Apple's fourth-generation AirPods include optional ANC, borrowing from the AirPods Pro line. Here's how its specifications line up against the AirPods 3.

Discover the new, budget-friendly Apple AirPods 4 and learn which model is best suited to meet your audio needs.

The AirPods 3 are going out of date now, and they're currently reduced at Amazon — but you shouldn't buy a pair.

In other words, without getting too much into the weeds of things, active noise cancellation works by the device "monitoring" the outside noise and emitting an inverted soundwave, or what Treski calls "the anti phase," to neutralize or negate the external cacophony.

Apple's latest AirPods feature an updated physical design, new case, and audio improvements, all for under $200.