AI In Your Ears: EarFun Air Pro 4+ Wireless Earbud Review

AI appears to be everywhere these days. Mostly, companies have just relabeled existing technology as “AI” in hopes of sounding more advanced. I’ve reviewed a lot of EarFun headphone offerings here, and, spoiler alert, these are (mostly) no different. The big change? They feature real-time translation directly in the app. Does it work? Well…yes? The short version of this EarFun Air Pro 4+ review is that they have all the bells and whistles that you’d want (and some you’ll never use) and sound pretty good. While the MSRP is just under $100, they often retail for just $75. Let’s take a closer look.

Specs

• Dual-Driver System pairs an ultra-light FeatherBA™ armature with a 10mm dynamic driver for deep bass and crisp treble
• Innovative Nano Side-Fitted Acoustic Architecture (NSAA™) introduces a First-of-its-kind Micro Side-mounted Design for enhanced sound clarity
• Intelligent Real-Time AI-Translation – Android: v20.1.36+ / iOS: v20.5.5+
• Auracast™ enables easy tuning in and out of local broadcasts for seamless public and private audio sharing
• QuietSmart™ 3.0 Adaptive Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation up to 50dB
• Qualcomm® Snapdragon Sound Brings the Best Audio
• Bluetooth 6.0 + Latest Qualcomm® QCC3091 SoC with aptX Lossless
• Next-gen LE Audio & LC3 codec, for ultra-low power consumption and stable transmission
• LDAC technology transfers 3x more data than other Bluetooth codecs
• Certified Hi-Res Audio to deliver extreme music quality and original sound reproduction
• Enhanced 6-mic with AI algorithm + cVc™ 8.0 tech for Superior Clarity Call Quality
• Google Fast Pair allows Bluetooth devices to quickly establish pairing
• <50ms Ultra Low Latency Mode for Better Video & Gaming Experience
• 54-hour Playtime: 12 Hour+ 42 Hour with Charging Case
• Personalize Your Buds with EarFun Audio App
• All-new Multi-device Connectivity
• IP55 Water and Dust Resistant
• Fast Charging & Wireless Charging, 10 Min Charging=3 H Playtime
• In-Ear Detection

Fit and Controls

The most important part of any headphone experience is the fit. One of the main complaints I see from people when reading reviews on places like Amazon is that they didn’t like the fit. I firmly believe that most people don’t realize that they might have different sized/shaped ear canals. Mostly people don’t pick different-sized eartips for each ear. If they switch one, they switch both. The EarFun Air Pro 4+ have a total of five different sizes of eartips. If you mix and match, I’m pretty confident you’ll find a good fit somewhere in there.

The small indent on the side of the earphones is the inductive control. You control the earphones via taps (one to three as well as a long press). All the controls are customizable with the additional option of disabling the controls on one of the earbuds. There is a soft “beep” after you tap on the headphone to let you know that the command has been received. I found the headphones accurately interpreted my commands almost every time.

EarFun Air Pro 4+ ANC Experience

It’s crazy to me how much technology they can shove into in-ear headphones these days. The EarFun Air Pro 4+ headphones have everything you might want in a headphone. They have ANC (Active Noise Cancelling) which now has “manual” and an “AI” modes. I tried both and didn’t notice a substantive difference. Not only did I test the ANC in “normal” conditions (mostly out grocery shopping) but also in more extreme situations.

I recently had some tiles replaced in my kitchen. When the tile experts were cutting out the offending tiles and cleaning up the surfaces with powertools, I tried out the Pro 4+’s ANC performance. They claim an up to 50dB reduction in noise. While I have no way of objectively testing the amount of noise reduction, the experience was quite impressive. Noise was reduced substantially with nothing playing through the earphones. If I added music at what I’d call a moderate volume, the external noise was nearly imperceptible.

EarFun App

I’ve discussed the EarFun app many times in my reviews. One of the things I like is that most of the controls are on the “front page” of the app. You don’t have to dig through menus to get to different controls. That does make the front page pretty long, but I think it is a better and more intuitive overall design.

There is the standard equalizer available with a number of presets, including some created by “Influencers.” I guess I’m too old to know them. As always, I set the EQ to Flat and never touch it again.

Real-Time AI Translation

A function of the EarFun App is AI Translation. When you click on this, you are asked to sign up (you must use an email address and create a password, but all the personal information (including your name) is optional. If you’ve ever used a translation app, this will all be very familiar to you. You select your languages and enable the translation. The one difference from apps like Google Translate is that it will “read” the translation back to you through the headphones.

I tested this with my wife. She speaks fluent Turkish (let’s make it a little hard on the translate function, shall we?), so we held a short conversation where I was speaking English while she was speaking Turkish. The translation function worked fairly accurately with a few caveats. There is a slight delay from the time you press the “mic” button (telling the app to start translating) to when it actually starts listening. The delay between the translation (which is shown on your phone screen) and the voice reading that translation through the headphones was great enough that it was easier to just read the translation rather than wait for the app to read it to you. The biggest “issue” is that there is a banner in the upper right that indicates that this function is free for a limited time. Personally, I didn’t find it that much more useful than the free apps out there, so I wouldn’t personally pay for it, but maybe you’ll feel differently.

EarFun Air Pro 4+ Sound Quality

Aside from setting the EQ to flat to eliminate any alteration of the original signal, my first step in any sound quality test is to listen to some sweeps. Off I went to AudioCheck.net to listen to some full-range sweeps. The EarFun Air Pro 4+ definitely made noise throughout the entire frequency range. At the lowest end, it sounded a bit more like distortion but from about 35Hz and up, it sounded very clean and even.

With content, the overall presentation was quite balanced. I didn’t hear any bass bloat or excessive high-end roll off. I wouldn’t describe them as the most detailed of headphones, but for the price, they are very impressive. If you are looking for a good set of earphones with impressive sound quality for your daily drivers, these are a great choice. At $75, they don’t break the bank either.

EarFun Longivity

One thing I’ve read on places like Amazon from owners of EarFun products is that they don’t last or that they have connectivity issues. I’ve owned and tested a great number of EarFun products and have never had this experience. Listen, if you have EVER had a wireless product, you’ve had connectivity issues at one point or another. The solution is always the same: Turn it off and back on. I’m not saying that there has never been a defective product shipped by EarFun. I’m saying that many of the complaints have an easy fix.

As far as longevity, I’ve never had an EarFun product break before someone in my family lost one of the earphones or somehow broke them. Again, I’m not saying it isn’t possible to get a bum unit, I would (do) recommend them without reservation.

Conclusion

EarFun has continued its tradition of offering high qualiy earphones at reasonable prices with the Air Pro 4+. Good sound quality, a ton of features (many of which you’ll never use), and a long battery life. For $100 they are worth the price. Since you can often find them for around $75, they are a great deal. Recommended!