Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro vs Apple AirPods Pro 3: which flagship earbuds are better?
Bluetooth version: 5.3 (SBC, AAC)
Battery life: 8 hours (buds), 24 hours (total)
Noise cancelling? Yes
Weight: 5.5g (each)
Finishes: x 1 (white)
With excellent sound and ANC, the AirPods Pro 3 are a well-balanced, intuitive pair of premium buds, especially for iOS fans.
Pros
- Spacious, powerful, dynamic sound
- More dynamic than the Samsung buds
- Better ANC, too
Cons
- Total battery life lags behind their Galaxy rivals
- Design may not suit all
- Naturally iOS-focused
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro
Bluetooth: 6.0 (SBC, AAC, Samsung SSC UHQ)
Battery life: 6 hours (buds), 26 hours (total)
Noise cancelling? Yes
Weight: 5.1g (each)
Finishes: x 3 (black, white, pink)
The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are the best-sounding wireless earbuds that Samsung has yet made, with clear, detailed sound and a host features ideal for Samsung users.
Pros
- Clear, nicely balanced sound
- Excellent detail levels
- Strong feature set
Cons
- ANC isn’t quite as strong as Apple’s
- Need Samsung’s SSC UHQ codec to sound their best
- Only three ear tips sizes
That all makes for a really interesting comparison. What we have here are two pairs of flagship wireless buds – the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro and the Apple AirPods Pro 3 – flying the flag for their respective tech giants. Both are on serious upward trajectories, but which brand has made the greatest strides in performance? Let’s find out.
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro vs Apple AirPods Pro 3: price
The Apple AirPods Pro 3 launched at £219 / $249 / AU$429, although given that they’ve been out for a few months, discounts will occasionally chip away at those figures. At the time of writing, for instance, you can find a pair for £204 in the UK at some retailers.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are operating in very similar territory as the AirPods Pro 3. At £219 / $249 / AU$399, we’re still at a premium level, but just below the likes of the Sony WF-1000XM6 (£250 / $330 / AU$500) and the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) (currently £249 / $299 / AU$450).
Being the newer pair, discounts are less likely for Buds 4 Pro, so for now at least, Apple might be able to shade a victory.
** Winner: Apple AirPods Pro 3 **
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro vs Apple AirPods Pro 3: design and comfort
We might have mentioned that the outgoing Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro looked a little like a pair of Apple imitators when we reviewed them in 2024, but that’s not a criticism we could lay at the door of the fourth-gen follow ups.
The new Buds 4 Pro look far more distinctive, and dare we say classy, than their predecessors, sporting a classic stem and bud design with a removable silicone eartip and a sleek metallic stem covering.
The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro sports a solid IP57 certification, offering protection against dust ingress and immersion in water up to a metre deep for around 30 minutes, the same rating as you’ll find from their Apple rivals.
In terms of fit, we don’t find there to be too many issues with the Samsung buds, although there are some caveats.
The removable ear-tips are angled in slightly to allow for a more secure seal, with the stems helping to add a counterweight and keep everything locked into place. While Samsung offers an ear-fit test via the companion Wearable app, we’re still left frustrated that only three choices of tips are included in small, medium and large sizes.
We’d also mention that some of our testers struggled to keep the Samsung buds firmly in place during more strenuous activities such as gym workouts or running sessions, so they may be less suited to sports and strenuous workout sessions.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pros’ touch controls come via a predominantly pinch-and-hold system, whereby you give the stems a squeeze to control operations such as playing and pausing tracks or switching noise cancelling modes, or else swipe up or down on the exterior of the stem to increase or decrease your music’s volume.
That’s essentially the same system as you’ll find with the AirPods Pro 3. There’s not much to choose between the two pairs, here, with the AirPods’ touch controls on the stems remaining intuitive and responsive for managing tasks such as music playback, changing noise modes and controlling volume.
Away from touch controls, we’re rather keen on the AirPods Pro 3’s design. Yes, there are always subjective differences from person to person, but during our testing time, we found them to offer a secure fit which locks into position easily. Plus, you get two extra ear-tip options (XXS and XS) for a total of five, easily beating the meagre three offered by Samsung.
The buds are lightweight and easy to wear in daily use, and we feel the redesign actually is a bit more forgiving of the eartips you choose. If you can get the best fit for your ears, the AirPods Pro 3 are light, unobtrusive and easy to get along with in daily use.
