EarFun Air Pro 4 Review: Budget ANC Earbuds That Deliver

You would never guess from the slim EarFun Air Pro 4 that they are packed with technology. The earbuds sit well in the ears, barely protrude and show off their many talents once they are in place — and the best news is that they are relatively cheap. On paper they are a well-equipped set of in-ears at an attractive price, with plenty of stamina, an app that adjusts both the noise cancelling and the sound, and extras such as a dedicated gaming mode. This review is based on that published test, not on a hands-on trial of our own.

The Air Pro 4 come in four finishes — black, blue, and both matte and glossy white — and their practical stem design makes them especially easy to seat in the ears, where they stay put for long stretches without ever feeling like a foreign body. To suit different ear canals, five pairs of soft silicone tips are supplied, and there is no rule that says you must wear a matching pair: one ear canal is often slightly smaller than the other, so a different-sized tip in each ear can be the answer — it just takes some trial and error.

Run at full volume with noise cancelling active, the in-ears last more than seven hours, after which the case tops them up three full times and once more to roughly 50 per cent. Switch the noise cancelling and transparency modes off and they stretch to a full ten hours, and drop the volume a little and you sail well past ten. Stamina, then, is no weakness, and the high level of comfort only reinforces their suitability for all-day listening.

Operation, volume included, is by touch gestures. Out of the box each earpiece responds to one, two or three taps or a longer hold: a tap on the left lowers the volume while the right raises it, a double-tap on the left pauses or resumes the music, and a triple-tap skips to the previous track on the left or the next one on the right. A long touch on the left cycles through the noise-cancelling modes, while the right answers a call or summons the voice assistant. On calls the earbuds impress with very good speech clarity on both sides and interference-free transmission. If you prefer, the tap commands can be reassigned in the app, and the touch surfaces can be disabled entirely — for one earpiece or both — which is handy if, say, you want to fall asleep to music without triggering the controls by accident.

The companion app offers a whole range of settings, the most important covering the noise cancelling and the sound, with both core strengths given equal weight. There are three modes in all — active noise cancellation, a transparency mode and a normal mode with both switched off — plus a gaming mode that keeps signal latency low. Within active noise cancelling there are five options: a deep setting that seals you off completely, a "balance" setting for less noisy surroundings, an automatic adjustment to the environment and an automatic adjustment to the ear, both of which use AI by way of measurement microphones and their software, and finally a dedicated wind-noise reduction. Transparency mode either lets everything through, as standard, or restricts itself to voices; no difference in sound quality was audible between any of the modes.

The Air Pro 4 support several Bluetooth codecs — aptX Adaptive, aptX Lossless and LDAC — which work with little or, in aptX Lossless's case, almost no loss, laying the best possible groundwork for an untroubled listen. All the codecs can be chosen in the app, and although activating LDAC requires a restart of the earbuds, they reconnect to the phone smoothly afterwards. Testing used LDAC, which draws harder on the batteries and shortens the Bluetooth range, yet in the test room there was no significant difference from ordinary transmission and, crucially, no dropouts or other interference. For tuning the sound there are countless presets, and the equaliser lets you set and save your own signature. Left with all sound-shaping switched off, the earbuds do not disappoint: bass lines come through crisp and lightly springy, gently lifted to give the sound a full body while still letting the midrange and upper mids have their say. Only in resolution do the Air Pro 4 have to concede ground, and then only against considerably pricier rivals.

In short, the EarFun Air Pro 4 convince across the board. Especially on sound and features they offer more than the low price would suggest, and they should sit snugly and comfortably in most ears. The box keeps things simple — the earbuds, the charging case, a USB-C cable and the five pairs of tips — but everything that matters is there, making these an easy budget recommendation.