Review of Soundcore Liberty 4 NC - TWS headphones with record battery life and ANC

The Soundcore brand has long established itself on the Russian market as a manufacturer of good audio devices with attractive prices. Sometimes the ratio of characteristics and cost even suggests that there is definitely a catch somewhere - compromise solutions that can only be identified after prolonged use. This is the situation with the new Soundcore Liberty 4 NC. We took a closer look at the headphones and actually found several shortcomings. But first things first.

Table of contents

• Specifications
• Design and equipment
• Landing and Control
• Connection and application
• Sound
• Noise suppression
• Autonomy
• Results

Specifications

Design and equipment

The Soundcore Liberty 4 NC comes in a small cardboard box. Inside, in addition to the headphones themselves in the charging case, there is a traditional instruction manual, a power cable and three pairs of silicone tips of different sizes. Another pair is already put on the earbuds.

The charging case is a rounded “pebble”. We had the white version, but there are also blue, light blue, black and pink. The body is made of matte plastic and is complemented by a glossy Soundcore logo.

There is also an illuminated button on the front. If you press on it, the large lid of the case will open and you can take out headphones.

However, this button is located right at the junction of the two parts of the body. And often when you press, you hold the top panel with your own finger, which should recline. Here, either a fingernail or jewelry precision saves the day. Or you can simply lift the lid with your second hand.

Other elements of the case include only a USB-C port.

Inside are two in-ear headphones. They are made of white glossy plastic, and the outer surface of the “leg” is decorated with a gray insert with a matte surface.

Under the silicone tips there is an unusually shaped sound guide with an original grille. Each earbud also has three microphones and two charging contacts.

The headphones themselves are great magnetized to the case, despite their not the simplest shape. When the earbud is inserted into the hole of the case, a white light lights up, shining directly into the silicone tips.

It looks unusual, but strange, why not ultraviolet? There would be at least some disinfection, and here there are just white diodes.

Landing and Control

The headphones fit perfectly in the ears. The fit is tight. There is no feeling of mobility of the earbuds; you don’t want to constantly adjust or push them. And all this with standard attachments that were put on by default.

The headphones are controlled by tapping on the outer surface, more precisely, on its upper part, where the logo is. By default, a single tap pauses, a double tap switches tracks, and a tap and hold changes the noise reduction mode.

Inaccurate touch reading is the first and perhaps key problem with the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC.

Touches are not always recognized. Of the double clicks, sometimes only the first is read, so instead of switching the track you get the music stopped. You have to learn through trial and error to maintain the necessary pauses between taps and apply the necessary force to each touch.

It's good that the presses are accompanied by a sound signal, and you can immediately understand whether your action worked. But the same switching from noise reduction Transparency mode goes through without any notifications. On the street it can be difficult to immediately discern which mode you have switched to.

And of course, all touches can be reassigned, and you can also add a triple tap - in the application, which will be discussed below.

Here we also note that the music pauses when you remove the earphone from ear — this function exists, but it works quite slowly. It takes about 2 seconds for playback to pause. And even then there are mistakes - depending on how you take the earphone.

Connection and application

Soundcore Liberty 4 NC supports Google Fast Pair, which means there should be no problems connecting to an Android smartphone. You need to open the case and select the detected device from the list of accessories available for pairing.

Since the headphones work via Bluetooth 5.3, they also support pairing with several devices at once. To connect to the second gadget, you will need to open the case with the headphones and hold down the case button for a couple of seconds. The white interior light will flash—you can connect.

Of course, there is a proprietary application for setting up headphones - Soundcore. And what was pleasing was that the smartphone offered to install it the first time it was paired. We strongly recommend doing this, because it allows you to not only reconfigure controls and switch operating modes.

The Soundcore app is a single hub for all headphones and speakers of the brand. Here their charge and connection status are displayed, and operation is configured.

