Earfun Air Pro 4

Feature rich and superbly tuned True Wireless​

The Earfun Air Pro 4 are the latest generation of TWS from EarFun and as you will see they are both packed with features and have a very decent Harman inspired tuning, so I thought these would make an excellent TWS for a detailed review.

Background​

Having previously been very impressed with the Earfun Ware Pro ANC headphones, I was very interested when I spotted some early positive reviews for the Air Pro 4, so I decided to buy immediately especially as it was on sale at around €70. It arrived from Amazon just in time for my walking ‘Camino’ holiday across France and Spain, so I decided to bring it with 2 other TWS that I recently also reviewed from three different price ranges to have a bit of fun comparing and testing the features of all three over a pretty intense 2-week period, so let me get into the details of what I found with the Air Pro 4 (as well as some comparisons later in this review).

Unboxing, Packaging and Accessories​

The Air Pro 4 comes with a sleek and premium packaging:



Some of technical features on the side of the box:


Note: I won’t get into Auracast in this review - but it might be one of those new audio technologies that will become a requirement going forward.

Opening up the box you get a manual, a quick start guide, some eartips, a usb-c charging cable and of course the Air Pro 4 inside their carrying case:


The carrying case is a nice size:



There are tabs to remove protecting the batteries:



A decent amount of eartips, but crucially I found I could actually use many third party eartips, so I ultimately switched to using some XL Spinfits:


One of thing I immediately noticed with these TWS is there are a lots of little premium touches that you would not expect at this price, for example, there are magnetics which catch each TWS as you place them in the case instantly “line them up” with the charging points, or the groves in the cover that line up the earbuds:


Both these assist in making the charging very consistent which I appreciated especially as i mainly used third party larger than normal ear tips so these “alignment” features really help guaranteeing that the earbuds get charged.

Another nice refinement is the lights that come on when you open up the case revealing the earbuds - maybe to see them in the dark:


And of course the case has both usb-c and wireless charging and there are some lights on the case to indicate the charging levels:


I also believe there has been some subtle changes to the shape of each TWS:





Here is a comparison of a couple of my recently reviewed TWS and the AirPods Pro:


The AirPro4 is the second from the left and while it will be subjective I do think they have tweaked the angle of the nozzle for better fit especially compared to the Soundcore which is the left most TWS in this picture.

I believe Earfun made the Air Pro 4 shorter than previously models and have a slightly different angle and curvature that improves their fit and comfort, and while its very subjective I did find them extremely comfortable.

They are also IPX5 rated, making them suitable for workouts and outdoor use in the rain.

Controls & Wear Detection​

The touch controls are fully customizable through the Earfun app.



There are a good selection of customisation offered:



Wear detection works very well, pausing and resuming playback as expected.

Microphone​

While perfectly acceptable in its price range I did find the microphone was a little ‘buggy’ occasionally switching to a very ‘hallow’ sound (or so I was told on a few calls).

This was especially relevant if I took a call when out on a windy day (as I did on a few of the days during my walking trip). I think Earfun have utilised some “intelligent algorithm” to automatically mute background noise, but it can get confused depending on the background noise.

There is currently a little configuration around the microphone though I would have appreciated a little more - maybe wind noise cancellation on the microphone:

ANC & Ambient Mode​

The Air Pro 4 features five ANC modes, including a strong mode that reduces noise up to 50dB. The ANC performance is very solid, effectively reducing noise across various environments, but it is very dependent on getting a ‘seal’ within your ears. So I do really appreciate the options to use larger or even very custom eartips within the case of the Earfun. This makes it easier for the majority of people to get decent ANC performance from this TWS.



As you will see in the measurement section, when the ANC modes are selected there is a slight change (but nothing too dramatic) to the tuning profile selected and the Ambient mode does not affect the tuning at all.

Ambient mode is functional but could present a more natural sound though this is a minor gripe and only really noticeable when unfairly comparing directly against a flagship like the Apple Airpods Pro 2, but it does the job and switch to Ambient be controlled with one of the gestures on the earbuds.

Battery Life​

With ANC off, the Air Pro 4 is rated up to 11 hours of playtime, and up to 7.5 hours with ANC on. Of the 3 TWS I brought with me the Air Pro 4 had the most impressive ANC and I used it for 2 complete days of 6+ hours walking (as there were large sections on these days near roads / towns where I needed ANC). The ANC as I mentioned above worked very well and after 6+ hours walking each day I still have at least 20% battery left, so I would believe the battery ratings.

