Now that I have my Fold 7 in my hands, I’ve refound a new appreciation for the Samsung Buds 4 Pro. Honestly, I thought this was a conversation that was already done. I returned them in favor of the Sony XM6s and moved on, so I thought.
Getting the Fold 7 brought attention to my direction even more than ever before. I realized that even with phones like the Oppo and Huawei brands out there with all sorts of hype around what they do, and even all the hype that Apple iPhone 17 and the soon-to-be-released possible 18 Pro wide model generate, I’m just stuck with my connection with Samsung. I have picked their phones more than I have ever picked up any other brand. And because of that, some of the assumptions that I have about universal earphones that can be used on any device for multiple point connections, like the XM6, fell apart. In fact, I learned that 95% of each year, if not more, I never attempt to use multipoint ever.
Then the Sony XM6s continued to skip at times while outside walking and wouldn’t listen to me with Google voice commands randomly when I needed them the most on several occasions, only further making me look back over my shoulder. I knew that the Sonys sounded the best (I thought)…I knew they had more battery life (but they didn’t for my setup…I’ll explain). I knew they had my favored touch controls over pinch controls, which I hated. So why go back?
Reality and what I found out!
• Because I always used the battery protection feature, I only ever got 80% of the battery on the Sonys. Well, that equals the Samsung Buds 4 Pro, so that wasn’t a plus I took advantage of.
• Samsung voice controls without command words are possibly the greatest controls and feature I have used in my life, next to ANC. Voice controls trump touch controls, and I never used the pinch controls in 98% of my use.
• And finally, the sound! The Adaptive Sound, when paired with the Samsung Codex UHQ toggles on a Samsung phone, actually makes the sound of these earphones one of, if not tied with, the very best sound experiences I’ve had in earphones like the XM6 and Noble Rex 5. It also counters the DSEE advantage Sony typically has.
The sound on this thing is flat-out immersive and powerful. It has a more spacious sound than the Sonys and more audiophile-like levels with the right EQ, like the one below. Mixing the toggle switches above and this EQ changes every thought I had about the sound. Now I’m getting quality, power, depth, and precision from the sound. With music, audiobooks, ASMR, movies, and YouTube, everything is in place and running so smoothly and crisply without the loss of proper bass and mid details.
You throw this into an earphone that fits, is lightweight, and comfortable. On top of that, add the best controls ever put on an earphone with its zero command word voice controls (trust me, you are sleeping on this…most people have no idea how great their version is compared to all others), and now you give me audiophile-like quality and sound power thanks to the two amps and dual drivers. Throw in a few gimmicks like translate features, one of the best hear-throughs, decent phone calls, and a nice battery life and portable tiny case, and we have problems. The ANC right now is already really good, but not being better than the Sonys now means so much less than it did before.
Look, at the end of the day, Sonys are still the best checked-box earphones on the market. The Samsung Buds 4 Pro aren’t going to defeat the Sonys in terms of checked boxes, even though they are the closest to doing so, as they both read text messages when you receive them, and no other earphone company does this 98% of the time. The Buds 4 Pro also may tie in other areas, or you might not care about using that feature where the Sonys have the advantage. Which does you no good. It’s truly about your perspective and subjective thoughts on what’s important. I can give both the XM6 its flowers as well as the Samsung Buds 4 Pro. But the Samsung Buds 4 Pro are better than I believed (didn’t have all the toggles on or this EQ on my prior pair), especially in sound. I’m just being honest here. And yes, you can just go get the Sonys and be perfectly happy. You could even do the unthinkable by most people’s ignorance and buy AirPods Pro 3 for your Samsung and be just fine. I’ve tried it and almost never returned them, even without features like Siri’s translate. The AirPods Pro 3 sounded amazing and had the best ANC and best Hear-through, even on a Samsung phone. So trust me, there are so many ways to approach this concept depending on your needs.
Mine look like this ..
- Comfort and portability
- Reliability(no problems)
- Sound w/EQ 8 band at the very least)
- Voice controls/A.I
- Battery life
- Read my text
- Phone calls quality
So yours could be different and only you can determine this. So don’t let this make you look over your shoulders if you are perfectly happy already or have other ideas about what’s important for you and where to get that from. It’s all subjective.
Tech-N-Things 