ranzware
There are tons of $50-$100 earbuds on the market these days, and many of these are at least half-decent picks for gaming, thanks to their dedicated ‘game modes’. But despite this crowded market, and after using them for a while, I reckon the EarFun Air Pro 4 earbuds stand out from the crowd enough to be worthy of consideration.
That’s primarily because they offer a very well-rounded feature set plus a lovely sound profile for $60–$90. And I’d bet that this price point is exactly where many people are looking towards when considering new earphones.
So, down to brass tacks. The first thing to note is that the Air Pro 4 is Bluetooth-only, offering no wireless 2.4 GHz connection. That’s not so much of a downside for latency because the Air Pro 4’s low-latency Game Mode works great.
It is, however, a downside for those of you looking to do gaming while using in-game voice chat or speaking to Discord friends, because Bluetooth simply cannot properly handle voice and stereo audio at the same time. Spotify music sounded dreadful after I started recording my voice via the earphones’ onboard mic, but it returned to normalcy once I stopped.
It’s also a downside for those of you who want never-fiddly audio (a technical term, I assure you). I’ve found these earbuds to be almost never-fiddly, but there have been a couple of occasions where I’ve had to disconnect and reconnect to the Bluetooth on my laptop, probably because of some shenanigans with Dual Device Connection, which I always keep enabled. I doubt you’d get that problem with a dedicated 2.4 GHz dongle—I never had the problem with the expensive 2.4 GHz SteelSeries buds.
Air Pro 4
Still, that’s happened to me only once in a blue moon and the fix is easy. But it does give me a nice segue into its dual-mode functionality, which is one of many well-implemented features these earphones offer.
Dual Device Connection allows you to connect to two devices at once, and it’ll play audio from whichever device you’re playing something from (it won’t do both sources at once, of course). I’ve found this really useful as it means I can game on my handheld and still have it connected to my phone to answer calls or easily switch over when I want to listen to some music or an audiobook while I’m on the move.
While Dual Device Connection can be set up using the button inside the case while the earphones are sat snugly inside it, it’s much easier to do in the app, as are most things. That’s because the app is fantastic—I much prefer it to others I’ve used, both for its extensiveness and simplicity, which is a hard balance to strike.
At the top of the app, you’re greeted with a very clear battery indicator for both earphones and charging case. Below that, you can fiddle with Ambient Sound (transparency), Active Noise Cancelling (ANC), Game Mode, In-Ear Detection, EQ, Dual Device Connection, touch controls, left- or right-side mic, LE audio, and voice prompts. You can also install firmware updates super easily from in-app.
That’s a ton of features, and all of them work surprisingly well (though I’m not sure about LE audio—a low-power Bluetooth addition—since it doesn’t work with iOS and I am, sad to say it, one of those people).
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I was particularly impressed with the EQ, especially after being a little disappointed with the EQ options on the competing Nothing Ear (a) earbuds. EarFun not only gives you tons of presets to try (including profiles for different genres of music) but it also has a 10-point parametric curve that you can fiddle with.
The sound profile is by default a little boring and slightly mushy, to my ears. But with a little fiddling, these earbuds can sound fantastic. I ended up taking another user’s EQ numbers and then adjusting things slightly from there.
For those interested, I settled on the following EQ numbers: 9, 7, 3, 4, 3, 1, 2, 3, 10, 10. Changing to this made a massive difference, and the earphones went from okay to really quite lovely.
Admittedly that’s not quite as spectacular as what you’ll find in some audiophile IEMs or even the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds, but for this price range, it’s great. After my EQ fix, I’d describe the sound profile as crisp and lively, with tons of separation and a decent amount of punch, but still not quite as full and present as some higher-end options.
It’s certainly not a dull audio experience, and I’m thoroughly enjoying listening to both music and games through the Air Pro 4’s 10 mm drivers. Yes, I’m reminded it’s not quite there whenever I put the Arctis GameBuds back in, but it’s damn close for quite a lot less money.
