Hi I’m Gidon from thetechnologyman.com. The Soundcore Liberty 2 Pros from Anker are
true wireless earbuds with probably the best sound I’ve heard from earbuds under $150
or £150. Their accompanying app has a feature to test
your hearing for a personalised EQ profile, and also lets you configure the earbuds’
controls to your preference. And they have USB-C fast charging and wireless charging,
up to 32 hours or battery life with their charging case, and they support the higher
quality aptX codec. But they are missing a couple of features
which may or may not be important to you, and they have a lot of competition with far
cheaper earbuds offering similar features. So let’s take a closer look.
Overview Inside the box you get the earbuds themselves
with their charging case, an Anker branded USB-C charging cable, no less than 7 sizes
of eartips and 3 sizes of ear fins including the ones already fitted, and a quick start
guide. The charging case is on the large side measuring
78mm by 57mm by 30mm - almost twice the size of the AirPods Pro case. It needs to be this
size to fit the earbuds which are also pretty big. The case with the earbuds weighs 69g
with the pair of earbuds weighing 17g. The Liberty 2 Pros come in black or white
- I’ve got the black version. The case has a matte black finish and slides
open and closed very satisfyingly. Around the back there’s a USB-C charging port with
a rubber flap and a pairing button. When you slide open the lid the earbuds pair
with each other and then the right earbud’s white LED will flash quickly indicating it’s
ready for pairing. Tap on Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro in your Bluetooth settings. If your
device supports it, you’ll then be prompted to accept a pairing request for the left earbud
so you can use either earbud later in mono mode.
To pair to another device, with the lid open press and hold the pairing button for 3 seconds
until the right earbud again flashes white quickly, indicating the earbuds are ready
for pairing as before. If you want to switch back to a previously paired device, again
press and hold the pairing button for three seconds, and then tap on Soundcore Liberty
2 Pro in your previously connected devices list.
If you remove both earbuds, they’ll work in true wireless stereo mode. If you return
the left earbud and close the lid, the master right earbud will continue playback. If you
return the right earbud and close the lid, playback will stop as your device pairs automatically
to the left earbud. You’ll need to manually resume playback. You’ll notice an additional
Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro-L entry in your Bluetooth device list.
You can turn off the earbuds without returning them to the case, with a 5 second press of
the multi-function button. You can factory reset the earbuds and delete
all pairing records with a 10 second press of the pairing button with both earbuds in
their case. Both earbuds will flash red. Close and reopen the lid to start pairing.
You can charge the case either with the included USB-C cable, or wirelessly with any Qi compatible
charger. With a wired connection a full charge of the case’s 500mAh battery takes around
2 hours. The earbuds themselves take around one and a half hours to charge.
The earbuds have an impressive 8 hours of playback with a full charge and the case will
provide an additional 3 full charges for a total of 32 hours of usage.
With faster USB-C charging, a quick 10 minute charge conveniently provides 2 hours of usage.
With the supplied USB-C cable I measured just under the quoted 0.5A charging current.
The 3 LEDs on the front of the case indicate the case’s charge status whilst it’s charging
and when you open the case. When you close the case, the left and right LED flash to
indicate the earbuds are fully seated and both charging.
The earbuds are a little tricky to remove from the case - I grab them by the side of
their ear fins. And dropping them back in their case requires a little concentration.
I try to remember to grab them from my ears by the top of the ear fins which orients them
in the correct position for returning to the case.
The earbuds do feel premium, in line with their price. They have a matte black finish
with a gunmetal face and a white status LED towards the bottom. They don’t have any
touch controls, just the small multi function button. Each earbud has two microphones for
suppressing noise during voice calls. Unfortunately the Liberty 2 Pros have no active noise cancellation
playback and even more disappointingly they don’t have any transparency or passthrough
mode, to let you hear your surroundings. I’ll come back to this shortly.
The earbuds come with medium ear tips and fins already fitted which should fit most
ears. If they don’t, they have a whole range of sizes to try. The ear tips are easy to
change. The ear fins are too but they are sided and have a little notch that has to
be matched to the earbud, so you have to pay a little more attention.
Fitting them in your ears does take a little getting used to. They are labelled left and
right - just grab them with your thumb on the charging contacts and index finger near
the multi-function button, with the ear fins pointing upwards. They should be angled so
the bottom microphone points towards your mouth, with the fin just tucking inside your
outer ear. The fitted tips and fins provided a comfortable,
secure fit in my ears, but I preferred the larger ear fins when running for an even more
secure fit. And with these additional fins, the Liberty 2 Pros are the most secure in-ear
earbuds I’ve tried so far and if only they had some passthrough mode, these could be
the perfect set of running earbuds. The most likely way you’ll dislodge them, is trying
to control them with the small multi-function button.
But they are also the least discreet earbuds I’ve tried. They noticeably stick out from
your ears and it’s difficult to not feel self conscious.
The earbuds are controlled via the single multi-function button on each earbud. By default,
a single press will pause and resume playback, a double press on the left and right earbud
skips back or forward a track respectively. A long press activates your voice assistant.
