Apple AirPods 4 With Active Noise Cancellation Review (2026)

Why you should trust this review

I bought this pair myself and Apple did not provide a sample, so nothing here is a polished first impression from a launch event. These earbuds have lived in my pocket for seven months, riding daily commutes, gym sessions, and the ordinary errands where you actually find out whether an open fit design is clever or compromised.

What makes the AirPods 4 with ANC genuinely interesting is the contradiction at its heart, noise cancellation on an earbud that deliberately does not seal your ear. Most ANC depends on a tight silicone seal to block sound before the electronics even start working. Apple is asking the H2 chip to cancel noise without that seal, and the only way to judge whether that works is to live with it through real noise rather than read the spec sheet.

How we evaluated

Over seven months I wore these through the situations that matter for an open fit bud. I tested the cancellation against steady noise like commuter trains, office hum, and street traffic, the environments where you most want ANC but also most want to hear a car or an announcement. I compared the experience directly against the sealed tip AirPods Pro 2 to understand exactly what the open fit gives up.

I ran the battery down repeatedly to check the rated five hours of bud life and 30 hours with the case against real use, wore them through sweaty workouts to confirm the IP54 rating holds, and put them on for runs and walks to test how well the open fit stays put during movement. Spatial Audio and the conversation awareness feature got daily use across calls, video, and music.

The H2 chip and open fit ANC

The headline is that this is the same H2 chip found in the AirPods Pro 2, and it shows. The ANC here is meaningful rather than token. On a commuter train it takes a real bite out of the rumble and the steady drone, enough that podcasts and music sit comfortably above the noise without cranking the volume. That is genuinely impressive given there is no silicone tip sealing your ear.

That said, physics still applies. Without a seal, the cancellation cannot reach the depth of a sealed tip design, and against my AirPods Pro 2 the gap is obvious on the lowest frequencies. The open fit ANC is best understood as taking the edge off a noisy environment, not erasing it. For office and street use that is exactly right. For a loud plane cabin, a sealed tip will always do more.

Open fit awareness: the real reason to choose these

The open fit is the whole point, and it is the feature I came to value most. Because nothing seals into the ear canal, you keep a natural awareness of your surroundings even with ANC engaged. On a walk I hear traffic, on a run I hear a cyclist approaching, and in the office I notice when someone is talking to me without yanking a bud out.

This is a genuinely different proposition from the Pro 2. Where a sealed earbud isolates you and then uses transparency mode to let the world back in, the AirPods 4 simply never shut the world out in the first place, while still cancelling enough steady noise to make audio pleasant. For anyone who finds sealed tips claustrophobic or unsafe to wear outdoors, that comfort and awareness is the killer feature, and the conversation awareness that automatically drops the volume when you start speaking dovetails with it perfectly.

Battery, case, and durability

Battery life held up to the claims in my testing. The buds reliably delivered around five hours of listening with ANC on, and the case kept them topped up across a full day to the rated 30 hours total. For my usage, dock and go throughout the day, I rarely thought about charging, which is the highest compliment you can pay an earbud’s battery.

The switch to a USB-C case is a small thing that matters. It means one cable for the phone and the buds, and it finally retires the Lightning case of the older AirPods 3. The IP54 rating covers sweat and light rain, and across seven months of gym sessions and a few caught in drizzle the buds shrugged it off. Find My integration rounds it out, locating a misplaced bud quickly, which I have needed more than once.

Sound and the fit caveat

Sound from an open fit is always a balancing act, and the AirPods 4 handle it about as well as the format allows. Vocals and detail come through clearly, and Spatial Audio with head tracking works seamlessly with Apple video and music, adding a genuine sense of space to movies. The natural limitation is bass, since without a seal the low end cannot hit as hard as a sealed tip, so bass heavy listeners will notice the difference.

The honest caveat is fit during vigorous movement. The open fit sits in the ear rather than wedging into the canal, and on harder runs I found it could work loose and need a nudge back into place. For walking, commuting, and gym work it stayed put, but if your main use is running, the lack of a locking seal is something to weigh.

Who should buy the AirPods 4 with ANC?

Buy these if you use an iPhone and dislike silicone tips, if you want noise cancellation without losing awareness of your surroundings, and if you value the USB-C case, Spatial Audio, and IP54 sweat resistance. They are the natural pick for walks, commutes, and the office. Skip them if you want the strongest possible ANC for flights, where the sealed tip AirPods Pro 2 do more, if you run hard and need a locking fit, or if you are on Android, since most of the standout features depend on the Apple ecosystem.

The verdict

The Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation pull off something genuinely new, real ANC on an open fit earbud that keeps you connected to the world around you. After seven months they are my default for everyday wear precisely because they cancel enough steady noise to be pleasant without sealing me off from traffic or conversation. The open fit means weaker low end ANC than a sealed tip and a fit that can loosen on hard runs, but for the buyer who values awareness and hates jamming tips into their ears, this is the best version of that idea Apple has shipped.