Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max Review

Design

• Secure fit
• Anonymous looks
• Interesting charging case

Style is not what the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max are about. Function? Absolutely

The looks are anonymous – a choice of black and titanium gold finishes doesn’t really dispel the kidney bean look that slots in the ear. The ear-fin design keeps them tucked in, and comfort levels are strong – once they’re in, there’s no discomfort I’ve felt, and the security of the fit means they don’t fall out.

There are five ear-tips to find a fit tailored to you, from extra small to large, as well as two sizes of ear-fins that you can clip on.

The Liberty 5 Pro Max rely on touch controls, which are fine and usually respond, though it’s worth delving into the Soundcore app to shore up the control options. A single press did nothing until I went into the app and assigned play/pause; and a triple press does nothing either. Seems odd to me to leave them unassigned by default.

The charging case is a point of interest. This is different from the one that comes with the Liberty 5 Pro, featuring a larger screen; and like the charging case that comes with the JBL Live Beam 3, you can customise settings without reaching for the app.

It’s a little confusing at first figuring out the navigation. Swipe up to unlock and then swipe right (or left), and you can play with ANC, EQ, and playback. Or, swipe up after the screen is unlocked and visit more settings (AI Note Taker, Remote Camera and more). You can pick a custom wallpaper for the screen too through the Soundcore app.

It’s a little bit fiddly, but you can see how Soundcore are looking to add more functionality, reaching for the phone.

It does mean the charging case is a bit bulky compared to the more svelte options of others, but as I’ll get to, it has many purposes.

An IP55 rating means they’re protected against dust and low-pressure jets of water, making these a more than solid fit for workouts, especially with that secure fit.

One last thing, though. Getting these earbuds in and back into the case is surprisingly more challenging than I’d think. I’m always confused about which way they’re meant to go back into the case.

Features

• LDAC Bluetooth
• Triple Multi-point
• AI Note Taker

When it comes to features, Soundcore has cast its eyes across the market and tried to incorporate everything from its rivals. It makes for an absolutely stuffed pair of true wireless earbuds.

Let’s start with Bluetooth, which covers the Bluetooth 6.1 standard with SBC, AAC and LDAC streaming. There’s Bluetooth multi-point for connecting to multiple devices at once, and like the Technics EAH-AZ100, the Soundcore connects to three devices at the same time. The wireless performance has been strong – no noticeable dropouts or flaky connections so far.

However, going full bore on Bluetooth multi-point means you won’t be able to partake in any LDAC goodness, and other instances where LDAC isn’t available is by toggling on the AI Sound Enhancement.

Speaking of, let’s kick off with the sound modes the Liberty 5 Pro Max offers. There’s HearID, which tests your hearing and creates a sound profile for you (say if you’re sensitive to treble, the in-app testing can compensate for this). If you want to use HearID across other devices, you must create a Soundcore account.

There’s the ‘Curated Sound Effects’ which include Signature, Clear Vocals, Powerful Bass, Calm and Soothing and Custom, which involves creating an 8-band EQ. I’d say stick with Signature as the other modes flatter to deceive. None improve audio in the way intended, which is something I’ve pointed out with other Soundcore headphones.

If the Curated Sound Effects don’t do anything, there’s AI Sound Enhancement, but giving this a listen, I found that while vocals sound clearer, there’s not much of an uptick elsewhere.

Then there’s Dolby Audio, which opens up the headphones to spatial audio (why it’s not called this, I don’t know). Again, it’s ok – the head tracking works, but switching to spatial audio results in a decrease in overall detail.

Part of what Soundcore is offering with these earbuds is a big dollop of AI assistance, thanks to Anker’s Thus AI chip. While other brands use AI (or machine learning), Anker’s very much jumping on the supposed AI gravy train, with the “first large model compute-in-memory AI audio chip” that Soundcore says can deliver 150x computing power – although 150x more than what Soundcore doesn’t say.

Rather than go for Google or Alexa, Anker’s developed its own AI assistant (named Anka). It’s an interesting development, but the results could be better.

For one, she sounds stilted, robotic and not very conversational. I asked her for the weather, and that seemed fine until she kept repeating herself. So I asked a different question – the results from Wimbledon tennis – and instead of telling me the results from 2026, she referenced the 2024 final between Djokovic and Alcaraz. And then she wouldn’t stop talking about all the tennis tournaments.

