TWS true wireless earphones - $100 to $150
FIVE STARS - Only three months after its release, Anker seems to balance the price of the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro wireless earbuds anywhere between 100 and 150 dollars.
Does it outperform the amazing competition at this price? And should you get this instead of the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC?
Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro specs and features:
Bluetooth 5.3 with AAC and LDAC codec
IPX5 waterproof rating (rain and sweat proof)
5 - 10 hours playtime on a single charge (see review for details)
Charging case can charge earpieces fully 3 times
Has: ANC, Transparency, app support, multipoint connection, gaming mode, wireless charging, spatial audio, visual case interface
Doesn't have: -
Comes with 6 sets of ear tips, USB-C cable, English manual
$100 to $150 - See price on Amazon US or your Amazon country
In and underneath this Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro review, you will find comparisons of the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro vs Soundcore Liberty 4 NC, Earfun Air Pro 4, SoundPEATS Capsule3 Pro+ and Apple AirPods Pro 2.
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Design, comfort and battery life
Soundcore seldomly disappoints when it comes to the build quality and design of its wireless earbuds, but the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro (L4P in short) isn't the brands sturdiest model.
The L4P is available in black, white, light blue and dark green. The model on this page is the last one.
The flat and sleek charging case has a lid that slides open, just like the predecessors - the Liberty 2 Pro and great Liberty 3 Pro.
Sadly, the lid isn't very sturdy. It's a bit loose and can slide up and down a bit when you move the case. It makes the entire case feel slippery.
You can cycle between the features in this display by sliding the bar underneath it
Underneath the lid hides the biggest feature of the L4P: a visual display that shows the remaining battery life of the case itself and the battery percentage of the earbuds.
What's more: like more expensive JBL earphones, you can control certain things on this screen by sliding and double-tapping the bar underneath it.
By default, you can slide between the Transparency, Normal and Active Noise Cancelling mode, but there's more to add (see the next part of this review).
The screen resolution is medium. It's easy to read, but you can see the pixels, which doesn't give off the most premium vibe.
The case support wireless charging and charging via USB. And the case is extremely powerful: the case can give the earbuds 3-4 hours of playtime with only 10 minutes of recharging!
The earbuds itself can deliver a solid 8 hours of playtime on a single charge. That's with the default AAC codec and ANC on. You get two hours more when you deactivate the ANC.
When you choose the LDAC codec (Android phones only), however, the battery decreases to a maximum of 5 hours of playtime.
The Liberty 4 Pro case recharges its earbuds insanely fast
The Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro is comfortable to wear, thanks to its classic oval shape earpieces that lie diagonally in your ears.
The L4P comes with six sizes of rubber ear tips, but even the size that suits you, may turn inside out when you take an earbud out. That's somehow a very normal occasion on many Soundcore earbuds.
It's safe to take the L4P out running or working out, as they're IPX5 waterproof against sweat and rain.
The Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro doesn't have the most premium appearance or feeling the brand has released, but with good comfort, great battery life and super quick charging, these earbuds are versatile for everyday use.
Controls, connectivity and app support
It's Ankers trademark to always have the best features on earbuds around 100 dollars, and the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro is no exception. Just - wow!
The Liberty 4 Pro controls by pinching the stem, instead of touch panels on top of the stem. Squeeze the stem to play/pause music, double-squeeze to skip or return a track, hold to cycle between Active Noise Cancelling modes or…
… slide to change the volume. This works flawlessly, like no other wireless earphone at this price point, comparable with Apple's AirPods Pro 2. The L4P always seems to know whether you want to increase or decrease the volume and responds extremely well.
Music automatically pauses when you take an earbud out, and resumes playback when you put it in again.
Like all new earphones, the Liberty 4 Pro has multipoint connection, meaning you can connect it to two devices at the same time. It automatically switches when you receive a phone cal or when you pause on one device, and play on the next.
It also has Google Fast Pair, that easily lets you connect to a Chromebook or Google TV when you've got the earbuds paired with an Android phone already.
