Odi Productions
In this article, I’m going to share my HONEST Apple AirPods Pro 3 vs Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro comparison, as someone who has purchased both pairs of earbuds with my own money.
I’ve conducted thorough testing of both wireless earbuds, and I will break down a winner for each category including:
- Comfort and Fit
- Features
- Battery Life
- Microphone Quality
- Noise Cancelling Performance
- Sound Quality
- Value
I’ll be sharing my critical opinion with 10 years of experience as a professional music producer, audio engineer, and tech journalist. I also run the RecordingNOW YouTube channel with over 18,000+ subscribers and over 4 million+ views, where you can watch the video versions of all of our reviews and comparisons.
Let’s dive right in!
Apple AirPods Pro 3rd generation vs Samsung Galaxy Buds4 Pro Comparison in Short
Both the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro and Apple AirPods Pro 3 are two of the strongest “daily drivers” in the wireless earbud class, with elite comfort, mic quality, and noise cancelling performance. The newer Galaxy Buds 4 Pro has a slight edge in the sound quality department, with its massive bass and treble detail from its dual-driver architecture. This may boil down to which ecosystem you’re in, Apple or Android (and more specifically, Samsung Galaxy phone users who can take advantage of “SSC UHQ” high-res codec).
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Comfort, Features, Microphone Quality, and Battery Life
Comfort
The Apple AirPods Pro 3 comes with 5 pairs of foam-infused silicone eartips.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds4 Pro comes with 3 pairs of soft silicone eartips.
Both of these are two of the most comfortable wireless earbuds in the market currently. That said, I slightly prefer the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 Pro over the AirPods Pro 3, due to being lighter, having softer eartips, and a more “forget you’re wearing them” feeling.
Both earbuds are also fairly secure once in place, and are easy to create a physical seal.
I do think the AirPods Pro 3 might be slightly more secure due to having to insert the eartip a little bit further into the ear canal, while the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro have a more relaxed fit.
Features
The biggest difference between these two is that the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro does not have a native iOS app for iPhone users, while the AirPods Pro 3 do not have a native app for Android users.
This isn’t a complete dealbreaker, as I’ve tested both products on the opposing operating systems and they work perfectly fine. It just means that things like firmware updates and customizing controls are limited to their native operating systems, but the devices still function with default settings and controls.
Both the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro and AirPods Pro 3 are rated at an impressive IP57 rating (submersible in water and rain).
The AirPods Pro 3 has more unique features including heart rate sensors for fitness and health tracking, “Live Translation”, and doubles as a clinical-grade hearing aid.
Neither earbuds currently support the “mainstream” high-res codecs of LDAC or aptX Adaptive, but the AirPods Pro 3 supports a proprietary “SPR-AVS” lossless audio that requires an iPhone 17 or Apple Vision Pro, and the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro supports “SSC UHQ” or Samsung Seamless Codec Ultra High-Quality requiring a Samsung Galaxy S23 or newer.
Microphone Quality
One area that the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro improved upon the previous Buds 3 Pro is its microphone quality, now rivaling the AirPods Pro 3 for the #1 best-in-class.
Both of these earbuds have quite impressive mic quality, especially compared to the early generations of wireless earbuds that were rather terrible in this department.
In addition to multiple microphones, the Buds 4 Pro utilizes a VPU or “Voice Pickup Unit” that is essentially a bone conduction sensor similar to what’s featured in the Sony line of earbuds.
Both use a fair amount of AI to filter out and isolate your voice against background noise.
If mic quality is important to you, both of these will do the job better than the entire class.
Battery Life
AirPods Pro 3 Battery Life
- With ANC on: 8 hours of battery life on a single charge / 24 hours total with charging case
- With ANC off: 10 hours on a single charge / 24 hours total with charging case
- Fast Charge: 20 minutes = 2 hours of playback
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro Battery Life
- With ANC on: 6 hours of battery life on a single charge / 26 hours total with charging case
- With ANC off: 7 hours on a single charge / 36 hours total with charging case
- Fast Charge: 10 minutes = 85 minutes of playback
The AirPods Pro 3 has a decent battery life advantage over the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro.
AirPods Pro 3 Score: 9.5 out of 10
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Score: 9.5 out of 10
Winner: Tie
AirPods Pro 3 vs Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro Noise Cancelling Performance Compared
Both the AirPods Pro 3 and Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro improved significantly over their previous-generation counterparts in the noise cancelling department.
The noise cancelling performance is excellent for both of these, especially for the wireless earbud class, but I give a slight edge to the AirPods Pro 3.
For being so comfortable and having a more “relaxed” fit, the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro is quite impressive in its ANC, and even blocks out certain frequencies better than the AirPods Pro 3. However, I find the AirPods Pro 3 better at blocking out human voices and more consistent across the board.
I also think that the passive noise isolation of the AirPods Pro 3 is stronger due to eartip material and being inserted more into the ear canal.
The AirPods Pro 3 has helped Apple to get back near the top for noise cancelling performance, although there are a couple competitors that I think are even slightly better such as the Sony WF-1000XM6 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen.
Both earbuds have Transparency Mode which works very well and sounds pretty natural, of which I slightly prefer the more natural-sounding Galaxy Buds 4 Pro. Perhaps due to less passive noise isolation.
AirPods Pro 3 Score: 9.0 out of 10
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro Score: 8.5 out of 10
Winner: AirPods Pro 3
Sound Quality
Even though I absolutely loved the sound profile of the previous-gen AirPods Pro 2, I was quite surprised that the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro was slightly higher in sound quality.
