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Anker Soundcore Liberty Air
Anker used to be known for battery packs, but it quickly made a name for itself in audio as well. Under the Soundcore brand, it has released products ranging from Bluetooth speakers to true wireless earbuds, but the Soundcore Liberty Air were one of the first from the company. Even though they have newer models available now, how have these held up? Let’s find out.
Editor’s note: This post was edited on December 21st, 2020 for clarity and to reflect changes in pricing.
Who are they for?
- People who want the convenience of AirPods without the price tag. At about half the price, the Soundcore Liberty Air hold their own against the original AirPods.
- Android users. While you could argue that the W1 chip in the AirPods (or the H1 in the newer models) is worth the price tag, Android users can’t benefit from it anyway. In that case, the Soundcore Liberty Air get the job done.
How’s the build quality of the Anker Soundcore Liberty Air?
I’m not going to sugarcoat this, these look like knockoff AirPods—but that’s not a bad thing. Basically, everything I found appealing about the AirPods is here too. The case is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and easy to slide in your pocket thanks to rounded off edges and slick plastic build. Up front are three LED lights so you know how much battery is left, and it magnetically snaps shut too. Best of all, they’re matte black. Well, at least the case is. They also come in all-white if you’d rather that style too.
I wish the buds themselves were made of the same soft plastic material, but instead, they’re made of a glossy plastic that brings the look and feel of the back down to reality. They’re insanely fingerprint prone and get grimy almost immediately. Not to mention the aesthetic choices Anker made aren’t great either. Towards the bottom of the earbud are tiny holes for the microphone and the “Soundcore” logo.
The build of the earbuds embodies everything that I hate about cheap electronics. Still, you couldn’t tell just by looking at the charging case, which is damn near perfect. The earbuds are made of a cheap plastic and don’t feel premium, though on the bright side they are very lightweight. The only problem I have with the charging case is that when I swapped the silicone ear tips that came with the Anker Soundcore Liberty Air to my own memory foam tips, the case wouldn’t close properly which is a bummer for anyone hoping to get better isolation with a good set of ear tips. The bright side is that the Soundcore Liberty Air buds are IPX5 certified against liquid and sweat, so if you’re bringing these to the gym you shouldn’t have to worry too much about damaging them.
Putting the earbuds back in the case is an identical process to that of the AirPods as well. They magnetically snap into place perfectly each time and begin charging immediately. Similarly, just talking them out of the case turns them on which makes pairing a breeze as they automatically turn on and enter pursuing pairing mode as soon as you take them out of the device.
How to pair and reset the Soundcore Liberty Air?
Pairing the Anker Soundcore Liberty Air to your device is as easy as taking both earbuds out of the charging case. Once you do so for the first time, the earbuds will automatically enter pairing mode so that you can then connect to them in your Bluetooth settings. If you’re already connected to a device and want to reset them in order to pair with another device, the process is a little more involved.
How to reset the Soundcore Liberty Air
Resetting the earbuds is a simple process:
- First, remove the right earbud from the case leaving the left one where it is.
- Go into the settings of your phone and choose to forget them.
- Once you do that, the right earbud should begin flashing a white light repeatedly. Tap the right earbud four times until you see a red light.
- Then put the right earbud earbud back in the case and do the same with the left one, tapping it four times until a red light appears. That means that both earbuds are now reset and you can put them back in the charging case.
- To repair them to another device, remove both earbuds from the case and there should be a blinking white light on both earbuds, with the right one flashing more rapidly then the left.
Once I paired the Anker Soundcore Liberty Air with my phone and put them on, the issues I had with build quality melted away. I experienced basically no skipping whatsoever in average use, which is saying something with true wireless earbuds. They auto-connect to my device quickly when I take them out of the case so I don’t have to fiddle around in my Bluetooth settings, and putting them back in the case automatically pauses the music and disconnects from my device perfectly every time.
