The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are here: new design, new sound, new promises

It's Galaxy S26 day, but along with the new flagships, Samsung is also giving us much-needed refresh — the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro and Galaxy Buds 4 are now official!

Samsung seems to have addressed multiple points of contention from the Galaxy Buds 3 models. The tacky lights are gone, the case is back to being more sleek, there was a lot of talk about improved sound and improved fit. Here's everything we know now:

What's new:

• New design with cool brushed metal stems
• New fit, tested against 10,000 simulations
• Upgraded audio
• New Adaptive ANC 2.0
• Seamless switching to any Android device with Galaxy Wearable app and your account

Grab the Galaxy Buds 4 at Samsung

$179 ⁹⁹

The standard Galaxy Buds 4 have just been announced. The earbuds come with an improved design and better audio quality, making them a great pick for many. Pre-order yours at Samsung.com.

Pre-order at Samsung

Pre-order the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro at Samsung

$249 ⁹⁹

If you're looking for Pro-grade Samsung and a super-comfortable design, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are the ones for you. The earbuds stand out with ANC performance and Galaxy AI features. The best part? You can now pre-order a pair at the Samsung Store.

Pre-order at Samsung

Improved design

Samsung did emphasize that sound is the most important feature that users look for in earbuds. However, fit and feel are equally as important — take it from someone who has a hard time keeping most earbuds in.

So, it was pretty encouraging to hear that Samsung has used 100 million data points when crafting the new Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, and the design has been tested through 10,000 virtual simulation for fit and acoustics with different ear types.

If that sounds sort of familiar, it's because Apple also claimed it used 300 million data points when re-designing the AirPods Pro 3. I did love the fit of the new AirPods for sure, so I am hopeful that Samsung's Galaxy Buds 4 Pro will lock in place just as well and not be fatiguing over time (for example, the Buds 3 Pro were fine for me, but would slip out eventually).

You will also notice that the triangular stem design with the funky LED light is gone now. The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro have been redesigned to have a flat stem that is finished with a beautiful brushed metal frame over the other side of the stem. Much classier.

Controlling playback and volume is still done through a mixture of pinches and swipes on the stems themselves. However, Samsung added a little groove for a tactile feel to make it much easier to find the squeeze point. Some users did report that they found it hard to find the "pinch area" of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, so this should take care of that.

The charging case — Samsung calls it a cradle — has also been redesigned. It's no longer vertical, where you insert the buds stem-first, but it's been designed to lay flat. Just like on the older Galaxy Buds 2 Pro models. But the transparent case is still here for that added flair. The case also looks a bit smaller than the Buds 3 Pro case.

But what's more important here is that it should be easier to insert and remove the buds from it. With the Buds 3 Pro case, Samsung had made the weird decision to have the earbuds face outwards when placed in. That made it awkward to quickly take them out and put them in your ears without a bit of fiddling first.

The Galaxy Buds 4 have also been redesigned for a slightly better fit and seal. But these are not in-ears — they don't have a silicone tip, they are more like classic buds. Some users prefer the open design mode than in-ears, so Samsung is providing them an option.

The IP rating on the Pros remains the same at IP57 — that means limited dust ingress protection, and the ability to survive dips in shallow pools of water, between 15 cm and 1 meter.

The Galaxy Buds 4 got a downgrade to IP54, so they should survive sweat, some rain, or the occasional spill accident, but keep them away from the pool.

Galaxy Buds 4 colors

Both the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro and Galaxy Buds 4 will be available in black and white. The Buds 4 Pro also have a Pink Gold color, which will be exclusive if you purchase from the Samsung.com store.

Audio improvements

Samsung still bets on a dual driver system for its Galaxy Buds 4 Pro. Just like last model, we have a dynamic driver as the woofer, and a planar driver for the higher frequencies.

What's new is that they are slightly larger — the woofer is now 11 mm (from 10.5 mm before). The planar driver has shrunk to 5.5 mm from 6.1 mm, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worse as long as it does its job at delivering snappy but smooth highs.

The Galaxy Buds 4 are still a single-speaker design with an 11 mm driver.

Samsung quoted 50% less distortion, but honestly that would be hard to measure. The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro already had sub-1% distortion, which is excellent for any type of earphone. At this point, I would've been fine if the spec stayed the same, but it being improved is pretty impressive.

