I rather like it when a pair of earphones goes on and surprises me for one good reason or another. That’s what Soundcore, Anker Innovations’ audio brand did with its TWS true-wireless earbuds.

The Liberty Air 2 Pro, just brought into India, has active noise cancellation on top of sounding quite good. Sadly, it isn’t cheap at Rs 9,999 and has its work cut out for it. As they company says, they’re comparing themselves with Bose and Apple. But just because they are doesn’t mean customers will see them as being in the same league.

Pebble-shaped case

The Liberty Air 2 Pro comes in an interesting pebble shaped case. A very large pebble. The material is a soft synthetic which looks nice, but unfortunately displays all the natural oil from your fingers in an ungainly manner, which is a real pity. The case has a great slide-back cover that can be operated with a single thumb. On the front of the case are three too-bright charging lights that really should have been toned down as they’re quite unpleasant when they hit the eye.

The stem-style pods inside the plastic interior look interesting as they lie face down and magnetically fastened to their charging connector.

Pairing presents no problems. Comfort and fit really is very individual. I found them sticking out a bit from the ears and therefore not very securely fitted. However, in the box you do get nine whole ear-tips to experiment with, which is generous enough. They do have a splash resistance rating so you’re ok there.

Also read:Galaxy Buds Pro: Rich sound and great voice clarity

You need to download the companion app. There, you’ll find you can check battery status, set levels of transparent listening or noise cancellation and adjust equaliser settings. You can also set what you want the earbuds to do on being tapped though the options are very limited.

Performance

Inside those earbuds are 11mm drivers. The earbuds sound pretty good. There’s some depth to the sound and some fullness as well and generally it makes for pleasant listening. You can of course adjust for your preferred sound profile. There’s no crystalline clarity as such, but they still sound good. AAC and SBC formats are supported but no high res which should have been for the asking price.

The noise cancellation can best be considered minimal. I didn’t find that happening at any surprising level and felt it was just a bit of suppression. This is despite the different settings there are for how to handle ambient noise. It may also be because I didn’t get a proper in-canal fit, even with different ear-tips. Perhaps someone else would have better luck.

Battery life for me was around 5 to 6 hours of fairly loud play. It supports wireless charging as well as fast charging for a quick top up.

Call quality has been pretty good with these earphones. But overall, I find them far too expensive, priced in a way that is seemingly oblivious of the intense competition around.

Price: Rs 9,999

Pros: Good sound quality, interesting case, lots of ear-tips, good app with equaliser and other settings

Cons: Expensive, only Bluetooth 5.0, no high res support, noise cancellation is a bit iffy, limited controls

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