Anker’s Soundcore brand is today refreshing its flagship true wireless earbuds with the new $169.99 Liberty 3 Pros. Both the earbuds and their slider-style charging case look very similar to the Liberty 2 Pros, though the buds are 30 percent smaller and have an “air pressure relief structure” in their wingtips for added comfort. Anker has made more significant improvements to the features they offer: the new earbuds have active noise cancellation — you’d hope for as much at this price — and the “HearID ANC” system is optimized for efficiency and comfort. Anker says it monitors outside ambient noise while also taking in-ear pressure into account, so the level of ANC automatically adapts to the environment.
The dual-driver acoustic architecture of the Liberty 3 Pros has been refined, and these earbuds join Sony’s WF-1000XM4s in offering upgraded audio quality thanks to their support for the LDAC codec. There aren’t many wireless earbuds out there that offer LDAC (though aptX HD is more common), so hopefully, this will be the start of a trend. AAC and SBC codecs are also supported.
The charging case charge features wireless charging, and Anker says the earbuds can hit up to six hours of continuous playback with ANC enabled or eight with it off. The case stores an additional 24 or 32 hours, respectively. Anker says its fast charge capabilities can give you three hours of playback if you plug in and charge the earbuds over USB-C for just 15 minutes.
Anker will offer the Liberty 3 Pros in four different colors: black, white, silver, gray, and purple. They’re rated IPX4 for water and sweat resistance and have three different transparency modes for when you do need some environmental awareness. You can order the new buds starting today. Earlier this year, Becca reviewed the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pros, which have a more AirPods-esque design and are priced at $130. As is often the case with Anker, they’re a very competitive product for the asking price. But with the Liberty 3 Pros priced a good bit higher, Anker will be facing off with plenty of worthy alternatives.