By default you can’t control volume, but this is configurable in the accompanying Soundcore
app that I’ll discuss shortly. I found the button a little small to quickly
locate, and I’d prefer a softer activation. It would also be more natural for me for the
button to be on the opposite side, so you could press it with your thumb. At least the
button isn’t on the face of the earbud, which would uncomfortably press the earbud
further into your ear. At this price point I also would have expected
ear detection, so that playback would automatically pause when you remove either earbud.
Soundcore app You can optionally download the Soundcore
app for iOS and Android. This will let you install any firmware updates, customise EQ
and configure the multi-function button. From the Home screen you can check the battery
level or each earbud by tapping the L or R. If there’s a firmware update, you should
be prompted to download and install it when you open the app. But you can also tap on
the 3 dots at the top right of the screen and tap on “update firmware”.
The equalizer screen offers an exhaustive list of options. By default the “Soundcore
Signature” EQ profile is selected, but you can create custom EQ settings by tapping on
Custom and dragging the graph to your tastes. You can create multiple profiles and name
them and organise them as you like. There are also a number of so-called professional
Custom EQ profiles you can choose from. And if you tap on the Default option there’s
a huge choice of more familiar EQ profiles. Finally there’s the HearID feature, which
basically conducts a hearing test on your left and right ear, to determine a custom
EQ profile tailored to your specific hearing. This takes a few minutes.
I’ll discuss how these profiles sound shortly. If you return to the Home screen and choose
the Controller screen, you can customise the multi-function button’s double and 1s press.
I prefer configuring a 1s press on either earbud to control volume. These settings only
apply if you’re using the earbuds in stereo mode, otherwise they’ll revert to their
default settings. Audio quality and performance
The Liberty 2 Pros use what Anker market as “Astria Coaxial Acoustic Architecture”
for their driver configuration - a combined balanced armature and dynamic driver. That’s
a lot of jargon but they do sound very good, far better than I was expecting.
By default they have a bright sound with excellent clarity, whilst still providing good bass.
Treble can sometimes sound a little harsh, but only at louder volumes. Compared to AirPod
Pros costing significantly more, they have a more immersive sound, partly due to their
almost perfect fit - in my ears at least. They also have support for the higher quality
aptX and AAC codecs. I preferred the default Soundcore Signature
EQ profile across a range of music I tested them with, but there is enough customisation
via the app to suit most tastes. I found the HearID feature an interesting
concept, but overall I still preferred the default profile.
Unfortunately these earbuds don’t have any active noise cancellation, which would be
nice to see at this price. But their passive noise isolation is very good and you don't
need to have your music overly loud even in noisy environments. Sound leakage is pretty
limited too. The downside of this is it’s hard to hear
your surroundings. I’d really expect earbuds at this price point to have some audio passthrough
and without this feature I have trouble recommending them for running. I also found because of
their weight, although I didn’t feel them physically move around in my ear whilst running,
I did find each time my foot impacted the ground there was some minor disturbance to
the music. They are now my go to earbuds for the cycling
turbo trainer though. I again use the larger ear fins. These ensure the earbuds stay put
even with a sweaty indoor workout, unlike the AirPods Pro which tend to fall out - even
though they’re secure enough for outdoor runs. They do fortunately have an IPX4 sweatproof
rating and they coped fine. The four microphones, 2 on each earbud have
Qualcomm’s Clear Voice Capture 8.0 for voice calls and I found the quality very good. Not
just in a quiet environment, but also in a noisy coffee shop.
Battery life is quoted at 8 hours at 60% playback volume. I got around 7 hours, but often playing
back at slightly louder volumes. The earbuds use Bluetooth 5.0 and they were
quick to connect to and their range was good, easily maintaining a connection even when
my phone was in the next room over 10 metres away.
Conclusions If you’re after a great sounding set of
true wireless earbuds for under $150 or £150 the Liberty 2 Pros should be on your shortlist.
I was really impressed with their immersive, bright sound and they were still able to deliver
decent bass too, helped by their precise fit. The accompanying app allows enough EQ customisation
for even the most critical listener and being able to configure the multi-function button
to your own preference is welcome. Although they have good build quality, I’m
not a fan of their look, sticking out too far from your ears for my liking. But this
design does at least seem to provide very good voice call quality.
They have decent passive noise isolation, so I can forgive them for not having any active
noise cancellation. But I would love their next iteration to have audio passthrough so
you can choose to hear your surroundings, a feature the comparable Jabra Elite 65 and
75t’s have. I also found the multi-function button a little
small with a quite firm actuation, which made controlling them a little fiddly, especially
when working out. But they still have some great features including
excellent battery life, USB-C fast charging and wireless charging, and aptX support. And
I’d keep an eye on their price - check the Amazon link down below. Anker are often reduced
around Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day. But I’d love to know what you think of these?
How do you like the look? Do you consider audio passthrough an important feature? Let
me know down below. And as always, if you have any questions,
please ask - I read every comment and will do my best to respond.
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