For the first time ever, the entry-level AirPods have active noise cancellation (ANC). Apple unveiled the new AirPods 4 on Sept. 9 at the "Glowtime" event where the Cupertino-based tech giant debuted the new line with two variants: one with ANC and one without ANC.

The AirPods 4 price starts at $129 for the non-Active Noise Cancellation model, which is the same cost as the AirPods 2 that have stuck around since 2019 (although you could often find them for much less thanks to cheap AirPods deals .)

For a few years, Apple made fairly minor tweaks to its standard AirPods. This time, they’ve made a big one: active noise cancellation (ANC). This makes the AirPods 4 ANC quite a compelling, cheaper alternative to AirPods Pro 2 (€279); the main reason to get the more expensive model over the basic AirPods was ANC.