If you ’re unfamiliar with Anker ’s Soundcore brand of audio products , allow me to wreak you up to speed . For several years , Soundcore has been killing it withwireless earbudsthat put up great performance and feature for far less money than the stigma you probably are conversant with .
Their wireless earbuds lineup is broadly organized into two tiers , with its Liberty Pro poser acting as the stain ’s flagships .
To say that we were impressed with thesecondandthird generationsof Liberty Pros is an understatement . We know them . So when I draw my review manikin of the Liberty Pro 4 , my expectations were already sky - high . With only a few little caveat , Soundcore has met those expectation .
The price is impressive at just $ 130 — 23 % less than the toll of the previous gen — but as you ’ll see , you ’re in reality catch more features too .
Making a case for more smarts
The first thing you notice when you unbox the Liberty Pro 4 is the case . Soundcore loves to expend sliding eyelid on its charging cases , and I ’m fully on display board . It lets you start the case single - handedly and it cater fantabulous accession to the earbuds once it ’s open . The earbuds are point in the case such that you may grab them and put them in your ear in one fluent motion , unlike the Pro 3 , which need an inept set of movements .
However , if you want your case to keep looking its best , you may want to consider the white version . It ’s the only one of the three color options ( the others are light racy and pitch-dark ) that does n’t use a mirror cultivation on the lid . The mirror ending wait stunning until you touch it . consequence later , it ’s a greasy muckle of fingerprint that take constant cleaning .
The second affair you comment is visible beneath that slip eyelid through a semitransparent windowpane : there ’s a coloring material OLED show mount to the front of the case ’s interior . beg the front sense of touch bar once ( or launch the lid ) and the display give you a elaborate battery read-out , show the percentage remain for each earbud , and a horizontal saloon for the case ’s battery . render how vague ( and/or perplexing ) most earbud assault and battery indicators can be , this one feature might have some folk chanting “ take my money now . ”
Once the earbuds are out of the case , the touch bar and screen can operate several extra features . By default , you get noise cancellation ( ANC ) with a sliding scale of 1 - 10 , where 1 is full foil , 5 is “ normal ” ( no ANC or transparency ) , and 10 is full noise canceling .
you’re able to also add other function via the Soundcore app , include spatial audio , find my earbuds , television camera induction , and something called atmospherical , which I ’ll extend to on later .
The touch measure is very responsive , making it promiscuous to navigate . It only react to my skin — not fabrics or other objects — which should keep it from inadvertent military action in your pocket or handbag . You tap once to wake the display , swipe left or right to get to the dominance you want , and forked - spigot to enter that musical mode . I got used to it quickly , though it ’s not as intuitive as using a touchscreen like the form you ’ll find on theJBL Tour Pro 3 ’s case .
It ’s worth note that some of these features are also accessible from the Soundcore app and some can be assigned to controls on the earbuds themselves . This raises the obvious dubiousness about bright case feature : Why do we need them ?
Ordinarily , I ’d say we do n’t need them at all , but I love the battery gauge , and the photographic camera induction can be very handy if you do n’t own a Bluetooth remote or a smartwatch .
Specs
Stems are the new black
Soundcore seems to be agnostic when it comes to earbud design . It has made ( and continue to make ) models that are stemless ( Soundcore Space A40 ) , models with stem turn ( Liberty 4 NC ) , and models in avariety of other shapes . However , for its top - level wireless earbuds ( the Pro series ) , it has now standardized a stem - based configuration . Whether that ’s a effective thing is subjective , but I recover them more well-off , if fairly less stable , than acaulescent designs .
The most important factor in getting any set of wireless earbuds to fit and perform their best is encounter the veracious size of it of silicone eartip for your ears . The Liberty 4 Pro ship with six sizes — twice as many as theApple AirPods Pro 2 — which should help greatly with that labor .
As is often the case , the preinstalled average tips equip me the adept , and I was able-bodied to wear the Liberty 4 Pro for hour , extract them out only when they ineluctably made my ear antsy .
The controls are a carbon copy of the AirPods Pro : pinch the stems to see to it playback and calls , or lift up / down on the flat inner surface for volume adjustments .
The nip motion is easy to perform , but the slightly oval shape of the radical is n’t as contributive to catch it right as the round , barrel shape of Apple ’s buds . With bare fingers , it was seldom an issue , but adding gloves to the mix made it a lot cunning .
You get a few customization options in the Soundcore app , but not every routine can be access . spacial audio and the camera induction features , for instance , are n’t available .
To affix these mastery , you’re able to take advantage of both fatigue detection ( for auto - pause / resume when you remove a bud ) and Easy Chat , which listens for your articulation and automatically douse the volume and shifts from ANC to transparency mode . I wish the Easy Chat feature article — Sony and Apple have interchangeable features on their earbuds — but it gets triggered too easily . Clearing your throat , cough , or sneezing are often interpreted as speech .
Big, bold sound
In all of its ware , Soundcore consistently have audio timbre that punch well above its weight , and the Liberty 4 Pro follow in that tradition . Despite a redesign acoustic layout that uses two dynamical drivers instead of one dynamic and one balanced armature , the phone is essentially unchanged from the third generation . That ’s fine by me since the 3 Pro are brilliant .
