Samsung publicizes Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro at Unpacked 2026

The subsequent Galaxy Buds have been introduced, and Samsung once more mimics Apple in design, ecosystem performance, and pricing. The Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro hold the AirPods-esque design of the Buds 3, however now have a flat steel floor alongside the stem’s exterior.

The common buds use a single 11mm dynamic speaker and would not have silicone ear ideas, whereas the Buds 4 Pro have a number of silicone ear ideas and a two-way design (that means a woofer for decrease frequencies and a tweeter for the excessive finish), similar to the Buds 3 Pro. There’s a 5.5mm planar tweeter and a brand new 11mm “super wide woofer” with an efficient space almost 20 % bigger than the final era, which results in 50 % much less distortion, in keeping with Samsung.

Pricing will keep the identical as the three, with the Buds 4 obtainable for $179 and the Pro model for $249. It’s proper consistent with the AirPods 4 with ANC and AirPods Pro 3. Preorder for both Galaxy Buds 4 starts today, February twenty fifth, with an on-sale date of March eleventh. They’re each obtainable in black and white, with a pink gold model for the Pro solely on-line.

Both buds embrace energetic noise canceling, ambient sound mode, adaptive EQ, and adaptive ANC — though the Pro model has higher adaptive ANC. Samsung says the Buds 4 Pro have a 3dB improve in ANC efficiency (however to what frequencies we’re undecided). As with the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, the brand new Pro buds additionally embrace voice detect, which boosts dialog when the person’s voice is heard, and siren detect to maintain you conscious of sirens and alarms by elevating the ambient quantity once they’re close to.

There are a bunch of options just for Galaxy machine customers, together with quick pairing, hands-free entry to Bixby or Google voice assistants, head gestures for calls or interacting with Bixby, and an Interpreter (reside translation) function with assist for 22 languages. It’s all very harking back to the AirPods’ options, however with out the center charge monitoring and listening to help Apple has added to the Pro line.

The buds use Bluetooth 6.1 and assist Auracast, in addition to Samsung’s proprietary Samsung Seamless Codec (SSC) with 24-bit/96kHz ultra-high-quality (UHQ) audio, AAC, SBC, and LC3 codecs. UHQ requires fashions launched throughout 2023 — just like the S23 sequence, Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5, and Tab S9 sequence — or newer. Both buds additionally assist Samsung’s spatial audio on telephones that run on One UI 4.1.1 or later — mainly every part from the S21 and up.

Samsung says each fashions ought to have marginally higher battery life than the Buds 3 and Buds 3 Pro. This yr’s Pro mannequin offers as much as seven hours of playtime or six hours with ANC (the case offers a further 30 hours or 26 with ANC), whereas the common Buds 4 will rise up to 6 hours or 5 with ANC on (additionally 30 hours extra with the case or 26 with ANC). The instances for each fashions assist wi-fi charging. And this time across the case is a clamshell design as a substitute of a flip-top case, though it additionally has a clear lid just like the Buds 3.

The Buds 4 are rated IP54 and the Buds 4 Pro are IP57. The case doesn’t have an IP score.

The Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro will work over Bluetooth on non-Galaxy telephones, however with among the options — together with noise management, adaptive EQ, pinch management, and firmware updates — requiring the Galaxy Wearable app on units with Android 10.0 or above, they’re not going to be the only option for a lot of non-Galaxy customers.

Using the Galaxy Buds with a Galaxy cellphone, although, will provide a quicker and less complicated setup with out having to put in the Wearable app. The Buds will join when the case is opened, and a fast panel in your display permits for simple entry to quantity, EQ, and ANC settings.

While the Buds 3 Pro supplied nice sound and name efficiency in an admittedly spinoff design, their ANC efficiency wasn’t so scorching. Hopefully, the Buds Pro 4 can repair that. Regardless, the Galaxy Buds 4 and Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are certain to be a go-to alternative for Galaxy machine customers.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge