soundcore Liberty 5 Pro vs Liberty 5 Pro Max | Clearest Call Quality Ever?!

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]What's up TM Nation? So, I've been sitting on something for the past few weeks and I genuinely could not wait to talk to you guys about this. I've been testing two pairs of earbuds that I think are going to shake up the whole true wireless earbud market in just a moment. These are for sure not your average earbuds, guys. Today, we're talking about the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro, as you can see right here, and we also have the Pro Max version right here.

[00:00:25]And by the end of this video, guys, you'll know which pair you should go for because there are a lot of similarities, but also there are some major differences between them as well. Now, I know what some of you all may be thinking, another Soundcore Liberty product, but for those of you all that have purchased Liberty line products in the past, you know that this is their flagship line and that they always bring the goods when they drop. But this time around, we have two brand new pairs of earbuds with features that you've never seen in Soundcore products in the past.

[00:00:52]We're talking Guinness World Record level call quality and AI chip built from scratch. And on the Pro Max pair, a feature inside the charging case that I have never seen on any pair of true wireless earbuds in the past. And before I dive deeper into the specs of these earbuds, I do need to talk about what's powering all of this because that's what's going to set these earbuds apart from the competition. And like I said just a moment ago, Soundcore built their own AI chip for this series. It's called the Thus AI chip, which is brand new from the ground up and it's actually the world's first compute in memory audio chip. Traditional chips have the memory and the processor in separate places, so naturally data has to travel back and forth between them, resulting in about 90% of wasted energy just on movement.

[00:01:35]But with the Thus chip, you have your memory and your processor in the same spot, so all of that energy goes directly into computation. This results in 150 times more computing power than the previous generation Liberty 4 Pro.

[00:01:49]In a nutshell, that leap in power makes a few things possible. First, you're going to get record-breaking call quality, smarter adaptive ANC, personalized sound calibration, and instant voice control. So, remember everything that you're about to hear comes back to that chip. Right out of the box, guys, the first thing that you notice is how premium these earbuds feel. The Liberty 5 Pro are going to come in four different colorways, black, white, blue, and a really clean pink goldish-looking color. The Pro Max are going to keep it a little bit more refined with titanium gold and black colorways at launch. But, taking a closer look at both, both earbuds are going to be exactly the same. The only differences are going to be the charging cases. And I do want to make it clear that in terms of what you get in the box, when it comes to ear tip sizes and your ear wing sizes, with both pairs you're going to get the same exact setup. You get five ear tip sizes and three ear wing sizes in the box. And I have to say that you do want to play with these if the fit out of the box is not ideal for you because these do make a real difference, especially with the ear wings. I did swap my ear wings out for a larger pair, and even though they felt okay out of the box, once I did this, they didn't budge at all even when I was jumping rope and jogging. Both pairs are also IP55 dust and water resistant. So, if you're looking for workout earbuds, you're good here. If you sweat in them, they'll be just fine.

[00:03:06]And likewise, if you get caught out in the rain wearing them, this won't damage them. But, now we have to switch over and talk about where things start to diverge with these earbuds, and that's going to be with the charging cases. The Liberty 5 Pro has a small touchscreen on the case, and this is going to give you some of your more basic controls over your ANC switching. It allows you to see the charge left on your earbuds and the case, access the find my earbuds feature, and even use the case as a camera remote to take your pictures if you want to. Overall, this screen is clean, it does the job, and it's useful.

[00:03:36]But, the Pro Max version comes with a 1.78-in AMOLED screen, which is noticeably larger than what you get on the Pro version. And that screen is not just for show, it's pretty much the gateway to everything that makes the Pro Max is special, which I'll get into more in just a moment. Okay, so now let me go ahead and talk about the call quality because that is one of the main features of both pairs of these earbuds and I don't say this lightly. The Liberty 5 Pro series holds a Guinness World Record for call clarity in noisy environments.

[00:04:05]That's not just marketing fluff, guys.