The case also provides up to an additional 41 hours, again from my trip, this is believable as I only charged the case itself once during the 2 weeks (though I was also using 2 other TWS on different days). I did briefly test the rapid quick charge, give you 2-hours of music playback from a very brief charge.

The Companion Mobile App:​

The companion mobile app is very good, maybe slightly behind what Soundcore offer with their app but ahead of every other ‘companion’ app I have tried in the sub $200 price range, though of course the Airpods have that ‘built-in’ advantage with deep integration into IOS devices.

There is a very Apple like experience as a pop-up appears when it detects your new Air Pro 4:



You might be prompted to update to the latest firmware:



This was the Firmware update that I applied:



The home screen shows all your Earfun devices:



There is an excellent selection of configuration options:



There are some nice options like “find headphones”:



And some language options:



And lots of the now typical bluetooth 5.4 options like “Gaming mode” / Low latency mode and multi device connections.

Codec Support​

I should also point out that the codec support is exceptional with LDAC and AptX ‘Loseless’ available as well as all the usual AAC / SBC to give the best support on both Android and IOS devices.

There are also some newer advanced codecs like “LE Audio” and Auracast:



Once I have a chance to try Auracast I will be definitely including it in future reviews and I didn’t get a chance to try the Google Fast pair option.

When I mentioned at the start of this review that this was a feature rich TWS ] this is what I meant it has mostly everything I imagine you should have in a TWS and more features than any other sub $100 TWS.

Sound customisation​

For me, one of the first things I now check with the latest TWS (and now with usb-c based IEMs) is how can I customise the sound, I would normally first look to figure out how to ’normalise’ to a balanced target typically ‘Harman’ and then tweak to my own preferences (useless a little less bass than ‘Harman).

But as you will read in my sound impressions and see in the measurement section, the Air Pro 4 is already tuned exceptional well. So this is one of the first TWS that doesn’t really any tweaking, but it is still nice to have the options:


The sound customisation gives you a clever ‘wizard’ like screen to guide you through some audio samples to get the sound you might like:


But I personally appreciated the 10 Band EQ much better:


Note: I am still waiting for full PEQ in a sub $100 TWS.

Sound​

Let me start by saying, the moment I started listening to my ‘audio test’ playlist I realised this was exceptional well tuned. As far bass and midrange it had everything I could want from a TWS and sounded ‘Harman like’, with exceptional clean bass and a well-defined midrange with no ‘muddyiness’. So for example ‘Fade into You’ by Mazzy Star sounded amazing with clean bass and ‘Hope Sandoval’ vocal clean in the mix.

The Treble was the only area where I thought things might be improved a little as some instruments in some of my test tracks sounded a little less defined. I actually did quick tweaks with the EQ (which I will present later) to fix this when on my trip. Nothing dramatic more/less I increased the treble a little which fixed this minor problem, but then I did notice this did cause slightly more fatigue with my longer listening sessions, so this area might be one of those that should be very much tuned to your personal preference as the default might be perfect for you already.

Overall, I think Earfun have done an astonishing job with the sound here, totally ignoring the usual “more bass == better” formula that companies like Soundcore and other in this space have been pushing for years. If you like a balanced sound the Air Pro 4 will a great choise.

Specifications and Measurements​

These are the published specifications of the Air Pro 4:

Measurements​

These measurements were made with my 711 ‘clone’ coupler with REW and are available on my measurement database here

So lets start with the frequency response:


This shows great channel matching and for the bass and midrange an excellent match to the harman target. There is a slight midrange emphasis in the 1500Hz to 3000Hz which typically gives a slight vocal forwardness to the sound. This definitely helps with the imaging which I did think was excellent for a TWS. The treble does roll off a little in the measurement but subjectively it not as much as it looks in this measurement, but can do with a little EQ help.

Now lets look at the other profiles which are mostly all slight variations of this tuning:

So the Rock profile (and the Pop and Latin profiles) add more bass, while the classical lowers the bass, the electronic has some subtle changes.

Note: I measured all the profiles, and they are available on my DB, but they are all slight variations of ones I presented in the graph above, so nothing ‘dramatic’ which I think is a good thing as we have some EQ for more dramatic changes.

I also measured the various “simple profiles” e.g. Bass Reduction, Treble Boost etc and here is the differences they make and as you can see they all make sense:


So I measured all the min and max EQ levels in REW:


So you can see there is some significant amount of tweaking.

Normalise these to the ‘default’ profile shows the range of each band:



So it varies from about +/- 5db to about +/- 3dB in the midrange, so not a massive amount but given how close to Harman the default level is I think this level of tweaking is still more than adequate. One thing I did notice was these ‘filters’ are pretty wide so changing a single EQ does affect the surrounding filters:


Next I also measured the affects of the ANC and Transparency / Ambient modes.

