Anker Soundcore Liberty Air 1st Gen Review - Anker's AirPods

[jiyeon]

 

The Anker SoundCore Liberty Air are a pair of truly-wireless Bluetooth earphones that at the time of writing cost a wallet-friendly £60, however I was able to pick these up a few months ago for a £10 due to a special offer from Anker, so it was a no-brainer.
I was already on the lookout for a pair of truly-wireless earphones, contenders such as the likes of the Apple AirPods & AirPods Pro, Sony truly wireless earphones, and of course, the SoundCore Liberty Air lineup. The most cost-efficient were the Liberty Air due to the offer, so I thought why not and give Anker a chance to please my ears.

 

For those that don’t know me, I’m pretty much your average consumer but with a slight enthusiasm towards audio quality, having bought the FiiO FH5 Hi-Fi in-ear monitors late last year, which have been my daily drivers ever since I got them as they have easily the best clarity, staging, and frequency response I have ever listened to yet.

 

 

The SoundCore Liberty Air - which I will now refer to as the Liberty Airs for the sake of not bloating up this review with words and getting straight to the point - I didn’t expect to be game-changing, but capable enough for me to take around for convenience especially since it is truly-wireless.

 

Let’s find out how I found listening and using these on a daily basis.

 

 

The design of these earphones are unapologetically Apple AirPods imitators, with a more angular design, proper silicone replaceable eartips, and a much bulkier case.

 

 

They are fairly comfortable but the angular design stands out once it’s in your ears, and in my opinion, looks a little cheap compared to AirPods. However, the eartips do hold them in place extremely well, especially since the eartips are replaceable with the silicone eartips that Anker provides in the box.
I personally use the smallest set of eartips as I have tiny ear canals, so for them to fit in my ear is not a hard challenge to pass at all.

 

 

The case is pretty bulky for what it’s meant to store, but can still fit inside the small watch pocket inside your jean pockets, although it still looks a bit bulgy down there.
The case is also remarkably slippery and glossy, and I’ve actually dropped it on multiple occasions due to the case being so bizarrely slippery, it also does not help that the case is so very round so it’s exceptionally difficult to get a good grip on it without it slipping out your hands like a bar of soap.

 

 

These charge through micro-USB down the butt of the case, just like the Apple AirPods. This first-generation model of the Liberty Airs does not support wireless charging, you will have to get the second-generation Liberty Air 2 to get wireless charging, as well as USB-C charging!

 

Anker claims 5 hours of listening time on a single charge, with a further 20 hours of playtime with the charging case. In my experience, that definitely holds up, and then some.

 

I always have my earphones fully charged when I go to use them since my charging case is never depleted, and I typically get around 3 hours of continuous usage before the battery gets down to 50%. The case I have never properly assessed since I can never seem to get them drained down to nothing. So, I’m just going to comfortably say that I can easily get them to last 20 hours and then some if I were to properly assess them.

 

 

Highs:
The highs are fairly competent, although not very special. They’re definitely not as forward as other ranges, but by no means absent or quiet. There is no sibilance nor hissing, but the highs do feel muted and not as punchy as I’d like them to be, being the treble-head I am.
Overall however, these do produce a decent amount of treble that is not too piercing nor too quiet, but definitely more on the quiet side as they can be overshadowed by the lows in certain tracks.

 

Mids:
The mids are the weakest point of these earphones, and the lack of mids lends the earphones to be fairly V-shaped, and more to the warmer and darker side.
The mids fail to make an impact when the highs and lows are so much more prominent.

 

Lows:
The lows are in my experience the most capable part of the Liberty Airs. The bass is overbearingly-strong in certain tracks, but does not muddy the other frequency ranges. Bassheads may actually enjoy these due to the strong reproduction of lows.
These earphones thanks to their lows being so strong are definitely not neutral.

 

 

These earphones are great as a travel accessory, although they are not my preferred sound signature. They are excessively warm and dark in the lows which can be kind of unpleasant as it gives a sense of a much smaller soundstage and indeed clarity.

 

Sound aside, these are a great pair of earphones for the money, as they are truly-wireless earphones that last forever thanks to the huge case’s battery.

 

The earphones effortlessly pair with Bluetooth as well. With my iPhone 8 Plus, I can simply open the case, plug in the right earphone - the earphones work on a master & slave system - and they connect seamlessly. That is the kind of convenience that is always welcome when travelling around and I want to spend no more than a few seconds to get music in my ears.

 

I had mentioned earlier that there was a newer model of these, the SoundCore Liberty Air 2, which will be slightly more convenient in terms of charging, and likely be a bit more capable in sound quality, but I am happy with how my Liberty Air first-generation are as a general casual pair of earphones to listen with on the go as I am often using music as background when I am out and about, and thus do not need to focus on audio for the duration of my time outside.