Samsung Galaxy Buds4 True Wireless Bluetooth In-Ear Earbuds

Here's my opinion after over a week of use, almost 7-8 hours per day, about 3-4 hours per session. This is quite a long review, so if you're short on time, you can skip it or scroll to the end for TL;DR. Sound: 8/10. Highs are good, vocals are crisp, bass is tight. The coaxial-dual-driver setup does the job. It's not IEM/audiophile level, but for a casual listening session while taking a walk or a jog, or just hanging around with these on, you'll appreciate the sound quality over any other buds. Fit: 7/10. Probably the only gripe I have with these, the fit is not apt for my ears. It's not loose or wobbly, once I put them on they stay there no matter what, but after over 3 hours of listening there's a slight discomfort. But fit is a subjective aspect. Overall the fit is good, and casual listening usually won't go too long for these to cause trouble. Looks/Design: Metallic-finish shines bright, can be substituted for jewellery in casual events if that's your type, no judgement. But, it's a bit of a fingerprint-magnet, I avoid touching the shiny part to avoid any spies from stealing my identity with just clear-tape, if I do happen to touch it, I wipe it down. One good thing is that touch control can be turned off, so this will not skip songs in my playlist when I'm covering my tracks. For me, the buds appear to protrude slightly outside my ears (don't tell me to rotate them, I have tried all angles/obliques), again this is the way my ears were designed. It might be different for others. Noise Cancellation: 8/10. ANC is quite impressive. Snug fit alone gives Passive Cancellation of about 60% surrounding noise. ANC over that can subdue about 80%, but those are just for low-frequency noises like humming engines, or car acoustics. Speech and sounds like Ambulance/Police sirens, neighbours needlessly drilling their walls, everlasting construction nearby, mother/wife turning on the grinder/mixer, shrieking girls running away from insects/lizards/dogs or female BTS fans during concerts can be heard very mildly. But once you turn on some (good) music even those are snubbed out. It is not industry-leading like Sony/Bose earbuds, but then the price is also not industry-leading. It's a very good deal for this MRP. There is not a great deal of airplane-cabin feeling, just slightly noticeable. It disappears once music is turned on. Transparency: 9/10. This is a very convenient feature that has spoiled me. I despise using other earbuds now because of this feature alone. These buds have been a close friend where environmental awareness is required. Bikers trying to run over pedestrians, cars trying to drive over bystanders, truckers trying to become mass-murders, dogs growling and fighting on the street, I can hear them all! I have avoided close-calls with such situations because of these buds, even with music on! Zomato/Swiggy delivery boys asking for directions or elderly people asking random questions can be answered without any additional movements. Once I start speaking, the earbuds switch to transparency and duck the music volume so I can hear everything. I just have to start with "Pardon me/Can you repeat/Sorry?" and I can continue the conversation from there. After staying silent for 5/10/15 seconds, the earbuds will switch back to the previous mode and bring back the music volume as well. Magic! If you ever get into an argument with someone and need to ignore that person, these earbuds will be your best friend. That said, it doesn't switch for momentary disturbances like coughs and sneezes, so you can continue to enjoy silence/music as your body does it what it does. Just in medium setting transparency works good, although some short-lived high-pitched sounds seem to be amplified slightly. I was able to hear crows cawing and owls shrieking from quite far away, which my normal ears wouldn't have noticed. I have not tried transparency on high/super-high for long durations, I suppose it can be used by elderly people to aid their hearing, or by mischievous people trying to eavesdrop on others. I suspect these buds can be used to listen to conversations in neighbouring houses at highest setting, so if you see your neighbour sporting these any time, start sound-proofing your house. I've assured my neighbours that I only use it at medium setting and I am not interested in their livelihood. Battery Life: 10/10. Almost as advertised, close to 5 hours with ANC on, way over that with ANC off. The case feels slightly heavy compared to other competitors (but not un-pocketable), and build quality is good, although the font used is very light, need to struggle to see it in low lighting. It holds enough to charge the buds 4-5 times. I noticed that about 8% of case charge gives 20% to earbuds. If the buds are drained (I try not to, if I need to listen to something for this long, I have more comfortable and better equipment for that job), the case might last for 3 charges. Charging is fast enough, less than 1 hour to bring them up to

