AirPods 4 vs. AirPods 5: Is there any benefit to buying last-gen?
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Apple's new AirPods 5 are an anomaly.
In a year where tech prices are rising across the board, the latest AirPods were announced at last week's Apple keynote event with a shocking feature: a lower price point than the previous generation.
So what's the catch? Well, therein lies the anomaly — there really isn't one. In fact, Apple added more features to the new earbuds, and again, they cost less than the AirPods 4. Below, you'll find the breakdown of exactly how the AirPods 5 reign superior.
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As a note, Mashable's team is still working its way through testing the new earbuds, so an updated head-to-head comparison is in the pipeline. In the meantime, this is how the new AirPods 5 stack up against the previous generation in specs, features, and design. (And if you're curious about how this comparison is between the AirPods 5 and Pro 3, you can check out our full breakdown.)
AirPods 4 vs. AirPods 5: Price
Both the AirPods 4 and AirPods 5 have two models: a budget and a more mid-tier option. The big change in the AirPods 5, however, is that both models have active noise cancellation. In the AirPods 4, the main reason to spring for the more expensive model is the ANC. Between the two budget models, Apple kept the prices flat, but for the AirPods 5, it slashed the price of the more expensive model by $30. The full price breakdown is as follows:
AirPods 4 — $129
AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation — $179
AirPods 5 — $129
AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case — $149
It is worth noting that the AirPods 4 without ANC frequently drop down to $99 (as they are at the time of writing). The AirPods 4 with ANC can often be found on sale for $149. However, it is worth noting that holiday sale season is kicking off next month with Amazon's annual October Prime Day (and the many competing sales), so while it's not a given that the newer earbuds go on sale, it's not an impossibility. Still, even if the discrepancy in the $99 sale price of the AirPods 4 and the $129 full price of the AirPods 5 holds, it's $30 more for the benefit of having ANC.
AirPods 4 vs. AirPods 5: Specs
The spec breakdown for the four different pairs of AirPods is as follows:
AirPods 4
Active noise cancellation: Yes
Battery: Five hours of listening time, 30 hours total with the case
Listening modes: Adaptive audio and transparency
Controls: Force sensor for playback and calls
Charging: USB-C charging case
Find My: Not available on this charging case
IP rating: IP54
AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation
Active noise cancellation: Yes
Battery: Four hours of listening time (five without ANC), 20 hours total with case (or 30 without ANC)
Listening modes: Adaptive audio and transparency
Controls: Force sensor for playback and calls
Charging: USB-C charging case, MagSafe, Qi compatible
Find My: Speaker included to work with Find My
IP rating: IP54
AirPods 5
Active noise cancellation: Yes
Battery: Four hours of listening time (six without ANC), 20 hours total with case
Listening modes: Adaptive audio and transparency
Controls: Force sensor for playback and calls
Charging: USB-C charging case
Find My: Not available on this charging case
IP rating: IP57
AirPods 5 with Wireless Charging Case
Active noise cancellation: Yes
Battery: Five hours of listening time (seven without ANC), 22 hours total with case
Listening modes: Adaptive audio and transparency
Controls: Force sensor for playback, calls, and volume swipe controls
Charging: USB-C charging case, MagSafe, Qi compatible
Find My: Speaker included to work with Find My
IP rating: IP57
AirPods 4 vs. AirPods 5: Design
Side-by-side, it'll be hard to spot the differences between the two AirPods. The cases look the same, as does the (somewhat) open-ear design of the buds. The internals of the AirPods 5 have a new multiport acoustic architecture, but we'll get more into what differences that makes below.
With a slightly higher IP rating of IP57 to the 4's IP54, the AirPods 5 are also slightly more equipped for dust and water resistance.
AirPods 4 vs. AirPods 5: Noise cancellation
According to Apple, both models of the AirPods 5 have one and a half times the noise cancellation power of the AirPods 4 with ANC. Naturally, both are far superior to the base AirPods 4, which offer no active noise cancellation.
The fruit company also claims that the Transparency mode sounds more natural on both newer models.
AirPods 4 vs. AirPods 5: Sound quality
In Apple's announcement of the earbuds, they touted the multiport acoustic architecture, which was modeled after the internal sound system of the AirPods Pro 3.
In practice, this helps Apple provide a better adaptive equalizer experience (which comes in handy, as there's no manually customizable equalizer as there is on most other earbuds. It also helps the earbuds produce richer, more detailed sound, as well as better ANC, which helps the audio take center stage.
AirPods 4 vs. AirPods 5: Features
Both models of the AirPods 5 come with Live Translation, whereas the AirPods 4 with ANC is the only previous-gen model that could perform Live Translation.
Which is better: AirPods 4 or 5?
Undeniably, the AirPods 5. Both models offer improvements in noise cancellation, sound quality, and overall user experience, all for the same or lower prices as the previous gen. It's rare that Apple comes out with a better product that's also a better value, so my advice is to take advantage of it while they have.
Bethany Allard is a Los Angeles-based shopping reporter at Mashable covering beauty tech, dating, sex and relationships, and headphones. That basically means she puts her hair through a lot, scrolls through a lot of dating apps, and rotates through a lot of different headphones. In addition to testing out and rounding up the best products, she also covers deals for Mashable, paying an especially obsessive amount of attention to Apple deals and prices. That knowledge comes in handy when she's covering shopping holidays like Prime Day and Black Friday, which she's now done for three years at Mashable.
