Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro Review: ANC Earbuds Perfected

My daily commute is 47 minutes each way on the Delhi Metro, Yellow Line, from Huda City Centre to Rajiv Chowk. That's an hour and a half every day, five days a week, spent in aluminium tubes filled with strangers, announcements, conversations in four languages, babies crying, that one guy who always plays music on speakerphone, and the constant, droning hum of the train itself. I've been doing this commute for three years. And for three years, noise-cancelling earbuds have been the single most important piece of technology in my life. Not my phone. Not my laptop. My earbuds.

So when I tell you I've been testing the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro for the past month, understand that I'm not testing them in a quiet studio or a controlled environment. I'm testing them where earbuds are actually used — in the chaotic, relentless noise of an Indian city. Here's what that experience has been like, organized the way my actual day goes.

6:45 AM — The Morning Metro Crush

I leave my apartment in Gurugram at 6:45 and walk eight minutes to the metro station. The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro go in before I leave the building. By the time I'm on the road, I'm already in my audio cocoon.

The first thing you notice with these earbuds is the fit. Samsung redesigned the ear tips for the Buds 4 Pro, moving to an oval-shaped silicone tip rather than the traditional round ones. This sounds like a minor change, but it matters enormously for noise isolation. The oval tips follow the shape of the ear canal more naturally, creating a tighter passive seal. I ran the in-app fit test and got a "Perfect Seal" on both ears on my first try — something that took me three tip changes to achieve with the Buds 3 Pro.

Walking to the metro station, I use transparency mode. This is the mode that lets outside sound through so you don't get hit by a car while crossing a Gurugram road, which is a real and persistent risk. Samsung's transparency mode on the Buds 4 Pro is the most natural-sounding I've used on any earbuds. It doesn't have that tinny, microphone-y quality that you get on lesser earbuds. Conversations around me sound like I'm not wearing earbuds at all, just with music layered underneath. I can hear auto-rickshaw horns, traffic signals beeping, and people talking — all at their natural volume and timbre.

Then I enter the metro station, and ANC goes on.

The active noise cancellation on the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro is a noticeable step up from the Buds 3 Pro. Samsung says they've improved the low-frequency cancellation by 30%, and I believe it. The rumble of the metro — that deep, vibrating hum that fills the entire train — gets reduced to a faint whisper. It's not completely gone. No earbuds can eliminate low-frequency rumble entirely. But the reduction is dramatic enough that I can listen to a podcast at volume 40% instead of the 65% I needed with my old Sony WF-1000XM5.

ANC Comparison: Morning Metro

I've used three earbuds on this same commute over the past year. Here's how they compare in the metro specifically.

The AirPods Pro 3 have excellent ANC that handles the metro's low-frequency rumble well. Apple's Adaptive Audio feature, which automatically blends transparency and noise cancellation based on your environment, works particularly well on the metro — it ramps up ANC as the train gets louder and dials it back slightly when the train is stopped at a station. However, the AirPods Pro 3 let in more mid-frequency noise than the Samsung — voices, announcement chimes, and the screeching of brakes at stations bleed through more noticeably.

The Sony WF-1000XM6 still has the strongest raw ANC of any earbuds I've tested. In terms of pure silence, Sony wins. The metro rumble is almost completely eliminated, and mid-frequency sounds are also heavily suppressed. But — and this is a significant but — the Sony's noise cancellation creates a slight pressure sensation in my ears that becomes uncomfortable after about 40 minutes. It's like being in a pressurized cabin. Some people don't notice this. I do, and after 47 minutes of commuting, it leaves me with a mild headache on some days.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro land in a sweet spot between these two. ANC is stronger than the AirPods Pro 3 for low and mid frequencies. It's not quite as aggressive as the Sony, but the lack of that pressure sensation means I can wear them for the full commute without any discomfort. For a daily commuter, comfort over long periods matters more than squeezing out the last 5% of noise cancellation.

9:00 AM — Office Calls and Focus Work

I work in a co-working space in Connaught Place. Open floor plan. You know the type — forty people on calls simultaneously, someone's always on a video standup that they forgot to mute, and the coffee machine makes sounds that should be classified as industrial noise. This is where earbuds transition from entertainment device to survival tool.

