New Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max (2026) — AI Recording, Bluetooth 6.1 for $169.99 and $229.99

Soundcore rolled out an update to its Liberty wireless earbuds lineup and immediately showed off 2 versions: 5 Pro and Pro Max. Can the 5 Pro and Pro Max become a worthy successor to the legendary Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro (released October 7, 2021)? We’ll definitely check that out. Just a reminder, the 4 Pro were good earbuds, but they lost out in sound quality to the 3 Pro. The regular Soundcore Liberty 5 are just average.

Friends! The new model looks promising and is begging for a MyChooz review. If you’re interested in a review — hit the like button under the news. Once we get 1000 likes, we’ll buy the earbuds and release a review for you.

On May 21, Anker held its annual Anker Day 2026 presentation. This is the main event of the year, where they showed key new products and tech breakthroughs for the coming year. You’ll find out what other devices were shown closer to the end of the news, since the highlight of the presentation was the new flagship TWS earbuds Liberty 5 Pro and 5 Pro Max. Here are the main features of these wireless earbuds:

• Anker Thus™ AI chip.
• 9.2 mm dynamic drivers.
• Voice recorder with speech-to-text transcription.
• Touchscreen control display in the case.
• Bluetooth 6.1 and triple multipoint, Dolby Atmos, spatial audio with head tracking.
• Battery life with ANC: 6.5 hours and 28 hours with the case. 5 minutes of charging = 4 hours of playback.
• 20 voice control commands.
• 8 microphones and 2 bone conduction sensors across 2 earbuds for voice isolation.

The key difference between Liberty 5 Pro and 5 Pro Max comes down to two features: the touchscreen control display and the voice recorder with speech-to-text transcription. All other features are completely identical.

• See ranking — Best Wireless Earbuds

Friends! The new model looks promising and is asking to be tested at MyChooz. If you’d like a review — like the news. When we get 1000 likes, we’ll buy the earbuds and release a review for you.

Anker Thus Audio Chip

Let’s start the breakdown of the new features with the new Anker Thus audio chip. The chip is built into both earbuds and powers all the key functions:

• Recording and transcription of voice memos.
• Active noise cancellation processing and voice isolation during calls.
• Voice control.
• Personalized equalizer tuning.
• Restoration of compressed audio data.

The audio chip’s design itself is notable too. Neural blocks are built directly into the memory cells. According to the manufacturer, this approach cuts power consumption by 90%, while computational performance increases 150 times.

It looks promising, and in terms of capabilities it reminds me of Sony’s audio chip — with bold marketing promises and a slightly less rich palette of features. We’ll see how successful Anker’s implementation turns out to be.

Sound

The earbuds use a 9.2 mm dynamic driver, just like in Liberty 5. The review came out last year and the earbuds were a disappointment in terms of sound. The sound was muffled, with average detail. In the new models, the manufacturer has updated the personalized HearID 5.0 sound feature with an adaptive equalizer. The acoustic chamber has also been changed. So sound quality may improve. We’ll find out more after testing.

There’s no information about audio codecs yet, and the earbuds may not have the LDAC codec like previous generations. Instead, the Anker Thus audio chip will take care of improving the sound. When the feature is enabled, the neural network reduces sound quality loss by 65%: removed data blocks from compression are restored in real time.

Sony has a similar technology in its earbuds — DSEE, Digital Sound Enhancement Engine. I haven’t noticed any significant sound quality boost in Sony earbuds. Write in the comments whether you notice the difference if you’ve used this technology in Sony earbuds.

Voice Recorder with Transcription

This feature is only available on the higher-end Liberty 5 Pro Max. And while voice memo recording is free and unlimited, there are restrictions on text transcription. The starter pack gives you 120 free minutes of transcription per month — roughly 4 minutes a day. If you need more minutes, you’ll have to buy separate minute packs. And two years after activating the earbuds, even the free minutes will be taken away. After that you’ll have to subscribe to a paid plan or buy minute packs for transcription.

