Liberty 4 battery issue. [Right bud always LOW first at ± 4h of use]

[ctsitselis]

Hello.
another letdown from these buds.
tested more than 2 weeks and getting same results.

-03.15 firmware
-100% charge both earbuds.
-Volume around 50% or even less.
-ANC or Transparency mode on
-USE:
*80% of the time listening to Music or just using ANC for noise reduction
*20% Phone calls.

-Dual connections enabled but not connected to a second device for this test. I wanted to be sure the second device would not drain any battery.

Results:
Before even reaching 4h, the right bug gets to battery low. (see screenshot)!
At that point i take them off and charge them as I dont want battery to stress the battery but for testing purposes I continued using the buds.

Right bud died just before hitting 5h while left bud was not even at the low battery point.
I continued the same exact usage and left bud died at 6:18m that more than 1h difference.

That’s extremely bellow the 7h advertised and the worst thing is that they won’t even die together. the right bud dies first than 1h+ later dies the second one.

case also is on low battery even after a full day of use, not sure it can charge the buds fully 2 times, I’ll run a test for that sure.

Disappointed with the battery especially by the fact the buds won’t last the same.

IMG_7863|257x500IMG_7867|401x500

[Duane_Lester]

El Jefe Liberty 4 review

I like the detailed, thorough and comparisons with other products. Good work! @EL_JEFE_REVIEWS For me it is weird the L4 not sold outside of USA. I looked up the factory and doesn’t seem affected by the (you know what).

EL_JEFE_REVIEWS

From a review from El_Jefe you probably should get over 6 probably.

I would reset them, and make sure firmware is up to date. If already done. I would probably check with service@soundcore.com

It looks like it is an Apple device. If for some reason the device is using the rt as the main and piggy backing the signal to the left then it could decrease it.

[The_Professor]

There’s always a chance it’s a hardware fault, the right bud’s battery is not full capacity.

But more likely it’s a combination of:

• you said 20% phone calls. That is doubly intensive on battery, as the task of receiving and making sound is added to of the detect and transmit your voice.
• You got ANC / transparency on, that is battery intensive.

The figures quoted by Soundcore is for a light use of neither ANC/transparency and it’s for listening only.

If it’s one bud in particular always being hit, one tip is put the buds back in the case and take the left one out first, alternate which bud is doing the call transmission.

I don’t see how Soundcore quoting a figure for listen-only with ANC/transparency disabled, and you doing something entirely different which drains faster, is Soundcore’s fault.

To eliminate if it is hardware fault, disable ANC and don’t make any calls, it should then be draining more evenly and be nearer to the quoted figure. It’s it is still significantly less than expected, when used as per Soundcore uses when quoting battery life, then you’ve reasonably proved it’s a hardware fault for warranty swap.

Top tip: make use of any time to put buds in case and/or swap one-bud on-ear over. I do that a lot with the X10 buds, I use one bud at a time, swapping and vastly increase the battery life.

[ctsitselis]

thanks for your reply. I watched this review before I bought them. unfortunately that’s far from the sad truth.
and the huge issue is the 1 hour and 18 minutes difference on battery between left and right bud.

I charged them for 1h 20m. continued the same test and I got 2h 48min on the right bud and 3h 33m on the left bud. so a total of about 3 hours after 1h 20m charging.

its not acceptable to have one of the two buds die on you.

I started this thread so other owners could confirm they get the same issue or it is a hardware problem of my set.

I used buds with <50% volume and ANC on as I mentioned before
I use an iPhone 14pro

[ctsitselis]

thanks for your comment.
I read former answers of you on this forum and they were always helpful.

the biggest issue is buds not dying together. its not about how much battery I could save without calls or anc.
if both lasted for 5h (or even better 6:18 that my left bud got) it would be acceptable.

first of all both connect on the iPhone its not only the right bud connected and acting as host.
on the second test I got first the left bud out, to be exact, I left the right in the case, closed the case for some seconds and then got the right bud off. Unfortunately again the right bud died first.

when I use them as you suggest and get one of them on and the other off it is misleading for the actual battery life, it seams like they last longer but still the right bud will die first. that’s why I conducted this test.

on my flight back to Europe from US I needed both buds to work. yet the right bud died and I didnt have and from my right ear.

I hope some other liberty 4 user can confirm this is happening to know if its my pairs problem or if its normal.

thanks again.

[The_Professor]

What’s the models of all the phones you’ve tried on?

I am thinking the more you write what you’ve tried already, the more it points to the right’s bud hardware fault.

[ctsitselis]

I have tried them on iPad, MacBook & Apple TV.
I just reset them so I ll run the tests again tomorrow.

