Today Anker adds a new entry to its range of Soundcore earbuds featuring the Freedom 4. While this set keeps the brand in the budget earbuds category at $149.99, they are the first in the line to combine a “stick” design (as seen in the Liberty Air 2 Pro) and dual dynamic drivers. which Soundcore claims “pull the boundaries of sound performance, providing clarity across all frequencies for the best listening experience across all genres of music.”
While we’ll be judging how the Liberty 4s measure up once we’ve had a chance to use them, the spec sheet lists a few things we haven’t seen on every set of earbuds in this price range. Not everyone is a fan of spatial audio features in headphones and earbuds, but these earbuds have it, promising 360-degree tracking with a gyroscope and algorithm that tries to align the sounds as you move your head while watching movies or watching. listen to music while you have the function turned on.
They also include an in-ear heart rate sensor paired with a Wellness app to track daily data or just while you’re working out — just in case you don’t have a watch, bracelet, or ring to monitor that sort of thing.
For more typical earbud duties, they include Bluetooth 5.3, Soundcore’s HearID active noise cancellation, three sizes of earbuds, and 6 microphones (three per earbud) that should help your voice come through clearly to people on the other end. They also have multipoint connections to, for example, stay connected to both your laptop and your phone. Like their predecessors, codec support in the Liberty 4 includes LDAC, AAC, and SBC, but not aptX.
Battery life can depend on the features you use, with a promising up to 9 hours of charge in normal use, 5 hours in spatial audio mode, 6 hours in LDAC mode and no noise cancellation, and up to 7 hours with only ANC on.
Their charging case can quickly charge them for 15 minutes to add 3 hours of playback or charge them from empty to full in an hour, and the case itself charges via USB-C or wirelessly. Under normal circumstances, Soundcore says that the Liberty 4 can be used for up to 28 hours in normal conditions before you empty the buttons and their housing.
If you’re interested, they’re available in black or white, and the black version is on sale today from Soundcore.com, Amazon on October 10 and the Best Buy website by the end of October. The white set will go on sale October 7 at Soundcore and October 17 at Amazon.
