So the Beats Studio Buds Plus are a very impressive pair of Mid teir ANC earbuds that have improved battery life, better mics, better sound and better Active Noise cancelation from their predecessor. Overall the Beats Studio bus Plus are great… but today we’re going to see how they compare to the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC, which are a pair of entry level ANC earbuds that have a lot of features that you wouldn’t expect.

Now when it comes to pricing, the Beats Studio buds plus have a retail price of $170 but they now like to go on sale for $130… where as the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC have a retail price of $100. And in general, the Liberty 4 NC give a lot or earbuds a run for their money. Nonetheless, if you want to pick either of these two earbuds up they’ll be linked down below.

Now first lets talk about these cases. Now both of these cases are decent for every day carry, but the Beats case is easier to constantly take on the go with you cause this case is significantly slimmer. But the main difference between these cases is going to be how you charge them and their battery lives. With both of these cases, they charge via a USB C port, but the Liberty 4 NC have wireless chargning, where as the beats dont, and in general, I do think that its shame that the beats don't have wireless charging, especially given their price point.

But also, there’s the battery lives on these earbuds. With the Beats Studio Buds Plus… these have an advertised combined battery life of 36 hours with the ANC turned off. The earbuds themselves can go for 9 straight hours and the case can supply 3 additional charges.

Where as with the Liberty 4 NC, these have an advertised combined battery life of 50 hours with their ANC turned off. The earbuds themselves can go for 10 straight hours and the case can supply 4 additional charges. And if you use these earbuds with their active noise cancelation turned off, they have a combined battery life of 40 hours.

Overall, battery life on both of these earbuds is very impressive… but the Soundcore have the better battery life here and their case has wireless charging… the main draw back their case is a little thick… but at least you’re getting a lot of battery life out of them. But if you’re looking for connivance, then you’ll want to go with the beats, but you are going to have to sacrifice wireless chargning… which I do think is a problem.

But now lets talk about the earbuds themselves. Now first off I want to point out that the liberty 4 NC look similar to AirPods cause they have stems… and personally I like these stems cause it makes handling these earbuds easier… cause with the beats, even though they look small and sleek, they can be a little hard to grab a hold of. But when it comes to their fit, both of these earbuds are in ear earbuds, but these earbuds dont fit like your standard pair of in ear earbuds like lets say the Galaxy Buds 2 or the linkbuds s. These are shallow fitting in ear earbuds like the AirPods Pro 2… so they dont go in as deep into your ear canals… so they feel more comfortable cause they’re less intrusive. The only thing is, shallow fitting in ear earbuds do like to wiggle out a little easier. But overall, both of these earbuds fit well but I would mainly recommend them for casual use, not so much for working out.

But when it comes to connectivity, with both of these earbuds, each earbud establishes a connection with your phone. So if you just want to use one earbud at a time, you can use either one. It doesn’t matter and this is the connection set up that we expect to see on our earbuds nowadays.

Now the beats are a good option for any power user cause these are fast to jump from one device to another if you call to them from another device… and if you pair them with an apple device, they’ll automatically show up on your other apple devices assorted with your iCloud account.

But then there are the Liberty 4 NC and these can be simulatinaly connected to any two bluetooth devices at the same time, regardless of eco system. So you can easily hot swap from one device to another. Now beats are fast to jump from one device to another… but hot swapping is just faster and more seamless.

And when it comes to overall performance, both of these earbuds have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone, whether you’re using an iPhone or and android device, and when it comes to audio codecs, the beats studio buds plus have support for SBC and AAC. Which is standard for apple earbuds. Where as the Liberty 4 NC have support for SBC, AAC, and LDAC, which is Sony’s own in house high res audio codec, just keep in mind that if you want to use LDAC you do have to be an android user cause iPhones top out at AAC, LDAC does take an additional toll on the battery life, and if you do use LDAC, then these earbuds will only be able to be connected to one device at a time.

