Yeah, Memorial Day Weekend sales are great, but so is getting a jump on the deals so you still have time for the parades and parties that will greet the unofficial kickoff of summer. If upgrading your wireless earbuds is on your list, hit this $99 Amazon deal on the Apple AirPods 4 and cross it off.
This isn’t a deal you’ll find at the Apple Store or Apple’s official site, where the AirPods 4 are stubbornly clinging to their original $129 price. You can thank Amazon for absorbing the margin on these base-not-basic buds and giving you a rare sub-$100 ticket into the Apple ecosystem.
New Chip Ahoy
Apple’s upgraded H2 chip drives its many features, including the Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking that separates the AirPods 4 from every generation that came before it. Rather than placing sound relative to your head, it anchors audio to the physical space around you — so when you turn your head during a movie, the sound stays where the screen is. It’s a meaningful difference from standard stereo and one that was previously limited to the Pro and Max tiers. Voice Isolation on calls gets the upgrade runner-up prize by filtering out background noise and isolating your voice for whoever you’re speaking with. That comes in especially handy in airports, coffee shops, and open offices where standard mics can’t compete with the background din.
The AirPods 4 come with a refined, updated design that addressed the fit complaints that followed the third-generation model. A refined contour and shorter stem sit closer to the ear for better stability during workouts — combined with IP54 dust and water resistance, these handle rain and sweat without concern.
Durability Meets Interactivity
The battery inside the AirPods 4 runs roughly five hours per charge with 30 hours total from the USB-C case, which is a full work week of daily commuting before the case needs a charge. The case itself is more than 10% smaller than the previous generation, which is noticeable when it’s living in a pocket alongside everything else. Siri interactions, of course, have not been left out — now they can be done silently, with a simple nod of your head.
One-tap pairing works instantly across Apple devices, and Audio Sharing lets two sets of AirPods pull from the same iPhone simultaneously. It all adds up to a pair of base-model buds that are anything but basic, and with Amazon dropping their price to $99 ahead of Memorial Day Weekend, upgrading to the AirPods 4 is an easy decision, especially since Apple won’t match it in stores.