Hands On with Anker's New Earbuds and Chargers
Today, 7:00 AM by Rich Brome @rbrome.bsky.social
Anker has released an impressive new set of phone accessories, including ambitious new Bluetooth earbuds, as well as chargers with impressive specs in compact form factors. The new SoundCore Liberty 5 Pro (and Pro Max) earbuds aim to challenge the best earbuds in the industry in terms of noise cancellation and sound quality, while offering features like a charging case with touch-screen controls. The newest chargers offer unprecedented power output for their size, while also offering displays with interactive controls. We checked them out. Here are our impressions.
SoundCore Earbuds
SoundCore Liberty 5 Pro
Anker's newest flagship Bluetooth earbuds are the SoundCore Liberty 5 Pro. On paper, they have just about every feature one might expect in a pair of modern high-end earbuds. Plus they have touch-screen controls that save you from memorizing what a triple-tap does or opening an app on your phone. And Anker claims industry-leading performance. All this for just $170, when it's competing against earbuds that run $230 – $250 and lack features like touch-screen controls.
So how are they in person? I like them. They twist into my ears easily. With almost no effort, I felt confident that they were in correctly, and they felt secure. All while feeling extremely comfortable.
The case is well-designed. It's not too big, comfortably rounded, and easy to open and close.
I tried the AI-powered ANC (active noise cancellation), which Anker calls "Instant Pure Silence". Anker showed us a vague chart that showed it just beating their "leading competitor". I found the ANC extremely effective, especially with common background noise like road traffic or an air conditioner. It won't give you literal silence, but it's more than enough to make most annoying noises... not annoying.
I know a touch-screen on your earbuds case might seem gimmicky to some people, but I really appreciate it. I'm constantly struggling to recall gestures like a double-tap on your right ear to enable ANC, etc. I do much better with visual controls. The screen on the base-model Liberty 5 Pro is just big enough to show some useful info and give you a relatively easy-to-use swipe-and-tap interface.
It's a good thing that both models of earbuds come with instructions for the touch-screen gestures right when you first open the packaging, because they might not be 100% intuitive for everyone at first. But I found that I learned them in about five seconds, and they seemed easy and natural after that.
The Liberty 5 Pro Max offers a larger screen with more options — like quick controls and customizable widgets — but I actually found the smaller touch-screen on the Liberty 5 Pro to have a more intuitive interface and respond more reliably.
The only negatives I found with the Liberty 5 Pro are: The sliding cover on the case feels a bit loose and wobbly. Not like it will break, just a bit... cheap. The other is that the bean-shaped design of the earbuds looks a bit boring and generic to me. They don't look bad, they just don't have the design flair of Samsung and Google's competing earbuds. That's it; everything else about these earbuds seems great, especially for the price.
Sound Core Liberty 5 Pro Max
The "Max" version of these earbuds have the same actual earbuds, just a different case with a larger touch-screen and a few added features.
As I said earlier, the larger display enables a fancier interface with customizable widgets and a Control Center with quick access to basic functions. But it's not quite as intuitive; the smaller display has a handy little gray bar showing where you can swipe up or down, which the Max model inexplicably lacks. And I found the larger display to be a less reliable, sometimes taking several tries to swipe or tap something. On the plus side, the slide action of the case cover feels much more solid and high-quality.
The Max case is slightly thicker, but slightly smaller in the other dimensions, so overall there's not much (if any) size penalty.
The Max is supposed to add AI-assisted "note taking" features and real-time language translation. This is all supposed to happen using the AI chip in the earbuds (or the case?). The case has its own memory that can store of three hours of notes. Which made me think it should work without a phone, but no, Anker reps told me all of these features require a paired phone to operate. Since most phones already have these features, (or easily can via any number of apps,) I'm not sure I see the point.
If you can't tell, I'm not sold on the Liberty 5 Pro Max. In fact, I'd probably prefer the non-Max version, and you save $60 to boot.
Anker Chargers
Anker has long been a leading maker of phone chargers and external batteries, both in terms of brand perception and technology leadership. A few years ago, Anker offered some of the most powerful chargers in the smallest packages. Then, it felt like charging tech coasted for while. But with this year's lineup, I'm back to being impressed with how much charging power Anker can put in a tiny little charger.
Anker Nano Charger
The Anker Nano has long been my go-to compact charger. The latest iteration is still tiny, but has impressive 45-watt charging, 180º folding plug prongs, and a little display plus button.
Anker 45W Nano charger with display
The 180º folding prongs have two open positions, giving you more options to fit tight spots, and a way to have the USB cord hang down instead of sticking out, for a more secure connection. And of course you can fold them in so they're not stabbing your stuff when the charger is in your bag. I love this feature.
Why a display and button? Well, this display will show you your charging speed, which is nice to confirm that it's fast charging and how fast. And the touch button (the indent on the top) will cycle through a few screens, the most important of which is a mode selector that will let you choose "Care" mode, which means a slower charging speed for overnight charging, which is much better for long-term battery health. The button is simple enough to use: tap once to switch screens; double-tap to change a setting.
It's also smart enough to detect when a newer iPhone model is connected, so it can further optimize charging for each model.
The only downside I could find is that the display is quite dim.
But the price seems quite reasonable to me: $40.
Anker Prime Charger
Anker has a whole series of Prime charging products, but this is one of the most versatile. This is the closest thing to a universal USB-C travel charger for everything. With it, you can charge a laptop, a phone, and even a tablet, all at the same time. And it's still smaller than most of Apple's laptop chargers.
The key innovation in this year's model is that it can output 160 watts total, including up to 140 watts from any one of the three USB-C ports. Use any port to charge any device, and it will automatically fast-charge it. Times three.
As a travel charger, it has folding plug prongs. And the three USB-C ports are smartly on the bottom so they're not sticking out.
As with the Nano, there's a display and touch button. You can use this to control charging speeds, so if you want to slow down your laptop charging so your tablet can charge faster, you can do that. But again, the display on the dim side.
It also has some smart charging logic that can automatically optimize which device charges at which speed. Anker claims that these features can deliver the equivalent of 140 + 35 + 35 watts of power (210 watts total) to three devices at once. I'm not sure how that works, but even if that's optimistic, 160 actual watts should be enough to charge multiple devices quite quickly.
I also appreciate that this charger is USB-C only. I'm personally trying to get USB-A out of my life, so I don't want a superfluous USB-A port taking up precious space on what's supposed to be a compact-as-possible travel device.
So if you just want to have one travel charger for everything, I think it's safe to say you can get this one and never worry about chargers or charging speeds again. But that peace of mind comes at a price: $150.
About the author, Rich Brome:Editor in Chief Rich became fascinated with cell phones in 1999, creating mobile web sites for phones with tiny black-and-white displays and obsessing over new phone models. Realizing a need for better info about phones, he started Phone Scoop in 2001, and has been helming the site ever since. Rich has spent two decades researching and covering every detail of the phone industry, traveling the world to tour factories, interview CEOs, and get every last spec and photo Phone Scoop readers have come to expect. As an industry veteran, Rich is a respected voice on phone technology of the past, present, and future.
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