Soundcore Liberty 5: how can €120 earphones compete with Apple AirPods?
Anker Innovations' premium audio brand Soundcore has a reputation for delivering affordable products that punch above their weight in terms of specs and features.
The company said its new Liberty 5 earbuds deliver its most advanced Adaptive ANC system while improving on audio quality.
But can a €120 set of true wireless earphones compete with the market leading Apple AirPods 4 ANC which cost almost €80 more?
Soundcore Liberty 5 look and feel like many of the company's other personal audio kit. They sport a short angular stem design and a compact charging case with a sliding lid and LED indicator. The case supports wireless charging and the earbuds have an IP55 rating for dust and water resistance. The buds weigh just 4.6g each.
There are six different sized eartips in the box. Be sure to try them all as the most secure fit will improve your audio and noise cancellation experience. The default medium size tips fit me best and I found them a snug and comfortable fit. There's a simple test you can run in the Soundcore app to help you find the ear tips that give you the best ANC and sound quality.
You squeeze the Liberty 5 stems to control playback and calls and it's all very intuitive and easy to get to grips with. You can customise how it all works in the Soundcore app too.
The companion smartphone app also includes a range of helpful customisation options including the latest version of HearID to help consumers tailor the sound to their hearing profile. A customisable eight-band EQ and a number of preset EQ profiles mean you can easily tweak the sound to your own tastes.
If you make and take a lot of calls you will probably welcome the option to mute the mics when on a call with a single squeeze. It's handy, for sure, and you get a confirmation tone immediately followed by one every 20 seconds that you remain on mute.
Soundcore Liberty 5 use four of their six microphones, along with an AI-powered algorithm, to help identify and block external noise. The Adaptive ANC 3.0 algorithm adapts to your environment three times per second.
Soundcore Liberty 5 employ a newly designed 9.2mm flexible wool-paper driver along with dual bass-enhancing tubes to amplify the low frequencies resonance.
Two tests you can run in the Soundcore app - HearID and sound preference - take about 10 minutes to complete and are well worth the effort.
If you have an Android device that supports the higher quality LDAC codec then you can enjoy high resolution music once you are subscribed to a compatible streaming service.
Stamina from a single charge is rated at 12 hours of playtime with ANC turned off and eight hours with ANC enabled. When both the earbuds and case are fully charged, Liberty 5 can provide up to 48 hours of battery life with ANC off and 32 hours with ANC on. Obviously this depends on what volume levels you use. There's a quick charge feature too, so you can get hours of extra playtime from just a 10-minute power boost.
Soundcore Liberty 5's full range of six microphones is enabled during phone calls to help eliminate background noise. A useful automatic side-tone mode automatically switches the buds into transparency mode as soon as you take or place a call.
The inclusion of Bluetooth 5.4 and Google Fast Pair means connecting the buds is a breeze on Android and iOS. And the multipoint connectivity works impressively well.
Soundcore Liberty 5 include responsive in-ear detection which means content is auto-paused and resumes your tunes when you remove or replace an earbud.
On the downside, unlike other Soundcore buds, there is no spatial audio or heart rate monitoring here. And Auracast support has not been introduced yet.
I asked an iPhone and iPad user, Madison Kavanagh, to test a white pair of Liberty 5 out with her Apple devices. She gave a hugely positive thumbs up to the quality of both the audio and adaptive noise cancellation. She also praised the design and comfort and was most impressed at the ease, speed and reliability of connectivity with her Apple kit.
Soundcore Liberty 5 come in four colours – Cloud White, Ink Black, Abyss Blue and Rose – and they cost €118 on Amazon. Apple AirPods 4 ANC cost €199 from Apple.com.
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