10 Earbuds That Outperform The OnePlus Buds 4

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OnePlus has been a solid alternative to giants like Apple and Samsung for years, but unfortunately now it's bowing out of the US market. The curtain call came after the release of the OnePlus 15 phone and the OnePlus Buds 4. Though the latter are a solid pair of earbuds, they're competing in a space full of excellent options at the same price — and sometimes less. As such, we would like to look at earbuds that outperform the OnePlus Buds 4.

"Outperform" is a tricky word when it comes to audio gear. Since we can't compare straightforward things like benchmarks, it mostly comes down to a small handful of hardware specs. Earbuds, to our disadvantage, rely on a ton of subjective opinion and preference; good luck trying to prove, objectively, that one pair has better sound quality, fit, or active noise canceling (ANC) than another. So with that in mind, we're looking at headphones that can beat the OnePlus Buds 4 in at least a couple of categories at, near, or below the same $129.99 price point.

The Soundcore Liberty Buds 2 are pretty new, releasing in September 2026. They cost $129.99, same as the OnePlus Buds 4, and belong to the Anker family. Soundcore markets them primarily for calls, including a bone conduction sensor in addition to the microphones — something the Buds 4 don't have. They also offer more battery life; about 7 hours of playback per charge with ANC on, for a grand total of 27 hours when using the case, versus roughly 6 hours of playtime (up to 24 hours with the case) on the Buds 4.

The Liberty Buds 2 include the more modern Bluetooth 6.1 standard, compared to Bluetooth 5.4 on the Buds 4; Bluetooth 6.0 onward added a significant improvement in pairing speed, battery efficiency, and latency, among other things. Finally, the Liberty Buds 2 have a superior 10-minute fast charge that adds an extra 4 hours of listening time, compared to the Buds 4 getting about 3.5 hours extra playback time in the same time frame.

All of that's well and good, but how do the Soundcore Liberty Buds 2 stack up with reviewers? Quite well. They're praised for comfort and fit as well as surprisingly good call quality and noise cancellation. Having said that, the Buds 4 are very close in the race, including the same IP55 dust and water resistance, and similar weight at 4.73 grams each for each bud. The Buds 4 do have some advantages over the Liberty Buds 2, too, such as built-in AI translation. You can purchase the Soundcore Liberty Buds 2 on Amazon here.

The worst part about EarFun is that they chose a name that makes them sound like a forgettable cheap audio brand, which isn't the case. The EarFun Air Pro 4+ are some of the best noise-cancelling earbuds you can get on a budget. Stacked up against the OnePlus Buds 4, they have several advantages. One, they get about eight hours of playback with ANC on, two hours more than OnePlus. In addition to their dynamic driver, they include a balanced armature (BA), a compact type of driver beloved in in-ear monitors (IEMs); top-of-the-line audiophile IEMs that cost thousands of dollars prefer BAs because they can produce exceptional audio.

The EarFun also supports Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound, a wireless audio protocol actually capable of transmitting lossless audio; one of the biggest limitations of Bluetooth is that it cannot do lossless. They also support LDAC, another hi-fi wireless codec. They have Bluetooth 6.0 over the Buds 4's Bluetooth 5.4, too. Reviews of the EarFun Air Pro 4 Plus are favorable.

All of this is made more impressive by the fact that the EarFun Air Pro 4+ has an MSRP of $99.99, $30 less than the OnePlus Buds 4. They match many of the same specs, such as AI translation, a 6-microphone array, and IP55 water and dust resistance. These earbuds are proof that you don't have to pay through the nose for good Bluetooth earbuds, and they certainly give the Buds 4 a run for their money. You can purchase them here on Amazon; at time of writing they're on sale for $79.

The EarFun Air Pro 4 are a slightly cheaper alternative to the EarFun Air Pro 4+ at $89.99. Still, they offer a lot compared to the OnePlus Buds 4 — now $40 is more expensive, in this case. The Air Pro 4 supports Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound for lossless audio playback; the case supports wireless charging, a feature the OnePlus Buds 4 surprisingly lacks; finally, the Air Pro 4 still have better overall battery life: 7.5 hours playback with ANC on, or 35 hours total with the case.

Though some features naturally had to be cut to drop the price — the Air Pro 4 doesn't have a balanced armature and the sweat and water resistance is only IPX4 — they're still impressive with a 6-mic array, multipoint pairing, and in-ear detection. Not bad earbuds by any stretch of the imagination.