[00:04:07]That's an independent lab testing against 13 flagship competitors using the ETSI TS103 106 standard, which is known as the authority when it comes to benchmarking for speech clarity and background noise. The Liberty 5 Pro scored a G MOS of 3.68 landing them in first place. But talking a little bit more about how it actually works, each earbud has a 10 sensor matrix, eight microphones capturing ambient noise from every angle, plus two bone conduction sensors that pick up vibrations from your skull. The thus AI chip then runs an algorithm trained on 500 million voice samples and this gives it the ability not to just filter noise, it will identify your voice and suppress it from everything around it. I tested this on calls in multiple environments and to get a better understanding of just how noticeable the difference was, I would switch between my Liberty 5 Pro and my AirPods Pro 3. Four out of five said that they could hear me clearly using the Liberty 5 Pro, while the other person said that I sounded pretty clear on both. As I think that you'll be able to pick up in just a moment, the Liberty 5 Pros did a really good job at isolating my voice and I was surprised that the results in comparison to my AirPods Pro 3, but as always, I did take samples just so that you guys can go ahead and judge the quality for yourselves. Let's check them out. All right, guys. So right now I have the Pro Max is paired to my iPhone 17 Pro, but the microphone set up on both pairs is exactly the same. So this is the quiet room test. I will do my background noise test in just a moment. Give me a second.

[00:05:36]Now I have my AirPods Pro 3 connected to my iPhone 17 Pro and like I did with the first test, the audio that you're hearing is coming directly from the microphones on the earbuds. So I will switch over to my background noise test.

[00:05:48]Give me a second. And then now I have some simulated background noise playing in the background. And this part of the test is aimed at seeing how well the microphones on these earbuds can go ahead and focus on my speech while rejecting some of that noise. So, what do you guys think? Are they doing a pretty good job or did you expect better? And here is the background noise test using the AirPods Pro 3. The audio is at the exact same level as it was in the first test. So, let me know which pair you think does a better job at focusing on my speech and rejecting some of that noise. Moving on to the noise cancellation, the Liberty 5 Pro series runs adaptive ANC 4.0 and it processes a crazy 384,000 noise data points per second to dynamically adjust the cancellation curve in real time. I compared these to my favorite ANC earbuds, which are the Bose QC Ultras and my AirPods Pro 3, and I have to say that the Liberty 5 Pros have now reached the flagship level of ANC, especially when it comes to low frequency noises such as engine humming, traffic passing by me as I walk down busy streets. And one thing that really surprised me was with the lower levels of dialogue, I found that the Liberty 5 Pro actually outperformed both of those other pairs. The earbuds also feature an easy chat mode, which allows you to speak to someone and the earbuds will automatically switch to transparency mode without you having to press anything. It's really one of those small features that you really don't realize you need until you have it and then you can't go back. Now, let me go ahead and talk about how these actually sound for music. The Liberty 5 Pro series uses 9.2 mm flexible wool paper diaphragms that provide natural mids, detailed highs, and bass that's punchy without being overdone. Out of the box, both pairs sounded decent. The tuning is genuinely well balanced. They support high-res audio and Dolby Atmos with head tracking. So, feature-wise, in terms of getting high-quality sound, the hardware is absolutely there. But, the real story is going to be here, ID 5.0. This is Soundcore's personalized sound feature that runs three AI engines simultaneously. First, it runs a hearing test to map out your unique hearing profile. Second, it generates a custom EQ curve based on your results, and I mean truly custom because every input that you select is going to dynamically change your EQ curve. And third, it applies an AI super resolution to restore detail lost in compressed audio.

[00:08:08]I ran through the setup even in comparison to my own custom EQ, and the calibration was really different. In the past, there have been very few times where I had an EQ built for me that I preferred over my own custom EQ, but this was one of them. Vocals got cleaner, instruments separated clearly, and one thing that I noticed is these are tuned to how you actually hear, and not to how an engineer decided you should hear. Speaking of hands-free, let's talk about voice control. The Liberty 5 Pro series has 22 built-in voice commands. Of course, you can skip tracks, adjust your volume both up and down, switch ANC modes, answer your calls, start translation, start recording. I mean, you have a lot of options. But, here's the key difference between the Liberty 5 Pro series and something that you get with the AirPods or the Pixel Buds. Those are going to rely on Siri or Google Assistant, which means your voice goes into your phone, then to the cloud, and then back. That whole process takes about 2.78 seconds on average, and it's likely going to completely fail in weaker network conditions such as on elevators and subways, or pretty much anywhere where you have spotty signal strength. But, the Liberty 5 Pro does not have this issue because it processes every command locally on the earbuds using the Dust AI chip that I talked about earlier. This results in an average response time of 0.91 seconds, which is a huge difference and something that you can immediately pick up if you're used to using Siri or Google Assistant. But, not only that, besides English, it does support German, Japanese, and Chinese at launch. All right, fam, so this is where I need you guys to pay close attention because this is where the Pro Max version separates itself from everything else on the market. Everything that I just described, the call quality, the ANC, the sound quality, the voice control, the Pro Max version will do all of that, but then the case does something that you don't get with the Pros. The Pro Max charging case has a built-in microphone designed for ambient recording. All that you have to do is double tap the button on the back of the case. You don't need to use your phone or have the app open.

