The Anker (or is it Anker Soundcore now?) Liberty Buds 2 deliver much of what you’d pay extra for in premium wireless earbuds at a sensible £130 price tag. They offer terrific ANC, customisable sound and controls, excellent call quality, and a lightweight fit. Rivals abound at this price, but this is a pair worth considering

• Excellent adaptive ANC
• Superb battery life
• Lightweight and comfortable
• Great call quality

• Fit can be tricky
• No single-bud volume control
• Some features lag behind the Liberty 5 Pro

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• Has support for the Thus chip, which uses AI to improve call quality and upgrades noise-cancelling

• The Liberty Buds 2 give you the ability to use the LDAC codec on Android phones for higher-quality audio

• The Soundcore app brings loads of customisation for control, sound, ANC, hearing health features and more

There’s a huge amount of competition for affordable wireless earbuds, and you’re almost overwhelmed with options if you’ve got a budget of £150 or under.

Many of these earbuds have AirPods-like stems, though, so if you’re narrowing it down to compact options without stems, the number of buds to pick from isn’t quite so intimidating.

Anker has taken the upgrades it brought to its Liberty 5 Pro and Liberty 5 Pro Max earlier this year (primarily its 9.2mm drivers, HearID 5.0 and the Thus AI chip for stronger ANC and clearer calls) and added them to a lighter and more affordable challenger in the Liberty Buds 2.

How do they stack up against rivals from OnePlus, Sony, Cambridge and more? That’s what I’ve been finding out over three weeks of testing.

• Lightweight and comfortable
• Straightforward touch controls
• Pocket-friendly charging case

Despite unifying under one brand name, it’s fair to say that Anker’s product naming is still a bit confusing. Search for these buds, and you may end up finding the semi-in-ear Liberty Buds or the Liberty Air 2 from 2019. Neither look anything like these.

This is a fresh pair launched at IFA 2026 in a new style that Anker claims makes them the “world’s first TÜV Rheinland comfort-certified in-ear earbuds”. They come in three colours: Glossy Black, Silver White and the “Mother of Pearl” shown here; and it’s worth noting that each Mother of Pearl is unique with natural variation, which adds to a premium feel.

I like the style; they’re incredibly compact at 4.7g per bud yet still have secure fit stability fins and a great range of ear tip sizes. They have quite a similar concha fit style to something like the Technics EAH-AZ100.

I find that if you don’t over-twist them, you can easily get a comfortable fit, but they do sit quite deep in your ears. Twist them in too much, and you’ll get a bit of in-ear pressure after a couple of hours.

So, while they’re good, I reckon they only live up to Anker’s marketing claim that “you’ll forget you’re wearing them” as long as you get a perfect fit.

The stability is excellent, though. You can confidently wear these during vigorous exercise and be sure that they’re not going anywhere. They’ve also got an appreciated IP55 dust and water resistance rating, making them great for the gym.

The charging case is well-made and pocketable too, at about the same size as the one for the Sony WF-1000XM6; I like that it sits upright on a tabletop and that it’s easy to get the buds in and out.

• Excellent noise cancellation
• Good transparency mode
• You won’t find stronger ANC at this price

Anker’s Liberty Buds 2 are tremendous noise-cancelling earbuds for those on a budget, without any of the usual caveats I might have given the competition. They easily outclass the likes of the OnePlus Buds 4, Google Pixel Buds 2a and Nothing Ear (3a) by building on the excellent ANC capabilities of Soundcore’s previous efforts like the Liberty 4 Pro and Liberty 5.

The buds are in the mix with some of the best noise-cancellers around. In all environments where I’ve used them, including on walks, bus journeys, in coffee shops, on the London Underground and while working from home with nearby construction work, I’ve found they adapt well to changes in noise and deliver strong noise-cancellation for the majority of background distractions – I also don’t find there’s too much annoying wind noise whistling through the noise-cancelling microphones.

These use what Anker calls Adaptive ANC 4.0, powered by six microphones (three in each bud) plus the Thus AI chip to silence noise. In general use, it’s tricky to tell the difference between the noise-cancelling power on these and the latest Soundcore flagships.

