Soundcore Liberty 5 Review: Adaptive ANC That Thinks

Soundcore Liberty 5 Review: A great allrounder pair of earbuds at an affordable price.

{Tech} for Travel

Soundcore are on a roll when it comes to audio for travellers. Last year’s release of the Space One Pro impressed me at IFA 2024, and it even found its way onto my Best Headphones list for 2025.

When Soundcore launched the Liberty 5 earbuds back in May, the focus was on real-time noise control. That release positioned these as its most refined earbuds to date, aimed at travellers looking for better silence and longer playtime.

Compared to the Liberty 4, the Liberty 5 is a clear upgrade in nearly every area on paper, especially for those wanting stronger noise cancellation and better battery performance while travelling. But how did they perform?

The Liberty 5 features 9.2 mm wool paper diaphragm drivers with dual bass-enhancing tubes, designed to improve airflow and acoustic range. This provides a more natural midrange and sharper treble, while maintaining a solid low-end response.

The earbuds are also equipped with Dolby Audio and offer three spatial modes optimised for music, movies and spoken word content. Adaptive ANC 3.0 is the most significant upgrade over the previous Liberty 4 earbuds, but is present on the Liberty 4 Pro model. It scans for environmental changes and recalibrates noise blocking every 0.3 seconds using six microphones and a redesigned acoustic cavity.

Battery life reaches up to 12 hours on a single charge without ANC or 8 hours with ANC active. The case boosts this to a maximum of 48 hours without ANC or 32 hours with it.

Fast charging is quick! A 10-minute charge adds approximately 5 hours of playback time, and wireless charging is also included.

There’s support for Bluetooth 5.4, Google Fast Pair, multipoint connectivity, and LDAC high-resolution audio. Additional features include six-microphone AI call enhancement, dual-mic transparency, pinch-based stem controls, wearing detection, IP55 protection, and HearID 4.0, which assesses your hearing profile and preferences to personalise the EQ.

Our Soundcore Liberty 5 review was conducted using an iPhone 15 Pro. With Google Fast Pair, the Liberty 5 connect instantly to an Android handset just as quickly as it did to the iPhone for this review.

Out of the box and after pairing, the Liberty 5 earbuds, like most others, are ready for use. However, I strongly recommend allowing yourself 10 minutes to walk through the in-app setup to get the absolute best from these powerful, lightweight buds.

Power on was automatic when opening the case, and on first use, the Liberty 5 enters pairing mode, which your phone will instantly detect. If you want to return to pairing mode at any point, Soundcore has mounted a button inside the charging case.

The investment of time Soundcore have put into developing its App is clear to see. I find it to be one of, if not the, most user-friendly audio apps at the moment. All the options and labels are straightforward and make sense, even to non-technical users, and the essential sections include clear additional information.

Where the App sets itself apart is the impact it had on my earbuds. It took me 10-15 minutes to complete everything, from creating an account to completing the HearID test and working through the sound profile tests. The result was a custom profile which worked better for my hearing and music taste than any of the preset ones Soundcore had.

The App guided me through the updates and ANC setup, so it was a matter of wearing the Liberty 5 earbuds and following the on-screen instructions. There was even a section on the pinch stem controls to ensure I used them correctly. Whether that changes anything on the buds themselves is debatable; it’s more for familiarisation.

Thankfully, due to time, I started the Soundcore Liberty 5 review by using them straight out of the box. I was eager to get started using them, so I paired them with my phone and headed out. Except for toggling between the three modes, ANC, Normal and Transparency, I went almost a week of use before sitting down to tailor my listening experience in the App.

It was this that gave me such an appreciation for the HeardID technology and personalised Sound Profile setup in the App. The improvement was vast!

Admittedly, straight out of the box, the Liberty 5’s are a great pair of buds with solid audio quality, and the performance of the Adaptive ANC 3.0 over the Liberty 4 is noticeable.

Yet, once I had taken the time to set them up to my ears, the audio quality significantly improved over the default setting. The wool paper diaphragm drivers sounded free and more balanced. Music playback was warm and full with strong detail in the vocals and higher frequencies.

Dolby Audio added extra width in the soundstage, especially noticeable when watching films or using the spatial mode for spoken word content.

Overall, the Liberty 5 earbuds are simple to use, and wearing detection worked every time, pausing audio the moment either earbud was removed. A promising sign to me, that attention to detail was given during the design process. I’ve tested headphones at 4x the price, and simple things like this failed to work as expected.

Soundcore has once again delivered a complete package of hardware, on-board software and an intuitive App.

Battery performance met the official figures. With ANC active, the earbuds lasted just over 8 hours during mixed use, and the case delivered two full top-ups with a bit left over.

Wireless charging on a standard Qi pad was reliable. Fast charging also worked as advertised, providing five hours of playtime after just ten minutes of plugging in.

Two of the more notable features for me were the Call quality performance, which was consistently clear thanks to the six-microphone array and AI noise filtering, as well as the on-device controls. The stems are the perfect size for handling and using as control clicks to control music when out and about.

The transparency mode was a bit too open for my liking, and while I could easily hear the announcements at the station, it sounded like I was in a wind tunnel at the same time.

The Soundcore Liberty 5 earbuds are a great sub £100 pair of buds that deliver way more than their very reasonable price tag. Adaptive ANC 3.0, paired with the flight mode setting in the App, means they perform as well as many over-ear headphones during a flight.

The App and the setup experience make the Liberty 5 buds feel like they are tailored just for you, and the personalisation works well. The custom setting the App generated for me during the review worked better than any of the built-in presets, and even when I tried to achieve the same result manually with the custom EQ.

If you’re constantly on the phone or video calls, the six-microphone array performs better than buds at double the price, even in noisy environments.

I like the casing design, even if it’s a bit bulkier than others, but the slide-back lid will be prone to breaking over time if not correctly cared for. It’s not the strongest! And the eartips are made from a thicker rubber than the soft silicone tips most buds often use. Both minor grumbles from me.

All in all, the Soundcore Liberty 5 punches well above its weight. You’re getting travel-focused features, excellent noise control, and surprisingly refined audio at a price that’s hard to argue with. It’s not perfect, but for under £100, there’s very little else that offers this level of performance, personalisation, and battery life in one package.

If you’re after reliable, everyday earbuds that won’t let you down mid-flight or mid-call, the Liberty 5 is an easy recommendation.

Features	Soundcore Liberty 5
Dimensions	Earbuds 32x28x20mm Case 60x60x28mm
Weight	Earbuds 5g Case 48g
Colour Options	White Blue Black Pink
Sound	9.2mm wool paper drivers Dual bass tubes Dolby Audio (ANC, Off, Transparent)
Power	12 hrs (earbuds) 48 hrs (with case) USB-C Wireless charging Fast charge (5 hrs in 10 min)
Water Resistance	IP55
Connectivity	Bluetooth 5.4 Google Fast Pair
Features	Adaptive ANC 3.0 6-mic AI calling Dual-mic transparency Stem controls Wearing detection
In the Box	Liberty 5 Earbuds USB-A to USB-C cable 5× Eartips
Website	Soundcore.com

The Soundcore Liberty 5 earbuds are now available in four colours, Black, White, Blue, and Pink, for $129/£99 at soundcore.com or your local Amazon store.