It took only one week, when my new AirPods 4 ANC started to malfunction. The meaning was to replace my 5.5 year old (!) AirPods 2 (which still work, albeit at reduced capacity).

The right AirPod suddenly made lots of static noise, which sounds like a watery ear mixed with waterfall. And it didn't matter what setting i had. Worst it was if i only used the right AirPod. When using two, the sound worked perfectly like 20 minutes, and then it malfunctioned again. Now it does it almost immediately.

The worst thing is, that this seem to be a rather common occurrence of malfunctioning AirPods 4 ANC - as i checked various entries at Reddit, where many reported from similar behavior. Some people had to exchange 4x in order to get a couple of good AirPods 4 ANC. And then you will always ask yourself - what if... (a couple months later ?)

So, now i have to send them back. But i am not sure if i will re-buy the same model, or if i should buy them without noise reduction (ANC), or perhaps just buy the old, but reliable AirPods 2... ?

I like the AirPods 4 a lot !

The sound is a lot better (compared to AirPods 2), and the noise reduction was very pleasant in terms of that you really could enjoy listening to music or a podcast, when sitting as a passenger on the noisy metro / noisy people. It didn't take away all noise - but i like that i could at least hear something from my surrounding in a muffled way. I like this better compared to almost total elimination. (In fact, I often use just one AirPod - so that i can have a good sense of my surrounding while I am listening. Of course in that mode, ANC doesn't work).

So, yeah. I like pretty much everything about them.

Difficult to get them out of the case

Except that the new design makes it difficult to get them out of the battery case (with much bigger risk that they more easily fall out by accident and jump down the railway, or something silly like a gully).