Why you possibly can belief Android Central
Our skilled reviewers spend hours testing and evaluating services and products so you possibly can select the very best for you. Discover out extra about how we take a look at.
2024’s Galaxy Buds 3 Professional have been fairly spectacular. With their two-driver configuration and the SSC codec, they produced audio with stable readability and instrumentation, whereas additionally providing customers some very well-implemented good options for onboard voice and gesture controls. This 12 months’s Galaxy Buds 4 Professional are, frankly, an iterative improve over final 12 months’s, besides for 3 key areas: sound high quality, ANC, and sturdiness.
The aesthetic refinements that construct on 2024’s design are considerable. Although I have never skilled this challenge, some customers have reported bother with the charging contacts on the backside of the Buds 3 Professional’s stems. This 12 months’s new case design has you inserting the buds horizontally of their case, with pogo pins on the stems contacting the charging floor, moderately than vertically, with a metallic base on the stem that contacts the charging pins on the backside of the case.
The case nonetheless has a clear cowl, however Samsung has slimmed it down a bit, and it nonetheless helps wi-fi and wired charging by way of USB-C. The way in which my denims’ coin pockets are arrange, I really choose the Buds 3 Professional’s case dimensions for carry, however I’m being nitpicky as a result of each match simply in my coin pockets. RIP, pennies.
Picture 1 of 5
|
Classes |
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Professional |
|---|---|
|
Conectivity |
Bluetooth® 6.1, Auto Swap |
|
Drive items |
Enhanced 2-way (11mm Tremendous Vast Woofer + 5.5mm Planar Tweeter) |
|
Codec assist |
SSC (Samsung Seamless Codec) HiFi, SSC UHQ (Samsung Proprietary), AAC, SBC, LC3 w/Auracast |
|
Battery life |
As much as 6 hours / Complete as much as 26 hours (ANC on) As much as 7 hours / Complete as much as 30 hours (ANC off) |
|
Charging |
USB-C, wi-fi charging |
|
App assist |
Android |
|
Audio tuning |
9-band EQ (app) |
|
Microphone |
6 mics whole |
|
Colours |
Black, White, Pink Gold (On-line solely) |
Eradicating the buds from their case reveals shorter stems with metallic spines, sans the final era’s gentle bar. I cherished the sunshine present and the blades, being a lover of edged weapons, so I’ll miss these two components. That mentioned, the metallic backs, although not as distinctive, nonetheless look nice with their massive mesh ports on the prime. Very industrial-looking.
I hate the match of stem-style earbuds in my ears as a result of, regardless of whether or not they’re Apple, Soundcore, or others, they by no means actually match effectively. Samsung modified that with the Buds 3 Professional, and the Buds 4 Professional match simply as snugly in my ears. Once I’ve worn them throughout train, they’ve stayed locked in, even throughout dynamic actions like burpees.
The extra you sweat, chances are you’ll end up reseating them on occasion, a shortcoming of silicone eartips greater than the angle of the earbuds. If I discover it to be sufficiently big an issue, I’ll decide up some Comply foam ear suggestions for the Buds 4 Professional (their web site at present says “coming quickly”).
One challenge I discovered with exercises is that moist palms could intrude with contact performance. After wiping sweat from my forehead throughout a very sweaty HIIT exercise, I might run my finger over the amount slider (proven above), however it will be unresponsive. For folk who sweat profusely within the fitness center, that could possibly be problematic.
Even so, sturdiness has been upgraded from IP53 to IP57, that means they now have higher safety towards mud ingress and may survive being pushed right into a pool as much as 3 ft deep.
The opposite controls needs to be largely proof against sweaty hindrances and pool-party pranks, because the stems are pressure-sensitive just like the Buds 3 Professional, so squeezing and squeeze-and-hold management all the opposite capabilities. You’ll be able to customise a lot of them within the buds’ settings.
The most important upgrades for the Buds 4 Professional are the sound and energetic noise cancelling. They nonetheless have two audio system inside, plus a planar tweeter. You get a brand new, wider woofer with practically 20% extra speaker space, all in a physique that doesn’t look any bigger than the Buds 3 Professional. That interprets to an audibly superior sound this 12 months.
Contributing to that’s Samsung’s SSC UHQ codec, which performs again 24-bit/96kHz audio on suitable Samsung units. If you happen to don’t have that, you’re relegated to SBC, AAC, or LC3, relying on whether or not your cellphone helps it.