You can easily re-establish a previous connection to a device from the Soundcore app. Speaking of which…
You can change the controls for all the pinches
You can limit the maximum volume to your preference - brilliant
The free Soundcore app on iPhone and Android lifts the Liberty 4 Pro to an insanely high level. Its features are mind-blowingly good for this price.
Install firmware updates
Check battery life of the left and right earbud and the case
Activate and switch between ANC/ Transparency modes
(De)activate Spatial Audio features for Movies, Games, Music or Podcast, either with fixed or head tracking sound
Do the HearID Sound Test to optimize the sound for you, or,
Do 6 hearing comparisons and get a custom sound profile
Choose between 20+ EQ presets
Create your own manual equalizer
(De)activate the Easy Chat mode (see ANC part of this review)
(De)activate wearing detection
(De)activate adaptive compensation for sound leakage, so people around you don't hear your earbuds
Check the safety of your volume level
Limit the maximum volume for safety reasons
(De)activate the Wearing Tone and Low Battery prompt
See and re-establish dual connections
Choose between LDAC and AAC codec (Android only)
Do a fit test
Select which features you want to have on the charging case and how you control them
The Transparency - to Normal - to ANC slider
Spatial Audio features
Atmospheric ANC to counter flight pressure
Find your earbuds directly from the case
Activate the shutter of your camera-app when activated
Select the auto-power off time of the earbuds
Find your earbuds from the app
See how you can put a widget on your phones homescreen
Fully setup the controls to your liking
The Soundcore app has an abundance of great features
You can select which functions the display on the charging case has
With reliable controls, auto-pausing, great multipoint connectivity and a mind-baffling set of convenient features from the Soundcore app, the Liberty 4 Pro is the most feature-rich wireless earphone on a budget. Outstanding stuff.
Phone and video calls
The Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro is a great choice for phone calls and video conferencing.
Your voice sounds natural, if a bit flat. It's not artificially warm or full, but also not overly clear. It also has enough volume.
The microphones do a great job of recognising sounds around you, and they wonderfully reduce noise other than your voice. Even when I snap my fingers, it isn't audible in a phone call. A car driving by? Not in the call. A radio playing somewhere? Nope. Just voices in the same frequency as yours may be audible.
Wind noise is audible, but picked up and countered quite quickly. A small breeze may be filtered quickly in a call.
Thanks the multipoint connection, the L4P automatically switches to your other device when you receive a call there.
The Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro is a very safe choice for phone and video calls, both indoors and outside.
Video and games playback
It's no problem watching videos on the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro. On both iPhone, Android and via Google TV, the audio synchronizes flawlessly with whatever's playing on your screen.
The Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro has no specific gaming mode that optimizes the speed of sound effects, but it does sync well straight out of the box. The delay that's there, isn't enough to pull you out of a game like Call of Duty mobile.
The sensation of sounds around you could be better. The L4P has a Spatial Audio mode setting, but… that mostly reduces the volume and doesn't add a whole lot of spatial detail either in movies or games.
ANC quality of the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro
The Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro has great Active Noise Cancelling (ANC). That's no surprise, considering the more affordable Soundcore Liberty 4 NC already had some of the strongest noise reduction under 100 dollars.
The ANC doesn't remove conversations directly around you in the same way over-ear headphones can, but it does take away a lot of noise even when you're not playing music.
Constant sounds like electronic humming, a radio playing in the background and distant office chatter and movement, are either reduced or completely removed from your hearing.
Sudden sounds like door slams are also softened well, and even middle sounds like the typing on keyboards is utterly dampened or even completely silenced.
The ANC slider on the case is so easy, you may actually adjust the ANC strength because of it. It's easy to turn the ANC down from 5 (the strongest) to 3 (less pressure on your ears), to 0 (off), to scores below that, which are the Transparency modes. This works well if you put the earbuds in right before you want to cycle from work to home, for instance.
Slide from Transparency (utmost left) to Normal (middle) to ANC levels (right)
The ANC on the highest level can put some pressure on your ears, or even show a light rumble sometimes. Taking an earbud out and in again can resolve this.
