Anker make some really top notch product so it should come as no surprise the company synonymous with battery packs and random phone gadgets is now one of the better audio manufacturers in the game. The new Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro’s are one of the latest models of true wireless earbuds with the company now not just trying to offer good value, they’re aiming to be the best. The Anker Soundcore Libery 2 Pro for sure packs a punch with an impressive 32 hour listening time, but how do they stack up?
Design
Let’s kick off with the design. The earbuds come in white and a slate grey and with the darker colour I’ve been using, personally I think they look great. The matte design is sleek and the charging case is a nice size that easily fits in your pocket. To be fair the Liberty 2 Pro’s are a little on the large size as far as earbuds go but they are comfortable in your ears and they don’t feel that big or weighty, even when worn for a few hours at a time.
On the earbuds themselves the exterior has a nifty cut out for the LEDs to shine beneath a glossy plate containing the Soundcore logo. It’s a minor touch but it really ads a premium feel to the buds. Interestingly despite this large area of real estate this main surface contains no function button, this is store on the top of each earbud and it will perform a variety of controls that you can customise through the Soundcore app.
The bottom of the earbuds is home to the charging contacts which are used to charge the earbuds when placed into the charging case. When it comes to the tips, the Liberty 2 Pro has a rubber tip alongside the ear fins to ensure a tight comfortable fit when you’re wearing them. The fins really help for those long work days when you will be wearing the buds for a few hours and in fairness to the fine folks in Anker, they supply plenty of ear tips and fin sizes in the box so you can make sure you get the right fit. Happily fo me that most comfortable fit came right out of the box.
Charging Case
The charging case has a fairly similar design to the Liberty 2 Pro earbuds in that it’s a matte slate grey finish across the round pebble-like shape. The case itself is comfortable to hold and fits handily in the pocket, even if its a little larger than some of the competitions cases, namely the Google Buds and Apple Airpods come to mind.
I’ve said it before and will say it again, the little details matter. In the case of the Anker Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro, the way the case slides open is in one word… Nom. It’s super sleek how the case slides back to reveal the buds like a little gift every time you open the box and it’s a very different design to the competition. Better still the buds will automatically pair with your device once the lids opened so no waiting for the connection.
On the back we are charging from the USB-C port that sits beside the Bluetooth pairing button while on the front we have 3 small LED indicators to show the charging status of both the buds and case. Overall the Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro case is a lovely design, out of the norm and I do love the sliding feature as silly as that may sound.
Features
Ok so less about how the things look and more on how they work and what they do. These nifty buds come with a collection of built in features such as Bluetooth 5.0 and aptX which promises not only better connection with new devices but also a better quality sound and overall experience. Seems we’ve all been running our 5km’s since lockdown (we’re not really though right?) the Liberty 2 Pro’s are IPX4 water resistant. Feel free to run in the lovely Irish rain or break a sweat knowing your earbuds will be absolutely grand.
I mentioned earlier that you can change the button settings on the Soundcore App. The app can be used to change the behaviour of the button for a more tailored user experience, provide firmware updates and can also adjust stuff like the EQ profile, or create a custom HeardID profile based on the frequencies your ears can hear.
Audio
Really this is why we are all here, no point the buds looking good if the sound quality is shite, right? Well Anker don’t do crap and the Liberty 2 Pro’s come with a a great sound quality straight from the box, which of course you can tune to your preference in the app.
Again in fairness right out of the box, the sound quality is brilliant with a nice rich bass and clear mids, but again the cool thing here is having an app you can adjust the sound EQ of the earbuds, allowing you to tune the earbuds specifically for you. The app includes a fully customisable EQ graph as well as a wide assortment of presets to get a sound that works for the listener.
Another thing to note is the sound isolation and thanks to the range of tips supplied you can find the right fit to get a perfect seal for perfect audio isolation.
When it comes to the mic then, I was pleasantly surprised as on most earbuds this is a bit of a let down but here the mic picked up my voice clearly and with a good volume. Happy days
Battery
Anker make biiiig claims when it comes to battery life. They say that the Liberty 2 Pro can do up to 8 hours of listening on a single charge with 32 hours of listening available before you will need to charge the case. Big claims for an impressive battery life and well they deliver in spades. For the €100ish price point I haven’t seen another set of earbuds with a lifespan remotely similar.
On the case itself, Anker give us quick charge to make everything a bit more convenient. 10 minutes of charging will give you an extra 2 hours of so of listening time while an hour and half is enough to get the buds fully juiced. The charging case also supports wireless charging, so no cables are needed to top up the battery of your earbuds.
The Goosed Verdict
We like these. We like these a lot and they have become my daily go to earbuds. When it comes to quality these are top notch, and typically well made as Anker do. The sound quality is fantastic, they are very comfortable to wear and the app is a great little addition. Oh and the buds can potentially get better with time as the app will offer firmware updates as they develop. This is all without taking into consideration the price. Competion like Samsung, Sony, Google, Apple, you name it, they all rock in around €170-200 where as the Anker Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro are available on Amazon for about €100-120. Long story short…great product at a great price.
