Intro I just got out of the Apple event where Apple introduced two new airpods for earbuds along with some cosmetic enhancements to the airpods max I'm going to concentrate on those airpods 4 models one of which has active noise cancelling I did get a chance to try that active noise cancelling out let's go do this all right so there's a little bit AirPods 4 Models of confusion about the two airpods 4 models because they both have the new H2 chip and they both have the same design they're a little bit smaller than airpods 3 they also have a slightly smaller case they cost $129 for the entry level model and $179 for the model with active noise cancelling now the way to look at the airpods 4 with active noise cancelling is to look at them as the airpods Pro 2 with an open ear design so the airpods 4 with active noise cancelling for instance because it has noise cancelling it can do that conversation awareness mode it kicks in a transparency mode um and it also has adaptive audio now the entry-level airpods 4 don't have those features the other feature that the AirPods 4 Case airpods 4 with active noise cancelling has is a little bit better case the case has a speaker in it um that emits a noise uh so that if you lose the case it can emit the noise and make it easier to find the other feature the case has is that not only does it have wireless charging with uh chi pads but it also can be charged with the Apple watch charging pad now of course both airpods 4 cases do have USBC charging instead of lightning charging that's a feature that's going to be an all new airpods AirPods 4 Design going forward in in terms of the design of the airpods they as I said they're a little bit smaller so they're kind of in between the airpods 2 and the airpods 3 and that means in theory that they'll fit probably more ears better A lot of people uh didn't like the airpods 3 because they just couldn't fit smaller ears I'll finish by talking about active Active Noise Cancelling noise cancelling in those airpods 4 with active noise cancelling I did get a chance to try it on the floor and I was pretty impressed because I've never heard open earbuds actually able to do active noise cancelling all right so we've engaged in noise cancelling here obviously very noisy room and it definitely does work um it's better at canceling out lower frequencies I still hear the music and it's not going to be quite as good as the airp Pro 2 but it it's impressive that it can Tamp down the for an open earbud that it's a rare thing it does a decent job with lower frequency so not the frequency range that the airpods Pro 2 can do with noise cancelling not quite as strong the idea is that you'd have some you know an air conditioning unit in the background or some low um drone noise in the background and the buds would Tamp that noise down as for battery life both AirPods 4 Battery Life airpods 4 models have up to 5 hours of battery light with noise cancelling off obviously the entry level model doesn't have noise cancelling but the air SPS 4 with noise cancelling would get up to 4 hours with noise cancelling on so Apple hasn't really improved the battery life performance on these compared to previous model now if you're wondering whether it's worth buying the entry-level model versus the highend model it's obviously a $50 difference see how that all shakes out for Street prices but I do think for a lot of people it will be worth getting the noise cancelling feature unfortunately AirPods Max Changes the new Air a ODS Max are not the airpods max 2 that we were hoping for they might have the H2 chip in it um and some other new features these new airpods Max just have USBC charging and some new color options a new blue color for instance kind of a peach color that I liked but nothing new from a features and performance standpoint they're really just cosmetic changes so I'm here with the new color options for the airpods max as I said before there's really only USBC been added instead of lightning no new H2 chip they're still $549 but check out these new colors I'm David Conor for cnet.com thanks for watching