I tested Soundcore’s newest premium flagship earbuds — and they’re coming for the AirPods Pro 3’s crown

In the increasingly oversaturated wireless earbud market, it’s becoming harder and harder to be noticed. But you know what, Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max? I’m noticing you. Are Soundcore’s newest flagship earbuds some of the best earbuds money can buy?

If you value modern, AI features, great sound quality, and impressive battery life (better than Apple, Sony, and Bose, by the way), then yeah. Totally. The only downside is the appearance — of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I’m not sure who these buds are designed for. If Soundcore is serious about competing with Apple, the earbuds need to look better. It’s as simple as that.

But isn’t it about what’s on the inside? And in this case, the inside boasts fantastic, Galaxy Buds 4 Pro-rivaling bassy sound and impressive proprietary AI functionality. Could these be the earbuds for you? To find out, keep reading this Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max review.

Latest Videos From

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max review: Specs

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max review: Price & availability

The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max are $229 from Amazon U.S. and £199 from Amazon U.K.. The Liberty 5 Pro Max released at the same time as the Liberty 5 Pro, which are the same earbuds, but with a different case. If you want the AI notetaking case, get the $229 Pro Max. Just want great earbuds? Get the $179 Libert 5 Pro instead.

2025’s Soundcore Liberty 5 launched at $129 from Amazon, so we’ve got a price increase of 77% here.

There are, thankfully, a few technological improvements that somewhat justify this price tag. The Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max come with Anker’s proprietary AI chip, which powers live translation and AI notetaking. Think of it like this: the Liberty 5 Pro Max are the AirPods Pro 3 to the Liberty 5’s AirPods 4.

When you’ve got flagship native ecosystem earbuds that only cost $249 — the AirPods Pro 3 and the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro — and “big name” premium brands that are only $70 more — Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds Gen 2 and Sony WF-1000XM6 — the Soundcores have a lot to live up to.

Thankfully, the Liberty 5 Pro Max share a lot of flagship features with these big-name buds, which I’ll get into now. If you want a premium feel for $20 less, they could be a great option.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max review: Design

Unlike the Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro, which features an AirPods-esque stem design, the Liberty 5 Pro Max have adopted Bose’s pebble-ish design. Say goodbye to the stem, the Pro series is more like a little nugget in your ear.

Whether you like this or not will depend on your preferences. Personally, I’m much more of a stem earbud person, so I was a little disappointed when I opened my new earbuds. However, I know pebble shapes are popular, so I’m sure you’ll get along fine if you’re a pebble preferer.

The buds themselves come in black or blue — I tested black/gray — and are quite plasticky. There’s a nice shiny Soundcore logo, but I’m not sure… something about the design feels quite budget to me — not acceptable at this price point. I’d like to see the design looking more ‘AirPods or Sony WF-series adjacent’ in the future, if Soundcore wants to compete with (and price near) the big guns.

I have weirdly small ears, and I had to use the XXS ear tip. While this ear tip (the smallest option) fit well in my ear canal, the size of the earbud nozzle pressed down on my cartilage during use. I could only wear them for around two hours before my ears started aching — so I’d bear this in mind if you’re one of the small-eared folk too.

Controls

The controls are mostly customizable in the Soundcore app. I adjusted all the playback controls to my liking, but the call controls are set. Weirdly, you need to double-press to accept a call and long-press to reject — I’m not sure why this wasn’t a single tap for accepting and a double for rejecting, but hey.

I don’t really get on with pebble earbud touch controls — I much prefer the versatility of a stem design — but, again, if you’re used to pebble-type buds, the Liberty 5 Pro Max will be exactly what you’re accustomed to.

Connectivity

Connectivity on the Liberty 5 Pro Max is awesome. I never had to cycle through my Bluetooth settings. Every time I opened the earbuds, they automatically connected to my two devices and switched between those devices seamlessly.

The Liberty 5 Pro Max feature Bluetooth 6.1, which is the newest version with the highest reliability and longest range. I never experienced sound glitching or cutting out, and I was able to get all the way out of my apartment and onto the road outside before the earbuds disconnected.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max review: Sound quality

The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max sound pro and max in every way. To test sound quality, I listened to a variety of genres on Qobuz, our best music streaming service for audiophiles, but I’ll discuss a few standouts here.

‘Video Games’ by Lana Del Rey is built over Del Rey’s glamorous, Hollywood starlet vocals and a heady string section. The harp notes were clear and melodious and the soft piano chords rounded everything out delicately. Atop the soft instrumental, Del Rey’s vocals took front and center, but there was a little overprocessing in the final chorus — albeit also present when I listened with the AirPods Pro 3.

