 Just when you thought there quite possibly could not be another wireless earbud for me to review, well the joke's on you, Bud. It is increasingly hard to stand out in the wireless earbud market. From Bose to Apple, Skullcandy to one more, a pair of earbuds exist at just about every price point now with many different features sprinkled throughout. Being within a particular ecosystem, such as AirPods for iOS users, or Galaxy Buds Pro for Samsung users is an easy way to attract buyers. But in Anker's case, it's having a very desirable feature at a very competitive price. These are the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pros, and for $130, they do a lot of things well. But it's their active noise cancellation and their really well-designed app that makes them worth talking about. The Liberty Air 2 Pros come in a large, stone-like case that slides to open. It is incredibly fun to fidget with. It most closely resembles the case of the Galaxy Buds Pro. Longer than it is tall, but it certainly is not as pocketable as most ANC Buds cases. There are three battery indicator lights on the front and a button for pairing around back, which sounds like a super small detail, but having a physical button for pairing is far easier to use than the tap-to-pair method that buds like the Jopper Elite 85Ts use. So, thank you, Anker. The battery life is on par with other ANC headphones. Anker claims seven hours of battery life with ANC turned off or six hours with it turned on. And there are three additional charges in the case that charges both wirelessly or via USB-C port around back. This was more than enough juice to get me to the point of needing to take the buds out of my ears to take a break from the tight in-ear seal these buds have. And a 15-minute quick charge in the case when the case is plugged in via USB-C will get you back three hours of additional listening time. Now, the buds themselves are the same wonderful iconic stem design we have come to expect in wireless earbuds. They have a gold fan-like cover over their speakers that is actually super cool and a textured matte finish. Either bud can be used independently of the other and the in-ear detection can be toggled on and off in the earbuds app. Now, I found the in-ear detection to be like very sensitive and almost too sensitive for my liking. So I wear a hood often because I have a... I don't have a lot of hair on my head and I get very cold. Anyway, when I had a hood over my head and it would knock the earbuds even just a little bit the earbud would detect that it was out of my ear and stop my music. Now, a quick adjustment of the bud would get my music playing again but it was all just kind of annoying. All right, if you know me, you know I'm all about the tap controls and I gotta say the tap controls on these buds is hella limited. Right out of the box, double tap on the left to skip to the next track double tap on the right for play and pause or hold down for two seconds on either bud to toggle ambient sound modes. Although the buds are responsive to these taps that is a very limited amount of controls at your fingertips. And yes, all of these controls can be customized within the app but I just found myself wanting a single tap or even a triple tap option. The Liberty Air 2 Pros come with nine different size silicone ear tips in the box ranging from extra, extra, extra small to extra large. This is to create the best seal and hopefully keep movement from happening. Fit is extremely important in wireless earbuds. I mean, not only to make sure that you have the best seal for ANC but also to improve sound quality, especially in the lower frequencies. To confirm you have chosen the best size tips Anker has created the tip fit test within the Soundcore app. The app first measures the dB levels of the space you're in to ensure it's quiet enough for this test. The app then plays about 10 seconds of ringtone-esque orchestral music and then it displays a good seal or a bad seal result for each earbud. There's also an audio test called HearID that claims to map your personal hearing sensitivity at multiple frequencies to best tailor the EQ settings to you. Anyway, it plays about 30 tones per ear and it asks you to answer, yes, I can hear that tone or no, I cannot. Honestly, it feels a lot like going to the ear doctor minus like that whole bit when they stick that weird pointy thing in your ear. Anyway, next you are presented with a graph of your results and an EQ preset saved to the app. My test resulted in deeper bass and less treble which did make my music sound fuller. Both the fit test and the EQ settings test are not something revolutionary. A lot of buds have these tests these days. Some people might find them more useful than others but I think it's good to have the option. Also, it creates this illusion that your buds are like really being tailored to you which kind of makes me feel a little special. I've made you wait long enough, let's talk audio quality. The Liberty Air 2 Pro supports audio quality and the Liberty Air 2 Pro supports SBC and AAC audio codecs. They have 11mm drivers that create a more treble-heavy sound. While music felt full and immersive with crisp separation, I did find myself wanting more bass. Upping the lows in the app certainly helped but it wasn't as clean sounding as the bass in the AirPod Pros. Like 70s funk sounded really good but more contemporary R&B like Doja Cat felt a bit flat. But I was most excited to test the ANC in these buds. There are three main ambient sound modes. Full noise cancellation, transparency mode, and then normal which turns off the ANC and the transparency mode. Within the full ANC and transparency modes there are even more specific controls for controlling the level of pass your sound. The ANC mode features a transport mode for canceling low-end frequencies such as train rumbles, an indoor mode for mid-range frequencies, and an outdoor mode that Anker claims is best for city spaces. Then there's also a custom mode for dialing in the best setting for you. I set my ANC to transport mode and I left it there for most of my time with these buds. It absolutely took out the lower frequencies and it was very easy to slip into oblivion. I found it most like the noise cancellation on the Jabra Le 85Ts. On the train the low rumbles disappeared but it still let through just a bit more sound than the AirPod Pros or the Galaxy Buds Pro. And although the transparency mode is realistic, it doesn't have the same earbud-less feel of the AirPod Pros either. It certainly still feels like there is something blocking my ear canals from the outside world. There is however a vocal transparency mode that takes out low frequencies while allowing higher frequencies such as voices through. It was helpful in listening to train announcements but ultimately taking the earbud out to hear an announcement was far easier. Okay, so I've spent a lot of this review talking about the Liberty Air 2 Pros app without like really talking about how beautiful it is. And this is kind of rare for earbuds. Like usually when I get a pair of buds, I download their app, I dial in some EQ settings, maybe change a couple of touch controls, and then I never really open that app again. But with the Soundcore app, I found myself like going back to it. Like if I was bored on a train, I'd open it up and I would just play with all the settings I had. If someone was like talking across the car, I would be like, oh, can I still hear them under this transparency mode or with this ANC levels on? It's just like really fun. And I think that's because it's so well designed. It's so easy to use and like the colors are beautiful. I don't know. It was a really weird experience for me to actually love an earbuds app. In a wireless earbud market full of worthy and not so worthy competition, it is increasingly hard to be impressed by a new bud. But the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro's competitive $130 price tag, it brought me in. And then their true active noise cancellation and well-designed app kept me coming back for more. They certainly could use more bass and they could absolutely use a smaller case. But Anker has done a great job at bridging the gap between a budget friendly option and a really reliable earbud that you're going to be excited to put in your ears every day. Let's talk audio quality. That's like my favorite part in these videos always, because then you get to bring in like the six, like, yeah, so good.