Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are the choice — if you have a Galaxy phone

Samsung promised “more than a design refresh” for its new top-end Galaxy Buds – it added upgraded woofers for improved, dual-amped hi-fi sound, a new blade design, clearer call performance, and better noise cancellation. Ultimately, while the $249.99 Galaxy Buds 4 aren’t a huge leap forward over the previous model, they keep what was good about the Buds 3 and improve on most of what wasn’t — as long as you use Samsung Galaxy devices.

That’s because, much like the AirPods Pro 3 with Apple gear, the Buds 4 Pro still work best when paired with another Galaxy device. This unlocks all of the functionality of the Buds 4 Pro, including hi-res audio support, Gemini and Bixby voice wakeup, head gestures for call and Bixby control, the interpreter translation, Auracast, auto switch, and HD voice calling. Some of these are available with an Android device running the Galaxy Wear app, but for iPhone, Windows, and game consoles, the buds can only handle standard audio, calls, and toggling ANC on and off. It might be a good business decision, but it limits who can fully enjoy the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro.

One of the improvements I was happy to see from the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro over the previous version is a better, more consistent sound profile. I found the Buds 3 Pro to be a bit shouty, where certain frequencies in vocals stuck out more than they should. There was a similar problem with the high end, and I didn’t want to listen to them for long periods of time.