For calls, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro use a three-microphone setup on each bud with AI-powered voice isolation. In practice, this means the person on the other end of my Teams call hears my voice clearly even when my desk neighbour is having a loud argument about a Jira ticket. I tested this deliberately — I had a colleague sit next to me and talk at normal volume while I was on a call. The person on the call said they could hear a faint background murmur but my voice remained clear and dominant. That's a genuine upgrade from the Buds 3 Pro, where background voices would occasionally bleed into calls and people would ask "are you in a restaurant?"

The AirPods Pro 3 are comparable for call quality, maybe slightly better in very noisy environments. Apple's voice isolation algorithm has a year's head start, and it shows in the most demanding situations. The Sony WF-1000XM6, however, is noticeably worse for calls. Sony's microphone array has always been their weakness, and while the XM6 improved over the XM5, it still picks up more ambient noise than either the Samsung or Apple options. If you take a lot of calls, the Sony is the weakest choice of the three.

For focus work — when I need to block out the co-working chaos and concentrate on writing or coding — the ANC's performance at handling irregular sounds matters most. The steady hum of an air conditioner is easy for any ANC system to cancel. The hard part is sudden, unpredictable sounds: someone laughing, a chair scraping, a notification sound from someone else's laptop. The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro handle these surprisingly well. They don't eliminate sudden sounds (no earbuds do), but they reduce them to a level where they don't break your concentration if you're listening to music or ambient sounds.

I use the "Office" preset in Samsung's Ambient Sound settings, which optimizes ANC for the specific frequency profile of typical office noise. It's genuinely effective. I've started getting more deep work done on days when I remember to put the earbuds in early, which tells you something about how much office noise was breaking my focus without me fully realizing it.

Battery Life During Work Hours

A quick note on battery here, because it's relevant to the work scenario. With ANC on, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro last about 6.5 hours of continuous use. That's enough for a full morning of work (9 AM to 12:30 PM) plus an afternoon session (2 PM to 5 PM) with a lunch break in between for a quick charge in the case. The case itself provides about 3 additional full charges, so total battery life is roughly 26 hours.

The AirPods Pro 3 last about 6 hours with ANC. The Sony WF-1000XM6 lasts about 8 hours, which is the longest of the three. If battery life is your top priority and you want to wear earbuds all day without thinking about charging, Sony has the edge.

5:30 PM — Gym After Work

Three days a week, I go to a gym near my office after work. This is where earbuds face a completely different set of challenges: sweat, movement, bass-heavy music, and the need to stay securely in your ears while you're lifting, running, or doing burpees that you deeply regret agreeing to.

The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro carry an IP57 rating, which means they can handle sweat and rain without issue. Over three weeks of gym sessions, including some genuinely sweaty treadmill runs in a gym whose AC was apparently broken for one memorable week, the earbuds performed without any hiccup. No crackling from moisture, no connectivity drops, no degradation in sound quality.

Fit during exercise is where those oval ear tips prove their worth again. During running, jumping, and overhead presses, the Buds 4 Pro stayed put. Not once did I have to readjust them mid-set. This might sound unremarkable, but my Sony WF-1000XM6 would work loose during running within about 10 minutes. The Sony's larger, heavier body simply doesn't sit as securely during high-impact movement. I eventually stopped wearing the Sony to the gym entirely. The AirPods Pro 3 are better — they're lighter and the silicone tips grip well — but I still found myself pushing them back in occasionally after aggressive movements.

Sound quality for gym music — which in my case means a lot of Punjabi hip-hop, some Bollywood remixes, and a playlist embarrassingly titled "Angry Workout Songs" — is excellent. The bass on the Buds 4 Pro is deep and punchy without being muddy. Samsung ships these with a somewhat bass-boosted default EQ, which happens to be exactly what you want at the gym. I didn't need to touch the equalizer settings. Diljit Dosanjh's "Born to Shine" hits with the kind of bass that makes you add 5 kg to the bar. That's the metric that matters in a gym context.

