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A few earbuds with charging cases that had expanded features dropped in 2024. Some were gimmicky, while others clearly put some thought into making things practical.
The Liberty 4 Pro is the latter, and not only do they sound good, but they also give you some valuable controls for your earbuds when you’re in Zoom meetings or just listening from the desktop and want to control your sound.
Here are my full thoughts on the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro.
Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro: Price and availability
The Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro are available from soundcore.com and Amazon for $130. You can pick up a pair in Glossy Black, White, and Glossy Light Blue.
The Liberty 4 NC went on sale pretty regularly, and the Liberty 4 Pro did see a $30 price drop during the holiday season, so it’s reasonable to think you’d be able to get a better deal if you’re patient.
Category | Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro |
|---|---|
Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.3 |
Codec support | SBC, AAC, LDAC |
Speakers | 10.5mm bass drivers, 4.6mm titanium-coated tweeters |
Noise control | ANC, Transparency |
Battery life | ~7.5 hours (ANC on); ~4 with LDAC (ANC on) |
Charging | USB-C, Qi wireless; Fast charging: 5-minutes = 4 hours |
Durability | IP55 (no case rating) |
Sensors | Barometric pressure |
Ear tips | XXS/XS/S/M/L/XL (medium pre-installed) |
Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro: What I like
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Let’s get right to it! The sound produced by the Liberty 4 Pros is powerful! You get a soundstage with headroom to spare, boomy bass, punchy mids, and output that has you rarely needing to raise the source volume higher than around 65% of max.
Though not the highest durability rating, the Liberty 4 Pro should be able to handle whatever workouts you throw at them with an IP55 rating for water and dust ingress. They ship with Bluetooth 5.3 and LDAC codec support for hi-res wireless audio, along with Spatial Audio support. You get Easy Chat, which is an audio ducking feature that “hears” conversation and lowers the audio volume so you can carry on a conversation.
There are a lot of customization options on board here, including five additional earbud tips in the box, not including the medium ear tips that are installed by default. The remaining wealth of options can be found in the app. More on that in a moment.
Making a case for the “Pro” moniker
The big marketing push with this latest iteration of the Liberty from Anker’s Soundcore brand is the case. It has some cool features that are expanded when you use the app. The default is that when you take the earbuds out of their case, you’ll automatically see the battery status, and then the screen transitions to controlling ANC.
This isn’t a touch screen likely because it’s so tiny that your finger would cover the majority of the screen real estate. Instead, you get a touch bar below the screen to control the ANC slider.
Going into the app and the Charging Case Settings menu, you can turn on spatial audio controls, atmospheric ANC status display, a Find Device feature that allows you to ring the case and earbuds independently if you can’t find them, and a remote camera shutter function if your phone supports it. My Pixel 9 did support it and worked flawlessly as long as the camera was launched first on the phone.
My only gripe is that with the transparent lid shut, you can only control the default setting, ANC. When activated from the app, all other options can only be accessed with the lid in the open position.
I wonder how many people will use the case, though, because you can access ANC and spatial audio options from Android and iOS widgets. The Find Device functionality is likely the only case function that is worth pulling the case out for most people.
I think that the case functions will be most useful as a desktop remote extension of the app like a smartwatch is, to a great degree, a useful extension of your phone. Unlike your phone, you don’t need to unlock the case to access the default features or those you add to it via the app. So, the case sitting on your desktop while you’re doing work is the ideal use case for the touch bar and smart display.
Sound, app, and battery life
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As the Liberty 4 NC did, the Liberty Pro gives you a lot of features for a reasonable price. Battery life is just under six hours in my testing at 65% of max volume on my Google Pixel 9. The great thing is that you can get four hours of playback time with just five minutes inside the charging case.
The battery isn’t the only aspect that has juice! The power output is wonderful. On a Pixel 9 and iPhone 16 Pro Max, I rarely had to have the volume higher than 65%. A pet peeve of mine is Bluetooth earbuds that require me to crank the volume to the maximum to get robust audio.