First the Ambient modes - there are 2 which I believe vary the level of external sounds but when measuring these in silent they do not affect the audio quality of the music:



With the ANC modes - the “balanced mode” seems odd but the other modes have some subtle adjustments to the audio quality mainly a slight lower midrange boost:


So finally, I did play around with the EQ a little within the App - though as I mentioned earlier this is not really necessarily, I just thought it might be a bit of fun. So this was getting it offically closer to ‘harman’ lower the upper midrange and increasing the treble to ‘fill’ in the treble:


Note: Subjectively I found this more exciting than the default profile but maybe the extra treble might be too for some. This was achieved with this change in the EQ within the Application:



Note: Increasing one band affects neighbouring bands, so you have to adjust accordingly.

Distortion:​

The distortion is well controlled:



At a percentage you can see it well below 1%:

Group Delay​

Group delay is pretty normal for a dynamic driver:

Comparisons​

So I have been lucky enough to try many TWS over the past 6 months, so I thought adding a section with some comparisons might be useful:

Versus the iKKO ActiveBuds​

So, you might be wondering the 2 other TWS that I directly compared the Air Pro 4 with on my recent holiday, they were the iKKO ActiveBuds which are effectively an Android DAP built into their charging Case, making them feature rich, but they had terrible audio out of the box and while the EQ was pretty great, it was hard to edit and overall it is a more cool gadget with its AI capabilities than a traditional TWS, and it costs 4 times the Air Pro 4. The Air Pro 4 has better ANC and much better default sound quality where I didn’t feel the need to EQ and its App is much more like a traditional TWS App, The iKKO ActiveBuds doesn’t really have an App - though you configure it directly using its small screen on the case which is pretty cool.

Versus the Rose Technics Ceramics X​

The other TWS that I brought with me was the Rose Technics Ceramics X which is roughly 1/2 the price of the Air Pro 4 and while it is very decent for its price it doesn’t have the refinement in all areas that the Air Pro 4 offers. The Ceramics X sound quality is good but not as balanced as the Air Pro 4, the app is poor and the case and overall feel of the Ceramics X is that level below the Air Pro 4. But I did like the bullet style TWS earbuds.

Versus the Airpods Pro 2​

The Airpods Pro 2 offers better ANC and a better microphone (at least mine did until I unfortunately washed my Airpods Pro 2 in a washing machine) but I would actually take the Air Pro 4 for its balanced sound profile and especially for the ability to use your own eartips, as the case for the Air Pro 4 supports XL sized eartips. The Airpods Pro 2 of course offers much better integration into the Apple Ecosystem, and I love the seamless swapping between devices, and it has some of those high-end features like Spatial Audio and Adaptive Audio.

Versus some other recent TWS I reviewed​

The Hifiman Svanar Wireless LE still sounds better especially if you want that amazing soundstage for a TWS (without any Apple ‘Spatial Audio’ tricks) but fails with things ANC like Wind detection ( I could not wear it outside my house with ANC as all I could hear was Wind interference ) and the lack of an app for customisation. It also had a better microphone than the Air Pro 4 but its bulky case and lack of decent bluetooth codecs meant it is more an ANC for ‘special occasions’ rather than a daily driver like the Air Pro 4.

The Moondrop Golden Ages (and the Space Travel) have good audio quality but lacked the refinement of the Air Pro 4, though at $25 the Space Travel can be forgiven still a great buy at that price. The Moondrop App is far behind Earfun App offering only a fraction of the configuration options you get with the Air Pro 4.

Then finally compared to the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro, Liberty 4 or the newer Liberty 4 NC the Soundcore App is slightly more feature rich than the Air Pro 4 with features like HearID but the both the default sound profile of the Air Pro 4 is better but Soundcore EQ has actually gotten worse over the years and lacks a way to get a balanced sound out of the earbuds. These are also 2 times the price of the Air Pro 4.

Rating​

I have given the Earfun Air Pro 4 a very pragmatic 5 stars, it is not perfect but for at its price point it is great and better than any other TWS under $100. If you want your TWS to have a balanced sound profile, be extremely comfortable, have all the TWS features you could want both for now and for the immediate future then the Air Pro 4 is a great choice.

Conclusion​

While the Earfun Air Pro 4 is not quite an “Airpods Pro 2” “flagship killer” at 1/4 the price, it is a better TWS than any Soundcore at 1/2 the price and easily the best TWS at the sub $100 price range. So, If you’re an audiophile on a budget, the Earfun Air Pro 4 is a fantastic choice with its premium build quality and a huge selection of features (wireless charging, multipoint connections, ,excellent codec support, decent ANC, EQ customisations, Bluetooth 5.4, Wear detection, Auracast), only slightly let down by some quirks with the ANC and the microphone.