ANC at the gym is a different calculation than on the metro. You don't necessarily want maximum noise cancellation while lifting weights — being aware of your surroundings is important for safety. I use the Buds 4 Pro's "Outdoor" ambient sound level, which lets in enough environmental sound that I can hear someone asking to work in on a machine, but filters out the general gym din of clanking weights and grunting. It's a good balance.

7:30 PM — The Commute Home and Evening Walk

The evening metro is louder than the morning. It's more crowded, people are more talkative after a full day of work, and there's a distinct energy shift — the quiet, sleepy compliance of the morning crowd is replaced by a tired, impatient buzz. Announcements seem louder. Babies have had it. Everyone's on their phone speakers.

This is when I'm most grateful for ANC. After a full day of sensory input — office noise, gym sounds, city chaos — the ability to press into the right earbud, activate maximum noise cancellation, and suddenly exist in a pocket of relative quiet inside a metal tube packed with 200 people is a form of mental health maintenance. I'm not exaggerating. The commute home with ANC off versus ANC on produces measurably different states of mind when I walk through my apartment door.

The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro's ANC on the evening commute performs identically to the morning. There's no degradation from having used them throughout the day (though I did top them up in the case during lunch). The consistency is reassuring. Some earbuds I've used in the past seemed to have weaker ANC as battery drained — whether that was psychological or real, I'm not sure, but I haven't experienced it with the Samsung.

Sound Quality for Music: An Honest Assessment

Let me talk about sound quality more seriously here, because the evening commute is when I do my most attentive music listening. No podcasts, no calls — just albums, front to back.

The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro feature Samsung's custom dual-driver setup: a 10.5mm woofer paired with a 6.5mm planar magnetic tweeter. The result is a sound signature that's warm, full-bodied, and detailed. Bass extends deep — sub-bass on tracks like "Blinding Lights" by The Weeknd is felt as much as heard. Mids are clear and slightly forward, which makes vocals — whether it's Arijit Singh or Adele — sound intimate and present. Treble is crisp without being sibilant, though on some tracks with aggressive hi-hats, there's a slight metallic edge at high volumes.

Compared to the AirPods Pro 3, the Samsung earbuds have a warmer, more engaging sound. Apple's tuning is more neutral and reference-like, which audiophiles might prefer but which can sound a bit clinical for casual listening. The AirPods Pro 3 have better spatial audio implementation, though — Apple's head-tracked spatial audio for movies and Dolby Atmos music is still the industry benchmark. Samsung's 360 Audio has improved but occasionally loses tracking or creates an odd phasing effect when I turn my head quickly.

Compared to the Sony WF-1000XM6, the Samsung has a similar warmth but less sub-bass. Sony's tuning is the most bass-heavy of the three, which makes them the best choice for bass-forward genres. However, the Sony's treble is slightly rolled off — high-frequency detail like cymbal shimmer and acoustic guitar string texture is more apparent on the Samsung. For a balanced listening experience across genres, the Samsung Buds 4 Pro are the best of the three. For pure bass enjoyment, Sony wins. For neutral accuracy, Apple leads.

The daily reality of earbuds in India is not about sitting in a quiet room evaluating frequency response curves. It's about whether you can hear your podcast over the DTC bus that just pulled up next to you. Whether your caller can hear you over the chai stall vendor yelling orders. Whether the earbuds will survive Delhi's 45-degree May heat and the monsoon humidity that follows. The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro handle all of it.

After the commute, I usually take a 20-minute walk around my apartment complex. This is transparency mode time. I want to hear my surroundings — dogs barking (there's a particularly insistent Labrador on the ground floor), neighbours chatting, the distant honking that serves as Delhi-NCR's unofficial soundtrack — while still having a podcast or low-volume music playing.

Samsung's transparency mode during walks is where the Buds 4 Pro genuinely excel. The sound of the outside world comes through so naturally that you occasionally forget you're wearing earbuds. Wind noise handling is solid — there's a wind-cut feature that activates automatically and reduces the whooshing when a breeze picks up. The AirPods Pro 3's transparency is slightly more natural-sounding, if I'm being precise, but the difference is marginal enough that in daily use you wouldn't notice switching between the two.

