The AirPods Pro 3 may be on sale for $199 ($50 off), but that’s still a lot of money. If you want noise cancellation for less, fortunately you can buy the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation for $119 ($60 off) at Amazon and Walmart. That’s the cheapest they’ve been since the holidays, and only $20 more than their lowest price to date.
For the price, the AirPods 4 do a surprisingly good job of tuning out the outside world. While they don’t drown out noise as completely as the AirPods Pro, they significantly reduce ambient and low-frequency sounds on planes and in offices, especially when listening to music. In our testing, outside noise was easy to ignore even with the volume set to about 50 percent.
Beyond noise cancellation, the AirPods 4 offer the best sound we’ve heard from an entry-level AirPods model so far, with richer bass than previous generations. They also add a more robust IP54 rating for water and dust resistance and even boast a few Pro-level features, including wireless charging support, a built-in speaker on the charging case so you can track them via Apple’s Find My app, and crystal clear call quality. You also get other perks like support for live translation courtesy of an iOS 26 update, along with a natural-sounding transparency mode.
That said, they’re still the more affordable model, so you miss out on extras like a heart rate sensor, on-ear volume controls, and the ability to use them as hearing aids. Still, they deliver most of what people actually want at a much lower price.