Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max earbuds: First impressions, price, where to buy

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Soundcore announced two new pairs of earbuds during its Anker Day event on May 21: the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and the Liberty 5 Pro Max.

The earbuds are the first Soundcore products to feature the new THUS AI chip, designed to improve the performance of the earbuds’ microphones with call quality, voice activation, and smart features like live translation and AI note-taking. Spoiler alert: the microphone performance is no joke on these earbuds.

Both the Liberty 5 Pro and Liberty 5 Pro Max are available starting May 21. I spent a few days trying out both earbuds — below you’ll find my first impressions, specs, price, and everything else you need to know about Soundcore’s latest audio release.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro: Specifications and price

The Liberty 5 Pro is available for $169.99 and comes with the following feature set:

• Battery: 6.5 hours with ANC (28 hours with charging case), 12 hours without ANC (50 hours with charging case)

• Active noise cancellation: Yes, variable and five levels of manually adjustable ANC

• Microphone: 8 microphones, and two bone nerves

• Connection: Bluetooth 6.1

• Multipoint: Yes, up to three devices at once

• IP rating: IP55

• Ear tips: Five sizes, from XXS to L

• Ear wings: Three sizes

• Colors: Blue, white, black and pink

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro: First impressions

I haven’t had a chance to test the full range of features of the Liberty 5 Pro yet, but since Soundcore emphasizes the “whisper” calls these are capable of, I made sure to get into the microphone test, along with the usual suspects of sound quality (rich and varied, from my first listen) and active noise cancellation.

The microphone quality is excellent

Call quality might seem like a weird feature to brag about, but if you’ve used earbuds with crappy microphones, you know how annoying it can be to disconnect your earbuds every time you need to take a call.

My first test of these earbuds was informal. While FaceTiming a friend and wearing these earbuds, another friend in my room leaned into my phone’s camera frame to say hello. My friend on the other end of the phone happened to be looking away – completely unaware that the other person in the room with me had spoken at all. At that time, he could hear me without any problem. Whisper it’s really clear. I was also able to easily hold full conversations where other people were watching TV and talking in the same room, while the person on the other end of the phone was smart. All this to say, the initial results are very promising.

So is it just a matter of comparing a full set of microphones to an AI chip? Not really. Soundcore goes the extra mile, adding two bone alignment sensors to detect vibrations in your skull and ensure that only your voice is being picked up, even in noisy environments.

Noise cancellation is no joke either

I almost jumped out of my skin when someone came up to me to say good morning while I was listening to music on these earbuds at about 40 percent. Apparently, they were trying to get my attention for 30 seconds. So that’s another informal test, which was successful.

On a more technical note, these earbuds have eight microphones that work together with the THUS chip to provide the best possible noise cancellation. The result is impressive, especially considering their $169.99 price point. While I’m looking forward to testing them out all over the world, all the way to my home office (and I only live in a house with seven other people), these earbuds are more than up to the job so far.

You are comfortable and stable

The ear fin/ear tip combination on these earbuds reminds me a lot of the Bose QuietComfort series of earbuds. Whenever I compare the fit of the earbuds to the QC series, that’s a pretty good thing, considering they’re the most comfortable Bose buds I’ve tested.

While I haven’t put these through the necessary wear times to see if they deserve the same praise, I can say that so far, I haven’t experienced fatigue using them in one to two hour bursts. At the same time, they feel secure and give a good signal to improve the inactive ANC.

Unique charging case design

There’s no need for a companion app to adjust the earbuds’ settings.
Credit: Soundcore

The Liberty 5 Pro charging case has a 0.96-inch mini touchscreen, where you can access settings such as ANC adjustment, equalizer presets, surround sound, and Bluetooth pairing. In fact, it reduces the need for a compatible app to adjust all non-playable and non-playable features or volume. Despite the small screen, this was a surprisingly easy way to use the earbuds – especially when pairing to newer devices.

While it’s not lightweight, I’m curious to see how this case holds up when I throw it in a bag and take my earbuds on the go.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max: Specifications and price

The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max is available for $229.99, with the following feature set:

The Liberty 5 Pro Max comes with a large display on the case and the ability to record AI note-taking meetings.
Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

• Battery: 6.5 hours with ANC (28 hours with charging case), 12 hours without ANC (50 hours with charging case)

• Active noise cancellation: Yes, variable and five levels of manually adjustable ANC

• Microphone: 8 microphones, and two bone nerves

• Connection: Bluetooth 6.1

• Multipoint: Yes, up to three devices at once

• IP rating: IP55

• Ear tips: Five sizes, from XXS to L

• Ear wings: Three sizes

• Colors: Titanium-gold and black

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max: First impressions

The Liberty 5 Pro Max earbuds have many of the same features as the 5 Pro, including the same noise-cancelling technology, sound quality, and microphones. They also feature the same earbud shape. Here it is one a notable difference, however, which we will get into below:

The microphone is impressive on the Pro Max buds, too

The Pro Max earbuds use the same 10-sensor matrix (microphones and bone artificial sensors) as the 5 Pro earbuds, so it’s no surprise that, combined with the AI ​​chipset, these earbuds also sound incredible on calls and do a reliable job at blocking out background noise.

Living in a house with seven other people means that if I’m not at my desk (even then), there’s at least a 50 percent chance that I’ll be on the phone while someone else is chatting next to me. On the occasions so far, the people on the other end of the call have never heard the background noise from my end. My next test will involve taking these earbuds out into the world (in terms of loud and distracting environments).

A larger display in the case of the earbuds

The entire top of the case serves as a display to customize the features on the earbuds.
Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

The 5 Pro Max has an even larger touchscreen in the charging case than the 5 Pro, taking up the entire top of the case. The 1.78-inch AMOLED display allows you to access many features such as the slim case of the 5 Pro, as well as the AI ​​note-taking feature, which uses the case to record the conversation.

The AI ​​note-taking feature is nothing to scoff at

As a journalist, I’m all about any easy way to record interviews or conversations, and Soundcore wants to do that with its AI monitor. Basically, it works as a case recording a conversation, a meeting, a speech – whatever you’re trying to get down. Then, it transfers the file to the corresponding application, and, at your request, it can produce a transcript and summary through the specified speakers.

During recording, tapping the flag button creates markers in the recording that are highlighted in the transcript. Before creating the transcript, you can also choose the type of recording (conversation, presentation, etc.), so that the AI ​​chooses the best format for the information.

So far, I’ve found this to be an incredibly useful tool, but I’m also interested to see the limitations (it looks like a Pro version for more minutes of writing is available) and how it compares to Apple’s built-in voice memo feature.

Noise cancellation and sound quality

In my testing so far, the noise cancellation and sound quality are basically indistinguishable from the 5 Pro earbuds, meaning they both sound really good and do a great job of blocking out noise.

Another drawback I noticed while testing the flexible ANC on the 5 Pro Max buds was a soft clicking sound on the left earbud – it was barely noticeable when playing audio, but without music, it was definitely there. It may just be a bug that a software update will fix, so I’ll be keeping my eyes on it as I move forward in my testing period.

Where to buy Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and Liberty 5 Pro Max

Starting May 21, you can pick up the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro for $169.99 and the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max for $229.99 at the following retailers: