Anker Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro review | Laptop Mag

Our Verdict

The Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro are a decent pair of earbuds simply with some issues; the almost problematic of which is that Anker itself offers better options at a lower cost than these.

For

• Impressive sound quality
• Skilful battery life
• Strong Active Noise Cancellation
• Decent Bluetooth connection

Against

• Bass tin get besides heavy
• Touch controls can exist choosy
• Mediocre call quality
• Expensive

Laptop Mag Verdict

The Soundcore Liberty iii Pro are a decent pair of earbuds but with some issues; the most problematic of which is that Anker itself offers improve options at a lower price than these.

Pros

• +

  Impressive audio quality

• +

  Adept battery life

• +

  Strong Agile Noise Cancellation

• +

  Decent Bluetooth connection

Cons

• -

  Bass tin get too heavy

• -

  Touch controls can be finicky

• -

  Mediocre call quality

• -

  Expensive

Trying to define value-for-coin in the true wireless earbud market is odd, but Anker has done a decent task figuring it out. It's not something that can exist identified by looking at a spec canvass. For example, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 have but 6mm drivers within, compared to the beasty ten.6mm drivers yous will find in the new Soundcore Liberty iii Pro. And yet the cost of the one-time is higher and the sound quality is superior.

You tin can only really figure out what is and isn't a adept value past using them. On the face of it, the Liberty 3 Pro seems to address the fundamental missing pieces in the Liberty 2 Pro — that being active noise cancellation and a 30% smaller design — for an additional $twenty (£xxx), just practise they translate into a continually good value?

Anker Soundcore Liberty three Pro: Availability and price

Yous can order a pair of Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro in Midnight Black, Frost White, Fog Grey and Sunset Purple. Prices are set at $169.99 USD, £139.99 GBP, $199.99 CAD and €159.99 EUR.

This is $xl more than the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro, more than than double the toll of the Soundcore Life P3 and $70 more than the Nothing ear (1), which puts them at the higher terminate of the mid-range tier price bracket.

Anker Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro: Design

At 0.7 x ane.1 x 1.1 inches, the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro do good from the removal of the stem found on typical earbuds similar the Liberty Air 2 Pro (i.4 x 0.ix ten 0.nine) and Zippo ear (1) (1.ane x 0.8 10 0.9). Fortunately, these new buds are 30% smaller than the Liberty 2 Pro and, at 0.2 ounces, they're lighter too. They're still slightly heavier than the contest (Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro weigh 0.xviii ounces and Nothing ear (1) are a featherweight 0.xvi ounces), merely with the cocky-contained stalk-free structure, this isn't such a problem.

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Looking past these numbers and buzzwords like "Fusion Comfort" technology, the new lightweight blueprint translates into a stylish pair of earbuds that are comfortable to wearable. The diverseness of tip and ear wing sizes ensure a snug fit regardless of whether your ears are more Gary Lineker-sized similar mine, and the IPX4 water resistance makes them durable fifty-fifty when exercising.

The instance is a slim, lightweight pebble at two.8 x 2.2 x 1.i inches with a weight of 1.vi ounces — smaller than Nix ear (1) (ii.3 x 2.3 x 0.9 inches) and lighter than the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro'southward (1.viii ounces). Plus, Anker seems to have worked on its sliding door mechanism, with this 1 feeling stronger than the Liberty Air 2 Pro example.

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Put simply, they are easily pocketable and fit well in the ear.

Anker Soundcore Freedom 3 Pro: Controls and digital assistant

You've got the apply of four dissimilar tap inputs on each side, from single to triple taps and a tap and hold that can alter the volume, skip tracks and switch between ANC and transparency mode. Once yous've figured out the tap speeds, these are piece of cake enough to operate, but weirdly, the hold interactions are hit-and-miss — some gestures are not recognised whatsoever. Hopefully, this is something that tin be fixed with a firmware update.

And of course, you can tweak the controls to activate your digital banana of choice, which picked up my requests just fine both in and outdoors. That's peculiarly inexplainable given the poor call quality, but more on that later on.

Anker Soundcore Freedom iii Pro: Active noise cancellation and ambient listening

The biggest update to the Freedom 3 Pros over its predecessor is the introduction of active noise cancellation, which uses half dozen on-board microphones to neutralize background distractions and immerse you in any yous're listening to.

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This pairs nicely with the insulating fit of the buds themselves for a more effective noise isolation. Moreover, the HearID exam analyzes your in-ear force per unit area and tailors the level of ANC to what you can handle without information technology getting uncomfortable — similar when yous're in a plane taking off.

And when you need to hear everything around you lot, the transparency mode is impressive, piping through a decent amount of detail from outside noises while not mixing and distorting what you're listening to. I heard my partner from across a 15-foot room with ease while she was stacking some dishes.

Anker Soundcore Liberty three Pro: Sound quality

The Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro sound expert. Really good, in fact, after a quick tweak to the in-app EQ, but I'll talk most that more after the out-of-the-box listening experience.

You will also observe the Liberty 3 Pros take hi-res wireless certification, thanks to support for the LDAC codec. But since nigh none of you will listen to music on devices that support this standard (don't even go me started on the world of wireless audio codecs), you'll find yourself listening to more often than not SBC, AAC or ALAC audio, so permit's judge it on that.