I totally loved the Growth Bap bass lovers’ listening experiences with KDot’s “Alright,” The Roots’ “Do You Need Extra?!!!?!?,” and Skrillex’s “Supersonic (My Existence).” Paul Simon’s “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Sneakers” has a gorgeous soundstage, with all of the presence and reverb you’d need to hear with the 360 Audio function enabled.
Numerous Rock music genres sound pleasant, comparable to System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!”, which supplies you guitars with weight to their sound, and the vocals are rendered fantastically.
Jazz is gloriously rhythmic and is reproduced with stable imaging, though listening to Charles Mingus’ frenetic rendition of the favored Jazz romp, “Moanin’,” is the place you get to listen to the cracks within the Galaxy Buds 4 Professional’s armor. The imaging remains to be stable, and whereas the observe will put many headphones and earbuds by means of their paces, the Buds 4 Professional fares effectively by means of most of it, apart from the busiest elements. Throughout these moments, some sounds are likely to mix moderately than maintain their house.
In the end, with nearly any style, you’re in a great place to customise the sound to your liking, since you could have entry to a 9-band equalizer within the Settings/Wearables app.
Picture 1 of 4
ANC is pretty spectacular, too. As I used to be working my method by means of my playlists, the energetic noise cancelling all however muted the gardener with the leaf blower exterior my window, however wasn’t capable of absolutely mute the clicks from my mechanical Razer Professional Kind keyboard. ANC It gained’t beat the Sony WF-1000XM6‘s, however the Buds 4 Professional are $80 cheaper, and this ANC is significantly better than the earlier Buds Professional. It does an admirable job of softening the sounds of airplanes, eating places, and visitors.
The auto-switch to ambient mode additionally works convincingly, similar to it did on the Buds 3 Professional. When a siren is detected or while you begin talking, the noise cancelling is briefly deactivated, then turns again on after 5 seconds of no siren or speech. You may also squeeze the stems to reinitiate ANC as a substitute of ready.
The six onboard mics do an excellent job of conserving voices audible amid vital ambient city road (70dB) and cafe noise (50dB). My voice was not solely audible but additionally clear and never muddy, although there have been occasions after I appeared like I wasn’t near the microphones, a bit distant.
After a few week of testing, battery life could be very promising, however I’ve extra checks to run to verify what I’m seeing to date. It appears to be like like Samsung’s claims of seven hours with out ANC and 6 hours with it might maintain you probably have superior audio and enhanced ANC options deactivated. With some opponents getting round that a lot with ANC activated and others seeing nearer to eight hours, the Galaxy Buds 4 Professional are at the least within the operating on battery life.
Picture 1 of 3
Some options aren’t new however are price mentioning, in case you’re new to the Galaxy Buds Professional line. Neck-stretch reminders are nice and allow you to be extra conscious of staring down at your cellphone for lengthy intervals, which is dangerous to your backbone/neck.
The on-board and offline voice controls are an distinctive strategy to work together with fundamental options like quantity up/down, music play/pause, and observe skipping. Head gestures are new this time round and work very reliably for calling capabilities, making them an important, hands-free strategy to work together along with your earbuds and cellphone by nodding or shaking your head.
Dwell translation has additionally been refined because the Buds 3 Professional, permitting you to customise a pinch-and-hold choice to activate Interpreter mode. As soon as the gesture prompts the mode, the app opens on the Galaxy S25 Extremely I’m utilizing. It labored completely the primary time I attempted it, enjoying an academic Spanish-language dialog on YouTube. Once I tried a Russian-language video, it didn’t robotically acknowledge Russian, so I needed to set the supply language to Russian within the Interpreter app.
Whereas the Spanish translation was stable, the Russian was mediocre. Not the buds’ downside, however price noting. Additionally, it takes a few seconds to offer the audible translation, so I wouldn’t depend on it as a mission-critical translation providing.
Samsung needed the buds to be suitable with different Android units, so the Galaxy Wearables app supplies lots of the options even when you don’t have a Galaxy system, comparable to voice instructions. Music sounds higher with the LE codec activated, however the buds will disconnect from the Galaxy Wearables app. In any other case, you’re utilizing the AAC codec by default, and whereas it nonetheless sounds good, you don’t have the dynamic vary that you just do with LE, or, much more so, when linked to a Samsung cellphone utilizing the SSC UHQ codec.
In the end, at $250, the Galaxy Buds 4 Professional are a substantial improve over the Buds 3 Professional, however not sufficient to justify upgrading when you simply purchased them. Total, when you use Samsung units, they’re robust to beat proper now — higher sound, higher ANC, improved sturdiness, and sensible on-device controls make them straightforward to advocate.