Now when it comes to actually lisnteing to music with these earbuds… with the Liberty 4 NC’s you van adjust their EQ to your liking, so you can make them sound however you want. So if you like a bass heavy EQ you can do that or if you like a brighter EQ you can also do that. But personally I think these sound best with Soundcore’s stock eq. But in general, the liberty 4 NC sound good enough to get the job done. They have a good amount of resonance in their bass and their vocals are well defined. But then there are the Beats Studio Buds Plus… and these simply just sound a lot better then the Liberty 4 NC’s. They have far better insutemnet separation, their bass resonates deeper and its has a slight kick to it, their highs are a lot crisper and they sound more balanced. Simply said, the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC sound decent… but the Beats Studio Buds Plus sound a lot better, its not even close.

Now when it comes to actually controlling your media, with the Soundcore, these are using touch bassed touchpads, and these touch pads are easy enough to use. However, the beats are using physical buttons, and some people just prefer to have physical buttons on their earbuds and headphones…

But the really important thing here is that the Soundcore have proximity sensors, so they will automatically play and pause your music if you take them out of your ears or put them back in. Where as the beats dont have proximity sensors and I do feel that this is a major inconvenience… and I do think that its a big deal that they dont have proximity sensors given their price point.

But now lets talk about the active noise cancellation on these earbuds, now the ANC On both of these earbuds is decent and they are going to be useful on lets say your bus ride commute home or if you’re in a chatty cafeteria.

Now when it comes to overall ranking, for me, the AirPods Pro 2 and Sony WF-1000XM5 are neck and neck for first place, closely followed by the Bose QC earbuds 2, below them are the Sennheiser momentum 3, below them are the linkbuds S, below them are the Jabra Elite 85T’s, below them are the Galaxy Buds 2 pro, below them are the soundcore liberty 4 NC and below them are the pixel buds pro

Now below the pixel buds pro are the beats studio buds plus, below them are the Jabra elite 4’s, below them are the original beats studio buds, below them are the galaxy buds 2 and below them are the sennehsier CX plus. So overall, the ANC on the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC ranks very well and they block out noticeably more noise than the beats studio buds plus.

But like I have mentioned in the past, I only use the ANC On my earbuds when I have to and what’s more important to me is the quality of their ambient mode. Now the ambient mode on the Soundcore liberty 4 nc is decent and you can also adjust it to your liking… where as with the beats you can’t.

But with the beats, this ambient mode sounds lot more natural, their microphone array does a better job of rejecting wind noise when walking out doors, and the ambient mode on the beats is the active kind, meaning that they will actively block out sudden loud noises which means if you’re walking outdoors and if a siren rolls by or if a dog starts barking… then your ears aren’t going to get blasted.

But finally here’s the microphone test, now both of these earbuds have decent sounding microphone on them to take phone calls with.

But I do feel that the microphone on the beats sounds better cause they have better clarity to them.

But also, that beats do a much better job of blocking out noise pollution, cause right now this microphone is doing a really good job of reducing all of this chatter. Cause for comparison sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone, you’re going to clearly hear all of this road noise, but if we were to switch back over to the beats studio buds plus, it is severely reduced.

Where as with the Soundcore liberty 4 nc… they do a decent job of dealing with this noise pollution… but you can still hear a decent amount of road noise in the back.

But when it comes to blocking out chatter, the liberty 4 NC are doing a decent job.

But I do think the beats are doing a better job of blocking out this chatter and there’s more clarity on my voice. Overall both of these earbuds have decent sounding microphones on them for phone calls and they both do a good job of dealing with noise pollution… but the beats studio buds plus do preform a little better.

But with all of that being said, the soundcore liberty 4 nc are an impressive pair of ANC earbuds that are also very budget friendly. They block out more noise than the Beats Studio buds PLus, they have a very imrepssive battery life, their case has wireless charging, and the earbuds themselves have proximity sensors. But with the beats studio buds plus, these have a smaller and more convinante case, they also sound much better, they also have a better sounding ambient mode and they have a better performing microphone. But if you’re trying to choose between Beats Studio Buds Plus and the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC… the Liberty 4 NC give them a real run for their money.