The Major IV’s supra-aural ear cups have a rounded, square shape with generously padded, comfortable ear cushions. The headband features a faux leather pattern, and the bottom is also padded and comfortable for extended listening sessions. Whether you like the look of the headphones probably depends on whether you like the Marshall guitar amp aesthetic. The headphones can seem a bit obtrusive with the Marshall lettering emblazoned on both ears, but the rest of the design exudes a sleek coolness that should appeal to more than just guitar rock fans. Many wireless headphones struggle with too many or too few buttons, or they have a confusing layout to remember, but that’s not the case here. The Major IV headphones have one button to control everything with ease. It can be pressed once to start play/pause, once to answer or end a call, or twice to bring up your device’s digital assistant. It can also be pressed forward to skip forward through a track, or in the opposite direction to navigate backward through a track. Volume is controlled by pressing up or down, and you can even fast forward or rewind by holding down the forward or rewind button. A long press on the button controls power and Bluetooth pairing. This is one of the more intuitive, user-friendly controls we tested, and we wish it were part of more headphone designs. A USB-C charging cable is included and plugs into the bottom side panel of the right earcup. Near this port is also a connector for the included semi-coiled audio cable, which allows for passive wired use. The dynamic 40mm drivers inside the headphones deliver a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz. The headphones are compatible with Bluetooth 5.0. Marshall estimates the battery life to be around 80 hours – a really impressive number, but the results will depend on the volume. Regardless, this is a solid battery life.
