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Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro: Two-minute review
Anker‘s Soundcore sub-brand may not have a reputation for releasing the best earbuds that everyone raves about, but they tend to be solid pieces of kit. We gave the Soundcore Liberty 5 (yes, take care, because that’s not these — and there’s also a Pro Max to swerve in favor of these) a 3.5-star score, and that tends to be par for the course. Until now, that is.
With the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro, there’s been a change: it really feels like the brand is coming into its own, and it knows what buyers really want.
These are incredibly feature-stuffed headphones, with an app that’ll boggle your mind given how many tools it offers. And they’re all useful too: the ANC is very good, the listening test is handy and the array of array of little extras is impressive.
Particularly special is the quiet calling feature, so people you’re speaking to on the phone can’t hear what’s going on around you. I hear many brands boast about their buds’ quiet call quality, with algorithms and microphones designed to wipe background sound from your voice in calls. Most of the time it’s bluff and bluster, but the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro are the real deal.
I know this because, part-way through the review process, my mother called me while I was in a busy coffee shop. I apologized for the pop music being blasted over the speakers – I could barely hear myself think for Outkast’s Hey Ya! – and she asked me what music I was talking about. She’d have had no idea I was in a noisy space, had it not been for my telling her. If two thumbs up from my mom isn’t a glowing endorsement of tech, I don’t know what is.
I’d be remiss not to mention the Soundcore’s fit too. The buds are nice and lightweight, with a ridge to help them lock in your ear. I never had any fit problems with them, and they stayed in place during runs and workouts.
What about the sound? The buds offer warm, bass-heavy music that’ll please people who like thumping heavy rhythms. The audio quality won’t endear the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro to audiophiles (do wireless earbuds at this level ever excite audiophiles?) but nevertheless it isn’t at all bad. Sound quality may not be the highlight of these buds, but I still enjoyed listening to them during my testing.
My main gripes with the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro bypass the earpieces and their talents and really only concern the case. It has a small touchscreen strip, but it doesn’t do enough to justify its existence (nor is it responsive enough for that). And the case is bigger than it should be as a result; I would’ve loved to see it lose the strip and shrink a little.
At least it’s not the Liberty 5 Pro Max, with a giant case and big touchscreen. I tested that too, and you can read more about it later, but it’s decidedly more of a professional-targeted device. Most buyers looking for some great earbuds would do better with these Pro-only earbuds: they’re cheaper and you’re only missing a few features — ones I think you may not use anyway.
Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Price and release date
- Released on May 21, 2026
- They sell for $169.99 / £149.99 (about AU$300)
- Sitting between Liberty 5, and Liberty 5 Pro Max
The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro were announced alongside a slew of other Anker products at the brand’s annual Anker Day, on May 21, 2026.
You can pick them up for $169.99 / £149.99 (about AU$300), so unlike many of the brand’s other pairs of earbuds, they’ve crept over the line: these aren’t budget buds, rather solidly mid-range ones. For a little context, the non-Pro model launched for $129 / £99 / AU$169, but went on sale a year prior, so have seen some discounts.
They launched alongside the Liberty 5 Pro Max, which sell for a fair bit more: $229.99 / £199.99 (roughly AU$400). We’ll get into these a little later; it’s best to treat them as a ‘Pro’ model to the Liberty 5 Pro (despite that being a little confusing), with a few extra tools for professionals, but no major advantage.
Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Specs
|
Drivers |
9.2mm |
|
Active noise cancellation |
Yes |
|
Battery life |
6.5 hours (buds), 28 hours (case) |
|
Weight |
7g (buds), 70g (case) |
|
Connectivity |
Bluetooth 6.1 |
|
Frequency response |
Not specified |
|
Waterproofing |
IP55 |
Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Features
- Impressive noise cancellation and clear calling
- Middling battery life, at 6.5 hours
- Absolutely loads of features via app
In the introduction to this review, I already waxed lyrical about the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro’s quiet call tools. Suffice to say, it’s just as impressive as it was when you read about it a few minutes ago: a real stand-out feature of the buds.
Quiet calls is one of the many benefits brought from the use of Anker’s Thus chip, with the brand’s decision to home-brew its own internals, and thus get to design its software and hardware in tandem, paying dividends.
Another example is noise cancellation, as the Liberty 5 Pro has some of the best I’ve used in a set of earbuds at its price point. It is able to eradicate the low, rumbling background hum of life, and drastically reduce louder sounds too — it even took a big chunk out of my coffee shop’s streaming of Hey Ya!.