It’s a reasonably close-run thing, but for their well-honed design and provision of extra eartips, we’re giving the win to Apple here.
** Winner: Apple AirPods Pro 3**
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro vs Apple AirPods Pro 3: features
The Apple AirPods Pro 3 and Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are both premium buds (the Pro is the clue there), so in both cases you’re furnished with all of the tricks and treats that you’d expect to find from each brand’s respective wireless flagbearers.
The Samsung buds certainly aren’t light in this regard, housing a healthy array of features to complement their sonic and noise cancelling capabilities.
You’ll need Samsung’s Wearable app to get the most out of your Samsung buds, although as you’ll find with the AirPods when connected to an iPhone, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are integrated within your Samsung device’s native operating system to grant access to many of their features without having to delve into the app at all. As you may have guessed, Apple users get no app support at all for the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro.
For AirPods users, there’s no standalone app for iOS or Android users, as is par for the course, with all settings integrated into your device’s iOS operating system menus instead.
Both sets provide support for spatial audio in some form or another. The Samsung’s offer ‘360 spatial audio’ with head tracking, both of which require a Samsung device in order to work and can be toggled on or off via the accompanying app.
As we said in our review: “The tech works admirably, and unquestionably provides a more spacious and open experience than when listening in standard mode. Head tracking is also effective, even if it does suffer from the usual gripe of having a very slight delay whenever the sound moves from one earbud to the other.”
The AirPods Pro 3 integrate spatial audio with dynamic headtracking with similarly capable results, working slickly and smoothly when paired with an iOS device. You won’t be surprised to learn that if you want the best spatial experience, you’ll want to have access to Apple Music and its catalogue of spatial audio tracks.
What about battery life? Samsung’s wireless flagbearers provide seven hours of charge time from the buds and a total of 30 with the case when ANC is turned off. Switch noise cancelling on, and those numbers drop to around six hours from the buds and a total of 26 hours with the case.
By comparison, the AirPods Pro 3 will manage eight hours in a single charge from the buds with ANC switched on, stretching to a total of 24 hours of overall battery life with the charging case in play. That’s slightly better in-bud battery for the AirPods, but a total of 24 hours does seem a little light in comparison.
The Galaxy Buds 4 Pros’ key feature is the use of Samsung’s proprietary SSC UHQ hi-res codec, which grants transmission of up to 24-bit/96kHz file quality via Bluetooth with compatible Samsung Galaxy devices.
Conversely, there’s still no higher-quality codec support from the likes of aptX or LDAC for the AirPods Pro 3, so you’ll have to settle for the standard AAC and SBC Bluetooth codecs – the general line we tend hear from Apple is that its AirPods simply don’t require hi-res codec support to sound their best. No iPhone, iPad or MacBook support any other codecs either, so this is likely of no issue to iOS users.
Apple does have its own tricks up its sleeve, though. The AirPods Pro 3 come fitted with a new heart rate sensor to track health and workout stats, and they have hearing tests and hearing health-related features, too.
Live translation features are available on both models, but note you’ll need to be on specific (usually the latest) software and compatible devices to make the feature work.
Strong showings from both sides, then, with Samsung’s hi-res codec support countered by Apple’s impressive health-based features. Both have features that work solely with its own devices in their own ecosystems. A draw seems like a fair result.
** Winner: Draw **
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro vs Apple AirPods Pro 3: noise cancelling and voice calls
With the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, calls are delivered clearly thanks to the buds’ trio of microphones and a voice pick-up unit, while background intrusions are capably softened to stop them from interrupting your conversations.
Noise-cancelling is well implemented on the Samsung buds, capable of subduing busy traffic sounds and the general hubbub of the office so we can concentrate mostly on the music.
Samsung’s Adaptive sound feature, which automatically switches to ambient mode when it detects human speech, works well during testing, too. We’re impressed by how effectively the setting clicks into gear whenever we engage in a conversation to test whether our buds are paying attention.
The similar “Conversation Mode” feature on AirPods Pro 3 also intelligently detects when you’re speaking, which lowers the volume of the music so you can have a quick conversation.
Samsung’s buds won’t let you down then, but they’re not quite good enough to overcome the best that Apple has to offer. Call quality is clear, detailed and sounds natural on the AirPods Pro 3, with no harshness or any of that over-processed quality to our voices that we often experience with many lesser earbuds.
