wanted the buds to be compatible with other Android devices, so the Galaxy Wearables app provides many features even if you don’t have a Galaxy device, such as voice commands. Music sounds better with the LE codec enabled, but the buds will disconnect from the Galaxy Wearables app. Otherwise, you’re using the AAC codec by default, and while it still sounds good, you don’t have the dynamic range you do with the LE, or even more so when connected to a Samsung phone using the SSC UHQ codec.
Ultimately, at $250, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are a significant upgrade over the Buds 3 Pro, but not enough to justify the upgrade if you just bought them. Overall, if you’re into Samsung devices, they’re hard to beat now – better sound, better ANC, improved durability and practical on-device controls make them easy to recommend.