In theory, battery life is another department that should benefit from Thus, and Anker puts the listening time per bud, with ANC on, at 6.5 hours. From my own testing, that’s an optimistic figure — my own listening time was a little south of that mark. The same is true with the overall case battery life, which Anker states as 28 hours. Don’t get me wrong: the battery life here is fine, but it’s nothing to write home about either.
If that sounds like a nice little haul of features already, just wait until you download the Soundcore app. If my editor didn’t think this section was too long already, just wait until we list what else you get with the buds.
This has all the basics: the ability to change between noise cancelling modes, customizable touch controls, Dolby Atmos, EQ presets, multi-point connection, fit tests, find-my earbuds, and an eight-band custom equalizer.
But you get a whole lot more: there’s a listening test for custom EQ, a load of ambient soundscapes and listening modes, and even a built-in chat-bot called Anka which can give you suggestions for settings to change. There’s a lot going on.
If anything, the app’s a little confusingly laid out. If you select your earbuds, where most apps would put all the settings, you can only see a few. To find more, you need to press a little Settings cog which is easy to miss. And for many more options, you have to back out all the way to the main menu.
Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Design
- Kidney bean-shaped bud with tip and fin
- Reliable in-ear fit
- Touchscreen-toting case is a little bulky
Anker has opted for a kidney bean-shaped look for the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro earbuds; they bring to mind Samsung’s bean buds, but with a tip that you can use to put them in your ear. You can pick them up in blue, pink, white or black, and the buds and case come in the same hue.
Each earbud weighs 7g, is made of a solid-feeling plastic, and the other design feature of note is a little wing at the top to keep them locked in your ear. To be clear, the fit is much better than those older Samsung buds. That little wing works magically, and I took them to the gym and on countless runs without any inkling of them falling out.
The buds are IP55 protected, which means they’re protected from dust and low-pressure water jets (like rain or sweat) but aren’t suitable for swimming. You get touch controls on each bud, but you need to tap multiple times to achieve anything, and I found them unreliable for multi-tap commands.
Now onto the case; the 0.96-inch display on the front isn’t as much as selling point here as the Pro Max’s larger one is, but it’s not as much of a gimmick as to put off people who aren’t interested.
It sort of makes the case look like a very small ’90s alarm clock. You can use its screen to quickly check the charge of the buds and enabled certain features; I found it pretty unresponsive and gave up using it for music control quite quickly, but perhaps a more patient user could persevere. I can see the quick access to EQ presets being pretty handy for certain people.
Due to its touchscreen, the Liberty 5 Pro’s case is a little larger than most rivals’, even if at 70g it’s not unduly heavy. I found it a little on the large side to slip into my pocket; not perfect for people who like a tiny case. The sliding mechanism to reveal the buds felt quick and easy, but I’m curious about how long it’d lasting in the long term. Even over several weeks of using the buds, the sliding plane started to feel a little wobbly.
Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Sound quality
- Using 45mm drivers
- Music is muffled, and tinny
- EQ doesn’t help
Anker has put 9.2mm drivers in the Liberty 5 Pro Max, which I’m inclined to believe are the same pieces of kit that it used in the non-Pro buds. As with those other models, these aren’t audiophile earbuds — the sound is way too warm for that — and instead they give the people what they want.
That’s to say, they’re bass-heavy and energetic buds, focused more on snappy lower frequencies and tender higher ones than an objectively natural, integrated hi-fi sound. Given how commonly this kind of sound profile is used in affordable and mid-range buds, I’m inclined to say it’s popular, and Soundcore’s done a great job hitting that target.
If you like lower-end clout in your sound, you’ll be happy here. Any genre I tried, from rock to pop to dance, fared well. It was even solid for listening to genres that don’t revel in excess bass, like classical, acoustic and jazz.
Bass injection is clearly the name of the game here, but for the most part, trebles and mids are just as forceful, offering an enjoyable amount of detail. Shane Smith & the Saints’ Coast has a lovely delicate timbre in the acoustic guitar which you often miss, and some lovely harmonies in Last Sunrise In The Wasteland by At The End Of Times, Nothing came to the fore.
I’m not going to claim that these buds are perfect. At lower volumes, the Liberty 5 Pro lose trebles and mids at a disproportionate rate.
But the real ‘problem’ will likely come from the sound being divisive. The Liberty 5 Pro’s bassy sound might not please everyone. It’s right on the border of ‘too much’, sometimes offering a lovely thumping sound, but occasionally stepping over the line.