[ctsitselis]

well after some days testing I am now sure this is a BETA product released to the public.

I dont know how sound core managed to build such a great product and in the same time make it so bad.

1. battery percentage not visible on iPhone batteries most of the times. no friendly support stuff it is not a solution to see the battery from the app. plus there is no percentage just an icon. workaround -> each time I reset the bugs by holding case button for 5sec, then the battery is visible on iPhone batteries widget.
2. battery between the 2 buds not consistent. Again if I use them just after a reset the two of them get very close with a margin of around 20m that is acceptable)
3. buttons not working as they should all the time. in particular the right bud seems to lose the “connection” and only the left bud keys work.
4. Maybe some or all of the above are related with the multi-connection. Then again if it doesn’t work, it shouldn’t be advertised as a feature.
5. THATS really bad and I could return them if I could just for that.
   When I get a call and get only the right bud out it will not answer the call automatically. If I get the left bud (most of the times) it will answer the call automatically.
   that’s terrible because I am not sure if it is going to work or not and some times when it answers the call I double tap to get the call and accidentally reject it. Terrible. Especially because the mic is reason #1 I preferred them over the apple pro 2.

I really wonder how all these “tech” YouTubers really test the products. Do they even use them in real life scenarios? Like buds are connected to the phone and the computer, you listen to music from the computer, you get a call, etc. that’s real life testing of multi-point connection not if 2 devices just connect at the same time…

One very nice feature is that when on passthrough if the buds detect noise like wind they automatically switch to noise reduction. well done this works all the time

there are more minor things on the list but ok all products have flaws.

I believe all of the above can be fixed with firmware update, so I hope they will be fixed soon.

So lets get to the test!
as I mentioned earlier I managed to get similar battery life on both buds more than once always after a reset. That’s not cool and should be fixed though.

ANC ON (maybe 5-10% of the time passthrough)
VOLUME ±50%
80% music 20%calls (or even less, I might have answered to some calls)
right bud: ±5h 20m
left bug: ±5h 35m

That’s nowhere near the 6:40m on AAC from El Jefe and since I was not listening to more than 50-55% at the most (always on safe listening dB) that’s huge. At least they died with just 15m difference.

detailed screens below.

[The_Professor]

Honest hands-on review.

If I were in your situation I’d immediately return for full refund.

If the deal breaker is the battery life then do a swap then decide if return.

[ctsitselis]

I visited NYC on vacation so unfortunately I’m now back in EU and cant return the buds.

5h is not that bad, its just way off the advertised numbers!
The other SOFTWARE/FIRMWARE related issues are ruining the experience…

dont get me wrong, I love the sound, i love the case and some features and hope we will get a firmware update fixing these issues soon!

[The_Professor]

In that situation I’d take it offline from public forums and have a separate private email “chat”.

Anker/Soundcore has good customer support in my experience. Reasonable issues expressed reasonably tends to produce reasonable agreements. I can see 3 different outcomes.

[xlpeng2022]

I had the same issue, battery life of both side is not consistent, right bud aways last ~1 hour less than left. The problem seems fixed after upgrading firmware version to 4.15.

The weird thing is the version 4.15 is not available if you use iPhone, you have use Android, when I tried to turn on Hi-Res Audio using android, the soundcore App asked me to upgrade firmware to 4.15. The release notes of 4.15 says it improves the battery life for LADC, it seems also fixed the consistency issue in my case.

Update:
Did a test from full charged battery to dead after 4.15 upgrade, it doesn’t really fix the inconsistency, but battery life of both side are longer now, both buds lasted over 6H with ANC on. Left side ran for ~6 hours 47 minutes, ~18 minutes more than the right one. Overall battery life is good, I’m satisfied.

Update:
Looks like the heart rate sensor is in right bud, you only get heart rate when you have right bud connected, given the battery in both are same, it makes sense that left bud last slightly longer.

[mamolsredona]

I have the same issue also, I updated the firmware right away after receiving and the right bud warned low battery at 4-5 hrs of use it kinda sucks.

[jmaitner55]

My left ear bud is dying way fast then my right I have half a battery on the right when the left gives me a warning!! Very disappointing upgraded for a pair of Space A40 to the Liberty 4 honestly think I’m going back !!

[imranmohmed78]

This is the reply I got from soundcore support

Please note that playtime varies according to volume level and audio content played on the headphones, so please also let us know about how loudly has music been played on these headphones. In addition, the right earbud is the master earbud, it will transfer the sound from your device to the left earbud, so the right earbud will need more power than the left earbud. Normally, the difference between the left and right side is 1 hour.

[timmy4uni2c]

Turn dual connection off to easily cross 6 hours!!!