Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and Pro Max: AI earbuds with a Guinness record undercut Apple and Sony by up to 50%
Anker's Soundcore brand has launched the Liberty 5 Pro ($169.99 / £149.99) and Liberty 5 Pro Max ($229.99 / £199.99) — two flagship earbuds that arrive priced well below AirPods Pro 3 ($249 / £219.99) and Sony WF-1000XM6, while bringing features those rivals don't offer. Both models are available now on Soundcore.com, Amazon, and Best Buy.
The Thus chip
The headline spec is a dedicated AI processor called Thus — designed and built for on-device audio processing rather than cloud offload. According to TechSpot, the chip uses compute-in-memory architecture, delivering 150 times the processing power of Soundcore's previous flagship chip. In practice, that means two things: Adaptive ANC 4.0 analyses over 384,000 noise signals per second, and an AI Sound Enhancement layer claims to restore up to 65% of the audio detail that Bluetooth compression strips away in real time.
The call quality claim has independent backing. Soundcore received a Guinness World Record certification in April 2026 for the highest speech quality score (G-MOS) in TWS earbuds — tested at ambient noise levels above 100dB. That's a third-party verified result, not a self-reported benchmark.
The Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro earned a Guinness World Record in April 2026 for highest speech quality in TWS earbuds.
The case with a screen
Both models ship with a charging case that has a built-in touch display — 0.76 inches on the Pro, 1.78-inch AMOLED on the Pro Max. The screen lets you switch ANC modes, control playback, swap between paired devices (multipoint across three devices), and check per-earbud battery levels without pulling out your phone.
The Pro comes in four colours — Midnight Black, Pearl White, Pearl Blue, and Rose Gold — and runs up to 10 hours on a single charge without ANC (6.5 hours with ANC on), stretching to 45 hours total with the case. Five minutes in the case gives four hours of playback.
Both models support Bluetooth 6.1, Dolby Atmos spatial audio, and carry an IP55 water resistance rating. In the box: five pairs of ear tips and three wing-tip sizes.
The 0.76-inch touch display on the Liberty 5 Pro case handles playback, ANC switching, and multipoint device management.
Pro Max: the AI note-taker
The Pro Max adds two features that set it apart from anything else in the TWS category. An eight-microphone array built into the case can record up to 12 hours of audio independently — no phone needed — and the Soundcore app converts those recordings into transcribed, searchable text with speaker identification. Talk Android confirms translation support is also included. A Voiceprint Recognition system locks the stored recordings to the owner and automatically personalises the sound profile to that user.
The Pro Max ships in Titanium Gold and Midnight Black.
The Pro Max case houses an eight-microphone array capable of recording up to 12 hours of audio for offline AI transcription.
Worth it?
At $169.99 the Pro undercuts AirPods Pro 3 by roughly $80 while adding a screen to the case and a Guinness-certified call quality claim. The Pro Max at $229.99 is harder to compare — no other earbud doubles as a standalone AI recorder with speaker ID. The AI note-taking features are Anker's own claims and have yet to be tested by independent reviewers, so treat the transcription accuracy as unverified until hands-on reviews land.