In songs like Gabriel Kelley’s You Kill Me, bass guitar can overstep its role as an accompanying instrument, and step to the fore in a way that throws the song out of whack. At other times, it can just override some of the more sensitive instruments. More so than in most earbuds I test, you’re going to have to get familiar with the EQ presets, and use them depending on which genre you prefer to listen to.
If that wasn’t a problem for audiophiles, perhaps the relative lack of Bluetooth codec support is. You’re getting Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification, but seemingly no bone thrown for LDAC, aptX or anything similar.
Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: how about the Pro Max?
- Pro Max cost a little more
- Sound quality and battery life are identical
- Pro Max has larger case, one or two extra tools
Beyond being an absolute mouthful to say (or, in this case, write), the Anker Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max are very similar earbuds to the Pro. So much so, that instead of writing an entire separate review on them, I decided to give them a section of the Pro review. And why not the other way around? That’s because the Pros are, in my opinion, the best buds for most people.
The Pro Max earbuds are exactly the same as the Pro’s, in terms of design, sound quality, battery life and feature set (mainly). The Max comes in thanks to two additional features: you can use the case to record audio and provide quick transcripts, and for instant voice translation.
They’re solid features, all right, but with more limited appeal. I can see them being handy for business users, but not so much for the average buyer.
Your other upgrade here is in the carry case: its display now takes up the entire top of the buds, and it offers loads more features. You can add a custom wallpaper, and use it for various tools, settings and modes, including (but not limited to) the aforementioned extra features.
Again, useful additions, but at the cost of an even larger carry case. It wasn’t comfortable to keep in my pocket, that’s for sure.
I’m not disputing that the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max are better earbuds. But for most people, I don’t think they’re enough to justify the extra cost. Only consider these if you’ll really use
Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Value
- Too expensive to be consumer cans
- Value for money if you need transmitter
The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro are reasonably priced, but you get what you pay for. There’s nothing wrong with that, but a good discount would tip these into the ‘amazing’ value for money camp.
The noise cancellation, sound quality and feature set are all really good for the price… but there are loads of other rivals at around the same price point that all offer suites that are good for the price. I’ve tested a few earbuds for even less, that impress me just as much.
At least the Anker Liberty Pro are better value money than the Pro Max. You’re paying more money, and getting a very similar product. For business users maybe, but I can’t see myself recommending them to most people, when the Pro is right there.
Should I buy the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro?
|
Attributes |
Notes |
Rating |
|---|---|---|
|
Features |
Is there anything these buds can’t do? The clear calling is a real stand-out, but don’t forget the ANC and equalizer. |
4.5/5 |
|
Design |
The earbuds have a unique look and sit firmly in the ears. The case is a little large, with an unresponsive touch screen and some durability concerns. |
4/5 |
|
Sound quality |
Row 2 – Cell 1 |
4/5 |
|
Value |
They’re great buds, for a fair price, but a discount would make them absolute must-buys. |
3.5/5 |
Buy them if…
Don’t buy them if…
Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro review: Also consider
Want to see what other earbuds your money can get you? Here are some alternatives for roughly the same price.
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro |
Apple AirPods 4 with ANC |
Technics EAH-AZ80 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Drivers |
9.2mm |
Unspecified |
10mm |
|
Active noise cancellation |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Battery life (ANC on) |
6.5 hours (buds), 28 hours (case) |
4 hours (buds), 20 hours (case) |
7 hours (buds), 25 hours (case) |
|
Weight |
7g (buds), 70g (case) |
4.3g (buds), 32.3g (case) |
7g (buds), 50g (case) |
|
Connectivity |
Bluetooth 6.1 |
Bluetooth 5.3 |
Bluetooth 5.3 |
|
Waterproofing |
IP55 |
NA |
IPX4 |
How I tested the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro
- Tested for three weeks
- Paired with Android phone for variety of tasks
- Also used alongside Pro Max
I used the Anker Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro for three weeks before writing this review. I tested them alongside the Pro Max model.
During the testing process, the earbuds were connected to my Android smartphone. I used them for streaming Spotify Lossless music as well as Tidal and Apple Music, playing various games, streaming videos, conducting voice calls and going on video chats.
That listening went on at home, while at the gym, during runs, and on walks around my neighborhood. For certain areas, like ANC and sound quality, I have reference tests I conduct which lets me compare various earbuds.
I’ve reviewed earbuds and headphones for TechRadar for many years, including previous Anker products like the Space 2 over-ears earlier this year.
- First reviewed in June 2026
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tom.bedford@hotmail.co.uk (Tom Bedford)