Another decadent, layered track is ‘Bliss’ by Muse, with foundations of arpeggiated synths, raw guitars, and strong bass. The vocals weren’t overpowered by this rich soundscape, and the synths twisted and spiralled across the heavy guitars with ease. This song sounded awesome.

I switched up the genre to electronic for the third and final test: ‘Getaway’ by Fcukers. This trip-hop-tinged track has a cello sample throughout — I could feel the vibrations of the string in my ears. The electronic breakdown and breathy vocals slightly obscured this cello note, but not enough to detract from the overall experience.

The sound quality is equal to that of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro — confidently bassy, rich, and immersive. If you like detail, I’d recommend the AirPods Pro 3, but overall, I was extremely impressed by this sound quality.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max review: ANC

ANC is really impressive. I would say it’s the same as the AirPods Pro 3, and only just pipped to the post by the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds Gen 2.

I tested the ANC both in the office and out and about in the city. I couldn’t hear myself typing in the office, and in the city, all car noises and general chatter was completely silent. Conveniently, I walked past some builders jackhammering the pavement and I couldn’t hear much.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max review: App

As with everything under Soundcore’s belt, the Liberty 5 Pro Max use the Soundcore app. This app is super easy to navigate and well laid out.

There are tons of features stuffed into the app, but my favorite is HearID. This is kind of like a gamified EQ “this or that” — you listen to a variety of clips and choose which sounds best. Then, the app generates an EQ that suits your tastes. Remarkably, it generated me a super bass-heavy EQ, which is not what I would’ve picked for myself.

While this is fun, the audio clips in the game itself are quite compressed, so don’t have the best sound quality, which might have caused a discrepancy between my personal EQ preferences and the generated EQ. I did turn the EQ off after a few listens, but this is great for beginners who might not know what they like.

AI Features

One of the selling points of the Liberty 5 Pro Max is the AI functionality. These earbuds actually have an Anker-designed AI chip — the first ever.

Personally, I never ever use any AI in my earbuds or headphones. I have AirPods Max 2, and I can count on one hand the number of times I used any of the AI features — and those were all for the review.

Of course, I tested all the AI features in the Liberty 5 Pro Max. Strangely, I had to connect to the charging case independently of the buds. When taking notes via the AI notetaker, the charging case (“the box” as referred to in the app) records the content, not the buds. You also have to be connected to the app to do this.

After finishing the recording, I transcribed the report. This took around one minute for a five-minute recording.

The transcription correctly identified different speakers, better than the Viaim RecDot which couldn’t differentiate between male and female speakers, but struggled when the speakers talked over one another. The ‘Intelligent Summary’ took four minutes to generate from the same five-minute recording.

For meetings with defined speakers, this would be great, but I’m not sure how it would handle a chaotic boardroom.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max review: Call quality

To test the call quality of the Liberty 5 Pro Max, I called my boyfriend, who has listened to every single pair of earbuds I’ve reviewed thus far, so he’s kind of a control test at this point. He said I sounded the same as my AirPods Pro 2.

To test the “noise-reducing AI algorithm” I played a city noise track at max volume — about 65dB, which is a loud conversation. He couldn’t hear this at all, so I’d say the Liberty 5 Pro Max have excellent ambient noise reduction. If you’re often calling in loud environments, these earbuds would be perfect.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max review: Battery

The Liberty 5 Pro Max have a huge 50-hour battery life (ANC off) — but this drops to 28 hours with ANC on. Still, this battery life beats the AirPods Pro 3, Sony WF-1000XM6, and Bose QuietComfort Ultra Gen 2’s 24 hours, but can’t compete with Samsung’s Galaxy Buds 4 Pro’s 30 hours.

Even so, I’d much rather see 28 hours than 24 hours, so I’ll take every hour I can get. I listened to the Liberty 5 Pro Max — with ANC on max, fiddling with all the settings — for 8 hours, and the battery dropped to 80%, so that 28 hours checks out.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max review: Verdict

The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max are fantastic earbuds. If you want rich sound, strong ANC, and interesting AI features, they’ll definitely suit your tastes. So why not a 4.5-star or a 5-star rating, if they’re that good? It’s all in the design. The only thing holding these earbuds back is their appearance. If Soundcore seriously wants to compete with the big, big names — Bose, Apple, Samsung, Sony — the design needs to feel more premium. Right now, the plasticky nozzle and the weirdly shiny exterior just scream “I’m budget but I’m trying not to be — and I’m $229”.

With a little finesse in the design (and more comfortable for more types of ears), these earbuds would be well on their way to butting heads with the likes of Apple and Bose. But if you happen to like how they look (from all the pictures in this review), then, of course, they’ll be right for you.

I love the sound, I love the ANC, I love the call quality, and I love the battery life. For those who value these features above all else, of course the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max will do the trick.