Samsung Ecosystem and Android Integration

A practical note for Indian buyers: the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro work with any Android phone or iPhone, but they work best with Samsung phones. On a Samsung Galaxy device, you get auto-switching between devices, 360 Audio head tracking, and the full Galaxy Wearable app experience. On other Android phones, most features still work through the Galaxy Wearable app, but some features like seamless auto-switching between Samsung devices and Samsung's proprietary codec (SSC) are Samsung-exclusive.

If you use an iPhone, the AirPods Pro 3 are the obvious choice due to ecosystem integration. If you use a Samsung phone, the Buds 4 Pro's integration is the best you'll find. If you use any other Android phone — Pixel, OnePlus, Xiaomi — the Samsung earbuds work well but don't get any special ecosystem benefits. The Sony WF-1000XM6 is the most ecosystem-agnostic option, working equally well (or equally averagely) across all platforms.

Multipoint connection — connecting to two devices simultaneously — works on the Samsung and Sony. The AirPods Pro 3 handle this through Apple's ecosystem switching but don't support true multipoint with non-Apple devices. I use multipoint daily, connected to my phone and laptop simultaneously, so I can listen to music on my phone and instantly take a Teams call on my laptop without manually switching. It's one of those features that sounds minor until you use it, at which point you can never go back.

Pricing and the Indian Market Context

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are priced at Rs 18,999 in India. The AirPods Pro 3 retail for Rs 24,900. The Sony WF-1000XM6 sits at around Rs 21,990. So the Samsung is the most affordable of the three premium ANC options, and on sale (which happens frequently on Samsung's website and Amazon during events), they can drop to Rs 14,999-15,999.

At that sale price, the value proposition becomes very strong. You're getting ANC that's in the same tier as earbuds costing Rs 6,000-10,000 more. The sound quality holds up against both competitors. The fit and comfort are the best of the three for long-duration wear. The call quality is second only to the AirPods.

If I had to rank them for an Indian commuter — someone who, like me, spends 1-2 hours daily in noisy public transport, takes work calls, exercises with earbuds in, and wants something that lasts all day — the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are my top pick. The AirPods Pro 3 are the better choice if you're in the Apple ecosystem and value spatial audio. The Sony WF-1000XM6 are the better choice if maximum ANC strength and battery life are your priorities and you don't mind the fit issues during exercise.

Living Inside a Bubble

I want to close with a thought that's been forming over the past month of this review, and really over the past three years of metro commuting with ANC earbuds.

I've become dependent on noise cancellation in a way that slightly concerns me. Not in a dramatic, addiction-narrative way. But in the sense that my tolerance for ambient noise has genuinely decreased. On the rare days when I forget my earbuds at home, the metro feels almost unbearably loud. The office feels chaotic. The street noise during my evening walk feels aggressive. I've trained my brain to expect a filtered version of the world, and the unfiltered version has become harder to tolerate.

I wonder how many of us in Indian cities are quietly building this same dependency. We don't talk about it because, well, it works. ANC earbuds solve a real problem — Indian cities are genuinely, measurably loud, far beyond the decibel levels that health organizations recommend for daily exposure. The Delhi Metro during rush hour hits 85-90 dB consistently. A busy road in Connaught Place during evening traffic exceeds that. ANC earbuds aren't a luxury in this context. They're hearing protection that also happens to play music.

But there's something slightly surreal about walking through Chandni Chowk on a Saturday evening with the Buds 4 Pro in, ANC maxed, listening to Chet Baker while the most sensory-intense place I've ever experienced buzzes silently around me like a movie on mute. Am I experiencing the city, or am I just moving through it? I don't have an answer. I just know that when the train pulls into Huda City Centre at 7:15 PM and I take the earbuds out and the full volume of Delhi crashes back in, there's a brief moment — half a second, maybe less — where the world sounds wrong. Too loud, too raw, too real.

Then the moment passes, and I put the earbuds back in the case, and walk home.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are available at Rs 18,999 on Samsung.com, Amazon, and Flipkart. They come in Graphite, Silver, and a new Sand colour that looks nicer in person than in product photos.