REVIEW – Are these the ultimate “bang for your buck” earbuds? The EarFun Air Pro 4 Earbuds boast a serious set of features, including long battery life, quality audio, adaptive active noise canceling, and more for under $100. Sounds impressive, right? Let’s see how they perform in real-world applications. To the review!
What is it?
EarFun Air Pro 4 is a set of wireless earbuds with high-quality sound, intelligent, active noise-canceling technology, enhanced call quality, and up to 52 hours of battery life on a single charge of the case. These are also IPX-5 waterproof for exercise and outdoor use.
What’s included?
You’ll get the earbuds, the charging/storage case, a USB-C charging cable, a set of 4 different sized ear tips (including the ones on the earbuds), and a cleaning wand. You’ll also want to download the app for maximum control.
Tech specs
Click to expand
11 hours of play time on a single charge
52 hours of play time w/ charging case
Adaptive Hybrid Active Noise Canceling up to 50dB
Qualcomm QCC3091 SoC with aptX Lossless Audio, Certified Snapdragon Sound, and Hi-Res Audio
Snapdragon sound
Google Fast Pair technology
Automatic in-ear detection
6 built in microphones w/ AI-enhanced call quality
Multipoint Connection & Bluetooth 5.4
App-based equalizer customization
IPX5 Waterproofing
Support for Qi wireless charging
Design and features
Your EarFun Air Pro 4 Earbuds travel in a compact 2.25″ by 1.75″ by 1″ case that fits nicely in a pocket or pouch in your bag. This case also serves as a rechargeable power source for the earbuds, enabling a total of 52 hours of play time between charges! The earbuds themselves carry 11 hours of play time before they need to return to the case for charging.
A USB-C port is positioned on the back side of the case for charging. You can use the USB-A to USB-C cable included in the kit, or any available USB-C cable you carry on a daily basis. These earbuds also support wireless charging on a charging pad.
The front face has a power meter that shows you where your charge is when you open the case.
Open the case fully to reveal the goodies nested in their pods. If you open the case, the earbuds will automatically pair to your device after a few seconds (once you have them set up).
Pop the earbuds out and you’ll get the gist of how they work. You’ll insert that bulbous bit in your ear, and gently rotate into the place so that the external rod sits at roughly a 45 degree angle to your ear canal as shown below.
The EarFun Air Pro 4 Earbuds come with a range of silicone ear tips in 5 different sizes. I found the tips that came on the buds were uncomfortable and ended up replacing them with a smaller size from the kit for my small ears. It’s a pretty simple process to switch them out with a little stretching and wiggling to get the new set in place.
These earbuds are packed with all sorts of tech to optimize sound quality including 6 microphones, an assortment of speakers, and a bunch of smart-enhanced features to optimize performance. This includes several different modes for active noise canceling, full control of the audio equalizers, and additional enhancements to improve call quality. We’ll see more details on that in the section below where we discuss the use of the EarFun app as part of the experience.
The on-earbud controls come from a pair of recessed pads at the top of the external rod. You tap that with your fingertip to engage the desired controls through a combination of single taps, multiple taps, or tap-hold actions depending on the desired result. You can also customize the controls through the app, or disable the controls entirely.
Setup With The App
The pairing of the EarFun Air Pro 4 Earbuds is a straightforward affair. While I believe you can operate the earbuds without the app, you’ll want the app for all the controls it gives you. You can pop it open at any time to see the exact charge levels of your earbuds and charging case, for example. You also don’t need to create an account to use the app with your earbuds!
You can set your sound modes from normal “balanced” sound, to allowing ambient sound, to multiple levels/modes of active noise canceling. These modes use smart technologies to adjust the noise canceling as needed given the environment.
Game Mode optimizes the audio for gaming, while In-ear detection automatically pauses your audio if you pull an earbud out of your ear, then resumes playing when you pop it back in.
Going deeper into the menu, we have even more options, including the ability to disable all controls so that the earbuds aren’t affected if you accidentally whack the buttons. You’ve also got access to an assortment of microphone settings, voice prompt controls, and a few other goodies (including the product documentation) we’ll discuss below.
The equalizer options are phenomenal. It’s got more than a dozen presets based on different musical styles or audio modes (like podcasts, audiobooks) that you can choose from. Or you can skip all that and set your own equalizer settings.
One of the neat features I discovered was a “My Sound Profile” setting. This runs you through a set of audio tests that customizes the equalizers to your hearing by using a set of pings that you respond to in an interactive exercise.
You also have the ability to fully customize your tap controls on the earbuds, which is a welcome feature if you have priority controls you want quick access to.
There’s also a “Find headphones” mode. Press play and it will ping a tone through the earbuds that gets increasingly louder so that you can hear where you left them.
Performance
I’ve been seriously impressed with the EarFun Air Pro 4 Earbuds all-around performance from day 1. There’s a lot of good happening here.
Let’s start with battery life. I use them for an hour or more daily and have charged the pod once in 4 weeks of continuous testing. These will be great for some long travel days I have coming up.
I use these for outdoor walks, weight training, rucking, mowing the lawn, yard work… all the hot and sweaty activities. Between the tight fit and the IPX5 water resistance I have not seen any issues with performance. Once I got the right sized nibs installed I have no problems with discomfort or the buds popping out in the middle of work.
Audio quality is probably the best I’ve experienced in my testing of earbuds. The ability to dial up very specific (and very subtle) equalizer settings is immediately noticeable when you cycle through modes. The active noise cancelling is not only very effective, but the various modes really work. I noticed this specifically when mowing the yard as an example, when you can hear the ANC kick in if the mower revs up. Same for wind mode if you’re out walking. A lot of earbuds with ANC sort of have two modes: off and on. These are the real deal. Call quality is excellent.
The tap control functions on the earbuds are a little twitchy. I think that’s the result of that small target area you have to hit to do the things. They’ll work, but it takes some getting used to. I do LOVE the ability to customize this in the app so that you can focus on what you need. I usually keep it simple for my daily duties (pause/play/volume up and down), but I also like aving the ability to disable the controls entirely. Especially if I’m working in the yard when I might brush the controls by accident.
The app is really, really good on the EarFun Air Pro 4 Earbuds. The usability is excellent and does not require registration tio use (I wish more apps would do this!). The range of customization options is the best I’ve seen in any earbuds I have tested, with nice extras like the “find your earbuds” feature rounding out an already impressive package.
What I like about the EarFun Air Pro 4 Earbuds
- Outstanding sound quality
- Active noise cancelling that really works
- Ability to customize all aspects of the audio features AND tap control functions
- Ridiculous battery life
What needs to be improved?
- Tap control features can be a little twitchy
Final thoughts
I’ve lost count of how many earbuds & headphones I have tested over the years, and I am serious when I tell you that the EarFun Air Pro 4 Earbuds may be the best I’ve tested so far. They have delivered on all the critical elements (sound quality, call quality, ANC) above my expectations with extra features and the ability to customize almost every aspect of their performance. It’s taken some getting used to going back to in-ear buds as I have grown fond of the newer bone-conducting and open-air styles, but these are so good it’s been worth the adjustment. At under $100 they’re also a pretty great deal for the feature set. Highly recommended!
Price: $89.99
Where to buy: EarFun and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by EarFun. EarFun did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
Thanks for the excellent review. I have the predecessor (the Pro 3) and am very happy with that too.
I think you forgot to mention one important feature: wireless (Qi) charging. So convenient!
You know what? You’re right! I will update!