I haven’t noticed any drop in quality when switching to Game Mode, either, though I do notice the drop in latency. With Game Mode disabled there really is quite a lot of noticeable lag, but when it’s enabled I don’t notice any lag at all—gunshot sounds seem to ring in my ears the moment I press the handheld’s trigger and make sparks fly on-screen.
These buds are also great in ANC and transparency modes (or ‘Ambient Sound’ mode, as EarFun calls it). ANC adaptively cancels up to 50dB and I found that while it struggles to block out dynamic noises (as most earbuds do), it does a really good job of keeping out fans, wind, and other such rumbles and grumbles.
I’ve found this really useful when travelling on public transport, and I tend to just keep it on its ‘Strong’ setting as I’ve found that to work best. I’ve also found its Ambient Sound setting to work a charm, preventing me from being struck down by reversing cars and so on.
One area that’s very middling is the onboard mic. It’s not bad, it’s just not great—you can definitely tell it’s an earphone mic rather than a headset one, as it makes your voice sound a little fuzzy and tinny. Credit where credit’s due, though, it does at least get rid of static background noises such as rumbles or wind relatively well.
The on-ear controls are fine, but as with other touch-capacitive earphones, you have to be careful not to press anything by accident. I didn’t have more of a problem with this than I do with any other earbuds with touch controls, but it’s something to note regardless.
You do get a lot of control over what different left/right presses do, too. For each ear, you can set different functions to a long press or a single-, double-, or triple-tap. You can choose between the following functions:
- Volume up
- Volume down
- Previous track
- Next track
- Pause/play
- Voice assistant
- Noise Cancelling/Ambient Sound/Normal toggle
- Disabled
I’ve left things as their defaults purely because I’m lazy—no, really, that’s the reason—but at some point I might switch pause/play to single-tap and previous/next track to double-tap given I rarely change volume with the touch controls anyway.
Buy if…
✅ You want sharp audio: While they might not be capable of the fullest sound, once you fiddle around with the EQ and push up the treble, games and music sound crystal clear.
✅ You want ease of use: From the intuitive app to battery life LEDs and wireless case charging, these earphones are incredibly simple and easy to use.
Don’t buy if…
❌ You want to use the mic while listening: These earbuds only connect over Bluetooth, which means audio quality drops drastically if you try to use the built-in mic at the same time as listening to something.
❌ You want the absolute best audio quality: The Air Pro 4 sounds great for earbuds under $100, but you can get a whole other level of audio quality if you’re willing to spend a lot more.
The icing on the cake is battery life. These are rated to 11 hours of life in the earbuds themselves, plus another 41 hours from the charging case, for 52 hours total. And the case has both (relatively slow) wireless charging compatibility as well as fast charging if you plug it in via USB-C.
One of the things that’s pleased me most about these earbuds, in fact, is how easy managing battery life is. That’s not just because there’s a lot of juice in them, but also because it’s just so simple to see how much is left. Three little LEDs on the front of the case tell the battery life tale on the front of the case whenever you open and close it, and the app shows how much is left incredibly quickly, clearly, and easily. Having all this plus the ability to charge the earbuds wirelessly or via USB-C is fantastic for this price point.
And that’s the main deal, I think: You’re simply getting a heck of a lot for the price. MSRP is $90 but at the time of writing the Air Pro 4 earbuds have tended to be on sale for far less than this relatively consistently. Even at full price, I’d say they’re more than worthy of consideration, and definitely so when they’re on sale.
They might not offer the most absolutely refined, well-rounded sound of audiophile earbuds, but they can sound very lively and crisp after some EQ tinkering, and they scoop over bucket-loads of features and deliver on them incredibly well. 2.4 GHz connectivity and a better mic would be nice, as would some physical rather than touch controls, but we can’t expect perfection for this price. But as for what we can expect in this price bracket, the EarFun Air Pro 4 earbuds deliver all that and more.
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Kurt Indovina
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