The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro's issue with sound wasn't distortion, they just didn't have a very fun or enticing, and some sibilance that wasn't easy to dial out without making them dull. So, here's hoping that those were points Samsung was looking to address.

On the software side, Samsung has leaned in on the Adaptive ANC and EQ features.

The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro use Adaptive Active Noise Cancelation 2.0, which means that they are designed to react to sounds in real time and actively adjust which frequencies the ANC is trying to cancel. As opposed to using a single static algorithm whenever it is on. By spec, ANC has been improved by 3 dB, but that's obviously not the whole story here. We do need to test how well this new ANC adapts.



The Galaxy Buds 4 use Adaptive ANC 1.0 — it has a few pre-made algorithms and will switch between them depending on your ambient conditions. Kind of a stepping stone between a static algorithm and ANC 2.0's flexibility.

Adaptive EQ is also available on both — it will analyze both how you are wearing the buds and your unique ear shape to continuously adjust frequency response. However, you will still have the option to fine-tune a custom EQ, if that's what you prefer — I know that's where I am heading.

They do come with spatial audio support — Dolby Atmos and 360 Audio — but that's no surprise, as those were also supported before. Head-tracking included.

Voice call quality

When paired to a Samsung phone, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro and Galaxy Buds 4 will use dual-band Bluetooth to transmit more frequencies as you speak. Samsung claims up to 16 kHz, which, if true, should translate to very clear calls. Typical earbuds sound "muffled" or give you "a lisp" because they aggressively cut off the high end, and sounds like "s", "f", "th", and so forth become hard to distinguish.

If you are using another brand phone, there may still be hope. The Galaxy Buds 4 series will support LC3 (instead of the old SBC codec for phone calls, which we honestly should be put out of its misery), which I found to be excellent on the last few Sony earbud models I tested.

There is one difference between the two models here. As per Samsung, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro use higher signal-to-noise microphones, which should help the noise reduction algorithms when cleaning up your voice.

Extra features when using Galaxy Buds 4 with Galaxy phones

Since Samsung is building an ecosystem, pairing to a Galaxy phone will give you extra perks.

One is the aforementioned voice call quality with dual-band Bluetooth.

For audio, a Samsung phone will provide the use of the Samsung Seamless Codec (SSC), which should deliver 24-bit, 96 kHz audio. Whether one can hear the difference is another topic. This is available on both the Buds 4 and the Pros.

For other phones, you can still use AAC which is an excellent codec for Bluetooth audio.



If paired to a Galaxy phone, you will be able to call up both Gemini or Bixby via voice command. No need to pick just one assistant or the other in the Buds' settings. This feature will be off by default, so the buds aren't actively listening for an AI wake command unless you want them to.

The Samsung quick panel will now have ANC controls in it — you swipe down and hold on the volume bar, like on an iPhone.

The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro and Buds 4 will come with an Interpreter feature, able to translate both real-life conversations and your phone calls in 22 languages. Again, Galaxy phone required.

Now for the bittersweet news — the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro and Galaxy Buds 4 do not support Bluetooth multipoint, meaning they won't be able to be connected to two devices at a time like so many earphones can nowadays. However, as a part of the Samsung ecosystem, they can easily switch over to any device that is logged into your Samsung account. Kind of like Apple's AirPods and your iCloud account.

This means that if you have a different brand Android phone and download the Galaxy Wearable app, then register with your Samsung account, the Galaxy Buds 4 series should be able to easily switch over to this device, without you having to fiddle with the Bluetooth settings every time.

To be fair, this has the potential to be better than simple Bluetooth multipoint, which limits you to two devices. I'm eager to test how seamless the switching is.

Battery life

The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro do have a slightly bigger battery than before, at 61 mAh up from 53 mAh, but battery life numbers have not changed. That would mean 6 hours from the buds with ANC on, 7 hours with it off. With the case, it's 26 hours total with ANC on, 30 hours with it off.

The Galaxy Buds 4 have slightly less playtime with ANC on — 5 hours from the buds, possibly because it's harder to provide adequate ANC with no ear seal. With it off, it's 6 hours of playback. The case total for the Galaxy Buds 4 battery life is 24 hours with ANC, 30 without.

Price and availiability

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 series will be up for pre-order starting February 26th, and will be available for purchase on March 11th. The prices are as follows:

• Galaxy Buds 4 Pro - $249
• Galaxy Buds 4 - $179

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