Review Verdict: Beyond making reliable power banks and chargers, Anker is doing great with portable audio with its Soundcore sub-brand, and we understand why a lot of people swear by the value-for-money offered by the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC.
Pros
- More practical case design
- Excellent sound quality for its price
- Great ANC performance
Cons
- Needs the app to enable LDAC codec
When we were curating our best budget TWS earbuds earlier this year, a lot of our readers were recommending the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC. The Anker sub-brand is relatively new in the portable audio market, yet a lot of people praise it for its products. Given the overwhelming recommendation for the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC, we picked up a pair and used it for a few weeks to understand why people love this budget TWS earbuds.
Soundcore Liberty 4 NC Review Philippines: Design
From the get go, what makes the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC attractive is its design. It’s not the generic TWS design, as you get a large pairing button in front in front that lights up when you are in pairing mode or when it is charging.
Flipping up the case reveals the earbuds themselves, which have an unconventional placement. We found it to be practical, as they are much easier to take them off to the case and place them back when you’re not using it.
The matte black color does a decent job in resisting smudges as much as possible, and the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC even packs wireless charging on top of USB–C–which is hard to find on a pair of budget TWS earbuds.
Soundcore Liberty 4 NC Review Philippines: User Interface and Fit
The Soundcore companion app is easy to use, and has all the customization options you need. Aside from the usual touch control customization (which includes volume controls–something that’s rare to find on a pair of TWS earbuds), the Liberty 4 NC has a broad EQ customization option for a pair of budget TWS earbuds. The HearID Sound feature is handy, as it gives you an easier time of tweaking the Liberty 4 NC according to your audio preferences.
Another unique feature of the Soundcore app–and something we rarely see–is Safe Volume, which ensures that you are listening within safe listening levels by monitoring your headphone volume level in real time.
Even if the Liberty 4 NC have rather long stems, they feel light when you wear them. The default eartips installed do the job well for me, and they are comfortable to wear even during long listening sessions. The fit is good enough that I did not worry about the Liberty 4 NC falling off my ears.
Soundcore Liberty 4 NC Review Philippines: Audio Quality and Battery Life
The Soundcore Liberty 4 NC may lack aptX or LDAC codecs out of the box (you’ll need to update them and configure it manually through the app to get LDAC support), but we found that its support for AAC codecs is enough to make it handle Hi-Res Audio. I was using them to play lossless audio in Apple Music, and the overall soundstage is great. I’ve been listening from a variety of songs–from Taylor Swift to Deadmau5 and some of my favorite KPop acts–and the Liberty 4 NC is one of the better-performing budget TWS earbuds I’ve tried in the past few years.
The bass is on the punchier side, but I noticed that it has a broader range compared to other budget TWS earbuds that it does not heavily compromise on the highs and mids. The details on the mids and highs are clear even when I tried to raise the volume. The Liberty 4 NC does a great job in having a broad soundstage that offer both punchy bass and detailed mids and highs–and this is probably why a lot of users swear by its audio quality.
The same can be said with the ANC performance. I’ve used the Liberty 4 NC both indoors and outdoors, and they do a good job in isolating environmental noise. Its transparency mode is average, but it’s hard to complain considering that the Liberty 4 NC is a budget TWS offering.
As for battery life, the Liberty 4 NC went down to 80% after around 2 hours of continuous use, which is close to Soundcore’s claim of 8 hours on a single charge with ANC on. You can charge the Liberty 4 NC by either USB-C or wireless charging, making the more premium that what you’d expect for its asking price.
Soundcore Liberty 4 NC Review Philippines: Wrap-up and Conclusions
After using them for a few weeks, I understand why people highly recommend the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC in the Philippines: for its asking price, you are getting a lot of value not just in sound and ANC quality, but also with its overall design that stands out and is more practical for everyday use.
Soundcore Liberty 4 NC Review Philippines: Price
The Liberty 4 NC have an official price of Php 5,995 and can be purchased at Soundcore’s official Lazada store.