Transparency on the Liberty 4 Pro is quite good. Middle sounds like traffic, door slams, and movement around you are audible when you're playing on moderate volume, so you get a good sense of your environment.
The Transparency isn't powerful enough to follow a conversation when you're also playing music.
Wind noise is audible when you use the ANC or Transparency modes, but it is separated well from the music. You don't need the separate Wind Noise Reduction slider from the app.
If you want a conversation nearby, there's a great feature in the app called the Easy Chat mode! Activate this from the app, and the L4P immediately silences music 5, 10 or 15 seconds when you start talking. It makes it incredibly easy to switch from listening to music to having a conversation nearby. The only thing of note is that you have to be the person to start talking, it doesn't work the other way around.
There's also an ANC Airplane Mode that may change the ANC effect dependent on the air pressure - but I couldn't try this feature out.
The Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro has convincing Active Noise Cancelling, with strong reduction, easy adjustment via the case, and a practical Transparency mode.
Sound quality of Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro
The Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro has the brands best treble reproduction to date, but it misses a bit of spark.
The Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro doesn't offer the same insane bass of the Liberty 3 Pro (which is still the biggest bass monster on the market after 425 wireless earbuds tested).
Basically, the Liberty 3 Pro bass shoves itself in your ear canal constantly, and changes just about every low frequency it can find into a bass line. It even throws in a constant rumbling bass floor.
The Liberty 4 Pro has a friendlier and more common bass, that still offers plenty of power. The mid-bass provides solid thumps. It's not the tightest bass, but bass strikes also don't last artificially long.
The sub-bass still rumbles deep and powerful in James Blake's great test track Limit to Your Love, but it keeps it control and even sounds clean - impressive.
Lower mid-tones like dark electronic tones, lower instruments and low male voices are strongly boosted and give music a warm undertone, but they don't melt together with the bass.
Plot twist: even though the Liberty 3 Pro feels much more textured and specified in the lows, the Liberty 4 Pro actually has better separation between the bass and other lows. It separates frequencies better.
The Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro has the brands best treble reproduction to date.
It has enough presence in the upper mid-tones and highs, but stays within boundaries. It's never too sharp and doesn't have a metallic underlining like on the Liberty 3 Pro and Liberty 4 NC.
Female and higher male vocals are more forward than instruments, and feel full. Take Björks’ It's Oh So Quiet!. Even the highest outhauls are controlled. Not sharp, not harsh.
Still, it misses a bit of spark. Competitors like the Earfun Air Pro 4 and SoundPEATS Capsule3 Pro+ have more ‘air’ in the sound. This gives music a wider and more immersive feeling, and makes space for little details to shine through. The Liberty 4 Pro lacks air and can sound a bit closed-in.
This is especially noticeable on moderate to higher volumes: the competitors show more nuances in both female and higher female vocals. Things like breath gasps and string-plucking are harder to discover on the Soundcore.
This applies to upper mid-tones, to highs and also to the more laidback center mid-tones like guitar and piano play. They're all less pronounced than on the best competitors.
But you can also look at this from another perspective: the Liberty 4 Pro offers a more focused, less fidgety sound.
Choosing from six sound signatures side by side get you your HearID sound
However, the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro maintains its character wonderfully on the highest volumes. The bass, lows and highs are still in balance - whereas the mentioned competitors’ treble can strike flat or overpower the lows.
The L4P can both go very loud to very soft, making it a great companion for all types of listening.
Another good thing: the level of ANC or Transparency you use, doesn't affect the sound quality.
As always, the Soundcore app on iPhone and Android comes with over 20 equalizer presets to alter the sound to your liking.
As always, the Acoustic EQ preset is a great alternative, lowering a bit of the lower-mids and increasing the bass and lower treble. It creates a more vivid sound.
It’s nice you can do a HearID sound test, but ultimately, that doesn't really seem to improve the sound.
I don't recommend using the LDAC codec on Android phones. It drains the battery, limits the connection strength and video and gaming synchronization, and doesn't mark a big step up in the sound quality. iPhone users are fine without it.
Lastly, you can forget about the Spatial Audio features. They decrease the volume heavily, make you lose detail in the sound and and head-tracking feature is a gimmick with some latency.
With a powerful bass, warm tonality, controlled treble and consistency throughout all volume levels, the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro is a great choice for all types of listening. It just misses the spark of the best competitors.
—> These are the best sounding wireless earbuds from $25 to $100
Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro comparisons
Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro vs Earfun Air Pro 4
At around 80 dollars instead of Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro's 100 to 130 dollars price, the Earfun Air Pro 4 offers probably everything that you're looking for.
The Air Pro 4's ANC is even stronger than the L4P's, without the rumbling the Soundcore sometimes shows. The Soundcore has a more comfortable fit thanks to friendlier shaped ear tips.
The Earfun is also great in handling phone calls indoors and outside, and it has the same battery life as the Soundcore. It also comes with multipoint.
The Earfun Air Pro 4 has an edge when it comes to sound. Especially on regular, moderate volume levels, the Earfun has more air and expansion in the sound, resulting in greater presence of (higher) vocals and higher instruments, and more details in these areas. The Soundcore fares better on the highest listening volumes, whereas the upper treble can attack the bass presence on the Earfun a bit.
The only thing the Soundcore truly adds to the Earfun, is the visual charging case novelties and, if you're into it, applying a safe maximum volume level.
Around $90 on Amazon US or your Amazon country
soundcore Liberty 4 Pro vs SoundPEATS Pro3 Capsule+
The SoundPEATS Capsule3 Pro+ also has a more vivid treble than the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro. Female and higher male vocals sound more upfront and detailed, and violins and cymbals have more texture. Its impeccable clarity can require getting used to on the highest volume levels, however: the Soundcore sound is easier to get into. The L4P also has a more controlled mid-bass and stronger lower-mids.
The Soundcore has stronger ANC and its more user-friendly, as the Soundcore app is a better experience than SoundPEATS’ offering. The Capsule3 Pro+ is more comfortable to wear for longer periods, but the Soundcore's battery life and recharging outperform the SoundPEATS. Both are versatile, thanks to clear calls and multipoint connection.
Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro vs Liberty 4 NC
With the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC now costing between 60 and 80 dollars, should you spend around 40-50 dollars more on the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro?
Get the Liberty 4 NC is you just want great ANC and take most of your phone calls indoors: it will save you money. Especially since the battery life, gaming performance and comfort are comparable too. The Liberty 4 NC even has a sturdier charging case.
Surprisingly, the L4P isn't a big step up because of its novelties, but because of its sound quality. The L4P has better separation between frequencies and instruments, a better refined bass and especially better treble. The 4NC sounds congested and metallic in comparison.
Soundcore Liberty Air 4 Pro vs AirPods Pro 2
You don't have to spend $250 on the AirPods Pro 2 anymore now that the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro is in town. But when you do…
You still make a little jump up in sound quality. Even though the tuning is comparable, the AirPods Pro 2 boosts treble in a more lively and natural way. Its Spatial Audio feature is heaps better and more immersive than Soundcore's attempt too. The AirPods also is the only earbud to read your incoming messages for you, when connected to an Apple device.
The Soundcore is more convenient on any other device, including when you connect it to an iPhone and another device. The Soundcore's multipoint is more versatile, especially the outdoor call quality is miles better, the ANC strength is comparable, and the Soundcore has up to 3 hours longer battery life than the AirPods.
No separate AirPods Pro 2 review: budget exceeds Scarbir.com's $100 limit
Buy on Amazon US or your Amazon country
Verdict: Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro
The Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro are a great sum of its parts. It has the best treble of any Soundcore earbud, and throws in strong Active Noise Cancelling and very clear calls as well.
But that's only half of the story. What makes it special against the vast competition, is the insane amount of novelties that turn out more than just gimmicks.
Setting up a safe maximum volume level, quickly sliding the ANC down on the case to have a safer commute home, or the Easy Chat function that lets you talk in between your listening. They may not be game changers per se, but they're convenient additions to an already great foundation.
5 STARS - Excellent
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I bought the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro from Anker to test and review myself. My reviews are 100% independent and non-commercial - read about it here.
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