Owning Sony XM4s, Galaxy Buds Pros, Bose QC, and Airpods Pros: that's an extreme take. All of these devices "just work" and "don't just work" in nearly the same ways.

The microphone quality is a tin can on all of them. Among my friends in Discord, anytime someone logs on with a shit mic the meme is "dude are you using airpods?!" They usually are. Or any earbeans. Because they're all bad.

The AV desync is an equal issue on both of them. BT headphones are basically useless for any realtime application (think: playing a digital piano).

This may just be me, but: I have no idea what the "automatic device switching" airpods feature is. I have a Mac. I have an iPhone. If I want to switch my Airpods from iPhone to the Mac, I have to go to the bluetooth menu in the toolbar, and click the Airpods on the Mac... just like the XM4s. To go back, I go into the bluetooth quick settings menu and click Airpods Pros. Its exactly the same. Like, ever since they announced this feature, I feel like either the world entered a collective psychosis on what this feature does, or I'm getting old and I'm missing something, but its exactly the same (and, not that bad; exactly how many steps I'd expect to switch an audio output device). The Airpods are certainly very nice during the initial pair process, but that's a one-time thing on both devices.

The scary part to me is: the APPs do have slightly better UX on Apple devices. And it isn't just the value-add features like "automatic" switching and spatial audio; I do experience slightly more AV desync on the XM4s on iPhone. The XM4s sometimes won't connect to my Mac. But these issues are entirely and totally Apple device specific; I also regularly use the XM4s with a Galaxy S21 Ultra and Windows 11 PC, and they're just where I'd expect BT headphones to land there. I really think this is an "Intel Mac situation", where Apple is intentionally ruining (or ignoring, and thus leaving to languish) the experience of integrating non-Apple devices so they can sell their accessories. Then, even educated customers start saying "the APPs just work better" even though what's really happening is, the iPhone is just working worse with non-APPs, and Apple is pushing their monopoly once again.

And I say all that coming to the conclusion: If friends ask me what earbeans to buy, if they have an iPhone, just buy APPs. They have better UX, in very small but nonetheless extant ways, even if I'm convinced it's because of Apple's monopoly control over consumer devices. Maybe more-so: they have a very neutral, unoffensive sound profile. Its boring. But the quality is competitive with any other bean out there, which is to say: great. It works for nearly any type of music, and no one will complain about it.

None of the other "tech company beans" can compete with the APPs. Some are cheaper. All of them suck. This meaning: Samsung, Microsoft, Google beans.

But if you're on Android; the APPs are still a top 3 choice. However, I'd add: if you want a neutral sound profile, the Bose QC beans (non-sport) have better noise cancellation and comparable audio quality. If you'd welcome or accept a more bass-heavy sound signature and larger (yet still comfortable) in-ear profile: the Sony XM4s are the best beans money can buy.