The Earfun Air Pro 4 is a solid recommendation.

How I review: (See Previous Reviews)
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Model: Earfun Air Pro 4
Product Page: Earfun
Price: £59.99 currently with Amazon UK
Review Reference: RC151

Manufacturer Specification:

• Brand: Earfun
• Model: Air Pro 4
• Driver: 10mm composite diaphragm driver
• Chipset: Qualcomm QCC3091
• Mic: 6 mic AI ENC & cVc 8.0
• ANC: Yes - Up to 50dB with multiple modes & Adaptive ANC
• Codecs: LDAC, aptX-adaptive, aptX-lossless, AAC, SBC
• App Support: Yes
• Multipoint: Yes
• Customisable Controls: Yes
• Gaming Mode: Yes
• In-Ear Detection: Yes
• Earbud Weight: 5.18g
• Earbud Dimensions: 31mm stem
• Gross Case & Buds Weight: 53.43g
• Case Dimensions: 64mm {maximum} (width) x 50mm (height) x 30mm (depth)
• Case Charge Capacity: 350mAh
• Quick Charge: Yes - 3 hour playtime from 5min
• Wireless Charging: Yes
• Charge Time: approx. 90 minutes (buds and case)
• Single Use Playtime: Up to 11 hours (ANC off) 7.5 hours (ANC on)
• Playtime with Charge Case: Up to 52 hours
• Bluetooth Range: 10m advertised
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth® 5.4
• Bluetooth Protocols: BLE/ HFP 1.7/ A2DP 1.3/ AVRCP 1.5
• Water Resistance: IPX5

Includes:

1 x Pair Wireless Earbuds
1 x USB Type-C Charge Case
1 x USB Type-C Charge Cable
4 x Eartip Pairs (S, SM, M, L)
1 x User Manual

YouTube Review:



Introduction

Back in May 2023, I gave my verdict on the Air Pro 4's predecessor, the Air Pro 3, and it's the first time I'd reviewed a product and genuinely wondered if I was missing something. The effusive and unequivocal praise from YouTubers and reviewers across the globe was directly at odds with what I was seeing and hearing - a bulky, angular earbud with decent ANC, but a horribly bloated sound signature that, contrary to claims by Gamesky et al, wasn't fixed with a firmware update (at least according to my identical FR measurements before and after)

Fast forward a year and Earfun got in touch with me to let me know they had fixed all of the things I'd highlighted with the Air Pro 4, and wanted me to try them out, so the following rambling is a collection of my thoughts, specifically whether they really have turned the ship around as they claimed.

Design, Fit and Comfort

The design, of both the buds and case, hasn't really changed. The case is slimmer, and definitely looks more attractive. It recharges the buds an additional 4 full cycles, and has a handy quick-charge feature, giving you 3 hours playtime from 5 minutes of juice. It also supports wireless charging.



The buds are slightly shorter this time (31mm) and have a slight curvature under the touch control area. They wear much better than the 3, but their fit is a little out-of-the-ordinary compared to other recent releases from other brands.



The likes of Realme and OnePlus have gone for a very shallow-fitting design with a slim eartip. Earfun on the other hand have gone with a larger, bulbous tip that fills the space in around your ear canal.

The result is, with the right tip size, very good stability for general use, cardio and jogging. I put a number of different TWS through the '100 jumping jack test' and not too many passed, but the Earfun could have gone to 200, maybe even 500 without budging.



The drawback of this design is that occlusion is very apparent, both when running and talking on calls. It's rather off-putting, and can only be mitigated with thinner third party tips. They are IPX5 rated, so you're fine for wearing outdoors and in the gym.

Controls & Wear Detection

Wear detection is very well-implemented and smooth. Controls are fully-customisable in the app - you can adjust single tap, double tap, triple tap and long press without any limitations. The touch control area is well-defined and the controls are responsive.

ANC & Ambient Mode

ANC sees an increase from 43dB to 50dB, and in all of my tests, I was pretty impressed. It isn't as strong as something like the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC, at least in reducing the lower frequency sounds, which the Soundcore does very well, but in terms of a consistent noise reduction across the full-frequency spectrum, it does a good job. It even works in single mode.

