The market for great wireless earbuds is so competitive these days, it's hard to find ones that stand out — both sonically and design-wise. But the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 80 offer a few interesting things in a familiar design and a refreshingly low price.
These are the kind of earbuds you want for activity, from listening to music to making calls to sweating it out on a tough workout — they're IPX8 water-resistant — and everything in between.
The music experience
To start, these earbuds sound pretty great. Each earbud comes with a 12mm custom driver and an open design, so you'll be able to hear the world around you. While that may prevent super-deep bass, since there's no passive seal, you do get decent lows, enjoyable mids and smooth highs.
With a Qualcomm-powered QCC3020 chipset inside, the SoundLiberty 80 also support the latest aptX Bluetooth codec, allowing for superior-sounding music from any Android. And if you're on an iPhone, the AAC codec is a good alternative.
The SoundLiberty 80's open design makes them super comfortable, too, so you don't have to worry about removing them when you need to pause your song or podcast for a quick chat or to hear a barista.
Crystal-clear phone calls
Source: TaoTronics
Of course, music isn't the only reason to wear true wireless earbuds: noise-canceling microphones make the SoundLiberty 80 great for crystal-clear phone calls, too. Using on-device AI that receives data from each microphone to determine how intensely to block out background noise, the SoundLiberty 80 make it easy to walk down a busy street, or converse on a crowded bus, without issue.
And they're flexible, too. You can use either earbud interchangeably for calls or listening, which is great if you want to hear everything around you or extend the battery life of both. And when you take one or both of the buds out of your ear, the music stops playing, ready to resume once you put them back.
Long-lasting battery
Speaking of battery life, the TaoTronics SoundLiberty 80 has 4 hours of battery life per bud, and 20 hours total with the USB-C powered case, which isn't class-leading, but should be enough for a solid day's worth of use.
And the beauty of USB-C, unlike other charging standards, is that it supports fast charging. So even if your buds are completely dead and there's no charge left in the case, plugging in a USB-C cable for five minutes gets you up and running with an hour of listening time at regular volumes.
Working up a sweat
The TaoTronics SoundLiberty 80 earbuds work under even the most trying circumstances. With an IPX8 water resistance rating, you can literally drop them in the sink or snow, get caught in a rainstorm, or wear them across hours of sweaty exercise, and they'll keep on playing. You can't say that about a lot of even the best true wireless earbuds, so this is definitely an added bonus.
Plus, if you don't want to use the gesture controls on the side of each earbud, TaoTronics has added its useful "Hey TT" voice assistant, so you can just speak to change songs, adjust volume, or answer a phone call. Easy!
Fantastic earbud value
TaoTronics is an up-and-coming name in the true wireless earbud space, and the SoundLiberty 80 provide good value. Normally $80, they're currently on sale for just over $50 with a coupon at Amazon, making them among the best cheap wireless earbuds you can buy today.
TaoTronics SoundLiberty 80 offer a fantastic listening experience with great sound, awesome comfort, IPX8 water resistance, and a striking multicolored design.
iMore created this content as part of a paid partnership with TaoTronics. The contents of this article are entirely independent and solely reflect the editorial opinion of iMore.
