Soundcore Liberty 5 review

The Soundcore Liberty 5 earbuds deliver decent, if not slightly flawed, sound quality, but their ANC competes with some of the best noise canceling earbuds. These in-ear buds adjust to your surroundings every 0.3 seconds to counteract ambient noise and I have never been so impressed with cancelation.

The buds are comfortable to wear for extended periods of time and look sleek with a design that mirrors its predecessor, the Liberty 4 earbuds. The Liberty 5s also show off with 22 EQ presents and a Custom EQ option to get your sound just right.

They aren’t perfect. Adjusting the EQ is essential, as I was disappointed by the treble performance in my favorite pop songs. The controls are a little fiddly, and battery life is a little disappointing.

Should you buy these budget earbuds? Find out in my full Soundcore Liberty 5 review.

Soundcore Liberty 5 review: Price & availability

The Soundcore Liberty 5 earbuds are available from Amazon U.S. for $129 and from Amazon U.K. for £99. They are priced similarly to the previous Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro earbuds ($124) but improvements have been made.

Another option for around the same price range would be the Sony WF-C710Ns ($199) earbuds, which offer extreme comfort, amazing sound, and an impressive battery life. The EarFun Air Pro 4s ($99) also offer a lightweight design with advanced audio codecs.

The Liberty 5 earbuds are available in four different colors. I tested Cloud White, but they also come in Abyss Blue, Ink Black, and Rose Apricot.

Soundcore Liberty 5 review: Design & controls

• Sleek design
• IP55 waterproof rating
• Squeeze command controls

The Soundcore Liberty 5 earbuds are a similar shape to Apple’s AirPods Pro 2s ($249), but have a slightly longer stem. The design is sleek with minimal branding, and the four color options mean you aren’t tied to the white colour (although white would be my personal preference anyway).

The buds have a water resistance rating of IP55, meaning they are protected from water splashing in all directions and from dust. As a result, they’re perfect for working out, as they are protected from sweat and will even hold up when running in the rain. The dust protection also means they’ll stand up to the beach or dusty environments.

The case of the earbuds is compact, measuring only 2.3 x 2.3 x 1.1 inches, so I could easily pop them in the pocket of my jeans. With the buds, the case weighs only 51.7g and is made of plastic. Unlike most other charging cases that flip up and down to expose the buds, the Liberty 5 case slides open and has a thin light on the front that comes on when you wake the case.

Soundcore has given the Liberty 5s stem controls unlike any I have used before. The stem has to be squeezed to enable the controls, which is fiddly at first. But once I found the right pressure to squeeze, but not dislodge the buds, I was golden.

Included with the buds, you get six differently sized ear tips to find the best fit, as well as a charging cable, although they can also be charged wirelessly.

The buds have wear detection, so the music paused whenever I removed one or both, but the recognition was pretty delayed. This setting can also be turned off.

Soundcore Liberty 5 review: Comfort & ANC

• Six ear tip options
• Best fit test function
• Amazing ANC

I’m not usually a fan of earbuds with silicone ear tips, but I got on with these ones really well. They are incredibly lightweight and fit securely into my ear.

I was able to choose from the six ear tip options that come with the earbuds to ensure I got the best fit. There is also a fit test that can be taken within the Soundcore app that checks the seal and advises whether you need larger or smaller ear tips.

When I tested this with the medium-sized tips, the app said I had an ‘excellent seal’. Soundcore says that a good seal from the earbuds will enhance bass while also isolating noise for a better noise cancellation experience. Makes sense.

The Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) capabilities of these earbuds couldn’t be better. I didn’t hear any conversations happening around me in the office, and it even silenced my magnetic keyboard while I was typing, which no other earbuds I have tested have been able to do.

Soundcore says these earbuds have adaptive ANC 3.0, which adapts to subtle shifts in environmental noise and recalibrates every 0.3 seconds.

If high levels of ANC aren’t going to suit the situation you are in though, there are five levels of noise cancellation to choose from, as well as transportation modes for the car and airplane to make commuting more comfortable. You can also turn ANC off, which will conserve battery life.

Soundcore Liberty 5 review: Connectivity & mic performance

• Bluetooth 5.4
• Advanced audio codecs
• 10 meter Bluetooth range

The Soundcore Liberty 5 earbuds use Bluetooth 5.4 and have LDAC and Hi-Res audio wireless streaming codecs available. The buds are also compatible with Google Fast Pair.

The Bluetooth range is 10 meters, and I had no issues with jumpy music as I moved further away from my streaming device.

Soundcore Liberty 5 review: Microphone quality

• Three microphones on each bud
• Some ambient sound slips through
• Clear voice quality

When I first put on the Soundcore Liberty 5 earbuds, I had just arrived at work after using my Airpods 3 for the whole commute, and I can confidently say the Liberty 5s sound way better. But that doesn’t mean they are without their flaws.

I tested the Liberty 5s with the Soundcore companion app, which has 22 EQ presets for the earbuds to tailor the sound. There is also a custom EQ setting, which proved important for the songs that didn’t cope so well (more on this below). You can also enable a Dolby Sound option, which has music mode, game mode, and movie mode, but I’ll cover that in its own section below.