During this kerfuffle, I asked her to play music again, but that seemed to confuse her – firstly she pronounced resume in the manner of a work resume, and then went back to talking about the weather. My feeling is that she’s very unfinished, or this LLM is old, and there’s little reason to give her a workout.

The most interesting aspect about the Liberty 5 Pro Max is the charging case, which adds even more functionality. The case, which also needs to be connected to your mobile device, can act as an AI Note Taker (I’ve seen someone use the case for this very reason). It took my rambling nonsense and transcribed it pretty accurately, although it did not there were two speakers when actually it was just me.

But, as a tool for capturing audio from meetings it’s an interesting use case, even if it comes with a catch. You can record the first 120 minutes for free, but after that, a membership and monthly fee are required.

Otherwise, you’ve got the usual assemblage of features in the Soundcore app: customising controls (bizarrely, play/pause is not assigned by default), carrying out a Fit Test to make sure the seal is correct, enabling wearing detection, Sound Mode (LDAC or AAC) and others.

Battery Life

• 6.5 hours per charge
• USB-C and wireless charging

Soundcore implies 6.5 hours of battery life with noise cancelling on, but that is overly cautious. Streaming a Spotify playlist for an hour at 50% volume, the headphones fell by 10%. I reckon you could get more from these earbuds.

The case holds 28 hours in total, while a five-minute spell over USB-C offers another four hours of playback. Wireless charging is also supported.

Noise Cancellation

• Thus AI chip
• Impressive call quality

The noise cancellation of the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro Max is impressive. Thanks to the fit and noise cancellation power of the earbuds, they cut down on a great deal of sounds. People talking, busy areas, public transport- these earbuds do well on cutting out everyday noise.

With the Liberty 5 Pro Max, Soundcore is venturing out in the territory traditionally owned by the likes of Sony and Bose, and putting them through a pink noise test, they’re not far off but they aren’t better, with the Sony in first place (for me) and Bose behind, but as a less expensive alternative, the Liberty 5 Pro Max are a more than respectable option.

Call quality is where the Liberty 5 Pro Max excels. While their Guinness World Book of Records attempt is a bit daft (would other brands resort to this just for the attention?), it’s among, if not the best true wireless I’ve used for calls.

The AI-assisted microphones latch on to my voice, and there’s no background noise coming through. The earbuds might be doing something that alters my voice, but not much and nothing that takes away from the clarity.

Sound Quality

• Warm presentation
• Bass forward
• Highs can sound unbalanced

Sound is a personal thing. Some prefer it one way, others another – it’s very much an “each to their own”, but there’s room for different types. After all, if everything sounded the same, that wouldn’t be interesting.

The Liberty 5 Pro Max go for a bass-heavy tuning, and it rather belies its status as the flagship model, as you’d think clarity and detail would be uppermost in the tuning. But these earbuds are warm, the 9.2mm Wool-Paper Diaphragm drivers deliver a rich and bassy approach to audio. Ultimately, they sound fine, but is fine what you want?

It does depend on your device of choice. I’ve tested these wireless earphones on two smartphones that filter through a different sound – the Soundcore remain bass-heavy, but I found more clarity and detail present on one than I did the other.

Every track I listen to takes on a bassier response, whether it’s Norah Jones Don’t Know Why to Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun. Voices come through clearly and with warmth but the main problem is that the Soundcore don’t relay as much detail or clarity as I’d like.

They’re also not the most exciting to listen to, which is not to say that they’re plodding, but every track is gripped by the same sound profile.

With GoGo Penguin’s Erased by Sunlight the highs are clear, and there’s some variation to how those highs pan out, but it’s not the brightest treble performance and there are times where it sounds a little unbalanced.

The smoothness of the earphones means that insight isn’t as high as, say, the Sony WF-1000XM6, and they’re not particularly dynamic. Pair them with a track or music genre that its bass energy works well with – like K-pop – and they’ll be very enjoyable.

I noticed that there is a less-than-natural tone to music as well, but overall I found the Liberty 5 Pro Max enjoyable enough; the soundstage is solidly wide, and if you like bass you’ll enjoy the sub-bass power and thump these deliver. That said, the JBL Live Beam 3 sound similar but less emphasis on bass and more clarity and detail. In fact, even the older Sony WF-1000XM5 sound clearer and more balanced, tonally.

Should you buy it?