I think they’re maybe still a step behind (as the 5 Pro models use 8 microphones), but you’d have to listen closely to tell. I can hear that transparency mode is better on the 5 Pro, but the Buds 2 are pretty natural in this mode too.

In the vast majority of situations, you’ll be able to listen to your music or podcasts at a comfortable volume without having to blast it out just to make things audible. These are a great pair of compact ANC buds for use on planes, at the office or in the gym (thanks to the secure fit and water resistance).

• Dual-device multipoint

The Liberty Buds 2 are Anker’s most ambitious effort yet at bringing flagship tech and features to a midrange price, and they’re best seen as successors to models like the Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro and 4 Pro more than they are a continuation of Anker’s cheaper lines that are under £100 / $100.

These buds have the Thus AI chip, previously exclusive to the Liberty 5 Pro and Liberty 5 Pro Max. This processor handles real-time call noise suppression and adaptive ANC adjustments, and it has 150x the computing power when compared to Anker flagships in previous years.

Unsurprisingly, then, call quality is a highlight on these earbuds. They offer the best calls you’re going to find at this price, and I’ve tried them against higher-end work headsets, so I can confirm their voice isolation is better than on products designed for the job. I used them on multiple calls, in windy conditions and for taking voice notes with a variety of loud background sounds playing over my speakers.

In every instance – whether the loud sounds were coffee shop noise, office sounds or street traffic – my voice was clear on the recordings and background sound was stripped out. This was the case even when playing background noise at 75-80 decibels. Voices may sound a touch over-processed, but the caller on the other end of the line will have no trouble understanding you, and this call quality gets very close to Anker’s class-leading Liberty 5 Pro models.

Beyond calls, these have the connectivity you’d expect thanks to Bluetooth 6.1, dual-device multipoint and high-res LDAC codec support. The 5 Pro still takes things a step further with triple-device multipoint, although I’d guess two devices should be enough for most of us.

The companion Anker Soundcore app holds several extra features, like Anker’s HearID sound customisation, Dolby spatial audio, an eight-band equaliser to customise the sound, custom controls, and a dedicated hearing health monitor that tracks both external noise exposure and the volume level of the buds themselves over time. You can also set a volume limit to protect your hearing.

I like that they support both wired USB-C charging and wireless charging, something that’s inconsistent across competitors at this price, and that you get reliable touch controls where you can customise the functions and the sensitivity of the touch panel. A slight downside is that there’s no swipe gesture or way for a single bud to be used for volume control, and that’s something you were able to do on the stem-style Liberty 4 Pro from Anker.

• Better battery life than some rivals
• A promised 7 hours per charge with ANC on

Anker offers a lot of information on the promised battery life for these earbuds, saying they’ll reach a maximum single-charge playtime of 12 hours with ANC off, or 7 hours with ANC on.

The remaining juice in the case means you could reach a realistic “ANC-on” battery life of 27 hours. Overall, this is very competitive, but the brand is also clear about what causes drain. Using LDAC and ANC? Anker says the battery life plummets to 4.5 hours of use. And if you’re on a long call, it’s even lower. Just 4 hours of battery.

The good news is that I saw great results from my 3-hour battery drain test, in which I played back a Spotify playlist at 50% volume, with ANC on, using the standard codecs from a Pixel 10 Pro. The Liberty Buds 2 impressively only drained by 30%, which indicates an overall battery life closer to 10 hours. Battery drain is never linear, and it may have sped up a bit if the test went on longer, but Anker’s battery tech is doing good work here. It’s a great result for those focused on longevity.

Even if the total life had ended up falling short of the full 10 hours that it looked on track to hit, this would be a better ANC-on single-charge playtime than the OnePlus Buds 4 at 6.5 hours or the Nothing Ear (3a) at 6 hours; it’s a lot closer to something like the Cambridge A100 or the A100 SE, which both promise 10 hours with ANC enabled.

It’s also worth saying that this is a far better battery life than what you’re getting on the pricier Liberty 5 Pro, which claim to have 6.5 hours on one charge but ended up delivering closer to 5 hours of playtime in the same test detailed above.

