EarFun didn’t totally reinvent its earbuds with the Air Professional 4+. They’ve modified little outwardly from their predecessors, the Air Professional 4, which in flip hadn’t modified a lot from the Air Professional 3. The buds weigh simply shy of 0.2 ounces apiece, and the charging case weighs 1.5 ounces. The buds provide IP55 safety, so that you gained’t have to fret a lot about mud, rain, or sweat—simply don’t submerge them in liquid.
A brand new charging case with a diagonal seam may help keep away from the widespread earbud difficulty of popping open and ejecting the buds when dropped onto the bottom, although they’re nonetheless not immune when dropped from excessive sufficient. It is a bit awkward to get the buds out and in. They don’t simply plop into their spots completely each time; they’ll topple over into the lid, making them tough to extract.
(Credit score: Mark Knapp)
The buds characteristic the identical on-ear controls because the earlier model. These come as touch-sensitive factors that reply to totally different faucets and holds. Some rivals have shifted over to pressure-sensitive controls that may be extra constant and more durable to unintentionally activate, so the Air Professional 4+ really feel a tad behind, although the controls labored reliably in testing. Just like the prior mannequin, the buds nonetheless have put on sensors that routinely pause and resume playback whenever you take away or insert them.
Inside is the place EarFun makes probably the most upgrades. Someway, the corporate has managed to extend the battery capability from 54 to 60mAh whereas squeezing in an additional speaker. The Air Professional 4+ characteristic a 10mm composite dynamic driver and a secondary balanced armature barely offset from the primary to deal with the high-end.
The buds additionally characteristic a brand new Bluetooth chip, bringing them as much as Bluetooth 6.0. In any other case, they nonetheless include the identical lengthy listing of supported codecs, which have been a spotlight of EarFun’s Air Professional line. You’ll get LC3, AAC, LDAC, LHDC, aptX adaptive, and aptX Lossless. With Bluetooth LE Audio, you’ll get Auracast capabilities, which we’re beginning to see pop up right here and there. The buds additionally help Google Quick Pair and Bluetooth Multipoint, they usually can preserve multipoint energetic even with LDAC enabled (although it’s not really useful).
(Credit score: Mark Knapp)
One of many perks for Bluetooth LE Audio—on PC anyway—is the power to make use of the microphone with out sacrificing the audio playback high quality. Nonetheless, the Air Professional 4+ had hassle with this in my testing. When paired with a laptop computer that helps Bluetooth LE Audio, the buds would play audio simply tremendous, however the second the laptop computer referred to as up the mics, the buds would reboot. From there, it was inconsistent whether or not the buds would reconnect correctly. The mics may begin if no audio was taking part in, however that’s not adequate. The problem continued when used with a second LE Audio-capable laptop computer as effectively. I examined a distinct set of LE Audio-capable headphones that managed the hand-off with out this difficulty, so it seems EarFun’s buds are at fault right here.
The Air Professional 4+ buds are rated for 12 hours of playback with out ANC, and the case brings the whole to 54 hours, a small improve over the predecessor. Playback time sinks loads with ANC enabled, hitting simply 8 hours, or 36 together with the case. Nonetheless, that’s sufficient to get via the workday on a single cost and a lot of the week with the case. In my testing, the battery life largely held to that estimate, and once they’re fully drained, 10 minutes within the charging case is sufficient to get 3 hours of listening time.
The case continues to supply each wired and wi-fi charging, and now includes a coloured indicator mild to point out cost and pairing statuses. Inside, it has the identical 600mAh additional battery capability as its predecessor. The case ought to solely take between 80 and 100 minutes to recharge with a typical 5W charger, although none is included within the package deal. A USB cable and quite a lot of different-sized eartips are included.
