Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro: Two-minute review
Can earbuds be fantastic, and a disappointment, at the same time? Apparently so: the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are some of the best earbuds I’ve ever tested, but the company has failed to address any of the issues which put buyers (myself included) off the Buds 3 Pro.The latest AirPods Pro rivals from Samsung were released alongside the Galaxy S26 Ultra and co., including a cheaper Galaxy Buds 4 with a few choice downgrades. The Korean company doesn’t just upgrade its audio line-up annually, seemingly waiting for tech to move on enough to justify a newer model. And the good news is, there’s no doubt that these 2026 earbuds prove themselves against their predecessors.The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro sit among the best-sounding earbuds I’ve ever tested, with a driver upgrade letting them stack up against audiophile-designed premium options I’ve tried like the triple-driver Status Pro X and slightly-more-affordable Creative Aurvana Ace 3. You’re going to have to pay a lot to get better in-ear sounds, or opt for a wired pair.The upgrade is in the woofer, designed for bass, which Samsung says is 20% bigger than before. This allows for meaty but controlled bass, allowing the buds to retain the warm sound of past models but without overshadowing mids and trebles. You can also get incredibly high-quality sound thanks to Samsung’s own SSC Bluetooth standard, but only if you’re using a Galaxy phone. The fact that you need a handset from the company to unlock all the features is something we complained about in the past buds, and it’s just one of several issues from older models that hasn’t been addressed. As TechRadar's audio editor wrote recently, if Samsung revived Milk Music so we never had to leave the Galaxy ecosystem, it might be a different story, in the way that Apple Music is the irrefutable bridge between Apple's AirPods and its iPhone, but that isn't the case (so I do still have to mention it). And that's not the only issue that's been carried over. Take, for example, the proprietary ear-tip locking system which saw the Buds 3 Pro delayed. It’s still here! Removing and replacing them is much more fiddly than it needs to be, and yanking them off runs the risk of tearing your tip in two – you also can’t use the vast majority of ‘standard’ ear-tips here, so if you’ve got a selection you’ve bought or leftovers from past earbuds you’ve owned, they’re basically landfill now. Please cough up more cash for Samsung-approved ones.Compounding the problem is the fit: the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro didn’t stay in my ear especially well, and I know this is a problem that plagued 3 Pro users too. The tip material doesn’t offer enough friction to keep the buds in there when you’re on the go, and there’s a lack of any other stabilizing design features like a fin or balanced weighting, which could go some way in rectifying the problem.Many of my Galaxy Buds 4 Pro gripes are smaller pain points that you’ll easily get used to, but the fit problem is a real shame: it was a complained-about point a year and a half ago on the older model, and it’s something that doesn’t get better over time. Know this: I struggled with whether to list the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro with a 4-star or 4.5-star review rating, but I keep coming back to the excellent sound quality and ANC efficacy. If you've got a Samsung phone, you know they'll fit OK, you're good at charging your buds regularly and you're not fussed about switching the ear-tips, they're a 4.5-star product all day long. For the rest of the music-loving market? They're a solid 4…