I also appreciate that the Liberty Buds 2 support fast charge (with 10 minutes giving 4 hours of use) and that they charge over either USB-C or wirelessly for ease.

• 9.2mm dynamic drivers
• Slightly bass-forward tuning
• 8-band EQ, presets and hearing test in the app

The last pair of Soundcore earbuds I tested, the Liberty 5 Pro, have a highly exaggerated bass by default, and these aren’t steered quite as much in that direction. This is still a sound profile with a slight bass boost and a bit of extra sparkle in the high-end, but it makes for pleasant listening in the Anker Signature mode. This mode may have the same name on the Pro, but it doesn’t sound exactly the same.

I started off my testing with Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights and Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, and in both cases the ‘70s tracks sounded rich and clear with vocals centred and distinct among the identifiable instrumentation. I compared it directly against the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 (which are comparable now that they can be found for £159), and you can tell that the Ankers don’t have the most open sound, but they’re otherwise a nice-sounding and detailed pair of buds.

Anker has added an Anker Balanced EQ profile that doesn’t sound totally different to the Signature, but I’d still recommend trying it, as it takes some of the edge off the bass elements that can verge on boomy. The drums in Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes sound more textured and natural. While differences are subtle, I prefer Balanced to the Signature EQ.

I went through Anker’s HeadID 5.0 preference test, which gave me a result saying, and I quote, that I “prefer natural sound with transparent, clear highs, as well as airy and detailed high-fidelity vocals that are warm”; this sounds about right. After comparing the available EQ presets and the HearID sound, I do marginally prefer the customised version. It’s a slight change to the sound that does bring a bit more air into the mids; I found the improvement noticeable when listening to Billie Eilish’s CHIHIRO and Daft Punk’s Contact.

Overall, these are buds that sound much better than I’d expected, especially if you don’t mind tinkering in the app a bit. One thing I probably wouldn’t mess with is the Dolby spatial audio; on these buds it sounds hollow and unpleasant.

It’s also worth noting that these can be pretty loud. Protect your hearing by either using the in-app volume limit or the volume limit that you might be able to enable in your phone’s settings.

Should you buy it?

The Anker Liberty Buds 2 are the latest pair that make it hard to justify spending big on wireless earbuds. Get the right fit, and they’re incredibly comfortable, with noise-cancelling that matches expensive rivals, excellent calls, long battery life, reliable controls, a great app for customisation, and impressive sound quality.

I find these a more well-rounded option than buds like the OnePlus Buds 4, Google Pixel Buds 2a, Soundcore Liberty 5 or Nothing Ear (3a). And while they’re nowhere near as cheap as the great EarFun Air Pro 4 Plus, it’s easy to see that you’re getting better ANC from these.

Ultimately, if you’re not keen on the stem-style earbud form factor and prefer the discreet bean-shaped fit, the Liberty Buds 2 are a better choice for you than all of those AirPods lookalikes anyway. Arguably, you do get a few more features for a little more cash with the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro, but it’s not the biggest difference, and these are smaller and lighter.

Given that it’s a competitive field, there are still great options at under £100. But I know from experience that it doesn’t take long to find discounts on Anker’s buds. You may only need to wait a short time for these to become the best value wireless earbuds.

The Anker Liberty Buds 2 were tested over the course of three weeks, with real-world testing on trains and on calls, with all features tested on multiple devices.

• Tested for three weeks
• Tested with real-world use
• Battery drain carried out

	Anker Liberty Buds 2 Review
Manufacturer	Anker
IP rating	IP55
Battery Hours	27
Wireless charging	Yes
Fast Charging	Yes
Weight	4.7 G
ASIN	B0HGRJ33P7
Release Date	2026
Audio Resolution	SBC, AAC, LDAC
Driver (s)	9.2mm dynamic driver
Noise Cancellation?	Yes
Connectivity	Bluetooth 6.1
Colours	Mother of Pearl, Silver White, Glossy Black
Frequency Range	– Hz
Headphone Type	True Wireless
UK RRP	£129.99
USA RRP	TBC