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2024’s Galaxy Buds 3 Pro were quite impressive. With their two-driver configuration and the SSC codec, they produced audio with solid clarity and instrumentation, while also offering users some very well-implemented smart features for onboard voice and gesture controls. This year’s Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are, frankly, an iterative upgrade over last year’s, except for three key areas: sound quality, ANC, and durability.
The aesthetic refinements that build on 2024’s design are appreciable. Though I haven’t experienced this issue, some users have reported trouble with the charging contacts at the bottom of the Buds 3 Pro’s stems. This year’s new case design has you placing the buds horizontally in their case, with pogo pins on the stems contacting the charging surface, rather than vertically, with a metallic base on the stem that contacts the charging pins at the bottom of the case.
The case still has a transparent cover, but Samsung has slimmed it down a bit, and it still supports wireless and wired charging via USB-C. The way my jeans’ coin pockets are set up, I actually prefer the Buds 3 Pro’s case dimensions for carry, but I’m being nitpicky because both fit easily in my coin pockets. RIP, pennies.
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Categories | Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro |
|---|---|
Conectivity | Bluetooth® 6.1, Auto Switch |
Drive units | Enhanced 2-way (11mm Super Wide Woofer + 5.5mm Planar Tweeter) |
Codec support | SSC (Samsung Seamless Codec) HiFi, SSC UHQ (Samsung Proprietary), AAC, SBC, LC3 w/Auracast |
Battery life | Up to 6 hours / Total up to 26 hours (ANC on) Up to 7 hours / Total up to 30 hours (ANC off) |
Charging | USB-C, wireless charging |
App support | Android |
Audio tuning | 9-band EQ (app) |
Microphone | 6 mics total |
Colors | Black, White, Pink Gold (Online only) |
Removing the buds from their case reveals shorter stems with metallic spines, sans the last generation’s light bar. I loved the light show and the blades, being a lover of edged weapons, so I’ll miss those two elements. That said, the metallic backs, though not as unique, still look great with their large mesh ports at the top. Very industrial-looking.
I hate the fit of stem-style earbuds in my ears because, no matter whether they’re Apple, Soundcore, or others, they never really fit well. Samsung changed that with the Buds 3 Pro, and the Buds 4 Pro fit just as snugly in my ears. When I’ve worn them during exercise, they’ve stayed locked in, even during dynamic movements like burpees.
The more you sweat, you may find yourself reseating them from time to time, a shortcoming of silicone eartips more than the angle of the earbuds. If I find it to be big enough a problem, I’ll pick up some Comply foam ear tips for the Buds 4 Pro (their website currently says “coming soon”).
One issue I found with workouts is that wet hands may interfere with touch functionality. After wiping sweat from my brow during a particularly sweaty HIIT workout, I’d run my finger over the volume slider (shown above), but it would be unresponsive. For folks who sweat profusely in the gym, that could be problematic.
Even so, durability has been upgraded from IP53 to IP57, meaning they now have greater protection against dust ingress and can survive being pushed into a pool up to 3 feet deep.
The other controls should be mostly immune to sweaty hindrances and pool-party pranks, as the stems are pressure-sensitive like the Buds 3 Pro, so squeezing and squeeze-and-hold control all the other functions. You can customize many of them in the buds’ settings.
The biggest upgrades for the Buds 4 Pro are the sound and active noise cancelling. They still have two speakers inside, plus a planar tweeter. You get a new, wider woofer with nearly 20% more speaker area, all in a body that doesn’t look any larger than the Buds 3 Pro. That translates to an audibly superior sound this year.
Contributing to that is Samsung’s SSC UHQ codec, which plays back 24-bit/96kHz audio on compatible Samsung devices. If you don’t have that, you’re relegated to SBC, AAC, or LC3, depending on whether your phone supports it.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Boom Bap bass lovers’ listening experiences with KDot’s “Alright,” The Roots’ “Do You Want More?!!!?!?,” and Skrillex’s “Supersonic (My Existence).” Paul Simon’s “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” has a beautiful soundstage, with all the presence and reverb you’d want to hear with the 360 Audio feature enabled.
Various Rock music genres sound delightful, such as System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!”, which gives you guitars with weight to their sound, and the vocals are rendered beautifully.
Jazz is gloriously rhythmic and is reproduced with solid imaging, although listening to Charles Mingus’ frenetic rendition of the popular Jazz romp, “Moanin’,” is where you get to hear the cracks in the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro’s armor. The imaging is still solid, and while the track will put many headphones and earbuds through their paces, the Buds 4 Pro fares well through most of it, except for the busiest parts. During those moments, some sounds tend to blend rather than hold their space.
Ultimately, with almost any genre, you’re in a good place to customize the sound to your liking, since you have access to a 9-band equalizer in the Settings/Wearables app.
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ANC is fairly impressive, too. As I was working my way through my playlists, the active noise cancelling all but muted the gardener with the leaf blower outside my window, but wasn’t able to fully mute the clicks from my mechanical Razer Pro Type keyboard. ANC It won’t beat the Sony WF-1000XM6‘s, but the Buds 4 Pro are $80 cheaper, and this ANC is much better than the previous Buds Pro. It does an admirable job of softening the sounds of airplanes, restaurants, and traffic.
The auto-switch to ambient mode also works convincingly, just like it did on the Buds 3 Pro. When a siren is detected or when you start speaking, the noise cancelling is temporarily deactivated, then turns back on after five seconds of no siren or speech. You can also squeeze the stems to reinitiate ANC instead of waiting.
The six onboard mics do a very good job of keeping voices audible amid significant ambient urban street (70dB) and cafe noise (50dB). My voice was not only audible but also clear and not muddy, though there were times when I sounded like I wasn’t close to the microphones, a bit distant.
After about a week of testing, battery life is very promising, but I have more tests to run to confirm what I’m seeing so far. It looks like Samsung’s claims of seven hours without ANC and six hours with it may hold if you have advanced audio and enhanced ANC features deactivated. With some competitors getting around that much with ANC activated and others seeing closer to 8 hours, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are at least in the running on battery life.
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Some features aren’t new but are worth mentioning, in case you’re new to the Galaxy Buds Pro line. Neck-stretch reminders are great and help you be more mindful of staring down at your phone for long periods, which is bad for your spine/neck.
The on-board and offline voice controls are an exceptional way to interact with basic features like volume up/down, music play/pause, and track skipping. Head gestures are new this time around and work very reliably for calling functions, making them a great, hands-free way to interact with your earbuds and phone by nodding or shaking your head.
Live translation has also been refined since the Buds 3 Pro, allowing you to customize a pinch-and-hold option to activate Interpreter mode. Once the gesture activates the mode, the app opens on the Galaxy S25 Ultra I’m using. It worked perfectly the first time I tried it, playing an educational Spanish-language conversation on YouTube. When I tried a Russian-language video, it didn’t automatically recognize Russian, so I had to set the source language to Russian in the Interpreter app.
While the Spanish translation was solid, the Russian was mediocre. Not the buds’ problem, but worth noting. Also, it takes a couple of seconds to provide the audible 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 of the features even if you don’t have a Galaxy device, such as voice commands. Music sounds better with the LE codec activated, 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 that you do with 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 considerable upgrade over the Buds 3 Pro, but not enough to justify upgrading if you just bought them. Overall, if you use Samsung devices, they’re tough to beat right now — better sound, better ANC, improved durability, and practical on-device controls make them easy to recommend.