The EarFun Air Pro 4 does well with reviewers, despite sitting firmly in budget territory. They're easy to recommend, though they do raise the question of why you should buy them when the Air Pro 4+ only costs $10 more and offers a whole bunch of improved specs. You can purchase them here on Amazon.

We're not quite done with Anker Soundcore brand quite yet. The Soundcore P42i are another pair of ANC earbuds starting out at $79.99, and managing to beat the OnePlus Buds 4 in a handful of categories we think matter.

For one, they boast 8.5 hours of ANC playback on a single charge, or 40 hours total with the case's battery; they support wireless charging on the case, despite being $10 cheaper than the EarFun Air Pro 4; they also support LDAC, yet again a curious omission from the Buds 4 considering how widespread this codec is; and lastly, the Soundcore P42i have Bluetooth 6.1 support, bringing the many advantages in stability, latency, and efficiency that we mentioned previously.

We again have a situation where earbuds that now cost $50 less than the OnePlus Buds 4 are matching them in multiple key specs. Both buds here have a 6-mic array, IP55 water and dust resistance, multipoint connectivity, and AI translation. The Soundcore P42i even manages to weigh less at 4.4 grams apiece. Reviews we've seen would also agree that these are excellent headphones, more than anything at that price point. You can purchase the Soundcore P42i on Amazon here, where sales will bring them as low as $59.99.

The Soundcore Liberty 5 are yet another pair of Soundcore earbuds, this time in the same price bracket as the OnePlus Buds 4 at $129.99. They offer quite a bit more. The Soundcore Liberty 5 have 8 hours of playback when ANC is on, a total of 32 hours with the case, two hours more than the Buds 4; they support the LDAC codec; they support Dolby Audio, a proprietary surround sound format common on streaming services; they have a case that supports wireless charging.

One small area where the Soundcore Liberty 5 may have a slight advantage is pinch controls. Similar to the AirPods Pro, you can pinch the stem to control music and other functions on the earbuds. The OnePlus Buds 4 only supports stem volume swipe controls. Anecdotally, the pinch controls may be preferable to some because they're a lot more difficult to accidentally trigger, though we admit it would be nice to have the volume swipe controls too. It's a toss-up here, depending on whether you'd prefer.

We've seen pretty favorable reviews for the Liberty 5 in general. They released in the same year as the OnePlus Buds 4, so this is one of the closest comparisons on the list. You can buy the Soundcore Liberty 5 on Amazon here, with sales bringing it as low as $79.99.

Another Buds 4 competitor is the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro. For starters, they have a touchscreen on the case for indicating the charge level; the OnePlus Buds 4 only have a charging light indicator. They also charge faster, getting four hours of playtime and just five minutes of charging. Similar to the Liberty 5, the Liberty 4 Pro feature pinch controls, which again may be an advantage or a disadvantage depending on how you see it. The Liberty 4 Pro are also one of few earbuds out there featuring a barometric pressure sensor, which Soundcore says should (in theory) improve the ANC; a common issue with ANC is that it can create uncomfortable pressure when active.

It's worth mentioning that the Liberty 5 Pro is out already, starting at $169.99 (it's currently on sale for $144.99). It has a bigger screen that displays more information, eight microphones and two bone-conduction sensors for better voice quality, Dolby Atmos with head tracking, three-device multipoint connection, and voice controls. However, they are $40 more than the OnePlus Buds 4, making them a bit more challenging to compare side by side.

The Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro released in 2024 for $149.99, a year after the OnePlus Buds 4. Although they are more expensive than the latter, they now receive such frequent discounts that they may be the better option. Reviewers seem to like them. You can purchase the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro from Amazon here.

Nothing has been in the earbuds market for a while now, with its first pair released in 2021. Its pitch has always been decent specs at budget prices, plus a cyberpunk-y design you either love or hate, so they're a good point of comparison against the former flagship-killer brand OnePlus. The released-in-2026 Nothing Ear (3a) sells for $99, going on sale to $79, and offers some advantages over the Buds 4 for about $30 less. For one, they have a bigger 12mm driver, compared to the 11mm woofer on the Buds 4. Larger drivers usually produce better sound than smaller ones.