I first tested the buds by listening to Lizzy McAlpine’s ‘Pushing It Down and Praying’ to test the Acoustic EQ preset. This is a song with beautiful acoustic guitar tones and electric notes layered over top. This setting enhanced the acoustic guitar and made Lizzy’s vocals even more delicate.

However, what I call ‘glitter gel pen’ music (think Sabrina Carpenter, Chappel Roan, Taylor Swift) seems to be a problem area for these buds. I opted for ‘Busy Woman’ by Sabrina Carpenter using the Pop EQ preset. I found there was a lot of crackling where the earbuds just couldn’t cope with the treble.

Sure, this song is quite punchy, but Soundcore claims the 9.2mm flexible wool paper diaphragms produce “rich mids and full-bodied treble”, so I was expecting better. I enabled the Dolby Sound music setting and while it boosted some of the backing vocals, they sounded muddy, and the mids struggled.

There is a Treble Reducer EQ preset that made listening to this song far more pleasant, but it still wasn’t brilliant.

While the bass of these buds is a vast improvement from the previous Liberty Pro 4 earbuds, the Liberty 5s still have some issues with static. I played Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots with the Bass Booster EQ preset enabled to check out how the drivers perform. It was generally okay, but the static sound was prominent when the bass kicked in.

To test out the custom EQ, I listened to ‘Cool’ by Michael Clifford. This song has a pop punk feel and relies on the lead guitar, meaning the dreaded treble was an issue. I brought up the low frequencies to enhance the bass and raised the mids slightly. And of course, I lowered the treble.

The levels of the mids and high frequencies ensured that the lead guitar still came through but reduced any tinniness that was originally present. So while the treble is an issue for these buds, it can be combatted with the app.

Dolby Sound

The Dolby sound setting is great for enhancing music and giving a total surround sound feel. To test it out, I played Pushing It Down and Praying again, still with the Acoustic EQ preset but with the addition of Dolby Audio in music mode.

If you want to place yourself in the recording studio with your favorite artists, this is the way to do it. It gave such a raw feeling to the song and I could hear the instruments all around me, giving a deeper connection to the music.

I decided to watch The Hunger Games with Dolby Audio enabled and in Movie mode and was very impressed. It gave me the feeling of being sat in a cinema when you can feel the sound reverberating through you.

Soundcore Liberty 5 review: App

• Custom EQ
• 22 EQ presets
• HearID Sound and Preference tests

The Soundcore app makes the listening experience for the Liberty 5 earbuds so much better. As I mentioned earlier, the option to test the fit of the buds means I was able to ensure I achieved the best results from the ANC, and therefore my music.

I’ve used similar functions on earbuds previously, notably on the LG xboom Buds ($109), but the feedback from the Soundcore app was far more intuitive. This app lets you know changes you can make, like the size of ear tips, and the preference test, and HearID gives more guidance for customization.

You can also take the HearID Sound test in the app. This was able to advise me on my listening and what my ear health is like. It told me that my hearing is average for people of the same age as me (which is the 20 - 29 age range option).

There was also a preference test to take where the app plays music with two different effects, and you choose which is better, kind of like a sight test. From this, the earbuds are able to adjust to suit my hearing abilities and create a tailor-made sound profile.

Soundcore Liberty 5 review: Battery life

• Fast charging
• Wireless charging
• Battery life is lower than quoted

The Soundcore Liberty 5 earbuds claim up to 48 hours of battery with the charging case when ANC is not being used. This drops to 32 hours when ANC is turned on.

The buds themselves are supposed to have 12 hours of playback time per charge with ANC off and 8 hours with it on. But I tested this out, and they didn’t come close to that.

To put this to the test I played music through the buds at a medium volume with ANC turned on. After just 1 hour of play the battery of the buds decreased from 100% to 80%. From this, I would expect the entire battery life to last for 5 hours, which falls short of the quoted 8 hours with ANC on.

As a saving grace, the earbuds do charge quickly, and just 15 minutes after I put the buds back in the case they were back up to 100%. This is great if you’re like me and constantly forget to charge your earbuds before running out the door.

Soundcore Liberty 5 review: Verdict

While the Soundcore Liberty 5 earbuds sound great with certain EQ settings and genres, the way they struggle to cope with treble-heavy pop music (this despite their supposedly clever, treble-enhancing diaphragms) can’t be overlooked.

It took a lot of adjusting EQ levels to get the earbuds to sound good with punchy pop music, which is frustrating since this is usually the genre you don’t have to alter with most earbuds.

That being said, sound quality in mids and bass is generally pretty good. The number of Custom EQ presets makes adjusting playback a lot easier and the Dolby Audio is incredible for enhancing more complex songs, like those recorded in spatial audio. The ANC is brilliant, the design and sleek, and they’re comfortable over long stints.

Ultimately, the sound quality isn’t awful, but with the likes of Sony and EarFun offering similarly-priced buds that don’t sacrifice on audio quality, it’s more difficult to recommend the Liberty 5s.