For a $130 pair of earbuds and in true Soundcore style, the Liberty 4 Pros punch above their weight. They’re definitely tuned for popular music, but their clarity and sub-bass extension are delightful.
Listening to Charles Mingus’ “Moanin’,” you get a very clear sonic picture of the beautifully layered instrumentation. The horns are crisp, the upright bass is thumping with a deep resonance, and the sparse vocals that are layered somewhat in the background are easily audible.
However, there’s more moanin’ to be had. Art Blakey’s version of “Moanin’” is where you get a sense of just how bright the Liberty 4 Pro can be as the horns on that composition become fatiguing after a bit. As entertaining as the sound profile is, it doesn’t sacrifice anything at the higher frequencies.
Listening to other tracks like the “Sikiliza Kwa Wahenga” from the “Get Out” soundtrack and “Violin Duel” from the “Chevalier” soundtrack show off the enormous soundstage of these mid-level Bluetooth earbuds.
Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro: What I don’t like
The Liberty 4 Pro is indeed a solid performer, but nothing is perfect. As intriguing as the Smart Display and its functionality are, I’m not a huge fan of the fact that you’ll have to open the case for anything other than the ANC slider option. You can see through the case, so why have to open it for other functions?
Regarding sound quality, the 4 Pros can be a bit bright, so depending on the genre, your listening session may become a tad fatiguing. Thankfully, if that’s the case, there are EQ options to help tamp down that top end a bit.
And you’ll definitely want to play with the different sound profiles a bit. Out of the box, the Liberty 4 Pro is definitely tuned for popular music, so the sonics are heavier on the low end and a tad lighter when it comes to nuance.
The previous generation Liberty 4 NC has better noise canceling, so if you’re asking if you should upgrade to these, I’d say “no.” ANC isn’t significantly better with the 4 NC, but it is enough of a difference, without a significant difference in sound quality, that an upgrade is far from necessary.
Last, depending on the fit of your ears, the earbud volume controls could be a bit of an annoyance. You use a sliding motion on the stems to increase or decrease volume. It works quite well, as do all of the other controls, but sliding at the stem could dislodge the earbuds a bit.
Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro: Competition
We saw some fantastic competitors emerge in 2024 in the mid-range noise-canceling earbuds market, so you have some solid alternatives here. First, I’d take a look at both Nothing earbuds, the Nothing Ear (a) and Nothing Ear 2024. The latter fully competes on features with the Liberty 4 Pro, though its case isn’t as “smart.” They do have better EQ settings with the ability to adjust frequency bandwidth, but it will cost you roughly $20 more.
You also have ‘buds like the OnePlus Buds Pro 3, the JBL Live Pro 2 TWS, and a shrewd buy if you pick up one of Jabra’s “end of life” Elite 10 (gen 1) or Elite 8 Active earbuds. All are solid competitors to the Liberty 4 Pro, though if you prefer the stem style, you’ll want to skip Jabra’s products.
Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro: Should you buy them?
You should buy Soundcore’s Liberty 4 Pro if…
- Super fast charging
- You want Hi-Res Wireless Audio support
- You want a case that supports some earbud controls
You shouldn’t buy Soundcore’s Liberty 4 Pro if…
- Top-tier noise canceling is mission-critical
- You aren’t a fan of stem-based touch controls
The Liberty 4 Pro gives you a case that is larger than the previous generation Liberty 4 NC, but you’ll have to decide if its features are worth the increase in size. In every other metric, the experience you get is quite good for earbuds in the mid-range market, especially considering that you’ll save around $30 compared to some competitors.
For solid music reproduction, great call quality, and the ability to use the case as a desktop extension for controls, you should definitely take a look at Soundcore’s Liberty 4 Pro if you’re in the market for mid-range Bluetooth earbuds.
Smart case, smart price
The Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro features a smart charging case, but its relatively low cost and solid sound are the stars of the show. If you already own the Liberty 4 NC, it isn’t time to upgrade, but other, older earbuds may be reason enough.