The Nothing Ear (3a) also has support for LDAC, and features pinch controls. Same as with the Liberty 5 and Liberty 4 Pro, we have pinch controls but no swipe for volume, so you'll have to decide if that's good or bad. They also have Bluetooth 6.0. Reviews we've seen enjoy them.

Admittedly, the list of advantages is small here. But the significantly lower price — $99 versus $129 — may be all the impetus you need to click "buy." You can purchase the Nothing Buds (3a) on Amazon here, where they've been more or less permanently on sale at $79 since their release, so a $50 difference in price compared to the Buds 4.

Apple's new AirPods 5 are its entry-level AirPods, adding ANC and a host of other features formerly restricted to Pro models. They start at $129 (the same price as the OnePlus Buds 4) and prove strong competition. For one, they have smart ANC features like conversation awareness — where the ANC automatically, temporarily switches off when it hears you speaking — and voice isolation — where background noise is trimmed away during a call. They also incorporate Apple's Spatial Audio, which can track the movement of your head to simulate a pair of speakers.

Further, the AirPods have in-ear sensors, a typically premium feature, and much higher IP ratings than most of the earbuds on this list at IP57. Of course,  Apple is rarely known for budget pricing; a whole host of earbuds are more affordable. However, this is one of Apple's best value offerings on the AirPods lineup to date. They hold up to the OnePlus Buds 4 at the very least. Reviews for them are positive.

You can purchase the AirPods directly from Apple for $129. Choosing the AirPods 5 with wireless charging case for $149 gives you (in addition to wireless charging) an extra hour of battery life on ANC and stem swipe volume controls. You can also purchase them on Amazon here.

The Soundcore Liberty 4 NC are like a budget version of the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro. Compared to the OnePlus Buds 4, they offer more battery life; eight hours playback time with ANC on, or 40 hours total with the case. Their fast charging provides an additional four hours of playback in just 10 minutes. Also, they incorporate LDAC for Hi-Fi listening and support wireless charging on the case.

There are some small extra benefits here, too. For example, the opening button on the case can put the earbuds in pairing mode or reset them. Reviews rank them favorably for their price. Although they retail for $99, they're currently listed on the official site at $79.99. On Amazon, they seem to go on sale constantly, hitting a rock-bottom price of $54.14. It's another situation where the actual price that you will find these earbuds at could well make them more compelling than the OnePlus Buds 4.

We'll let you in on a little secret: you don't need to buy the latest premium earbuds to get premium features. You can wait a couple years for the current model to go out of production and grab it on a deep sale. Case in point, the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro. These came out in 2024 as top-of-the-line earbuds, and still have excellent specs today that could be more enticing than the Buds 4.

For one, they have the full suite of touch and pinch controls: swiping for volume, pinching for playback, and so on. None of the either-or, as we've seen so far. They also have a much higher IP57 rating. Being that they're Galaxy Buds, they offer exclusive benefits to owners of Samsung devices like instant switching to other Galaxy devices and "neck stretch" reminders. If you want to go even cheaper, you could try to buy the Galaxy Buds2 Pro, the model before this one — still a great pair today. These may also have significantly better ANC given that (even though they're a couple years old), they were Samsung's best buds at the time.

When they came out, the Galaxy Buds3 Pro earned solid reviews. Now, of course, their biggest selling point is price. On Amazon, you can currently find them new for $134 from the official Samsung storefront. The price has gone down to as low as $119.99 on sale.

We want to reiterate that it is a lot more difficult to compare earbuds one-to-one than other devices. You simply cannot know which pair you will prefer most until you wear them yourself. Unless we did rigorous, controlled, side-by-side testing, it would be impossible to verify claims such as "two times better ANC" or "three times better call quality." So instead, we looked for objective hardware differences that would add value to a pair of earbuds — having Bluetooth 6.0, for example, or a case that charges wirelessly.

In each instance, we tried to find at least two hardware advantages over the OnePlus Buds 4 before we would recommend them. Our price had a maximum threshold of $160, though as you can see, in most cases it was at or below that. Each selection had to have at least one review from a professional reviewer outside of SlashGear. We'd also like to point out that although there are a lot of options on the market, the upper budget to midrange scene seems mostly dominated by brands like Soundcore.

Finally, this list is not meant to suggest the OnePlus Buds 4 are not good earbuds. To the contrary, these received strong reviews when they came out. But since OnePlus is out of the US market, people are right to be worried about future hardware and software support — and so now you know a few of the great alternatives available.