Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro review

The Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC were one of our favorite releases of 2023, thanks to its plethora of great features at an affordable price. Now, Anker Soundcore have improved upon that model with the Liberty 4 Pro. We put them to the test in this Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro review to find out if there is a new top dog in town.

Editor’s note: this article was updated on October 16, 2024, to correct an error regarding Bluetooth version.

What’s it like to use Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro?

Let’s start with the most unique feature of the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro – its charging case. The charging case has a reflective cover that is an absolute fingerprint magnet. It slides open to reveal the earbuds. Below the earbuds, you’ll find a very small display built into the charging case. It’s not a touchscreen, but you can interact with it by tapping and swiping your finger along a touchbar on the front of the case.

A touchscreen would be more intuitive, but the display is so small that your finger would cover the entire display while using it. Plus, with the blue and black color options, you can see the display even with the lid covering it. Therefore, you can interact with the touch bar on the front of the case without having to open the case, which I found useful for quickly checking the battery level of the earbuds.

At first, the case seems to only control the strength of ANC or transparency mode. Dig into the settings within the Soundcore companion app though, and you’ll realize it can do a whole lot more. You can use the case to switch between spatial audio modes, find lost earbuds, or take a photo using the camera app on your phone. You can also detect atmospheric pressure, and have the earbuds adjust the ANC accordingly.

While the case is certainly unique and interesting, it doesn’t have a ton of practical utility. Taking the charging case out of my pocket and fidgeting with the controls on it takes about the same amount of time as pulling out my phone and opening the Soundcore app. Most of the functions you would want to access on a daily basis, such as enabling or disabling ANC, you can do quicker by just using the earbud controls. You can also set up the Soundcore widget on your iPhone to quickly toggle settings from your home screen.

The earbuds themselves are largely the same as the previous Liberty 4 NC earbuds and still retain a comfortable fit with a stem that you can swipe on to control volume. A few different sizes of ear tips are included in the box, and you can take an ear tip fit test in the app to ensure you are using the right ones. With IPX5 water resistance, you can wear them out in the rain or at the gym without worry.

Should you use the Soundcore app for the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro?

The Soundcore app is an essential part of the Liberty 4 Pro experience. The app requests that you sign up for an account, which may put those with data privacy concerns on edge. Once you enter the app though, you are greeted with a truly staggering amount of features, and customization options.

On the home screen, you’ll find a 1-10 slider that controls the level of environmental noise. From “Transpenracy” (I think that’s a spelling error) to “ANC”. There’s also a wind noise reduction toggle, and an Airplane Mode that takes into consideration the current air pressure when adjusting the ANC.

In the sound quality section of the app, you can take the HearID Sound Test, which creates an EQ preset to adjust for any hearing loss you have. This isn’t to be confused with the Preference Test feature, which has you listen to a variety of EQ settings to determine your preferred frequency response. If those don’t please you, you can select from 22 EQ presets, or make your own using the eight-band custom equalizer. You can also try out the variety of spatial audio modes, which include Music Mode (fixed or with head tracking), Podcast Mode, Movie Mode, and Gaming Mode.

Digging further into the app, you can customize the pinch controls to your liking. There’s a toggle for a feature called Easy Chat, which automatically lowers the music volume when you start talking to someone, just like Conversation Awareness mode on AirPods 4 with ANC. Also similar to AirPods is the toggle for a feature called Adaptive Sound Leakage Compensation, which we can only assume works the same way as Apple’s Adaptive EQ to compensate for the way the earbuds fit in your ears.

If you’re worried about protecting your hearing, you’ll be happy to find a decibel meter inside the app with the option to set a volume limiter. If you lose your earbuds or charging case under your couch, you can head to the Find Device section of the app to play a loud tone out of either. Did I mention these earbuds have a lot of features? Yeah, they’ve got pretty much every feature under the sun.

How do the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro connect?

The Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro have Bluetooth 5.3 with support for LDAC. If you have a compatible Android phone, you’ll get some high-res streaming quality over LDAC. iPhone users can’t take advantage of this, but I didn’t experience any connection issues while using the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro with my iPhone 15 Pro. The earbuds support Bluetooth Multipoint, which means you can pair to multiple devices at the same time.

How long does the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro battery last?

In our battery testing, the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro lasted 5 hours and 42 minutes with ANC enabled. Combined with the charging case, Anker says you can get up to 30 hours of battery life with ANC and up to 40 hours without ANC.

How well do the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro cancel noise?

The Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro do a good job of blocking out external noise. They may not silence the world quite as well as the best noise canceling earbuds on the market, but for what these cost, I’m not complaining. Our testing shows that the ANC reduces low-frequency noise, such as the rumble of an airplane engine, by about 30dB.

In real world use, I found the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro did a great job of blocking out the sounds of a noisy city. While walking around downtown, I could barely notice the sound of traffic. If you don’t like the sensation of extremely powerful noise canceling, you can use the slider on the case or in the app to adjust the ANC to your exact preference.

How do the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro sound?

The Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro have great sound quality. Most people will enjoy the way the earbuds sound out of the box, or you can access the plethora of sound customization options within the app.

Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS)

With high Timbre and Immersiveness scores, it’s unsurprising to us that the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro has a high overall mean opinion score (MOS) as well. This means that most people will likely rate the sound quality of these earbuds quite high, though it may not satisfy everyone. This tracks pretty closely with our experience as well.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Objective Measurements

The default sound of the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro closely follows our headphone preference curve. The Liberty 4 Pro have more of an emphasis on bass frequencies below 200Hz. Those who love thumping bass will enjoy this, while others can easily remedy it using the custom equalizer. Across the mids and highs, the Liberty 4 Pro follow our curve quite closely.

Can you use the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro for phone calls?

The microphones on the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 work well for taking calls on the go. In our microphone demos below, you can clearly understand what each voice is saying.

Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro microphone demo (Ideal conditions):

Should you buy the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro?

Yes. The Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro are worth buying for most people. They deliver most of the features of the top premium earbuds on the market at a much cheaper price. The charging case provides a unique touch, though it is somewhat of a gimmick. Still, the raw performance combined with tons of features and customization options within the Soundcore app make the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 easy to recommend to almost anyone.

What should you get instead of the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro?

It’s really tough to beat the value of the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro, but there are some other options worth considering. The Nothing Ear ($149 at Amazon) are some of my favorite earbuds in this price range, thanks to their excellent sound quality, and great companion app.

If you want the best sound quality, you should also take a look at the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 ($149.99 at Amazon). Meanwhile, those with an iPhone should consider the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation ($179.99 at Amazon) or AirPods Pro 2 ($189.99 at Amazon).

Frequently asked questions