Earlier this week, Anker debuted a new battery large enough to power an entire home, but those wanting to escape from the grid are going to need deep pockets. The company did debut another product that’ll help you disconnect for a good long while, though—a new set of wireless earbuds that include premium features like active noise cancelling (ANC) and over two days of battery life.
Although Anker might not be the first brand that comes to mind when people think of wireless headphones and earbuds, the company’s Soundcore line has been delivering alternatives to Apple, Bose, and Sony’s offerings at a more competitive price point for years, while gradually improving their feature set. The Soundcore Liberty 4, which debuted back in the Fall of 2022, included solid ANC, support for hi-res audio using Sony’s LDAC codec, Anker’s take on spatial audio, and even the ability to monitor the user’s heart rate through their ear. And the Liberty 4 delivered all that for $130, which is just $1 more expensive than Apple’s 2nd Generation AirPods, which don’t have a heartbeat monitor.
The new Soundcore Liberty 4 NC appear to be a more competitive upgrade to the original Liberty 4. They manage to hit a $100 price point by skipping the spatial audio and heart rate tracking of their predecessor, but not much else. The Liberty 4 NC include Anker’s Adaptive ANC 2.0 technology which the company claims can reduce unwanted ambient noises by up to 98.5%, but that’s a metric that’s hard to quantify without knowing where or how the earbuds were tested. Most implementations of ANC in wireless earbuds are great at reducing low-frequency noises, like the dull roar of a plane’s engines, but higher frequencies, like the din of a busy coffee shop, still manage to slip through.
You’ll have to wait until June 29 to pre-order the Liberty 4 NC through the Soundcore website, but it seems like those who do before July 10 will be able to grab them with a $20 discount.
The Liberty 4 NC also feature 11-millimeter drivers, which should deliver excellent bass performance, multi-point connectivity so users can easily hop between paired devices, wireless charging, wear detection, so music is automatically paused when removed from the ear, and a stem-like design similar to Apple’s AirPods. What AirPods don’t offer is the Liberty 4 NC’s impressive 10 hours of battery life on buds alone, plus an additional 50 hours when occasionally docked in their charging case. Anker doesn’t specify whether that’s with or without ANC active, but we’re assuming you’ll need it off to hit a full 50 hours of use.
Correction, June 16, 2:45pm EST: This story originally stated the new Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC wireless earbuds offered a total of 60 hours of battery life, but has been corrected to reflect that the total battery life is actually 50 hours: 10 hours with the earbuds alone, and additional 40 hours of charge when paired with the charging case.
