Zolo, a subsidiary of Anker, recently launched a new product, the Liberty+. The existence of these headphones is partly due to a wildly successful campaign on Kickstarter. Is the trust of the sponsors justified, or have they bet on the wrong horse?
Zolo Liberty+
Price: $149driver: 2 x 6mm
Impedance: 16Ohm
Frequency range: 20Hz – 20kHz
Link: Bluetooth 5.0
Battery life: 3.5 hours per charge, 48 hours with charging case
Charging time: 1.5 hours for the set, 3 hours for the charging case
Water resistance: IPX5
Weight: 228 grams
Website: zoloaudio.com
6 Score 60
- Pros
- Battery life
- firm
- Bluetooth 5
- Can serve as a hearing aid with Transparency
- Negatives
- No aptX
- bit clumsy
- App not finished yet
True wireless headphones are completely in, and we see more and more copies coming along. Where big names such as Apple, Samsung and Sony enter the market with high-end models, smaller brands often fill the market with cheaper models. Zolo is such a brand, which wants to offer an affordable alternative to Apple's AirPods and Samsung's Gear IconX with the Liberty+.
Remarkably sturdy
The Zolo Liberty+ is available in two colors: black and white. Although you would think that you can choose between an inconspicuous and striking variant with this, nothing could be further from the truth. The Liberty+ is so large that those around you can see from far and wide that you're wearing headphones – whatever color you're wearing. The Zolo Liberty+ may not be subtle, but it does look modern. Especially the white variant would not look out of place in an episode of Star Trek.
The Zolo Liberty+ comes with a variety of attachments, making it easy to find a good fit. The headphones also stay firmly in place due to the wing on the top of the headphones. This is a big plus in the case of the Liberty+, as the headphones are mainly advertised as a sports earplug.
ready is case
Like many true wireless headphones, the Zolo Liberty+ comes with a storage case where you can store the set and also charge it. This is also the most striking thing about the Liberty+, as the headphones promise a total battery life of no less than 48 hours. And the good thing is: they come pretty close. The good battery life is probably largely due to the size of the headphones and the energy efficiency of Bluetooth 5. The storage case is logically quite heavy, since the internal battery can recharge the Liberty+ more than 6 times. In terms of battery life, the Zolo Liberty+ reads its often much more expensive competition.
Unfortunately, the cover of the case does not feel very sturdy, so that the charging case leaves a rather vulnerable impression. The case provides a battery indicator in the form of 3 lights on the front – the headphones themselves have no battery indicator at all. When the caps are empty, they simply fall out without warning.
Sound
The Zolo Liberty+ drivers are reinforced with graphene; a fairly new material that is tens of times stronger than the strongest metal - at only a fraction of the weight. This makes the driver firmer and lighter at the same time, resulting in better sound quality compared to a regular driver of the same size.
Still, the sound of the Zolo Liberty+ isn't as great as you might think. The sound is quite clear and fortunately the bass is not as present as with many other headphones, but the sound image is not very detailed. However, there is little chance that you will notice this during exercise – the earplugs seal your ear well and the sound is fine for everyday use.
Despite the presence of bluetooth 5, the Zolo Liberty+ is not equipped with aptX. There is also a slight delay in the audio, which is noticeable when playing videos. It's a bit contradictory: Zolo flaunts graphene drivers for better sound quality, but doesn't add aptX HD, for example, which allows users to actually play higher quality music.
Service
It is often a challenge for true wireless headphones to be able to get rid of the buttons for the operation. The 2 buttons on the Liberty+ have much the same function, except when dialing the next or previous number.
- 1 press: play/pause/answer call
- 2 press: voice assistant Siri or Google
- 1 second hold right cap: next song
- 1 second hold left cap: previous track
- Hold for 3 seconds left cap: Turn on Sound Isolation
- Hold for 5 seconds: turn off
transparency
The Zolo Liberty+ also has a feature that amplifies the ambient noise: Transparency. This is similar to the Ambient mode we saw with Sony's true wireless, and is a function that can save lives, especially in traffic, because external sound is allowed to pass into the headphones. While listening to music, you can clearly hear the surrounding sounds - as if you were listening to the sound through a speaker, so you can just hear ambient noise.
When you're not playing music, however, the Transparency is so sensitive that the Liberty+ almost turns into a hearing aid. All the sound within a radius of 2 meters is amplified almost deafeningly and everything beyond is virtually impossible to pick up. Transparency is useful for sounds that are close to you that you wouldn't otherwise hear while listening to music, but you won't hear softer sounds while playing music. During the pauses between songs or pauses in a song, you quickly feel like you have a hearing aid in your ears with a few milliseconds of delay.
With the accompanying Zolo Life app, you can see more details about the Liberty+ and control various functions. You can turn Transparency on and off, activate the voice assistant and even adjust the sound using an EQ with multiple presets. In terms of color, the app fits well with the Zolo Liberty+, but does not always work smoothly at the time of writing.
Conclusion
On Kickstarter, the Zolo Liberty+ was presented as a true wireless headset without compromise and in many areas Zolo delivers on that promise. The battery life is amazingly good and there is no shortage of fits either. The addition of bluetooth 5 also makes the Liberty+ future-proof.
Unfortunately, it lacks functions such as aptX and the headphones are not exactly subtle in size. With a price tag of 149 euros, the Zolo Liberty+ is not terribly expensive, but in terms of sound and functions, we would have found a price tag of around 100 euros slightly more appropriate.