[00:10:07]You just trigger the feature by using that button, and then when your meeting ends, you connect to the app, upload the recording, and the AI generates a concise summary, identifies speakers, and produces a ready-made to-do list automatically. And of course, there are other AI recorders out there. I actually own a few myself, but it's super convenient not to carry a dedicated AI voice recorder when you already have this feature embedded into your earbud case, which is something that I'm usually going to have in my backpack anyway when I'm in those environments.

[00:10:35]And unlike phone recording, it will not get interrupted by a call. Also, unlike meeting apps, it works in person, and the best part about it is that no network is required. Everything is done in one device. And then there's the 1.78-in AMOLED smart screen on the case, and I'll be honest, when I first saw it, I thought it was a gimmick, but then I actually used it to access some of the helpful features, such as switching between ANC modes, quick access to the AI translation without unlocking my phone. You can customize your shortcuts, pin to the home screen, add a custom wallpaper, and much more to shape the experience that you have with the case to your liking. Now, for some additional quick specs, battery life wise, on both pairs, you can get up to 6 and 1/2 hours using them with ANC on, and about 28 hours of total use including the case, but these also do feature fast charging that will give you about 4 hours of playback from only 5 minutes worth of charging. Wireless charging is supported on both, which is always a plus. So, if you have wireless charging pads in your home or at your office, they have you covered. I do want to mention that the AI translation supports 100 plus languages in two modes. First, you have real time where audio is playing through your earbuds and it gets translated on the fly. And then you have face-to-face where you speak in one language and the other person hears it in their language through the app. Find My is built into the earbuds and the cases as well. Both pairs have triple device connection that allows you to stay connected to your laptop, phone, and tablet, for example, simultaneously with seamless switching and no ecosystem lock-in like what you get with the AirPods, for example. All right, so now let me give you guys my breakdown on both pairs. First, I'll start with the Liberty 5 Pro. These are going to give you the main features that most people look for in a pair of flagship earbuds. You're getting personalized sound via HereID 5.0, lag-free local voice control, LDAC and Dolby Atmos compatibility, fast and wireless charging for $169, which is a feature set that's easily with earbuds that cost 60 to $100 more.

[00:12:34]So, if you want the overall best bang for your buck and you don't need those additional features that you get with the Pro Max, these are very hard to beat for the price. Now, for the Liberty 5 Pro Max at $229.99, these offer everything that you get with the Pro pair, but they also give you that AI note-taking capability that's built directly into the case, a larger 1.78-in AMOLED smart screen, and a slightly more premium design overall with the larger case. At the price, guys, these are going to go head-to-head with the flagship competitors out there such as the AirPods Pro, Bose QC Ultras and similar. And in terms of ANC performance, I'd say that these match or best them while adding call quality that is noticeably better, AI intelligence features that they don't even have yet, and a smart screen on the case that allows you to access and adjust many different features and settings that you would 100% need your phone for to change with other flagship earbuds. So, that being said, if you're a professional who lives in meetings and wants one device that handles audio and productivity, the Pro Max earbuds, I think are definitely worth that $60 price difference. And the Pro Max case does have a few extra steps that you are going to have to take on the first pairing. Nothing deal breaking or too special, but something that you should be aware of. Both pairs launch on May 21st, 2026, and during the first month, every purchase comes with 1 year of Soundcore Care. That's protection for the earbuds or the screen, your choice.

[00:13:59]So, here's where I land on these earbuds. Soundcore built something genuinely impressive with this series.

[00:14:05]The Dust AI chip is extremely powerful.

[00:14:07]The AI note taker on the Pro Max is unlike anything else in this category right now. And in general, these earbuds really don't have any weaknesses that I can think of. You get wireless charging, which is something that I always look for. The battery life is excellent. The sound quality is excellent as well. The call quality is best in class. I mean, these earbuds are a product that I think you really have to try out for yourself just to see how special they are. But, let me know in the comments, guys, which pair you're leaning towards or if you're going to go ahead and get both or if you own other Soundcore earbuds, let me know what your favorite pair is in your collection.

[00:14:43]>> [music] [music]