Soundcore Liberty 4 Evaluation: A Worth-Packed AirPods Various

Anker’s Soundcore Liberty 4 true wi-fi earbuds are the model’s most feature-rich so far. The stem-toting product brings a number of upgrades over the audio maker’s glorious Liberty Air 2 Professional earbuds on the identical agreeable worth level. The Liberty 4 begins under $150 earlier than different offers and reductions.

The substantial Liberty 4 upgrades embody a sleeker design, improved ergonomics, longer battery life, and upgraded audio {hardware} with assist for spatial audio and Hello-Res audio streaming, to call a couple of. The last-mentioned bits have been unavailable on the Liberty Air 2 Professional, making the sequel notably thrilling.

With the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Professional being amongst our favourite earbuds since their early 2021 debut, I put the Liberty 4 by way of its paces for a number of weeks to find if it’s a worthy follow-up. Right here’s all the things that you must know concerning the buds’ design and efficiency.

Scores

Sound: 8/10
Consolation: 9/10
Design: 8/10
Battery Efficiency: 8/10
Total Rating: 8/10

Soundcore Liberty 4 at a Look

• Nice sound that’s tailor-made to your listening to
• Modern and simple to make use of
• As much as 9 hours of battery life
• IPX4 water resistant

Sound: 8/10

Sound-wise, the Liberty 4 earbuds ship the perfect expertise for the cash (and barely past). Every bud packs a pair of finely tuned dynamic audio drivers. Mixed with assist for the audiophile-grade LDAC audio codec, the last-mentioned setup permits the Liberty 4 to supply a sonic expertise with unbelievable constancy.

The Soundcore app, as standard, gives many instruments for customizing the sonic expertise. These vary from a double-digit quantity of presets for varied music kinds and different audio content material sorts to creating your profile by way of a graphic equalizer. The default Soundcore Signature setting will deal with you to an entertaining sound with a barely boosted low vary.

A standout characteristic of the Soundcore Liberty 2 Air Professional earbuds, HearID is unsurprisingly accessible on the Liberty 4. You may tailor the earbuds’ sound to your actual listening to by finishing a fast and simple take a look at within the Soundcore app.

Not like numerous rivals of their worth vary, the Liberty 4 earbuds may ship an immersive spatial audio expertise, courtesy of an onboard algorithm and built-in gyroscopes for dynamic head monitoring. The performance has music and video modes — you possibly can toggle between them within the companion app.

Enabling spatial audio on the Liberty 4 is enjoyable, particularly in video mode. Nonetheless, the expertise isn’t any match for what Apple’s AirPods Professional and the Beats Match Professional earbuds can supply on this division.

The LDAC codec talked about above is on the market on Android telephones, and that you must allow it within the Soundcore app. Whereas testing the Liberty 4 with a Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely and a Sony Xperia 5 IV, I had the characteristic completely on. The degrees of element I heard in my go-to take a look at tracks — from classical with elaborate instrumentals to bass-heavy downtempo — consistently made me really feel like I used to be rocking out with pricier earbuds.

Until you might be prepared to half with significantly additional cash on a set of Sony earbuds such because the WF-1000XM4 or the LinkBuds S, to call a few noteworthy merchandise, you’ll be hard-pressed to expertise extra detail-rich sound than the Liberty 4’s.

The noise cancellation of the Liberty 4 is environment friendly and glorious for an under-$150 product, however not on the identical degree because the silence generated by the likes of the AirPods Professional and the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II, to call a few costlier big-name rivals. The earbuds efficiently eliminated the visitors din from the close by fifth Avenue throughout out of doors work periods in Central Park. In my massive open workplace, the Liberty 4 helped me focus by tuning out the keyboard clatter and the fan noise within the house.

The efficiency of the Liberty 4 earbuds was stellar throughout phone, FaceTime, and Zoom calls. Six microphones and an AI-powered algorithm helped members hear me clearly throughout rush-hour out of doors calls. Bluetooth 5.3 — essentially the most up-to-date model of the connectivity commonplace — allowed the Liberty 4 earbuds to reliably preserve simultaneous hyperlinks with a number of telephones and a MacBook Professional.

Consolation: 9/10

The Soundcore Liberty 4 earbuds are light-weight and exceptionally cozy. Their proprietary dual-layer ear ideas are simply as spectacular. I spent hours with the earphones with out feeling drained from carrying them.

I tip my hat to Anker for ditching the finicky contact controls for extra dependable squeezable stems within the Liberty 4 earbuds. The textured end of the discreet buttons makes controlling the audio playback, adjusting the amount, and taking calls simple, together with throughout exercise periods. The app-customizable setup is among the finest within the enterprise.

Design: 8/10

The Soundcore Liberty 4 earbuds have the same form because the Liberty Air 2 Professional, however a extra compact construct. The buds’ stems have a shiny end, giving them a sleeker, extra high-tech look. You may order the product in black, white, blue, and purple with an identical storage case.

An industry-wide IPX4 ranking for water resistance makes the Liberty 4 earbuds appropriate for exercising like most rivals.

What puzzles me most concerning the design of the Soundcore Liberty 4 earbuds is their built-in coronary heart price sensor which requires creating an Anker account to operate. I’ve been utilizing the earbuds for months and didn’t really feel the necessity to faucet into this performance. My Apple Watch — or every other health tracker — might be higher and extra helpful for this.

Apart from as a result of it merely might, I can’t consider one more reason Anker added this characteristic to the earphones. I might have most well-liked that the tech big skipped it to make the Liberty 4 much more inexpensive.

Battery Efficiency: 8/10

You may count on as much as 7 hours of battery life from the Soundcore Liberty 4 with noise cancellation. However, the extra processing that the spatial audio requires will want a charging session after about 5 hours. Disabling each options bumps up the buds’ battery life to 9 hours.

The compact storage case of the earbuds holds slightly over two extra full prices for as much as 28 hours of wi-fi sound. The accent is appropriate with wi-fi chargers.

Wrap-Up: 8/10

The Soundcore Liberty 4 earbuds are convincingly among the many finest for the cash. In case you are purchasing for stem earbuds on a sub-$200 price range, that you must have the product in your shortlist of choices, particularly if in case you have an Android telephone. The earbuds’ design, high-fidelity sound, and stable battery life are price investing in.

In case you are an iPhone person questioning should you ought to decide the Liberty 4 over the third-generation AirPods, do not forget that the previous will get you noise cancellation and longer battery life whereas being simpler in your pockets. The AirPods are a greater choice should you use your earbuds with a number of Apple gadgets (e.g., iPhone, iPad, Mac, and so on.).

Store Soundcore Liberty 4

Senior Know-how Editor

Stefan is the senior expertise editor for , the place he’s been masking the tech {industry} and testing the most recent devices since 2015. He has greater than a decade of expertise masking shopper tech merchandise, particularly smartphones, tablets, laptops, and audio gear. He was beforehand the US editor for ; his work can be discovered on Fashionable Mechanics and different Hearst publications.Within the uncommon moments when he’s not taking part in with a brand new gadget, Stefan likes to look at stay Premier League video games or hang around along with his cat and rabbit. He’s additionally an espresso snob.