Samsung Galaxy Buds4 vs Buds4 Pro: Which Galaxy Buds should you buy?
Samsung’s latest Galaxy Buds4 and Galaxy Buds4 Pro share a lot in common, including Bluetooth 6.1, Galaxy AI features, Auracast support, and deep Samsung ecosystem integration. But they’re built around fundamentally different philosophies. One bets on the open, unsealed fit that a few other brands have found success with. The other bets on a sealed in-ear design that prioritizes isolation and audio performance. Which one is right for you depends less on budget than it does on what you want earbuds to actually do.
How has this article been updated?
This article was originally published on March 26, 2026, and this is the first version.
What’s it like to use the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 compared to the Galaxy Buds4 Pro?
Eartips or no eartips?
On the surface, both of these earbuds look nearly identical. They both have a stem design with a premium metal finish and an engraved pinch zone for touch controls, and they both sit inside a square clamshell case with a transparent lid, making it easy to quickly see if your earbuds are actually there. Each earbud is also fairly lightweight at just over 5g, making them ergonomic and comfortable to listen to for long hours.
Where they differ is in how the earbuds fit into your ears. The Galaxy Buds4 Pro comes with three sizes of ear tips to help you find the right seal and also keep the earbuds more stable in your ears. The Galaxy Buds4, on the other hand, do not have ear tips and opt for an unsealed, open design. Some people may find it more comfortable not to have an ear tip sticking into their ear, but the tradeoff is in overall fit stability and passive isolation. As you’ll see in our lab testing, sound quality and noise cancelation performance can vary slightly depending on fit.
On durability, there’s a notable gap as well: the Galaxy Buds4 Pro carries an IP57 rating, meaning it can theoretically survive brief submersion under water, while the Galaxy Buds4 are rated IP54, which is only adequate for sweat and light rain. So if you are looking for earbuds for working out, the Galaxy Buds4 Pro are the better option.
Both earbuds share the same pinch-and-swipe control scheme along the front of the stem. The engraved pinch zone makes it more intuitive to find the right spot than the triangular blade on the previous generation.
Do the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 or Galaxy Buds4 Pro have more features?
Most features are exclusive to Samsung Galaxy devices.
Both earbuds are near-identical on the feature sheet. Both support adaptive noise control, Find My Earbuds, Auracast, spatial audio, 360 audio recording, head gestures, and Google Gemini and Bixby AI assistants. Both integrate with Galaxy devices and unlock the most compelling features, including Hi-Fi, ultra high-quality (UHQ) audio, and super-wideband calling, on recent Samsung devices running One UI 4.0 or later. When paired with a Samsung device, users can experience the full suite of features and enhancements.
One area where both earbuds outperform competitors is with the 9-band custom EQ, along with several EQ presets. It’s surprising how many competitors still don’t offer a custom equalizer on their earbuds, so if you want granular control over your sound, Samsung has an advantage here. Both earbuds also support Adapt Sound in the Galaxy Wearable app, which tailors the audio output to your personal hearing profile for a more personalized listening experience.
How do the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 and Galaxy Buds4 Pro connect?
Both earbuds connect via Bluetooth 6.1 with SBC and AAC as the baseline codecs, and both unlock Samsung Seamless Codec for near-lossless audio (24-bit/96kHz) on Samsung devices running One UI 4.0 or later. Neither supports true multipoint, but switching between devices is still straightforward using the Samsung Wear app on each device, though it adds a couple of extra steps, particularly for those moving between non-Samsung devices.
Is battery life better on the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 or Galaxy Buds4 Pro?
You get an extra hour of listening time with the Galaxy Buds4 Pro.
- The Galaxy Buds4 Pro edges out the Galaxy Buds4 here. In standardized testing, the Galaxy Buds4 lasted 4 hours and 56 minutes, essentially matching Samsung’s 5-hour ANC-on claim. The total runtime of the case is rated at 24 hours.
- The Galaxy Buds4 Pro lasted just over 6 hours in testing, landing on Samsung’s 6-hour ANC-on estimate, with the case delivering roughly 3–4 additional charge cycles before needing a wall charger.
Both figures are fairly average for earbuds at this price point, but the Galaxy Buds4 Pro’s extra hour of earbud runtime may make the difference for you if you do long commutes or travel frequently.
Do the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 or Galaxy Buds4 Pro block noise better?
This isn’t really a close or fair comparison. The Galaxy Buds4 Pro’s sealed silicone tips deliver meaningful passive isolation before ANC even enters the picture, and its active noise canceling averages 84% attenuation across the audible spectrum. It’s especially effective at attenuating mid-range frequencies where a lot of ambient noise lives.
Due to their open design, the Galaxy Buds4 are built more for comfort and awareness, which means noise isolation is more limited, trading off some passive isolation and noise cancelation strength compared to the Galaxy Buds4 Pro. During my testing, slight movement of the earbuds could occasionally impact the seal and affect ANC performance, which is expected with an open design. When fit is stable, ANC is respectable for an unsealed earbud, and Adaptive ANC helps optimize performance based on ear shape and positioning.
Do the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 sound better than the Galaxy Buds4Pro?
Pinches and swipes control these earbuds.
