The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max are the company’s flagship true wireless earbuds, priced at £199.99 in the UK and $229.99 in the US, and they arrive as a feature-packed alternative to established rivals from Sony, Bose, and JBL. The design is functional rather than flashy, with an anonymous kidney‑bean shape available in black or titanium gold, but the real emphasis is on comfort and security thanks to an ear‑fin system and five sizes of ear‑tips that keep them firmly in place during workouts. The charging case is a major talking point – it is bulkier than most, but it features a larger screen that lets you adjust ANC, EQ, and playback without reaching for your phone, and you can even set a custom wallpaper. However, the case’s navigation is fiddly at first, and physically returning the earbuds to their slots can be surprisingly confusing.
On the features front, Soundcore has thrown in almost everything available on the market. The earbuds support Bluetooth 6.1 with SBC, AAC, and LDAC codecs, plus triple‑device multipoint connectivity, which matches the flexibility of premium competitors like the Technics EAH‑AZ100. The Soundcore app offers HearID to tailor the sound to your hearing, a selection of curated EQ presets, an 8‑band custom equaliser, and a Dolby Audio spatial mode with head tracking. The real headline, however, is the heavy AI integration powered by Anker’s proprietary Thus AI chip. The in‑built assistant, named Anka, is meant to handle voice commands, but in practice it sounds robotic and often delivers outdated or irrelevant information – for instance, referencing the 2024 Wimbledon final instead of 2026 results, and then getting stuck repeating itself. More useful is the AI Note Taker, which uses the charging case to record and transcribe meetings accurately, though the free tier is capped at 120 minutes, after which a subscription is required.
Battery life is rated at 6.5 hours with noise cancelling on, but real‑world testing suggests this is conservative – streaming Spotify for an hour at 50% volume drained only 10%, implying you could get more than the official figure. The case provides a total of 28 hours of extra charge, and a five‑minute USB‑C top‑up delivers four hours of playback, with wireless charging also supported. Noise cancellation is impressively effective, cutting out a great deal of ambient chatter and transport noise, and while it does not quite match the class‑leading performance of Sony’s WF‑1000XM6 or Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra, it comes remarkably close for the price. Where these earbuds truly excel is call quality – they are among the best true wireless models for voice calls, with AI‑assisted microphones that isolate your voice and eliminate background noise with exceptional clarity.
Sound quality is the most divisive aspect. The Liberty 5 Pro Max adopt a warm, bass‑forward tuning that delivers plenty of thump and sub‑bass power, making them an excellent match for dance, R&B, rap, and electronic music. However, this heavy emphasis on low frequencies comes at the expense of detail, clarity, and treble extension, with highs sometimes sounding unbalanced and the overall presentation lacking the insight and dynamics of rivals like the Sony WF‑1000XM6 or even the older WF‑1000XM5. The soundstage is solidly wide and voices come through with warmth, but every track is gripped by the same bass‑heavy profile, which can make the earbuds feel less versatile for listeners who value neutrality and precision. The JBL Live Beam 3 offer a similar character but with more clarity, while the cheaper Liberty 5 Pro share the same audio performance and call quality, differing only in the charging case.
Ultimately, the reviewer concludes that the Liberty 5 Pro Max pack a lot of bang for buck as an overall package, with excellent call quality, very good noise cancellation, strong battery life, and a supremely secure fit. Yet they fall short of challenging the big players in pure sound fidelity, and the Anka assistant is a misfire, while the AI Note Taker’s subscription model may deter many users. The most damning observation is that the less expensive Liberty 5 Pro offer virtually the same performance, making them the better value choice unless the fancy charging case and its extra features are essential to you. For serial phone callers, these earbuds are a near‑perfect choice; for audiophiles seeking high‑fidelity sound, they are merely adequate.
Source: Trusted Reviews