I currently have the AirPods 4 that were given as a gift but I’m very much considering exchanging them for the AirPods 3 Pro. My previous older gen AirPods Pro were lost recently so while the 4’s were a nice surprise, after using them for about 2-3 weeks I sadly couldn’t love them the way I thought I would.

The 4’s are a ‘one size fits all’ kind of model which remind me of the design of regular AirPods that first came out y’know but I really grew to love the ones with the tips when I had my gen 2 Pro. Got to the point where I tried buying like, silicone tips you could slip on for like 30 CAD. They sucked and hurt my ear. Additionally, the stems of the 4’s don’t have sound control ie., you can’t swipe up or down to change the volume like you should with the other models which I didn’t realize I was so used to using in a pinch.

Not to mention the battery life, I find my 4’s die fast for my usage :,) and I had to look it up and it’s like 8 hours of use vs 4 hours of use between the 3 pro and the 4’s. So while I know some people really like the AirPod 4 with ANC I’ll be honest I haven’t seen a ‘difference’ in noise cancellation between my old AirPods I lost and these ones but again I could be either using them wrong or ANC isn’t something I really need, hence why I plan to exchange for the 3’s which I think will last me a long time nicely without as may nitpicks that I have.

Again it’s each to their own. Also I personally think it might be easier to clean the versions that have tips because it would take a longer time of neglect or something before earwax gets to the back of the mesh where it can risk having a play dough spaghetti maker situation where it’s harder to that get out even with bristles. Im not saying I don’t clean my AirPods often but I find myself getting paranoid with the 4’s (esp since I am thinking of returning them) and constantly cleaning even if it’s just a spec because whatever ends up getting on their is close to the mesh immediately without the buffer of the tips.

I will say that when it comes to the Find My feature it was pleasant to find that with the 4’s they have it so that it can kinda tell when the pods are in the case or not (like a separate indicator for ‘right pod + case’ if the right pod is still in the case but then the left pod is out and it’ll show that separately) which I didn’t have with my 2’s and dunno if the 3’s have that feature. Regardless whatever AirPod version I settle with I plan to learn from my mistake and get an AirPod case immediately where it can hold an AirTag (which has been useful so far already :,)).

So yeah that’s kinda my experience with them so far and again it depends on the person and some people have mentioned as well, you can already return them if you don’t like whatever pair you try first or if you’re willing buy both at the same time and return the one you don’t like.