Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC Truly Wireless Headphones Review

The Anker Liberty 4 NC look similar to the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 True Wireless. Their bud-and-stem design has a semi-gloss finish and a round design. They're available in five colors: 'Velvet Black', 'Light Blue', 'Navy Blue', 'Clear White', and 'Pastel Pink'.

The Anker Liberty 4 NC have a comfortable fit. They're lightweight and don't sit deep in your ear canal. They also come with four different sizes of ear tips to help you find the best fit for your ears. However, the part of each earbud that's meant to sit in your inner ear is a bit small and doesn't fit snugly in larger or different-shaped ears, requiring more frequent readjustments.

These earbuds have a good control scheme. A touch-sensitive surface at the top of the stem is used to input commands, and the buds play a chime to indicate that they've registered an input, though not when you've hit the max/min volume setting. They work with a light touch and are smart enough not to register accidental commands when readjusting the buds. You can also use their companion app to enable and swap out extra controls, like volume control, talk-through, and your device's voice assistant.

On either earbud:

• Single tap: Plays and pauses audio.
• Press and hold: Switches between ANC and transparency mode.

On the left earbud:

• Double tap: Skips to the next track.

On the right earbud:

• Double tap: Skips to the previous track.

The Anker Liberty 4 NC are extremely portable. Like most in-ears, you can fit them in your pocket or bag without issue.

Their case is great. The lid is hinged this time instead of sliding like the Anker Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro Truly Wireless, making it feel more sturdy. There are three LEDs, one outside the case on their pairing button to indicate connection status and one near each earbud to indicate charging level.

Build quality is good. The Anker Liberty 4 NC's plastic build feels cheap, and the glossy parts of their build are prone to fingerprint accumulation. They're rated IPX4 for protection against water splashes, so they'll hold up during a run outside.

For most people, these buds are stable in-ear. They have no problem staying on with moderate head movement, like during a jog or yoga session, but they're more likely to come out during more intense workouts. Their smaller size also means you'll need to readjust them more often if you have larger ears.

• Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC earbuds
• 4x tip sizes
• Charging case
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Manuals

The Anker Liberty 4 NC have a bass-heavy sound profile. There's extra thump and punch to suit genres like EDM and hip-hop, while an overemphasized treble range makes sibilants, like cymbals, bright, if not piercing. Instruments and vocals are detailed and intense but slightly muddied by all the extra bass.

If you'd like a different sound, you're in luck since their companion app has a whopping 22 available EQ presets. We measured how five of the most commonly used presets perform compared to one another, and you can see that data here. There's also a graphic EQ interface to let you fine-tune the mix, as well as HearID, a feature that creates a custom EQ based on an in-app hearing test.

Their frequency response consistency is very good. Once you get a good fit using the provided ear tips, you'll get consistent audio delivery most of the time you use them.

Note: Several in-ears with silicone tips don't fit properly in the right ear of our test rig, creating a discrepancy in how consistent the bass delivery appears in our graphs. In real-life listening, bass consistency is much more accurate so long as the earbuds can achieve a proper fit and seal.

The bass response is quite even across the range, resulting in a balanced listening experience. It's also consistently overemphasized the whole way across, resulting in ample thump and punch to complement genres like EDM and hip-hop. The rest of the mix also sounds slightly muddy as a result.

The Anker Liberty 4 NC have excellent mid accuracy. The range is well balanced, so instruments and vocals sound present and detailed.

The Anker Liberty 4 NC have good treble accuracy. The low-treble is very well-balanced, resulting in detailed vocals and instruments. However, an overemphasized mid-treble range makes sibilants, like the splashy cymbals throughout Tom Sawyer by Rush, sound piercing.

Their peaks and dips performance is good. A wide peak covers most of the bass range, while a wide dip covers most of the mid-range, extending into the low-treble. These only deviate from the target curve by a few decibels each way, so the only noticeable impact is that audio sounds quite bass-heavy. That said, the left and right drivers suffer from a slight imbalance. As a result, the left driver has a bassier sound than the right. A sharp peak in the mid-treble range also means that sibilants sound very sharp and piercing.