I will divide this review in pros and cons and at last I’m going to provide my overall verdict on this. Pros: 1. EXCELLENT SOUND QUALITY, in terms of sound, Samsung and AKG nailed it, every note of the music is separate and can be easily heard. The sound signature is well-balanced, but if you’re a basshead then you’re going to miss that thumping base because these earphones don’t provide that mind shaking bass, but a good and balanced bass that doesn’t overpower the mids and highs, and doesn’t make the music sound muddy! 2. The ANC is powerful, it’s not the best that you can get in this “above 10k” price range, but for me it’s value for money as I bought these in AMAZON’S GREAT INDIAN SALE for ₹5841 above which I got additional ₹100 cashback making the effective cost ₹5741. The active noise cancellation on these cuts out majority of noise, but not the higher frequency noises, so you will be able to hear people talking while you’re listening to music, but the loudness wouldn’t be very much. If you’re in a car and you activate noise cancellation then the engine and tyre noise completely vanishes which makes me love these earphones even more! 3. AMBIENT SOUND MODE is so damn useful, I need not remove the earbuds while listening to music to hear someone else or to be aware of the surroundings, they do a pretty great job in letting in the outside noises, but yes, they’re not as natural sounding and you would be able to sense a little bit of robotic sound, but it’s not that much, and after the software update, it has improved even more. 4. BUILD QUALITY is great, they feel premium and the case with the matt finish looks sturdy. The magnet on the earbuds is strong, but if you shake the case like crazy then the earphones are going to fall off the case. 5. SAMSUNG WEARABLE APP SUPPORT is great, you can update your earbud’s software through the app, can do a number of customizations of touch controls, change the equaliser, and can even reset these earbuds through the application. 6. TOUCH CONTROLS are amazing, I love it! One Tap - Play/Pause. Two taps - Next song/reject/receive call. Three taps - Prev. Song. Touch and hold - end the call/change noise mode/awake the voice assistant. One more feature that I loved of touch control was that I enabled one setting in the app and then I was able to change the volume level by just tapping the back of my ear. Right ear - Volume Up. Left ear - Volume Down! 7. IPX7 WATER RESISTANCE is phenomenal and should be mandatory on all earbuds. I can put them in water 1M deep for 30mins and they’ll work great. I can use them in showers even! But make sure not to expose them to steam or bathing chemicals. 8. MIC QUALITY is brriliant, the other party has no complaint while hearing me, and it even cancels some white noise at the background so as to improve the call quality even more! Now let’s talk about some of the downside of these earbuds! Cons: 1. BLUETOOTH CONNECTIVITY AND RANGE is average. It’s not the best. It’s not what you would expect from a pair of earbuds that cost 10K. An average set of earbuds also has similar range. Maybe the range is more with samsung phones but that’s not an excuse, as non-samsung users have also paid the same amount of money. 2. COMFORT is not good on these. Definitely not good. Samsung messed up here. When I got them, I used them for around 2-3 hours and my right ear became sore. I couldn’t even wash my right ear canal as it was swollen and it was painful to touch there for next two days, but since I had bought them, I thought to use them with the correct eartips for 2-3 days after the right ear was healed, and since then I haven’t got that problem again, but yes the comfort problem still persists, you would want to remove them after 1-2 hours of use and would require constant readjustment during that time as well! Many people say that after using the correct eartips the issue is resolved, but in my case it wasn’t solved. But yes, I can live with it. But different people have different ears, So maybe for them it’s not an issue, but still there’s a good chance that this problem will occur! 3. NO APP SUPPORT FOR iOS/iPadOS/MacOS USERS. I own an iPad and an android non-samsung phone, and personally that’s an inconvenience that I have to connect to the mobile in order to check the battery level of the buds and the case or to change the touch control settings. ANC and Ambient Mode will still work in Apple devices. One feature that I personally don’t consider as a pro but it’s neither a con as well, and that is VOICE DETECT. If someone talks to me and I can’t hear them, I can just say “pardon” or say anything and the earbuds detect it and switches to ambient from ANC which might sound great and convenient but that’s not convenient in longer conversations and we will have to continously do the “hmm” “ohh” so as to keep the ambient mode from switching back to ANC. But that’ my personal take on that, for others it might be a great convenience! So my final verdict

ANC quality is not good, sound quality and bass is ok ok type ! My oneplus buds 4 is far better as compared to these buds.

Not working properly while talking to others.