For Liberty 4 NC the following are available in the application:

• selection of noise reduction mode, including for a specific vehicle - airplane, metro, auto;
• choosing a transparency mode—full or with an emphasis on the voices of people around you;
• enabling wind noise protection that actually works;
• turning on surround sound;
• Hearing assessment and creation of a personalized HearID profile (equalizer settings);
• checking the fit of the headphones using microphones that detect sound leakage;
• manual adjustment of 8-band equalizer;
• measuring ambient volume in dB and limiting the maximum volume in headphones;
• activation of game mode with less signal delay;
• search function with loud signal playback on each earphone;
• activation of the LDAC codec for compatible devices (higher sound quality, but lower battery life);
• reconfiguring touch controls;
• firmware update.

Of course, few people will use most of these options more than once. But the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC can only be praised for its headphone search function, wind protection and fine-tuning of sound with an equalizer.

Sound

The default audio can feel empty, which is why the Soundcore app makes all the difference. With it you can choose a default equalizer or customize it to your own hearing.

Full personalization is done through HearID in the “Sound Effects” section. The 3D surround effect is also activated there, which really gives you the feeling that you are listening to music in a large room.

After playing with HearID and the equalizer, we created our own preset, with which the sound became denser and more vibrant. The difference is not colossal, but it is noticeable. And this variability in headphones that are far from top-end is worth a lot.

Separately, we note that in any sound profile, except for completely manual settings, the bass is always slightly raised. They don't give what they need volume, immersing you inside the drum, but still endowing the low frequencies with a slight viscousness. In other words, if you like things to “boom”, then you will definitely like the Liberty 4 NC.

And by the way, they have quite high volume.

Noise suppression

External noise suppression can operate in three modes:

• adaptive — with automatic adjustment to the volume of surrounding sounds;
• manual — with a choice of suppression level on a 5-point scale;
• in transport mode, in which you can simply select a profile for a trip to the subway, for an airplane, a car and ground public transport.

We tested the headphones mainly in adaptive mode. It is optimal for those who spend the whole day listening to music without parting with their headphones in transport, on the street or in the office. Sometimes the Liberty 4 NC were used even without music, just to “turn off” the noise and sit in silence. ANC works great.

In headset mode, noise reduction also does not fail. Both you and the interlocutor can be heard well, even if the headphones are under a hat.

The transparency mode was less pleasing. Ambient sound amplification is minimal, although the headphones do separate speech from background noise. Perhaps this will be useful somewhere in a crowded place, but in this mode you will have to listen to music at a low volume.

Autonomy

The manufacturer calls autonomy one of the main advantages of the headphones. They are stated to have 10 hours of operation in normal mode without recharging from the case and up to 50 hours with recharging. These are record figures, which, if real, are only possible at very low volumes.

We listened to music from streaming at about 70% volume - the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC were discharged in about 8 hours, which is also an excellent indicator. With ANC it was a little over 6 hours. If you enable LDAC, the battery life will drop to 5 hours.

The right earphone always sits down first, and a voice notification is sent to it Battery low.

Fast charging technology provides up to 4 hours of music in just 10 minutes of charging - and it really does. Wireless charging is also a plus if you have a compatible Qi pancake.

Results

Soundcore Liberty 4 NC turned out to be mixed. On the one hand, good sound and ANC, top battery life, flexible equalizer. On the other hand, there are “childish” problems with controlling and recognizing the position of the earphone in the ear. It's like a combination of the features of flagship models and the most budget plugs.

But even taking into account these shortcomings, the headphones can be fully recommended for purchase. The control problem is not so critical as to negate all the advantages of the model, especially considering the price of 8,999 rubles.

You need to understand that these headphones are not positioned as a competitor to the same AirPods Pro 2 or Free Buds Pro 3, but at the same time they are not so far behind them in terms of sound and ANC, and in terms of autonomy they are completely superior. Therefore, as a good ratio of features and cost, Soundcore Liberty 4 NC is a good option.

Advantages:

• comfortable fit;
• surround sound;
• excellent noise reduction;
• top autonomy;
• fast charging;
• support for Qi charging.

Flaws:

• not a very convenient case;
• inaccurate touch controls;
• Pausing the music slowly.