The earbuds are touch sensitive on the outside. Tapping the ‘d’ at the top of the stalk activates the controls. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian As I noted in my 1MORE Aero review, I’d also appreciate the option to have one of the controls toggle the spatial audio on and off, to save having to dive into the app so frequently. The control scheme is missing a touch and hold function, so that would be a neat place for the spatial audio to slot in, and I would have liked to have seen Anker make volume adjustable by sliding a finger up or down either stem, too.

They sound pretty good with most music genres but excel with dance and electronica, full of energy and deep bass. There is a full equaliser accessible in the Soundcore app, as well as a set of sound pre-sets, including the default “signature” sound and the classic “bass boost” if you really need more bass. They automatically pause the music when one earbud is removed and start again once it is reinserted. We’ve experienced a few minor problems in connectivity during testing: one momentary audio cut out while listening to an album, and an occasion during one song where audio would cut from one earbud to another. They were momentarily lapses though, and we're confident that connectivity stability, overall, shouldn't be a problem for the Anker Soundcore Liberty Air. Sound Note that the sound is affected by having the noise-cancelling active, sounding a little more controlled and punchy but with slightly shallower bass. I preferred the sound with it active. ObservationsLikewise, on the receiving end, speech could perhaps be slightly sharper, but sounds full rather than scratchy and metallic (like on the Sennheiser CX 400BT), with good volume. Anker Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro review: Verdict Before using LDAC, ensure that the soundcore app has been updated to the latest version. After turning on this feature, it will automatically take you to update Liberty 3 Pro's firmware. Once this update is complete, you can use LDAC normally. The noise cancelling effect works best on low frequency sounds such as engines, air conditioning, etc. Noise reduction is not as effective on medium and high frequency sounds such as human voices, whistles, etc. The Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro make for a respectable voice-calling tool. The friend I called reported lower overall clarity than if I were speaking directly into my phone, but I was still coming through strongly and at least sufficiently clearly.

Playtime data comes from tests conducted in soundcore's laboratory. The default setting is 50% volume in Normal mode. The actual playtime may vary by volume, sound source, environmental interference, usage, and other factors. There are two ambient awareness modes, one for full transparency and one targeted at only allowing voices through. The full transparency mode is reasonable but a bit quiet and less natural sounding compared with the best. The vocal mode is very good, allowing me to have a full conversation with other people while still maintaining some noise-cancelling.The connection was solid to an iPhone 12 Pro and Galaxy S21 Ultra but I could not test them in a congested area because of the Covid-19 restrictions in the UK. In addition to good sound, the earbuds have effective noise-cancelling. The earbuds have different profiles for transport, indoors and outdoors, which each target different frequencies of noise, such as low rumbles or speech. There’s also a custom mode with a slider that adjusts the noise-cancelling but there are no markings on it to help you understand what is being targeted by each position on the slider, making it a bit of a trial and error process.

The good news is that while this is the default sound, it's not the only one. The Soundcore app serves up customization in a couple of different ways, the more interesting being its "HearID" feature. This plays a series of beeps to test how well you can hear different frequencies at various volumes and uses the results to craft a sound profile that's specific to you. Remember, also, that HearID isn't a magic "fix the bass" button. It tailors the output to individual users, so your results may sound different from mine. But even if you don't find the results as agreeable as I did, you can still manually adjust the EQ using the Custom profile in the app to get these earbuds sounding however you want. Anker Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro review: Features They work fairly well but with only two tap variations, the controls are limited compared with competitors with three options, swipes or buttons. Still, the noise-cancelling works better than I expected it to. They match the effectiveness of Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro but fall short of the best, such as Jabra’s Elite 85t and the AirPods Pro, which is still impressive for the price.

An IPX4 rating means the earphones can withstand light splashes, some exposure to rain and sweat, and can be wiped down with a damp cloth, but should never be soaked or rinsed under a faucet. This modest water-resistance rating is becoming something of a standard with many true wireless in-ears that aren’t expressly designed for exercise.

ACAA 2.0: Our exclusive coaxial dual driver technology delivers high and low frequency sound directly to your ear without interference. Its wide soundstage is detailed and spacious, bass has a deep punch, mids are luscious, and treble sparkles. READ NEXT: These are the best cheap earbuds to buy right now Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 review: Should you buy them? A couple of minor issues aside, the Liberty 4 are a roaring success, pairing excellent sound with a great range of features and customisation options. Spatial audio is closer to the 1MORE Aerothan premium offerings from Sony and Apple in terms of its efficacy, but certainly adds enough immersion to films and breadth to songs to justify its inclusion.

With active noise-cancelling for $130, the Anker Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro earbuds are an appealingly cheap alternative to the AirPods Pro

Battery life comes in at around nine hours in-ear, with the charging case pushing the total up to 28 hours. Those figures fall to seven and 24 hours with ANC enabled, or five and 15 hours with spatial audio turned on. The Liberty 4 support both wireless and fast charging, with the latter providing up to three hours of listening from 15 minutes on charge. Rave / Rave Mini / Mega / Trance / Wakey / Icon+ / Motion X600 / Motion+ / Infini Pro / Model Zero / Model Zero+ / Liberty 2 Pro / Liberty Air 2 / Liberty 2 / Life NC / PowerConf / Flare 2 / Rave Neo / Rave Partycast / Trance Go / soundcore Mini 3 / Motion Boom / soundcore 3 / Boost(Upgraded) / Life Q30 / Life Q20+ / Life Q35 / Life Tune / Life Tune Pro / / Life Tune XR / Life A2 NC / Life Dot 2 NC / Life Dot 2S / Liberty Air 2 Pro / Life P3 / Liberty Neo 2 / Liberty 3 Pro / Rave+ / Select 2 / Life Dot 2 XR / Rave Neo SE / Life Tune Pro / soundcore min 3 Pro / Life P3 / Life Note 3 / Life Note 3S / Life 2 Neo / Life Q10i / Life Dot 3i / soundcore Dot 3i / Life Note 3i / soundcore Note 3i / Sport X10 / Life A3i / soundcore A3i / Life P3i / soundcore P3i / Space A40 / Space Q45 / VR P10 / Sleep A10 / Liberty 4 / A20i / A25i / P20i / P25i / R50i , etc. The Air 2 Pro sound surprisingly good for the money and features. They produce an easy-listening, full sound with plenty of deep bass. You have to like bass-heavy sound but the low end is fairly well controlled, with the warm mids and highs still coming through clearly. Those looking for more balanced sound best look elsewhere. Still, while that might be an underwhelming result for non-ANC buds, it's a pretty good showing when you factor in the extra drain of constant noise-cancelling. They even narrowly beat the AirPods Pro, which lasted 4 and a half hours in our testing, though Sony's WF-1000XM3 seem to be the overall ANC earbud winners on longevity.