Fast forward to the AirPods Pro 3, Apple took back the lead in sound quality over the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.
Now with the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro being the newest entrant, does Samsung take back the sound quality advantage over Apple?
Let’s get the technicalities out of the way and discuss codecs, which plays a role in sound quality potential.
Unfortunately, neither of these feature the more accessible high-res codecs of LDAC or aptX. LDAC is available on most modern Android phones, and can be added to iPhone via dongle, while aptX Adaptive can be added via dongle to both.
Both earbuds actually do feature high-res codecs, but they’re exclusive to their respective ecosystems:
- AirPods Pro 3 features “SPR-AVS” lossless audio with iPhone 17 or newer, or Apple Vision Pro
- Galaxy Buds 4 Pro features “SSC UHQ” which is 24-bit, 96 kHz for Samsung Galaxy S23 or newer
Now having tested the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro on both iPhone and Samsung Galaxy with SSC UHQ enabled, I would say the sound quality improvement is about 5-10% better. It’s not a night-and-day difference, and I can vouch it still sounds great on iPhone. Most casual listeners are not audiophiles or reviewers like me and may not even hear any difference at all.
So, with that out of the way, let’s discuss the sound profiles of each.
Interestingly, I find the sound profiles to be more similar than different for the AirPods Pro 3 and Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro 4. Both are fairly V-shaped, exciting, bright, and lean towards consumer-friendly over neutral or warm.
Where I find them to differ is in overall fidelity and clarity, with the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro having a slight edge, likely due to its dual-driver, dual-amplifier setup versus the single driver of the AirPods Pro 3.
The Galaxy Buds 4 Pro features a massive 11mm “Super Wide” Woofer paired with a 5.5mm Planar Tweeter, resulting in seriously impressive bass response and sharp treble details with no muddiness in between.
The bass on the AirPods Pro 3 is no slouch, but I think the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro is one of the best bass responses I’ve heard in a wireless earbud outside of the audiophile-level $449 Noble FoKus Rex5.
The AirPods Pro 3 sounds a little smoother and more “cohesive” due to its single driver architecture and tuning, but less detailed in both the bass and treble regions.
Both earbuds have a fairly open soundstage and nice airiness in the treble, adding to the exciting and lively sound profile.
I think the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro has the slight edge in separation and layering with what the planar tweeters are able to accomplish, separated from the woofer that handles bass and mids.
Overall, both earbuds are in the “fun” category that caters better towards modern and digital music genres, with the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro having slightly higher technical sound quality as a whole.
AirPods Pro 3 Score: 8.2 out of 10
Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro Score: 8.4 out of 10
Winner: Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro
Value
The AirPods Pro 3rd Generation retails at $249 USD, but is currently available for $229 market price brand new.
The newer Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro retails at a similar $249.99 USD currently.
Overall, having tested over 20+ premium wireless earbuds, these are two of the best values as all-arounders for the class.
Both have elite comfort, best-in-class mic quality, excellent noise cancelling performance, and above-average sound quality.
All for around $70 to $100 cheaper than the Sony WF-1000XM6 earbuds, not to mention some of the more niche audiophile brands that may have better sound quality, but are also not nearly as practical.
I can only really think of one earbud that is clearly a better dollar value but not as practical, which would be the SoundPEATS H3.
AirPods Pro 3 Value Score: 9.0 out of 10
Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Value Score: 9.0 out of 10
Winner: Tie
Overall Scoring Breakdown
- World-class noise cancelling performance
- One of the most comfortable fits
- Excellent microphone quality
- Decent sound quality
- There’s better pure sound quality options
- No native Android app
- Best-in-class comfort
- Very fun and detailed sound
- One of the best mic quality
- Incredible bass response
- There is better noise cancelling
- There is slightly better sound quality
Our Verdict: Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro
In one of the closest comparisons to date, the newer Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro narrowly edges out the AirPods Pro 3, largely due to its advantage in the sound quality department.
Without a doubt, these are two of the strongest contenders for best daily drivers in the wireless earbud class, alongside the Sony WF-1000XM6 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds 2nd Gen.
What it may really boil down to is which ecosystem are you on currently?
It’s hard to beat the AirPods Pro 3 if you’re deep in the Apple ecosystem, perhaps just due to sheer convenience.
Likewise, having an Android or Samsung Galaxy phone can help you get the most out of the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro that wouldn’t be possible on an iPhone.
Either way, you can’t go wrong with either of these as your daily driver.
Lastly, if you’d like to save some money and keep supporting RecordingNOW.com’s 100% independent, unbiased reviews, do consider using some of our affiliate links below to shop and even just compare prices. We purchase all products we review with our own money to maintain the highest level of integrity, and your support goes into that plus a continuously improving site experience.
Order HERE for the LOWEST PRICE AVAILABLE (Do NOT pay retail):
Disclosure: These affiliate links may provide a discount and in return, give us a commission in order to keep this website 100% independent to ensure honest unfiltered reviews 🙂
How We Tested and Our Methodology
RecordingNOW.com is a 100% independent publisher with over 10 years of experience testing and reviewing consumer electronics and headphones.
We currently purchase the products we test with our own money, and are not paid by any company or manufacturer to influence our opinions or decisions.
After purchasing the product, we conduct up to hundreds of hours of detailed hands-on testing in a controlled, acoustically-treated environment.
ODi Productions is our resident expert and author of this article, with 10 years of experience as a professional music producer, tech journalist, and audiophile.
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