In great news for the millions of people who purchased Vision Pro as their primary Apple Music device: The new AirPods 4 will deliver lossless audio with ultra-low latency when you connect them to your headphones — a feature previously limited to the USB-C version of AirPods Pro 2.
That means Apple’s cheapest $129 AirPods now outperform the $549 USB-C AirPods Max, which don’t offer lossless audio quality. Though, to be fair, the Max aren’t exactly the ideal shape for sitting on top of headphones.
That's not the only new feature of the new AirPods 4. There's also a change to the button on the charging case. Where the button was once just a button, it's now a capacitive Button. Not only that, but where the previous buttons were on the back, this one is on the front of the case, just below the status light. If I were Tim Cook, I'd be using words like “magical,” “amazing,” and “incredible” right now.
What does the new button on AirPods 4 do?
As before, the button is there so you can easily pair your AirPods to your iPhone, iPad, or Mac if it doesn’t automatically pair. According to Macotakara, pairing is just a matter of double-tapping when you open the case and see the status light. And Gear Patrol adds that you can use it to factory reset your AirPods 4 by long-pressing or triple-pressing the new button. The site also says that the status light on the new AirPods is much more discreet than before, and seems to disappear entirely when you close the charging case.
We’re impressed with what we’ve seen and heard of the AirPods 4 so far: If you don’t like the eartips or the price of the AirPods Pro 2, the $179 ANC version of these new earbuds is a good value; if you don’t like ANC, then $129 for the most basic model is a pretty good price for AirPods sound. And since they have the same H2 chip as the AirPods Pro 2, they’ll benefit from the same AirPods update we wrote about yesterday with gesture controls for hands-free Siri.
AirPods Pro 4 are available for pre-order now and will arrive in stores starting September 20.
