Rumours abounded ahead of Apple’s Glowtime event that it would announce two versions of its latest AirPods, and thus it came to pass with two new models of the AirPods 4 revealed.
There is your cheaper, standard open-eared version and then another one that supports noise-cancellation and a transparency mode. One is called the AirPods 4 and the other is called AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation.
The additional version boasts ANC and a transparency mode, the former to help reduce external sounds, and the latter to help increase awareness of your surroundings.
This new model also supports Adaptive Audio, which “dynamically blends” ANC and the transparency mode depending on what it detects in your surroundings. Conversation Awareness lowers the user’s media volume when they start talking to someone in a similar vein to Sony’s Speak-to-Chat feature.
Sporting the H2 chip, other new features include Voice Isolation to allow for clearer call quality; while with Siri Interactions, you can use gesture controls (shaking your head) to respond to Siri announcements. Gaming performance is said to be better in terms of audio, delivering low audio latency and high quality voice quality with its support for 16-bit/48kHz audio.
Apple also claim that the AirPods 4 offer the best fit of all its attempts at an open-ear design. Using 3D photogrammetry and laser topograpy, Apple has mapped and analyse the shapes of thousands of ears to create over 50 million individual data points. This, Apple says, has “helped refine the design” for a fit that “naturally fits” more users around the world.
In terms of sound quality, the AirPods 4 have a new acoustic archiecture, low-distortion driver, and high dynamic amplifier; with Personalized Spatial Audio that supports dynamic head tracking to create a sense of immersion with audio, movies, and podcasts.
The charging case is the smallest yet in the AirPods line-up, delivering up to 30 hours in total. You also get USB-C charging and the AirPods 4 with ANC can charge using either the Apple Watch charger of Qi-certified charger.
Pricing for the two headphones is $129 / £129 for the standard model, and $179 / £179 for the ANC version. Availability begins from September 20th, 2024.