It ’s a big , bold audio signature with copious bass part and clear , elaborated highs . The earbuds aced my usual freshwater bass torture test , courtesy of Billie Eilish’sbad guy , and convey all of the passion and tone of voice I expect from running like Dire Straits’You and Your Friend . The word immersive is overused these days , but it captures the feeling of heed to these buds , even before you get going playing with the optional spatial audio musical mode .
mayhap I do n’t need to say it , but I will anyway : These $ 130 earbuds put the sound quality of Apple ’s $ 249 AirPods Pro to ignominy .
Out of the box , they ’re pleasurable , but I encourage you to try out Soundcore ’s HearID personalized EQ tool , which is one of the best I ’ve used . After a brief listening mental testing and a series of A / B comparisons while heed to a sample track , HearID created an EQ curve that beseem me dead — advance low gear , a slight bump in the upper mids , and an uptick in the highs .
If you do n’t get similarly good results , the app has oodles of additional EQ pinch , including a giving selection of presets , plus a full eight - band equalizer .
you’re able to also render out Soundcore’sspatial audiomode . Like Bose and Apple ’s interpretation of this tech , it “ spatializes ” stereo , which creates the sense that your two speakers are somewhere in front of your hearing position . It ’s not as effective as either Bose or Apple , but it ’s the head - tracking option that needs the most study . Unless you move your head slow , it can put behind bars behind — an unpleasant star .
A quick note onhi - res audio : The Liberty 4 Pro support Sony ’s LDAC codec on Android phones , and it can make a difference in detail and nuance . You ’ll need a placid location and admittance tolossless audioto try the effect , though .
alas , you ca n’t have LDAC andBluetooth Multipointrunning at the same time , and LDAC use will use battery life much faster than received SBC / AACcodecs .
Airplane ANC
dissonance canceling is also very good . There are a few gamey frequencies that escape its clutch , but for the most annoying daily strait , you ’ll hear a big difference with ANC on . A few time I notice a very wispy , intermittent buzzing sound when I was n’t playing any audio , but it did n’t get to me . However , there were also time when the ANC sounded like it was shift intensity on its own . Walking down the street , traffic stochasticity got louder , then quieter again , and I could n’t figure out why .
During my trial full point , Soundcore issued a firmware update that improved this situation a lot , but did n’t entirely eliminate it .
There ’s an optional plane musical mode for ANC . It uses a barometrical pressure sensor to compensate for diminished ANC performance due to the reduction of air press you live in a cabin during flight . Soundcore says that with aeroplane way enable , the earbuds can meliorate the cancellation of strait under 300Hz by 178 % .
I had a chance to essay it out on a late flight , and it definitely slim down small frequencies well than in normal mode . Still , it ’s not as place as Soundcore suggest — I also noticed that some high-pitched frequencies were n’t as well - see in airplane mode .
I ’m in person more annoyed / distracted by high - frequency go , so I switched airplane mode off and was happier with the final result .
funnily , transparency way is a little worse than on the previous generation . As with the Liberty 3 Pro , you ’ll hear extraneous sound very clearly , but your voice wo n’t sound as natural ( to you ) when you ’re blab out .
This is also unfeigned when ca-ca calls in transparency fashion , but your caller-out will give thanks you for using the Liberty 4 Pro . They do a cracking line of work of canceling out trouble besiege stochasticity that would make it harder to hear you — it ’s noticeably better than on the third - gen earbuds .
Battery life on the Liberty 4 Pro should easily get you through your day , or even your hebdomad . Soundcore arrogate you ’ll get 7.5 minute in either ANC or transparency modality per charge , with another 30 hours when you include the charge case . If you plow both features off , this rises to 10 minute and 40 minute , severally .
Keep in mind , that work at louder - than-50 % levels or twist on LDAC will abbreviate these numbers by as much as three hours per bursting charge .
Ordinarily , that would be a nuisance , but the 4 Pro can recharge very quickly . A five - minute recharge yield you a claim four 60 minutes of playtime , which is fantabulous by wireless earbuds standards .
In my experience , it ’s hard to go incorrectly with Soundcore earbuds , regardless if you go entry - tier or natural spring for the company ’s flagships . Once again , the ripe affair about the Liberty 4 Pro is the note value . With the possible exclusion of missingAuracastcompatibility ( which I ’d bed to see in future Soundcore products ) , you get it all . And the monetary value ? It ’s lower than any former Liberty Pro model , making them a very enticing rise .
The smart excite showcase is a playfulness redundant . The battery gauges are easily its better feature film , though count on your lifestyle , you may feel its other purpose ready to hand too .
If you do n’t value what the smart case extend , I still think the Liberty 4 Pro are an excellent choice give way their strengths in good caliber , ANC , and call quality . However , you may want to consider saving some money by going with either the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC ( $ 100 ) or theEarfun Air Pro 4($90 ) . They ca n’t match the 4 Pro ’s speech sound , but they fare nigh and cost less , and the Earfun work with Auracast .