These buds have great imaging performance. While Anker isn't typically the most reliable regarding quality control and ergonomics, our unit doesn't suffer from significant imaging issues that would make or break their usefulness as daily-use earbuds. The group delay falls within acceptable limits, ensuring tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. Our L/R drivers are well balanced in frequency, but there's a small noticeable mismatch in the amplitude and phase response in the bass range. Lower frequencies are more emphasized in the left driver than the right, making the one side sound more hollow and resulting in a slightly unbalanced listening experience, especially on bass-heavy tracks. Keep in mind, though, that imaging varies from unit to unit.

These headphones have a bad passive soundstage, though it's expected for earbuds. They bypass the outer ear by design and can't create a spacious and immersive listening experience. Audio sounds like it's coming from inside your head rather than all around the room.

You can enable these earbuds' 3D Surround Sound mode in their companion app, which creates a virtual soundstage to improve immersion when listening to audio.

These earbuds have excellent weighted harmonic distortion performance. All frequencies fall within good limits, producing clear and pure audio reproduction even at high volumes.

These are the settings used to test these earbuds. Our results are only valid when using them in this configuration.

The Anker Liberty 4 NC's ANC system performs remarkably well considering their price. They can isolate you from the low rumble of bus and plane engines and ambient chit-chat and high-pitched whirrs from PC fans. The companion app also lets you switch between different ANC modes, including an adaptive ANC mode that auto-adjusts based on ambient sound levels. You can see how each setting compares here. The included Wind Noise Reduction Feature also doesn't do a noticeable job of cutting out the sound of buffeting wind hitting the earbuds.

There's also a transparency mode available in the app. This lets in outside noise to give you more situational awareness during a run or even carry a conversation without taking the buds out. When switched to this mode, these buds let in a decent amount of ambient noise, but the resulting transparency audio is slightly muffled and veiled. In comparison, earbuds like the Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) Truly Wireless deliver a much clearer transparency mode that lets you hear more detail in the noise around you.

These earbuds have great leakage performance. Escaping audio is mostly concentrated in the treble range and sounds quite thin. If you're blasting tunes at high volumes in louder environments, like an office, people around you aren't going to hear it.

Their integrated microphone has sub-par recording performance. Your voice sounds dark and bassy but lacking in crisp detail from a recessed high-end.

Noise handling performance is okay. The mic muffles your voice somewhat when trying to separate it from more moderate background noise. Louder environments, like a busy subway station, will drastically affect the amount of detail in your voice, if not drown it out altogether when large vehicles pass by.

The Anker Liberty 4 NC have very good battery performance. They last nine hours on a single charge, easily getting you through a long workday. If you need more power for the commute home, their case holds an additional four full charges and has a fast-charging feature that gives you four hours of playback time on a ten-minute charge. In comparison, the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 True Wireless lasts six hours and only has two extra charges in their case. A customizable auto-off timer lets you save power when the buds aren't in use.

The Anker Soundcore companion app has an incredible amount of extra features. You can customize the control scheme, manually adjust the ANC level, or select from several noise cancelling settings, including a transparency mode with optional wind noise reduction. They also have graphic EQ to let you change the mix to your preferences. You can switch between SBC and LDAC codecs, allowing you to play higher-quality audio files and toggle their 3D Surround Sound virtual soundstage. There's also a Safe Volume feature available that limits audio output to within safe levels. However, it's not the most accurate at high volumes, so if you're trying to preserve your hearing health, you're still better off keeping the volume low manually rather than relying on this feature.

You can see a video detailing how the app works here.

The Anker Liberty 4 NC have great Bluetooth performance. They support multi-device pairing, allowing you to stay connected to two devices simultaneously. Latency is low on iOS but slightly higher on Android devices and PCs. While streaming audio over LDAC codec, latency is a bit higher, meaning visuals and audio will fall out of sync. You can only stay connected to one device while using this codec, limiting its convenience.

LDAC Latency:

• PC: 214ms
• Android: 200ms
• iOS: Codec not supported

If you're looking to play mobile games with lower audio lag, their Gaming Mode, which uses the default SBC codec, does a good job of slightly reducing the amount of latency on iOS devices, though it's still noticeably high on Android devices and PCs.

Gaming Mode Latency:

• PC: 152ms
• Android: 175ms
• iOs: 69ms

Some apps and devices compensate for latency differently, so your experience can vary.

These earbuds come with a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging the case.

These earbuds only support audio and mic compatibility with PCs via Bluetooth connection.

Their carrying case holds four additional charges and can be topped up via USB-C. It also supports wireless charging.