The subscription model has made its way to earbuds too. I hope earbud makers don’t come up with the idea of making listening through earbuds a subscription as well — with minute packs and ads.

Voice Control

The earbuds support 20 main voice commands — you can control the player and calls without your phone: skip a track, change the volume, answer a call or decline one. I’ve seen this feature on Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro, but only with 8 commands.

Active Noise Cancellation and Microphone

The earbuds have 8 microphones and 2 bone conduction sensors total for voice isolation. The earbuds even made it into the Guinness Book of Records as headphones with the “highest speech quality score”. The certificate was shown right at the presentation.

The adaptive active noise cancellation technology has been updated from version 3.0 to 4.0. The manufacturer promises a 100% increase in efficiency compared to Liberty 4 Pro. As a reminder, Liberty 5 pleasantly surprised me with the depth of active noise cancellation — quality on par with the top models.

Display Control

Both new models come with touchscreen control displays. Only on the lower-end Liberty 5 Pro, the display is at the level of the 4 Pro with minimal features — checking remaining battery and changing noise cancellation modes.

The Liberty 5 Pro Max has a 1.78″ AMOLED touchscreen with full-fledged control. You can check the remaining battery and even set your own images as screen wallpaper. Here are the known available features:

• Text translation.
• Track switching.
• Voice recorder control.
• Sound effect selection.
• Spatial audio toggle.

MyChooz has a review of budget UGREEN EchoBuds Magic earbuds with a screen in the case. The screen itself is useful for on-the-go control. You don’t have to pull your phone or tablet out of your backpack to toggle a specific function. Controlling earbuds from the case is more convenient. And while in budget earbuds such a screen looks like a toy, in earbuds this advanced there’s more benefit to it.

The earbuds also use the current Bluetooth version — 6.1. There’s triple multipoint — you can connect the earbuds to three devices at the same time.

Design and Construction

The design of the earbuds and case has been updated. The case still has its slider form factor. The earbuds have a short stem with extra ear fins, similar to Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. The box includes 3 ear fins and 5 pairs of ear tips in different sizes. They even remembered to include a USB charging cable.

You can potentially run in the earbuds. At the same time, the IP rating of the earbuds hasn’t changed — IP55: resistant to limited amounts of dust and light water splashes.

Price

The higher-end Liberty 5 Pro Max model costs $230 and comes in two colors: black and titanium gold. The lower-end Liberty 5 Pro model costs $70 less — $170 and comes in four colors: midnight black, rose gold, and two pearl shades — white and blue. Both models are available for purchase on the official website.

Which model to choose? If you don’t need the screen in the case and the voice recorder, then the base version is enough, plus you save $70. But if you need the screen in the case or you need the voice recorder for work and study, then it’s worth considering the higher-end version for $230. I’ll say it again — in everything else, both models are identical.

And if you can wait until MyChooz releases a full review — wait. There’s also the year’s main sale on AliExpress coming up, so you’ll save with coupons and coins. Fresh coupons for global AliExpress are always on the MyChooz home page. Coupons are updated before every new sale.

Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro vs Liberty 5 Pro Max

Other New Products from the Presentation

The second half of the presentation was dedicated to a 3D projector, indoor and outdoor security cameras, and also a robot vacuum for home cleaning.

They showed home inverters and energy storage, including the new Anker S2000 2 kW power station for home backup power. I recommend checking out our new Best Power Stations ranking and our first review of the ALLPOWERS R1500 Lite power station.

Plenty of interesting tech was on display at the booths: a UV 3D printer for printing on different surfaces, power banks, and wall chargers. And for the MyChooz chargers ranking, we bought a couple of interesting models. These are the flagship Anker Prime 160 W charger and the compact Anker Nano 45 W charger. These and other chargers are on their way, and the ranking will come out next month.

How do you feel about the pair of flagships, and is the AMOLED case worth the $60 difference? Share in the comments.

Source: Soundcore — Liberty 5 Pro Series