Where the Apple buds really distinguish themselves is through their excellent ANC. We take our AirPods Pro 3 and Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro to the gym to test their noise cancelling talents, and while the latter take the edge off the various intrusions we experience – background music, general chatter, the whir of an exercise bike – the AirPods Pro 3 simply suppress the general clamour more powerfully and more effectively.
They’re also much better at dealing with sharp, loud noises than their Samsung rivals. The clank of weights dropping can threaten to intrude in on your best workout playlist, but with the Pro 3, those spikes of sound are impressively diminished to the point that we barely notice them when they occur.
Apple’s noise cancelling capabilities really are mightily impressive, and earn them the win here.
** Winner: Apple AirPods Pro 3**
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro vs Apple AirPods Pro 3: sound quality
We’re convinced that the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are the best wireless earbuds Samsung has made. They sound resplendently clear, clean, well-organised and peppy, offering an enthusiastic, precise and lively tone that is rarely a chore to listen to.
That tone feels similar in general flavour to their third-gen predecessors, but this is still a clear sonic step up from that which came before. As we said in our review, the Buds 4 Pros’ “outstanding levels of textural insight and clarity make a recording of Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca sound appropriately regal, before bringing out the lean, retro feeling of Elvis Costello’s Veronica with aplomb”.
Listening to genres and tracks that really play to their strengths, the Samsung buds deliver a lovely balance between analysis and pure fun. We find that rock, hip-hop and dance numbers tend to fare particularly well, as evidenced by a powerful rendition of Slipknot’s pulsating Before I Forget and a sparky reproduction of Justice’s Phantom Pt. II.
If you want to get the best out of your Galaxy buds, it’s definitely worth getting hold of an up-to-date Samsung device to take advantage of that fancy hi-res SSC UHQ codec.
We use a Samsung S25 smartphone to test out how the earbuds sound with hi-res SSC UHQ codec, and there’s no question that the Buds 4 Pro move to the next level sonically when using this higher-quality codec. They retain their general flavour, but overall clarity and detail levels increase considerably when compared to playing via an iPhone or the standard Bluetooth codec on a Sony Xperia 1 VI smartphone.
How do the AirPods Pro 3 sound by comparison? This isn’t the walkover for Apple that some might have been expecting, and if anything, we find that their Samsung rivals arguably offer greater clarity and textural detail than their rivals can muster. That’s no mean feat, especially as we described the third-gen AirPods Pro as being clearer and more detailed than their antecedents.
Still, the AirPods are superbly clear, balanced and spacious-sounding, with a keen ear for midrange vocal authenticity. They’re immensely easy to get along with, giving music ample room to breathe and allowing musical textures and vocal strands plenty of space to flourish.
Where Apple’s flagships really excel, however, is in their superior feeling of musical engagement. As we said in our review: “Dynamically, they do a wonderful job of conveying the ebbs and flow of a track, and are adept at slowing things down where needed, as well as keeping more energetic compositions in check – all without losing any of the verve or emotional intent of a track.”
They’re also seriously impressive in how they dispatch rhythms, offering a snappy, propulsive sense of timing that keeps our attention from the outset. The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro aren’t poor in this regard, but they don’t quite have that innate rhythmic understanding, especially with more nuanced fare, as their Apple rivals.
This is a close affair, and certainly an impressive effort from Samsung’s pristine, detailed flagships. We find that the AirPods Pro 3’s more dynamic and rhythmically engaging sound takes the cake here, as it just makes us feel more involved and invested in the music we play.
Samsung is closing the gap, but there’s still some daylight between their latest flagships and their Apple rivals.
** Winner: Apple AirPods Pro 3**
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro vs Apple AirPods Pro 3: verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro are the best wireless earbuds the company has made thus far. They’re packed with features and sound better than their predecessors, demonstrating a clear indication that Samsung has what it takes to close the gap on the market’s biggest names.
That said, it isn’t quite enough to beat the best that Apple has to offer. The Pro 3 are the finest performing AirPods yet, and while it’s a close run thing, their impressive ANC talents and more engaging, dynamic sound quality sees them pip their Samsung rivals to the post.
Each pair is designed for a different audience – AirPods for iOS users, Galaxy buds for Samsung users – but all other things being equal, we’d still take the AirPods Pro 3 over their plucky rivals.
** Overall winner: Apple AirPods Pro 3 **
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