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Need-to-knows
- Surprisingly well-rounded sound quality
- Very comfortable and lightweight
- Solid noise cancelling
- 40 hours of battery life
Budget earbuds are a bit of a minefield. More often than not, you’re better off spending a little bit more to secure some guaranteed quality, but sometimes you uncover an absolute bargain.
There are some excellent earbuds in the £80-100 price bracket these days, so a pair of earbuds like the Air Pro 4i, which cost about £50, has to offer truly unbeatable value for money. That’s the harsh context in which I find the EarFun Air Pro 4i in my ears. Am I expecting these earbuds to be the best I’ve ever tried? Obviously not. But I am looking for genuinely good sound quality with respectable noise cancelling. Let’s see what they have to offer!
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Design and fit
The EarFun Air Pro 4i has a tried and tested stem design opposed to a bud, which fits nicely into the ear. The silicon tips mean that the in-ear feel is very comfortable and tight, which is especially impressive for my left ear which does struggle to get on with a lot of other designs.
At 51.3g, they’re incredibly light, adding to the comfort level and making them great for exercise as you sort of forget they’re even there. They look suitably premium too with the silver strip running down the stem. There’s nothing here to suggest these earbuds only cost $50…a sentence I could write a lot throughout the rest of this article.
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Oh, and they’re IP55 rated which is a nice bonus!
Case and battery life
If you’ve ever read one of my earbud or headphone reviews, you’ll know how much I (admittedly, probably too much) care about cases. It’s a bit less relevant with earbuds as they are already small, but I do quite like the EarFun case. The earbuds are stored flat, face down, meaning the case has a very low profile which fits nicely into your pocket without protruding too much.
The case brings a huge overall battery life of 40 hours, with 9.5 hours held in the earbuds themselves which easily makes up a week of use in my case and likely more. You get fast charging too with ten minutes providing two hours of playtime. This is always amongst my favourite features with audio gear: the idea that I can safely head out for a long journey or work session at a cafe after only ten minutes of charging is so good for the user experience.
More: Check out our Best AirPods guide
And, to top it all off, the Air Pro 4i comes with wireless charging. Again, all pro features here!
Sound quality
This is the make-or-break for budget earbuds and where many fall down. It’s so easy to make a pair of cheap earbuds that look the part but sound atrocious. I can happily tell you that this is not the case with the Air Pro 4i.
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First off, I’d like to call out the fact that they have LDAC support which is great for anyone who wants to play high-res audio and an absolute rarity at this price. Add to that the fact they have Bluetooth 6.0 capability and these again present as a much more expensive pair of earbuds than they actually are.
Now, the sound. As soon as I started listening to the 4i, I was pleasantly surprised by the output from the 11mm Titanium-coated composite drivers. The midrange is the strongest part of the audio profile which is a good sign. It really cuts through impressively meaning a wide range of tracks should sound solid.
Check out our list of the best headphones for more!
The bass is respectable too, dipping low enough to give you that buttery feeling when you need it whilst remaining defined as long as you aren’t listening to something really bass-heavy. The top end is the weakest area, sometimes it can feel a bit flat, but it’s by no means a problem.
Overall, these are genuinely impressive-sounding earbuds for this price. Usually, for £50 you’d expect them to be tiring to listent too, thin and tinny but these are the opposite in all areas. If you need a set of daily earbuds that you can rely on to sound good, then the Air Pro 4i is a great option.
And, if you don’t like the audio profile out of the box, you can customise the EQ on the EarFun app.
Noise cancelling and call quality
The fact that you get noise-cancelling on earbuds this cheap is still amazing to me. A few years ago, it was a feature reserved for those £100 and up. But now, you can get it for half that price. And it is often easier to get right than sound quality, meaning cheaper earbuds can actually make a good crack at it.
As you have it, the Air Pro 4i are pretty good at noise cancelling. The world around you does go nice and quiet, especially in less strenuous environments. If you’re in really noisy places, like a metro train, you will still hear things but it will still be dampened. You can definitely take these on a plane and be ok.
The transparency mode is solid if not amazing, but it’s there and it works when you need it. It’s pretty good during calls though so that you can hear your own voice. On the topic of calls, the 4i uses a 6-mic setup plus AI to enhance call quality which results in clear enough calls for everyday use.
Wrapping up
So, are the EarFun Air Pro 4i worth your consideration?
As I said at the start of this article, often you may as well pay an extra 50 to get something with a bit more quality. I can safely say that this isn’t the case with the Air Pro 4i. These earbuds punch well-above their weight with some great pro-grade features like LDAC support and a really solid all-round audio profile.
Throw in the noise cancelling, mega battery life and transparency mode and the decision to buy these earbuds gets even easier. If you’re looking for your next set of work-horse earbuds, the ones to take with you everywhere you go and use in all scenarios, you’ll struggle to find better for the same money.
This post was supported by EarFun
