Last month I covered Anker’s premium pair of earbuds which are the tremendous Liberty Pro 2, but I actually wanted to dial back to the summer when I checked out the Liberty Air. They were decent wireless earbuds with nice battery life and a sweet price point. The Liberty Air 2 revisits this area and floats in the “if nots broke don’t fix it” realm.
Style
Liberty Air 2 come in a grayish matte flip top casing. On the top is Anker’s Soundcore insignia and underneath is a Type C port for charging and a sync button. On the front is three LED lights to indicate battery life left over. Earbuds slide in and out the case. They use magnets to help secure the earbuds and make sure they are charged properly. Looking at each earbud they still utilize the pipe style/dongle design and have a two-tone colorway. They have a bit of glossy black with a line of matte gray with the Soundcore logo while small accents of red on the earbud tips and on the bottom of the dongles. This is like the Liberty Pro 2s having the same styling of colors.
It is one of the more compact cases out there and can easy fit in all pockets with ease. Also never feels like its going to open and your earbuds would fall out. Air 2 also come in a white and grey colorway as well.
Included with the Anker Soundcore Liberty Air 2 and Charging Case is a USB-Cable and various ear tips.
Features / Sound
Anker didn’t change too much about the Air 2 which is a good thing. They use Bluetooth 5.0 and connectivity has been pleasant for the most part. I mainly paired them with a OnePlus 7 Pro like I did with the Liberty Air. I may have come across a couple dropouts here and there but nothing consistent or experience killing for me. Unlike the Air, the Air 2 can have its earbuds used together or individually. So, you can charge one while using the other or share with a friend. Also, you can HearID which you can access on the app. I have used it on the Pro 2 and lets you personalize your listening experience.
Touch Controls on the Air 2 seems to be more reliable on here and you can map out how you want them to function via the app. You can program Double Tap or Hold functions to do anything from switch tracks, change volume, or pull up your voice assistant.
Anker is using diamond coated drivers which give off a respectable sounding experience. Vocals seem to be pushed to the forefront and give off some nice clarity. These bump in the bass department too. But as mentioned earlier you can tune these to your own personal experience. Also, the app has 20+ EQ options if you want to gauge different formats.
While these aren’t noise cancelling, they do a decent job of blocking out some outside noise thanks to its inside seal.
Liberty Air 2 supports AAC, SBC and AptX audio codecs.
Experience
Using these over the past couple weeks coming from the Liberty Pro 2, these do a good job in their own right. Sound is good on these and somewhat seem longer than the Pro 2 but that’s also based on the design and how they are placed in the ears too. Also, they don’t feel they are going to fall out the ear and seem to feel secure the whole time wearing them.
Pairing them up with a OnePlus 7 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro was simple and using one at a time garnered no issues. Video syncing is on point like the Pro 2 and these also have wireless charging. So, I could easily use it with the Nomad Base Station or Defense Vertical Duo dock. Battery life has been good with them slated to offer 28hrs with the case and 7hrs off a single charge.
Verdict
Anker managed to tweak their Liberty Air line of earbuds adding features such as HearID and wireless charging without having to uptick the price from $99.99. You get a good value on the dollar with the Liberty Air 2 especially with them still being in the Under $100 Club of headphones. I called the Liberty Air the Apple AirPods Alternative and the Air 2 seem to continue the trend.