Earfun have added multiple ANC modes, although none are more effective than leaving it on 'Strong'. The wind-noise reduction mode did an admirable job of handling the breeze whilst I was on the bike. Ambient mode is OK - it will let some nearby noise through, and it does so quite naturally, but I did have problems deciphering every word of nearby conversations, and there's no alternative strength settings for it - a bit of a disappointment when you've got budget options like the MeloBuds Pro from QCY which do.

EDIT - As of firmware 0.2.7, Earfun have added an additional transparency mode, boosting the default and adding a 'natural' option if you're a little too sensitive to the white noise.

Battery Life

Battery life is definitely a highlight, registering just short of 10 hours with ANC off and just over 7 with ANC on. This puts them up there with the likes of Realme Buds Air 6 Pro and OnePlus Buds 3, and they seem a little less sensitive to switching features on than those other models too, most notably the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC, whose battery seems to empty the moment you use any of its features and functions. This is a fairly sizeable improvement from the Air Pro 3.

The additional 4 re-charges with the case takes the total battery life to quite an impressive number.

Sound

https://regancipher.squig.link/?share=Harman_2019_IE_v2_Target,Earfun_Air_Pro_4_ANC,Earfun_Air_Pro_3



This was the area I was looking for Earfun to rectify the most, and they delivered. The Air Pro 3 was way too bass-heavy for my liking - +15dB above their measurement at 1kHz - a punishing, relentless experience further soured by the peaks at 5KHz and 8kHz resulting in a scratchy, unnatural treble that I couldn't listen to for more than a couple of minutes without being offended.

Thankfully, Earfun delivered and have given us a much more balanced, Harman-hugging sound that combines tasteful warmth with reasonably transparent mids and a controlled treble that has enough bite to define percussion, whilst still offering a smooth, non-fatiguing listening experience. Male vocals stand out more, and nestle nicely among darker midtones, whilst female vocals are articulate without straying too far from their domain.

It is a straightforward sound that is pleasant and musical enough, but lacks a bit of immersion. Thankfully you can eek a bit more out of the sound with the very capable Earfun app, including over 30 presets, a 10-band custom EQ and a hearing test, which generates a profile based on the results.

Here are a couple of presets I've been trialling, mostly to good effect, although if you're treble sensitive you might want to stick to the default.

Call Quality

Not the strongest performance here, with the algorithms acting a little too aggressive and diffusing the sound of your own voice a little too much. In busy indoor scenes, in particular, it has difficulty separating your own voice from other voices without leaving you muffled to the point of incoherent. In the busiest scene in Borough Market in London, it actually did pretty well, where the variety of other sounds was greater, confusing the cVc algorithm much less.

The Air Pro 4 are OK for their price category when it comes to calls, but they fall some way behind the bone-conducting mics on the Huawei Freebuds Pro 3 and Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. They do, however, allow you to switch to transparency mode during calls via the app (although not using the onboard controls, at least without the risk of cutting your caller off).

Other Features

The Air Pro 4 has some very well-implemented features, including:

• Multipoint (and a device list within the app)
• Google Fastpair
• Game Mode (very low latency with aptX-adaptive)
• 'Find my Earbuds'
• The ability to change the voice prompt language (to Japanese or Mandarin) and volume
• The ability to specify which side (or both) the microphone is active

It supports LE audio, including 'Auracast' (a moot point as you're unlikely to encounter it any time soon). After a firmware update and factory default, I was able to use the LC3 codec, although they don't remember that as your last selected codec, so when you put the buds back in the case, it will forget and revert to Aptx-adaptive the next time you take them out.

The widespread codec support - including the aptX family as well as LDAC - is handy and doesn't restrict you from hi-res codecs based on the chipset of your phone.

Drawbacks

• Occlusion (can be mitigated with flatter tips)
• Weak ambient mode
• Slightly disappointing call performance
• Soundstage is a tad constrained. Can be opened up a little in the app

Summary

Overall it is a big improvement over the Air Pro 3, even if some of the changes feel slightly incremental. The fit, design and case are evolution rather than revolution, but they still represent an improvement. The ANC is stronger and more consistent, and the sound has moved away from the boomy consumer sound which the market has predominately now left behind to a much more palatable experience.

The Air Pro 4 is not quite a giant leap forward, but it's more than a couple of long steps. Despite a few minor quibbles, they are a good option at sub-$100, and their discounted launch price of £59.99 and the fact they are readily available on Amazon makes them a compelling option.

That Earfun have not only tried to improve the Air Pro 3 throughout the last year with several firmware updates, but were also professional and courteous in their approach when contacting me about the issues I'd experienced, let alone taken on board all of that negative feedback and rectified it, tells me that without question, if you're going to put your faith in a brand to deliver, Earfun are well worthy of it.