Unfortunately, not everything works so buttery-smooth. Connecting multiple devices is possible but switching seamlessly between them is not due to lack of Bluetooth multipoint. Going between my iPad and Pixel 3 required a few trips to the settings and manually disconnecting and then reconnecting each time. This isn’t a big deal if you’re just going to be on one device but if you’re like me and use more than one device it can be a hassle. Switching between Google Podcasts on my phone during my commute, to Spotify on my iPad once I reached my destination meant reconnecting multiple times throughout the day which, obviously, isn’t ideal.
The Anker Soundcore Liberty Air also don’t have any buttons on them, so playback controls are left to the touch-sensitive spots on the outside of either earbud. Double-tapping the right earbud pauses/plays music and answers phone calls, while double-tapping the left earbud activates your phones assistant. You can also hold for two seconds on the right and left earbuds to skip to the next track and return to a previous track, respectively. They work fairly well, but I was never able to actually return to a previous track since you have to hold down the side of the left earbud for a full two seconds to activate the function. By the time it registered, I was already too far into the song to return to a previous track and all that it did was replay the current song from the beginning.
What’s the battery life of the Soundcore Liberty Air?
Like all true wireless earbuds, you can’t expect these to say much longer than a few hours. So if you’re going to be on an intercontinental flight you might still want to look into active house canceling headphones, but for the average commute or trip to the gym, it’s more than enough. Anker claims around five hours of constant playback with an extra 15-hours being provided by the charging case.
In our testing, we found that they lasted 4 hours and 49 minutes before needing to go back in the case. Not bad considering that the average battery life for products released around that time was about 3.5 hours but that can’t hold a candle to some of the newer offerings from other companies. If battery life is your main concern just go with something like the Powerbeats Pro or the Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus which have best in-class battery life of 10+ hours. These also don’t charge via the newer USB-C which is a bummer for anyone who has purchased a new phone recently.
How do the Anker Soundcore Liberty Air sound?
Despite all of the issues I already mentioned regarding playback controls, I’m still tempted to get a pair of these even though I only just bought myself a pair of the RHA TrueConnect earbuds (at full price mind you). The reason is simple: I love how these sound. As useful as the connectivity features are on the AirPods even aficionados will never say they sound good, because they don’t. That’s not a knock on Apple, most true wireless buds suffer from bad sound quality. While I won’t ever call the sound on the Anker Soundcore Liberty Air “high quality,” they’re definitely one of my favorite sounding true wireless earbuds I’ve used to date along with the Master & Dynamic MW07 earbuds. (Editor’s note: Now there are better sounding options that you can find on our best list, but these still don’t sound bad at all)
You can see by looking at the frequency response that these are not lacking in bass, but they’re not overly emphasized like how do so many other products are when trying to hide bad sound quality. The song Only You by Joshua Radin is one that I use when trying gauge how much a singer’s vocals get masked by the low end because of the subtle yet strong bass notes on his guitar. The Soundcore Liberty Air handle it spectacularly, giving the right amount of umpf to the guitar in the solo parts of the track without getting in the way of Radin’s soft vocals. While this is great to me, people that prefer more bass while performing activities like working out might not be too keen on these.
While I found the mids and lows were handled nicely, that isn’t the case with the high end. Cymbals in the song Dirty Paws by Of Monsters and Men have basically no detail or depth most likely due to the fact that the emphasis in the high end can lead to some wonky notes in the ranges we barely hear anyway. This is pretty normal, and something that happens with the vast majority of headphones.
So should you get the Soundcore Liberty Air?
At this point in 2020, I would say that picking up the original Soundcore Liberty Air isn’t worth it. Especially since these are still going for about $42 USD. It’s not that these are a bad pair of earbuds because they’re not, but the original Anker Soundcore Liberty Air earbuds are just slightly outdated now. There is another option though and that’s to go with the updated version of these.
Plus, the newer Soundcore Liberty Air 2 has a sleeker design, better build quality, Bluetooth 5.0, personalized EQ settings, and a longer battery life per charge. Definitely check out the newer Anker Soundcore Liberty Air 2 if you like what the Liberty Air offer but want to get something a little better.