(Prototype credit: Laptop Mag)

Starting with my new favorite comprehend, the angrier interpretation of "Bittersweet Symphony" by Four Year Strong, the louder sections didn't distort any. The thud of the bass pulsate kicking was satisfying, the chugging guitars have an almost tactile level of seize with teeth, and the high-flying vocals shine. You'll become a like experience with the Liberty Air 2 Pros and Nothing ear (i)s, but full-on compositions like this are where the Life P3s showtime to fall behind with a slight distortion.

Now, to something on the other terminate of the spectrum: "Lost" by Frank Bounding main. The effectively details of this composition are well defined through the dual-driver structure, as the different octave pitches of Frank'due south voice throughout the chorus environment you in a way that give fifty-fifty the AirPods Pro a run for their money. Through the sheer size of the 11mm driver and tuning by teenage engineering, the Nothing ear (1)southward manage to provide more than personality to the mix than the Freedom 3 Pros, but to their credit, they spring out alee of the Liberty Air ii Pro and Life P3s for spaciousness.

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And putting this through my standard "A Twenty-four hour period in the Life" past The Beatles test, the Liberty 3 Pro more than held their own against the onslaught of the 50+ instruments in the cacophonic orchestral insurgence section. Every element is given space to breathe and express itself in a fashion that proves the versatility of these buds. This is something that the cheaper Soundcore Liberty 2 Pros also excelled in delivering and yous'll struggle to notice whatever real difference.

So, yous won't be disappointed by the sound quality on offer, but you lot tin can become sound that'southward just equally good for a lower price from its competitors.

Anker Soundcore Liberty three Pro: App and special features

I've said it before and I'll say it once again (until a legitimate competitor appears): Anker makes some of the best earbud companion software in the market today with the complimentary-to-download Soundcore app on iOS and Android.

(Prototype credit: Laptop Mag)

The user interface is clean and you lot get like shooting fish in a barrel access to the vast feature fix available to you lot with the Freedom 3 Pro, from the fully customizable EQ to the HearID test that caters the noise cancellation to your ear shape and eliminates force per unit area-related discomfort you can get with certain ANC buds.

Other special features include the option to turn on 3D surround sound for a more spatial feel, touch control customization, and admission to Soundcore's streaming partner Lüm, an interesting niche music streaming service tailored to show you grassroots artists.

Anker Soundcore Freedom 3 Pro: Battery life

Anker promises six hours of listening time with ANC on, which is extended to 24 hours with the charging instance. Turn ANC off and those numbers get up to eight and 32 respectively, only allow'southward exist honest, you lot're very rarely going to exist using these without this feature switched on.

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I'm happy to say I hit those numbers comfortably, which exceeds the Cipher ear (ane)'s iv-hr listening fourth dimension and matches the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro's six hours. Plus, cheers to the fast charging tech in the wireless charging instance, y'all can squeeze an actress three hours of playtime out of a xv-infinitesimal accuse.

This isn't what I'd telephone call worry-free battery life. That bays belongs to the Master & Dynamic MW08's bonkers 10-hour listening time. But for the average daily use of listening for a few hours in the morning time, popping them in the case for tiffin, and listening for the afternoon and commute, these were good plenty.

Anker Soundcore Freedom 3 Pro: Call quality and connectivity

Let'south start with the good news. Bluetooth 5.ii ensures a stiff connection, which remains strong at up to 30 anxiety away when tested on my iPhone xiii Pro, Xiaomi 11T Pro and M1 MacBook Pro. Having that altitude is great for someone like me, who walks around the flat alot when on conference calls!

However, information technology'southward those very calls where things begin to autumn down. Don't get me wrong, they're fine to utilise indoors. The six-mic AI uplink noise reduction does assist minimize groundwork noise like my partner stacking the dishwasher or during the classic running tap test.

(Paradigm credit: Laptop Mag)

Simply in one case you step outside, you confront problems. I'm not sure whether it's the lack of a stalk bringing the microphone closer to your mouth or the AI failing to isolate your noise, only the moment y'all put it up against anything other than a very tranquility street, you get hard to hear to the person on the other terminate. About 50% of the time, I was forced to switch back to my phone.

For a far cheaper pair of earbuds, this would be something y'all could look by, simply not only are these pricey, merely they are Soundcore buds. The Liberty Air ii Pros are amongst some of the best earbuds for call quality that I've ever used. What on Earth went wrong here?

Anker Soundcore Liberty iii Pro: Verdict

When figuring out whether I like the Soundcore Liberty three Pro, my mind kept coming back to this memorable quote: "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

That was what I absolutely loved near the Soundcore Life P3 and what my colleague Alex Bracetti adored about the Liberty Air two Pro: they gave yous an amazing listening experience worth manner more than what Anker was really charging.

Only it'due south this pedigree that makes the Liberty 3 Pro a disappointment. Sure, they address the issues of their predecessor and they however sound proficient, merely they don't be in a vacuum. Call quality is mediocre, touch controls are finicky and the MSRP puts these in the upper mid-range category. You can get amend Soundcore buds for cheaper.

This trouble will likely disappear with a large discount that drops these downward to £100, but at their electric current cost, I'd opt for meliorate value-for-money options instead.

 Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his part as a writer at Laptop Mag. He specializes in finding the best deals to make sure you never pay more than you lot should for gadgets! Jason takes a particular interest in writing and creating videos virtually laptops, headphones and games. He has previously written for Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.

Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/anker-soundcore-liberty-3-pro

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