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AirPods 4 hands-on: noise cancellation for people who hate ear tips

Similar look. smaller case, and now with ANC.

Today, the company announced its AirPods 4 earbuds, which start at $129, but there’s also a higher-tier $159 model that brings active noise cancellation to this open-style design. We’ve seen this attempted by other brands before — most recently Samsung with the Galaxy Buds 3 — and I’m very curious about how well Apple’s implementation will be able to combat city streets and airplane noise without the help of an ear tip seal. The internal acoustic architecture has been redesigned yet again for improved sound, and the AirPods 4 pick up a lot of software tricks from the AirPods Pro, including adaptive audio, transparency mode, and conversation awareness.

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