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. Similar to other truly wireless buds like the OnePlus Buds 3 Truly Wireless, they have a lightweight design. The buds don't sit deep in your ear canal, and they 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.

The Anker Liberty 4 NC case is great. Instead of sliding open, like the Anker Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro Truly Wireless, this case has a sturdy hinge that flips up to open. When closed, the lid sits flush with the squarish case, and it opens like a partial clamshell, meaning there are fewer hard angles to crack the lid if dropped. So, while the entire case and hinge are plastic, it can handle a drop or two. 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, which is also handy if you're fumbling to replace the buds in the dark.

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 a slightly overemphasized treble range makes sibilants and cymbals bright and a touch piercing at times. Instruments and vocals are detailed and intense but slightly muddied by all the extra bass. These headphones sound very similar whether their ANC is turned on or off. 

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 great. Once you get a good fit using the provided ear tips, you'll get consistent audio delivery most of the time you use them.

It's important to note that 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 range target compliance is okay. There is significantly more low- and mid-bass than our target curve, which gives these headphones a very thumpy sound. If you're a fan of huge EDM kicks, this might appeal to you. The high-bass is also boosted a moderate amount, which lends warmth to basslines, but can also make mixes sound a bit muddy.

The Anker Liberty 4 NC have remarkable mid-range target compliance. Other than a small boost in the low-mids, which is a continuation of the inflated high-bass, the mid-range is almost flat. Vocals and instruments sound present and detailed without ever getting honky or nasal.

The Anker Liberty 4 NC have excellent treble compliance. The low-treble is just a touch recessed, but not enough to hurt the comprehensibility of vocals. The mid-treble is slightly over-emphasized, though, which makes sibilants like the splashy cymbals throughout Tom Sawyer by Rush sound a touch piercing.

Their peaks and dips performance is decent. The bass and mid-ranges are virtually flat, but a few peaks in the low- and mid-treble mean that sibilants can sound harsh and drum cymbals splashy.

These buds have excellent 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 from the high-bass through to the mid-mid ranges. Frequencies in this range 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. That's to be expected from earbuds because 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 two speakers in a 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 great, 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.

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 also offer great performance when it comes to blocking our more dynamic sounds from common environments. Whether you're walking down the street, sitting on a plane, or at the office, the ANC can tackle these sounds well. If you want an even better noise isolation performance, you'll want to consider over-ears like the Anker Soundcore Space Q45 Wireless instead.

These buds have a Wind Noise Reduction feature, although the manufacturer doesn't really specify how it works. You can see a comparison of the performance of this mode and off here. Our results reflect this feature on. It's worth noting that the amount of wind noise can vary depending on the angle due to the bud's shape and size. It also seems that the angle impacts the effectiveness of the Wind Noise Reduction feature as there's less wind noise present at 90 degrees when the feature is off compared to other angles.

Keep in mind that wind noise directly interacts with the ANC microphones. It's this action that's interpreted as noise by the ANC system, even though the sound doesn't reach your ears, which produces unwanted sound. Using this reduction feature may impact ANC performance if you're in a windy environment.

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.

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

The Anker Liberty 4 NC have very good Bluetooth performance. They support multi-device pairing, allowing you to stay connected to two devices simultaneously. They also have a Gaming Mode you can activate to help lower their latency. Having it on or off didn't affect PC latency, resulting in high lip sync mismatch. However, it's worth mentioning that some apps and devices compensate for latency differently, and it seems like this feature is intended for use with smartphones.

In addition to the default SBC codec, these buds support LDAC, which is Sony's hi-res audio codec for streaming audio in higher quality. It's to be expected that this codec has high latency, but it's not an issue if you're only streaming audio. You can only stay connected to one device while using this codec, limiting its convenience.

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.