Those contemplating a switch from headphones to true wireless earbuds at a good price may find the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 and the Liberty Air 2 Pro a match made in heaven because they are one of the most affordable and best quality sounding pairs of true wireless earbuds your hard earned money can buy!
The Soundcore Liberty Air 2 earbuds are almost almost half the price of the competition yet, they feature a total of 4 noise cancelling microphones, two on each ear piece, which do a good job at amplifying the clarity of the call, while maintaining a sufficient signal-to-Noise ratio to suppresses unwanted background noise.
Like with most dual mic noise cancelling earphones, the Liberty Air 2 microphones accomplish noise cancellation by using digital algorithms as well as the position of the microphones. The microphones on the Liberty Air 2 are strategically located on top and at the bottom of the earphone stems.
Call audio is delivered via both earpieces so, stereo call quality is superb. You can also use the Liberty Air 2 earbuds independently from each other; hence you can connect them to two separate phones and use them as a dual mic bluetooth headset. If you use the two earbuds together though, they cannot connect to multiple devices as there is no support for multipoint pairing.
The construction of the Liberty Air 2 earphones is sleak and slimline. They have a small rounded body, which houses a 5mm dynamic driver. The slim stem design houses the metal charging contacts and a microphone at the very tip of the stem.
The Liberty Air 2 have a hard plastic construction with a rubber trim, covering half the body and stem of the earbud, which provides IPX5 water resistance against sweat and very light rain conditions. The charging case doesn't have any water resistance protection.
The grey section you see on the front of the Liberty Air 2 has a metallic feel to it, similar to soft aluminium sheet metal. There isn't any physical buttons or touch panel controls on the earbuds. Instead, the Liberty Air 2 integrate a g-sensor accelerometer on the top circular section of the earbud, which controls the call and audio playback functions via a series of double taps performed on either earbud.
The Liberty Air 2 tap commands are limited to a certain number of functions as you can only pick and choose some functions. For example, if you want volume support from the earbuds, you have to give up the skipping track and voice assistant functionality. The tap commands can be customized from earbud to earbud from the Soundcore app but only work when using both earbuds. If you use only one earbud, the commands you customize won't be supported.
Answering, ending, hanging calls and activating the voice prompt are also operated via a double tap system. The built-in accelerometer sensor has also been designed to automatically pause the audio when the Liberty Air 2 earbuds are removed from the ears. This feature is convenient although audio does not resume automatically.
Turning on the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 earbuds can be done two ways. One way it's by flipping open the charging case while the earbuds are inside the charging case. When the charging case lid is open, the Liberty Air 2 earbuds turn on and begin pairing with other automatically. If you want to turn them off, you need to put them back inside the charging case and close the charging case lid cover. You can also turn off the Liberty Air 2 earbuds manually without having to put them in the charging case by tapping down for 8 seconds. To power the earbuds back on, you simply tap down again for a few seconds.
The companion mobile app, the Soundcore app, that you get with the Liberty Air 2 is the same app you get for other Soundcore speakers and headphones, which is convenient if you already own other compatible products such as the Motion Plus speaker, Flare 360 and Model Zero. From the Soundcore app, you can  access an app feature, called HearID, which lets you acoustically tune each Liberty Air 2 earbuds individually to create a personal EQ preset. The Soundcore app also features many EQ presets, making it very easy to find your preferred sound signature.
The Liberty Air 2 charging case has a smooth, matte granite finish that isn't prone to fingerprint smudges, which is nice. The overall shape of the charging case is very compact so, it can easily fit inside the watch pocket of a pair of jeans.
The lid cover closes shut magnetically, while the bottom base of the charging case is flat, which allows the charging case to stand upright with the lid open. The charging dock area is magnetized so, the earbuds will not fall out even when shaking the charging case upside down with the lid open.
On the front of the Liberty Air 2 charging case, there are three small battery led indicators, which are activated via the button located on the base of the charging case. This button also doubles as a reset button to help you pair each earbud separately with a different device. The reset procedure consists of two parts. First, you have to hold the charging case button for 10 seconds until the earbud led indicator flashes red and then, you have to hold down the charging case button again for 3 seconds (the earbud led will quickly flash), which initiates mono pairing mode.
The Liberty Air 2 charging case also supports wireless charging via an integrated charging coil located on the back of the unit; hence you can recharge the case by placing it on top of a coaster wireless charger. The Liberty Air 2 charging case can hold 21 hours worth of battery power to recharge the earphones three times over.
The internal 500mAh lithium battery inside the charging case takes 2 hours to charge via USB-C and 3.5 hours via wireless charging, which doesn't support fast charging. That said, the Liberty Air 2 earbuds do support fast charging so, they can hold 2 hours worth of charge from a 10 minute charge and fully charge to 100% in just 90 minutes, which can deliver up to 7 hours of runtime with volume at 50% and via bluetooth 5.0 connection, which supports SBC, AAC, aptX codecs.
Not all phones have the latest bluetooth 5.0 chip so, if your phone uses a previous bluetooth version (i.e. bluetooth 4.2), you won't get as longer battery life or as stable signal connection because the Liberty Air 2 earbuds are optimized to work with the latest version of bluetooth, which is version 5.0.
Removing and replacing the earbuds from the charging case is surprisingly easy, considering the snug tight fit inside the charging case. The charging contacts are located on the tips of the earbud stems and while they make a reliable charging connection every time, it is hard to tell visually if they are making proper contact with the charging case. Fortunately, there is a way to tell for sure whether the Liberty Air 2 earbuds are charging inside the case by checking the battery led indicators. When closing the lid, the left and right leds will flash if the earbuds are charging correctly.
Now, for the audio experience, the Liberty Air 2 diamond coated drivers don't disappoint. Their high sensitivity allow very loud volume level, which means you don't have to listen to music at full volume to enjoy your music. At about 70% volume, the Liberty Air 2 deliver a good amount of volume with decent bass, midrange and treble.
The overall sound is fuller and deeper compared to the Liberty Pro 2 earphones, thanks to the stereo width. The audio quality is balanced but you can adjust the sound via the Soundcore app EQ setting, which lets you tailor the sound exactly how you want.
Inside the box, you also get a quality, Anker-branded 3 feet long USB-A to USB-C cable with a velcro management cable, as well as an illustration user guide and a nice set of different size silicone ear tips. Buy it. Check out the review of the Life Q30 Hybrid ANC headphones and the new Soundcore Life P3 hybrid ANC earbuds