Anker targets premium market with Liberty 5 Pro earbuds featuring advanced AI and noise cancellation
Priced at $170 and $230 respectively, the earbuds share identical core hardware, with differentiation limited to the charging case design and AI transcription capabilities.
Anker has entered the premium wireless earbud market with the launch of the Liberty 5 Pro and Liberty 5 Pro Max, positioning the devices as direct competitors to established offerings from Apple, Sony, and Bose. The new models utilise Anker’s proprietary 'Thus' chip, which provides increased processing power to support advanced acoustic features. The Liberty 5 Pro is priced at $170, while the Liberty 5 Pro Max is available for $230, placing them in close proximity to the AirPods Pro 3 in the retail landscape.
The hardware specifications for both earbud variants are identical, sharing the same 9.2mm drivers, microphone array, battery life, IP55 rating, and overall sound profile. The primary distinction between the two models lies in the design and functionality of the charging case. The Liberty 5 Pro case features a 0.96-inch TFT screen for adjusting settings such as active noise cancellation, sound profiles, and Dolby head tracking. In contrast, the Liberty 5 Pro Max case is equipped with a larger 1.78-inch AMOLED screen on a sliding top, which allows for brightness and wallpaper adjustments.
The Liberty 5 Pro Max distinguishes itself further through an integrated AI note-taking feature. The case includes 357MB of internal storage and a microphone to record audio directly, which can then be transferred to a smartphone for transcription. The AI tool can differentiate between speakers and export files in various formats, including MP3, TXT, Markdown, DOCX, and PDF. This feature requires a Soundcore account and is not available on the standard Liberty 5 Pro model.
Acoustically, the earbuds support high-resolution audio via the LDAC codec and offer adaptive noise cancellation performance comparable to the AirPods Pro 3. The default sound profile is described as bass-heavy, which can result in muddy vocals, but this can be corrected through a seven-example tuning series or an 8-band equaliser. The most significant performance metric highlighted is the in-call noise cancellation, which reviewers note effectively isolates voice from loud ambient environments, such as construction noise or crowded streets.
Voice control is handled through a wake-word-free mode that listens for 11 specific phrases, though consistency may vary in noisy settings. While the Liberty 5 Pro Max offers additional convenience features, the core audio experience, call clarity, and noise cancellation performance remain consistent across both price points, offering a value proposition for consumers seeking premium features without the highest-tier price tag.
