I’ve tried a couple of different pairs of EarFun earbuds and headphones, and my general impression is that they’re fine. They’re not bad by any stretch, but they also didn’t blow my mind. Very middle-of-the-road, which works because the price matches the quality. With the company’s latest Air Pro 4+ buds sporting a higher price tag and notable upgrades like dual-unit drivers and AI enhancements, I had high hopes when I set out to test them.
With the Air Pro 4+ hitting the market at around $140 in Canada, they are the most expensive earbuds on EarFun’s roster by a bit. I wouldn’t spend that much on these earbuds, but I wouldn’t spend that much on most things, to be fair. For EarFun’s first venture into higher-end audio, they’re pretty solid.
The EarFun Air Pro 4+ case feels nice thanks to a luxurious matte finish. The lid also opens over the top and the front of the case, which makes getting the buds in and out just a little bit easier than the typical top-only lids.
The buds themselves are a bit of an odd fit for me. The nozzle beneath the silicone tips is oblong as opposed to being circular, and even though the tips themselves are still round, I have a hard time keeping these buds in my ears. I find myself having to adjust the buds by shoving them back into my ear more often than I should, even after trying all of the tip sizes. I’m not certain whether that’s a result of the shape of the nozzle, but it’s worth noting that I haven’t had the same issue with circular nozzles.
In terms of sound quality, EarFun’s Dual Driver System makes the Air Pro 4+ very bass-heavy out of the box, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A lot of people prefer rich sound in the lower range of frequencies. There wasn’t quite enough treble to balance out that bottom end for me, though.
This was an easy fix with the companion app. This app has more frequency range options for equalizing than others I’ve used, which enables more in-depth customization.
I don’t like to fiddle around too much with EQs, and I usually don’t need anything fancy. My go-to mix is the Smiley Curve, also called a mid-scoop mix. All it does is boost low-end and high-end frequencies and limit mid-range frequencies, which improved the overall sound of the EarFun Air Pro 4+ by a lot. It really brought the mix to life and levelled out that heavy feeling in the bass range.
Bluetooth 6.0 makes connecting pretty fast and easy. Even when connecting to multiple devices during playback, I had no connection issues or hiccups, which is a pleasant surprise. I’ve found it far more common for the Bluetooth connection to struggle as soon as a second device is introduced. The only time I was having problems maintaining a connection, it turned out to be because the buds were due for a firmware update.
The list of features on EarFun’s website boasts a couple of very fancy-sounding AI capabilities, including Intelligent Real-Time AI Translation and Enhanced 6-Mic with AI Algorithm.
As for AI translation, most phones come equipped with translation technology already. So, while the feature itself worked well enough, I’m not sure what the benefit would be of using it in the EarFun companion app rather than just using my device’s native translation app.
And the Enhanced 6-Mic with AI Algorithm is… there. The AI algorithm is used for beamforming, which is a technique that receives signals from multiple sensors and aligns them to enhance signal and reduce noise.
Beamforming is a legitimate process that does help with call clarity. However, I’m not convinced that beamforming needs an AI algorithm to make voice calls clear on a pair of earbuds, especially when every other pair of earbuds and headphones I’ve tested has been just fine without it. So this specific feature seems to be just another case of AI marketing hype.
EarFun claims that the Air Pro 4+ earbuds will give you eight hours of listening time with noise cancellation on, and 12 hours without it, and an average of 54 hours overall with several charges in the case. While I didn’t test the battery in-depth, I can say I’ve only needed to charge the buds a handful of times over the couple months I tested them.
My biggest qualm with these earbuds, and many tech products on the market, is that the name is such an unbelievable mouthful. I don’t know when it became necessary or trendy to give products full doctoral dissertations for a name, but I’m absolutely over it. Nothing about these earbuds, or any earbuds, calls for six syllables. We, as a society, need to tighten up on that.
Overall, I would say if you’ve got extra cash kicking around, you could treat yourself to a pair of EarFun Air Pro 4+ earbuds, and you’d probably be very happy with them. However, I’m certain there are earbuds on the market which, with a little bit of EQing, would come quite close to matching in quality for a fraction of the price.
The EarFun Air Pro 4+ are available direct from EarFun priced at US$99.99 (about C$141). However, you can also find them on Amazon Canada for between C$120 and $130, depending on the colour.