Sound quality here is closely tied to fit. The Galaxy Buds4’s open design means performance can vary slightly depending on how they sit in your ears, bass depth and sub-bass presence may shift, and the upper midrange can come across a touch bright on certain tracks. The unsealed design also naturally limits some sense of width and spatial depth. That said, with a stable fit, the sound is respectable for the format and price.
Sound quality here is again a story that becomes inseparable from fit. The Galaxy Buds4’s open design makes consistent performance the central challenge: bass depth and sub-bass presence fluctuate with every shift in fit, treble runs slightly hot in the upper midrange (making some tracks sound bright or even shrill), and the unsealed design limits any sense of width or spatial depth. Still, when the fit holds, the sound is respectable for the format and price.
The Galaxy Buds4 Pro delivers a more consistent listening experience, supported by its 2-way speaker system that enables a fuller, more dynamic range and Hi-Fi listening experience across bass and higher frequencies. The default sound is dark — heavy bass emphasis with a treble rolloff that can make busy, loud mixes feel muffled. Kick drums and bass-heavy tracks lean into low-end presence, which may not suit every preference. Quieter, acoustic, or older recordings tend to flatter the tuning more. The good news is that the Clear EQ preset does a lot to flatten out the mids and bring some presence into the 1–5kHz range, and the Treble Boost preset is available for those who want a brighter presentation.
Hardware plays a role here too: the Galaxy Buds4 Pro uses a 2-way speaker setup with a dual amp for stronger bass and wider range, while the Galaxy Buds4 relies on a single 11mm driver. Overall, the Galaxy Buds4 Pro sound better. Any tuning issues are addressable through the custom equalizer, and while EQ helps enhance the Galaxy Buds4’s sound profile, performance can still vary slightly depending on fit.
Objective Measurements
The Galaxy Buds4’s frequency response measurements are complicated by the unsealed design: without a reliable seal against our testing fixture, the bass rolloff in the above measurements appears drastic and may not reflect the experience every user gets. With a good fit, the response doesn’t deviate from our house curve as dramatically, even if it leans more consumer-friendly.
The Galaxy Buds4 Pro’s measurements tell a cleaner story: a stronger-than-average bass slope, even mids, and a high-end rolloff in the highest octave. It’s a safe consumer tuning that leans a little dark.
How would most people rate the sound from 1 to 5?
The charts below shows the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS) earned by the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 Series. The algorithm uses a mountain of data from real people to predict how a group of 200 or so humans would rate the sound of a product on a scale from 1.0 (very bad) to 5.0 (very good), and return a mean opinion score.
What do the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores mean?
- Timbre (MOS-T) represents how faithfully the headphones reproduce the frequency spectrum and temporal resolution (timing information).
- Distortion (MOS-D) represents non-linearities and added noise: higher scores mean cleaner reproduction.
- Immersiveness (MOS-I) represents perceived source width and positioning: how well virtual sound sources are defined in three-dimensional space.
The Galaxy Buds4 Pro scores significantly higher across the board. The most striking gap is in Immersiveness: 4.3 vs. 2.0. The Galaxy Buds4’s unsealed design makes it extremely hard to render a convincing sense of three-dimensional space for sound sources. The Galaxy Buds4’s overall score of 3.8 is acceptable, but not great. Again, however, these results can vary based on fit.
The Galaxy Buds4 Pro’s overall score of 4.8 means a simulated panel of a couple of hundred listeners would like the sound a lot.
Do the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 or Galaxy Buds4 Pro have a better microphone?
The microphone noise rejection on both earbuds is pretty impressive.
Both earbuds perform well for calls, but the Galaxy Buds4 pull ahead in outdoor and noisy conditions. Its noise rejection across environments is impressive: voices come through clearly even in louder surroundings, and Super-Wideband support (on compatible Samsung devices) contributes to a more natural call quality. Take a listen to our samples below to compare for yourself:
Samsung Galaxy Buds4 microphone demo (Ideal conditions):
Samsung Galaxy Buds4 Pro microphone demo (Ideal conditions):
Samsung Galaxy Buds4 microphone demo (Street conditions):
Samsung Galaxy Buds4 Pro microphone demo (Street conditions):
Samsung Galaxy Buds4 vs Galaxy Buds4 Pro: Price and availability
The Samsung Galaxy Buds4 Series launched on February 25, 2026. The Galaxy Buds4 go for , and the Galaxy Buds4 Pro go for . Both are available directly from Samsung and major retailers.
Should you get the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 or Galaxy Buds4 Pro?
The Samsung Galaxy Buds4 series looks very stylish.
For most people, the Galaxy Buds4 Pro is the better buy. It sounds better, cancels more noise, has a more consistent fit, lasts longer per charge, and carries a more durable IP57 rating. I would say the $70 premium is worth the performance gains. The unsealed Galaxy Buds4 can be great earbuds, but only if you know the open fit works for your ears.
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As noted above, both earbuds are optimized for Samsung devices, where users can access the full suite of features, including Galaxy AI, Samsung Seamless Codec, and ultra-wideband calling. While they remain compatible across devices, the Galaxy ecosystem unlocks what sets these earbuds apart.
