Anker’s audio sub-brand, Soundcore, has quickly become one of my favorites. Each year the company pumps out multiple wireless devices that are worth a look if you’re shopping for that market. I’ve recently received the new Soundcore Liberty 4 NC edition wireless earbuds, and this new offering is way too good for the price.
Design
I’ve said this in many of my earbuds reviews, but it’s seriously hard to innovate here. The Soundcore Liberty 4 NC has a familiar tear-dropped design with a stem. It’s fairly common these days and is easily recognizable from many models by Apple, Samsung, and JBL.
The outside of the stem houses part of the mic array as well as the capacitive touch area for controls. Other specs include a gyro-sensor for in-ear detection, 11mm drivers, and Adaptive Noise Cancellation 2.0. IPX4 water resistance and Bluetooth 5.3 are onboard as well.
App
The capacitive touch area is also commonplace at this point. I won’t go into much detail here as I think most are self-explanatory at this point, but the taps and holds can be customized in the Soundcore app. I kept the defaults of play/pause on single taps and a few more, but you can tweak these as you feel.
The main section of the app you’ll want to check out is HearID. This is a distinct profile of your ear and listening capabilities. Anker’s app tweaks the Liberty 4 NC frequencies to your liking as well as the noise cancellation.
Lastly, the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC will most likely need a firmware update from time to time. My review unit needed it out of the box. The Soundcore handles this with ease with devices connected over Bluetooth.
Sound
The sound on the Liberty 4 NC earbuds is really good. Anker has filled this with the previously mentioned specs and HearID 2.0 to create a noise cancellation profile that is catered to your listening preference. This can filter out up to 98.5% of outside interference when the ANC profile is turned all the way up.
The playback is crisp with the Hi-Res 11mm drivers. I’ve found this has been one of the better-performing Liberty models to date. I think these may outperform the Liberty 4s in many ways. The overall sound is similar, with a great balance between all the frequencies.
The quality in both is top-notch, but I think the volume is much better on the Liberty 4 NC in comparison. I found the Liberty 4s could be somewhat low or muted in some environments even with volume at 100%.
Battery life and charging case
Anker advertises that a full charge of the Liberty 4 NC earbuds should last up to 10 hours of playtime. I think this to be accurate. I’ve been pushing them a tad over the 50% volume benchmark and still getting around 8.5 hours away from the charging case.
Speaking of the case, Anker always has a tactile feature of the Liberty line cases, and the new button to pop open the Liberty 4 NC case is just satisfying. The reaction of the spring-loaded lid is downright fidget-spinner-worthy. It also offers the practical edge of charging the earbuds four times.
I was nervous that since the Liberty 4 NC earbuds are technically the budget model, Anker would remove wireless charging, but that’s not the case with this case. Qi wireless charging is here and works as you’d expect. USB-C wired charging is here too. The case supports fast charging the earbuds and can get you four hours of playback in just 10 minutes.
Conclusion
Anker has knocked it out of the park with the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC earbuds. The audio is superb, the battery life is fantastic, and did I mention that the price is just $99? Add all this up and you have a packed spec sheet for why you should buy the new Liberty 4 NC earbuds.
You can snag the new Liberty 4 NC earbuds from both Soundcore’s website or their long-standing retail partner over at Amazon. Both links are listed below with five color options: Clear White, Light Blue, Navy Blue, Pastel Pink, and Velvet Black.
Purchase the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC earbuds from Soundcore
Purchase the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC earbuds from Amazon
