We should be upfront about something: the person who wore these for two weeks came into this review as a committed, wired-earphones loyalist. The convenience pitch for wireless earbuds had never quite landed. Two weeks of commutes, gym sessions, work-from-home days, and even sleeping in them on the LRT later, and we have revised that stance. The Samsung Galaxy Buds4 Pro did something we did not expect. They made us wonder why we waited this long.
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Table of Contents
Design & Comfort
The first thing you notice about the Buds4 Pro is how little you notice them. They are so light that the initial reaction is mild concern because are these actually going to stay in? Within minutes of wearing them, that concern disappeared. There is a gentle suction when you seat them in the ear that keeps them snug and also passively reduces ambient sound before ANC even kicks in. We wore them through workouts, walks, and three- to four-hour continuous listening sessions before our ears felt any fatigue. That is genuinely impressive.
They stayed put through head-banging sessions, runs, and dozing off on the commute home. We never had a moment where we caught ourselves adjusting them or worrying about them dropping. The fit just works!
Now, the case is functional, if not exciting. We're going to admit that Samsung did not immediately win us over with the design. After all, the plastic finish feels a little utilitarian next to the earbuds themselves. But it is compact enough to slip into any pocket without thinking, light enough to forget it is there, and distinctively shaped enough that we could find it by feel at the bottom of a bag, with that last part proving more useful than expected. The charging time is under an hour for a full case charge, which is remarkable given how long the buds themselves last.
The Buds4 Pro's touch controls, though, are a mixed story. The pinch controls for pausing, skipping, and rewinding are reliable and well-calibrated, and the metal dots provide a clear target for your fingers. After a couple of days, the muscle memory kicks in, and they become second nature. The volume gesture, however, never worked consistently enough to trust. We gave up on it entirely and reverted to pulling out our phone to adjust volume. For earbuds at this price, that gap should not exist.
Active Noise Cancellation: The Star of the Show
We will say it plainly: the ANC on the Buds4 Pro is fantastic. It is the single feature that most changed how we experienced wearing them.
On the LRT, it completely cancelled the metal screeching of the tracks — something that has always made commuting with earbuds feel like a partial fix rather than a real escape. In the gym, the background noise, the unsolicited phone calls from other members, all of it disappeared. Working from home, we found ourselves concentrating more deeply than usual simply because there was nothing left to distract us. Instead of simply muffling or dulling noise, the ANC removes it.
There is a noticeable pressure sensation in the ear when ANC is active, similar to the feeling of being slightly underwater. It is not uncomfortable, but it is not invisible either. It took about a day for us to stop noticing it. If you have never used ANC earbuds before, it may feel odd for the first few hours, but it becomes easy to tune out.
Transparency Mode is where Samsung has genuinely done the work. The moment we started speaking, the buds automatically switched to Transparency Mode so we could hear the conversation without removing them. The audio in Transparency Mode is natural and clean — not the overprocessed, slightly tinny sound some earbuds produce. It handles speech particularly well. In real-world use, it meant we never had to yank an earbud out during a conversation, which is exactly the point.
ANC adaptation between environments — moving from a noisy street into a quiet office, for example — happened seamlessly. We barely noticed the transition until we registered that the background had changed.
Head Gestures
The head gesture feature is well-calibrated. A slight nod to accept a call, a small shake to decline, and sensitivity tuned well enough that you do not have to exaggerate the movement. We never looked like we were having a fit just to answer the phone, which was our main concern going in.
The limitation here is that gestures are only available for incoming calls. We tried to access the Samsung Wearable app to expand gesture customisation and found no option to connect the Buds4 Pro there. Based on what we could find, customisation beyond the default call gestures is not accessible in our current setup. For a feature that has obvious potential — imagine nodding to skip a track or shaking to snooze an alarm — this feels like an early-access implementation rather than a finished one.
In practice, because pinch controls handle playback reliably, the head gesture gap is not a daily frustration. It is more of a feature you know could be more, rather than one that actively lets you down.
Audio Quality
The audio quality caught us off guard because we expected good, but we got remarkable.
Across music, videos, gaming, and casual social media use, the Buds4 Pro delivered rich, balanced sound that never felt overwhelming, regardless of volume. The soundstage is the standout quality. With certain songs, it genuinely felt like being present in the recording session rather than listening through earbuds. That is a rare experience, and it happened more than once during our review period.
The EQ customisation adds a meaningful layer to the listening experience. Dialling in extra bass for a workout playlist or flattening the curve for clearer podcast audio are both quick adjustments that make a real difference. We did not change it constantly, but knowing it was there — and that it actually worked — made the earbuds feel more personal.
Dolby Atmos support and Samsung’s sound enhancements made a noticeable difference for movies and gaming. The surround effect was convincing enough that we caught ourselves turning our heads to locate sounds during gaming sessions. The ANC works hand-in-hand with audio quality here. Removing ambient noise lets the audio itself take up more of your attention, which makes everything sound better.
Battery Life is Genuinely Impressive
We charge the Buds4 Pro once a week. That sentence alone should tell you most of what you need to know.
With our typical daily usage — morning commute, some time in the office, commute back, gym session — we were getting four to five hours of listening per day and only hitting the low battery chime once or twice across the whole week. The chime itself is pleasant and non-disruptive, which is a small but considered detail.
As for charging time, it charges fully in under an hour. That ratio fundamentally changed how we thought about the earbuds. So, instead of managing battery life as a daily concern, we just charged when the chime sounded and moved on.
Connectivity
Pairing with a Samsung phone is instant and seamless — the Buds4 Pro connect automatically when you open the case near the phone, and it requires no further input after the initial setup. On non-Samsung devices, though, the initial connection requires a bit more effort, but once paired, auto-connect kicks in reliably.
However, Bluetooth stability is the one area that needs work. We experienced brief audio interruptions during use, such as sudden silence, stuttering, or the connection faltering for a few seconds before recovering. It happened consistently enough to note, and inconsistently enough that we could not pin down the cause. It always resolved within 10 to 30 seconds, but we believe that for earbuds in this price range, it shouldn't happen at all.
Our Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Buds4 Pro are the earbuds that converted a wired loyalist, and that is not a line we use lightly.
The ANC is the best we have experienced for everyday Malaysian life, from commuting to working and exercising. The audio quality goes well beyond what the price tag might suggest, and the battery life is so good it stopped being something we thought about at all. Those three things together make for a compelling daily companion.
With that said, the gaps here are very real: volume gestures we gave up on, Bluetooth stuttering that should not exist at this price, and head gesture customisation locked behind an app that did not cooperate. None of these are fatal, but they are friction on an otherwise polished experience.
Commuters, students, professionals who need to focus, and anyone who has been putting off switching from wired — this is the pair that makes the switch feel obvious. Fitness enthusiasts who want heart rate monitoring or GPS tracking will need to look elsewhere, but for everything else, the Buds4 Pro sets a high bar.
Priced at RM999, the Samsung Buds4 Pro is available on Samsung's official website, in retail stores, and through e-commerce partners Lazada and Shopee.