Anker Soundcore Space One Review

About the Anker Soundcore Space One

Anker Soundcore Space One specs

• Price: $99.99
• Battery life: Up to 40 hours with ANC (55 without)
• Fast charging: 4 hours of playback in 5 minutes
• Colors: Jet Black, Latte Cream, Sky Blue
• Ambient sound modes: Adaptive noise canceling, adaptive transparency mode
• Speakers: 40mm custom dynamic drivers
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, 3.5mm aux
• Audio codecs: LDAC high-res audio, AAC, SBC
• Dust/water resistance rating: None
• Weight: 263 grams
• Extra features: HearID Sound, multi-pairing

The Anker Soundcore Space One come in three different colors—Jet Black, Latte Cream, and Sky Blue. They ship with a short USB-A to USB-C cable for charging, a 3.5mm cable that allows for both active and passive wired operation, and cloth carrying bag. Both the 3.5mm cable and carrying bag match the color of the headphones. The headphones unfortunately do not include a hard carrying case to keep them safe while jostling around inside a backpack.

Over the past few years, Anker has excelled at elevating the performance of value-forward headphones in a few key ways—the first being noise-canceling performance. Up until recently, top-notch (or even merely adequate) noise canceling belonged to high-end headphones exclusively, but no longer. The Space One’s active noise canceling easily rivals that of headphones twice the cost, suitably deadening low frequencies and taking the harsh edge of ambient conversation. There are five different levels of noise canceling that specifically adjusts low-end attenuation so you can find the best for your auditory comfort. An Adaptive Noise Canceling option (we’re seeing this more and more on headphones and earbuds) automatically adjusts the ANC level to the ambient noise around you.

Transparency mode is a bit muffled (it boosts more high frequencies than midrange frequencies) but understanding someone, or hearing surrounding traffic for safety, is still easy. As with ANC, passthrough strength (how much you can hear around you) has five different settings. Placing your hand up against the left ear cup enables Easy Chat mode to quickly change to a modified transparency mode. Because its purpose is focused on conversation, it sounds more pinched than transparency mode, but it serves its purpose well and isn’t a mode you’ll stay in for any extended period of time (since it requires you to keep your hand against the headphones ear cup).

The Space One have up to 40 hours of battery life with ANC on and up to 55 hours of playtime with it off, so you won’t have to worry about charging them every day or losing power while wearing them often. For moments that the battery does run low, you can get another four hours of listening with only five minutes of charging. They’re also light and very comfortable to wear for long periods thanks to a good amount of padding along the band and cushy ear pads. I have a tendency to get headaches from wearing many pairs of headphones for long periods because of their head clamping force. But on the Space One, head clamping force isn’t too strong at all.

Out of the box, the high end frequencies are a bit pushed causing the sound to be a bit sizzly and harsh. Vocals can also sound a bit muffled. In the app, there are 21 selectable sound profiles in addition to the Soundcore Signature profile, but most interesting is HearID Sound that Anker includes as an option in the Soundcore companion app (available on both iOS and Android). It puts you through a hearing test and comparative listening to determine a personalized sound profile with appropriate eq settings. It got me much closer to a preferred sound, taking the edge off of the high end and boosting mids a bit. Further customization to the HearID Sound profile can be done with an 8-band EQ. I was never able to achieve the warm, enveloping sound quality I can get from my Sony WH-XM10005, but at a third of the price the Space One come remarkably close.

Controls on the headphones take some getting used to and the buttons themselves are a bit small, but after some time they’re easy enough to use. They are the first place where the price point is apparent, feeling a bit cheap when pressed.

Should you buy the Anker Soundcore Space One?

Yes, they deliver excellent performance and value for the money

With the in-ear Soundcore Space A40 true wireless earbuds and now the Soundcore Space One, Anker has the two best cheap headphones options. The Space One have everything you could want from budget headphones. Great ANC performance, an comfy fit that will last four hours, long battery life, and a nice amount of features in the Soundcore app.

Sure there are other headphones out there that have more impressive ANC performance and sound better. But all of them—such as the Sony WH-1000XM5 or Sennheiser Momentum 4—cost three times more than the Space One. The 1More Sonoflow offer similar performance (although not quite as good), so if you find them on sale and want to save a few bucks they’re a viable option. They also come with a hard case for those wary about tossing the Space One into their backpacks with just the provided cloth bag as protection.

When you factor in performance, comfort, battery life, and app functionality, the Anker Soundcore Space One are just in a space of their own and our favorite headphones for under $100.

Anker Soundcore Space One

The comfortable Space One are our favorite over-ear headphones under $100 delivering great ANC for the money and long battery life.

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Meet the tester

John Higgins

Managing Editor, Tech

@johntmhiggins

John is Reviewed's Managing Editor of Tech. He is an ISF Level III-certified calibrator with bylines at ProjectorCentral, Wirecutter, IGN, Home Theater Review, T3, Sound & Vision, and Home Theater Magazine. When away from the Reviewed office, he is a sound editor for film, a musician, and loves to play games with his son.

See all of John Higgins's reviews