Joined in 2023 
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Pros: good value, good sound, good noise-cancelling, very long battery life, Bluetooth 5 with SBC, AAC and LDAC support, good app, full EQ and lots of presets, comfortable. Included with the headphones are a carrying case, which isn’t of the highest quality but fulfils its function perfectly well, a USB-A to USB-C charging cable and a 3.5mm audio cable that can be plugged into the right earcup for wired listening. These comfortable and well-built buds have a warm sound profile out of the box, but you can fine-tune their sound to suit your tastes using their companion app's graphic EQ and presets. You can also use the app to switch to LDAC codec to stream Hi-Res content. That said, their mic has poor recording quality. The mic captures speech that sounds far away and sibilant, which can be a dealbreaker if you take a lot of calls. However, if you're just looking to listen to music, these wallet-friendly earbuds are worth a look.
The app offers a couple of other neat features, too. You can discover new music and stream it in the app via Soundcore’s streaming partner LÜM. This is a platform developed for independent artists and is well worth exploring if you fancy broadening your musical horizons. There’s also a Sleep Mode option, which provides you with a selection of ambient sounds that can be blended together to create a soundscape to drift off to. The tech is fun to play around with but the Life Q30 aren’t headphones you’re going to want to fall asleep wearing so it’s unlikely to see much use. Anker Soundcore Life Q30 review: What could be improved? Pressure-Free Comfort: Life Q30 active noise cancelling headphones have ultra-soft protein leather earcups with memory foam padding to fit snugly over your ears. The lightweight build also ensures they’re comfortable for long listening sessions. Their appearance isn’t helped by the fact that the words “active noise cancelling” are emblazoned onto both sides of the headband. It’s a bizarre design decision that frankly makes them look a bit silly. BassUp is only available when using the Signature profile, which you may not find yourself using given there are 20 other EQ presets to choose from in the Soundcore app. There’s something for just about every genre, including Latin, Jazz, Pop and Piano.The headphones have a reasonably simple design made of smooth, soft-touch plastic in a semi-metallic blue colour. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian They are fairly bulky compared with some of the best but don’t look ostentatious and are fairly light. The faux leather ear cups are spacious, with a good amount of padding, and don’t clamp your head too hard, while the headband stays well put on your dome. The headphones have enough adjustment to wear comfortably for extended listening periods, feel solidly made and fold up for travel, too. Overall, the Liberty Air 2 are the best Anker headphones currently out. They are well-designed truly wireless earphones that are good for commuting, traveling, office use, and sports, with their extremely compact form factor making them easy to carry for everyday use. Their build quality, charging case design, sound isolation, and total battery life are good. Moreover, they support wireless charging and have touch controls and an app for customization – features usually found in pricier products.
Featuring soft memory foam earpads, the Space NC are comfortable to wear for long hours despite not being as breathable as on-ear and in-ear headphones. Their large ear cups will easily fit around most ear shapes and sizes while their headband has a decent adjustment range. They stay securely on your head, but their headband clamp is on the tighter side. Fortunately, their generously padded ear cups help mitigate the tight headband clamp, making them less fatiguing for extended listening, especially if you have a large head. This typically happened when I moved my jaw, while smiling or chewing for instance, and meant I needed to readjust the buds to reestablish an effective in-ear seal. This of course also hampers the earbuds’ ANC ability. Given that noise-cancellation is one of the P3’s strongest suits, it’s frustrating that it’s occasionally negatively impacted by an unstable fit. The Life Q30’s default sound profile is referred to as “Soundcore Signature” and is V-shaped with bass frequencies particularly prominent. Too prominent, in fact, and that’s coming from someone with a penchant for low-end punch. There’s one last thing I’d have liked to have seen Anker incorporate: wear detection. The Life P3 don’t automatically pause when taken out of your ears, which is a feature that’s becoming increasingly common on budget earbuds. Wear detection would be a welcome addition, too, as would the ability to switch ANC profiles without having to access the app but that’s probably asking a bit much of a pair of budget-friendly headphones.With their solid 20-hour battery life per charge, the Space NC are suitable for all-day use in the office and particularly long flights and commutes. If they are low on power, you can temporarily switch to a wired connection using the included audio cable to conserve power. Alternatively, if you don’t mind using them with an audio cable attached, you can use them primarily in wired mode if you want a longer battery life per charge – the headphones can last up to an incredible 50 hours in wired mode with ANC. Wrap-up The Life Q30 are Hi-Res Audio certified as they’re able to reproduce frequencies up to 40kHz but there’s no support for near-lossless codecs such as aptX-HD, which is understandable given their price. The left ear cup has a button for toggling between noise-cancelling and transparency modes, a power button and a USB-C charging port.
The headphones ship with a good hard travel case, plus a small bag containing a USB charging cable, 3.5mm headphones cable with an in-line mic and an aeroplane audio adapter. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian Price The noise-cancelling is surprisingly effective for the money, beating the majority of rivals at this price and even some models twice their cost. The noise of a boiler, dishwasher, cars, drills and other rumbling noises were much reduced, while speech was quietened significantly. They can’t quite match the very best in the business from Bose and Sony but otherwise do a very good job, particularly set to the “transport” mode with the Soundcore app. The Liberty Neo are very popular budget truly wireless headphones, and that popularity is not unwarranted. They offer good value for the money and are suitable for all-around use, with their good sweat resistance and stability fins making them ideal for sports. Although their features list is hardly eye-popping, their build quality and performance are good for budget headphones. They are extremely portable for everyday use, but they have a short battery life per charge. Anker headphones generally have high latency on PC. You may notice your audio and visuals fall out of sync, which can be frustrating if you like to stream video on your laptop. The Soundcore Life Q30 are over-ear headphones capable of connecting to two devices simultaneously via Bluetooth 5.0 and support the two most widely used audio codecs, AAC and SBC. In addition to regular Bluetooth pairing, they offer NFC pairing by tapping your smartphone on the right earcup.
The Space NC have an efficient and user-friendly on-cup control scheme composed of a touchpad, a couple of physical buttons, and a switch. You’ll find the touchpad and the two buttons on the right ear cup, with the latter located on the underside. Using the touchpad, you can manage your music and control the volume. The two buttons are for call management and voice assistant activation and for initiating the pairing process and turning the headphones on or off. On the other ear cup, you get a simple switch for enabling or disabling the ANC feature. Performance
An excellent headphone should have a durable design and should be able to reproduce low bass notes as well as high treble notes without distortion. soundcore has developed the coaxial driver technology that’s endorsed by many outstanding audio producers to present you the true sound through our wireless bluetooth headphones. Without breaking the bank, you can now immerse yourself in the world of music with a first-class listening experience.
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The noise reduction can’t match that of the industry’s big hitters like the Apple AirPods Max, the Sony WH-1000XM4 or Bose’s NC700 but it’s a mighty fine attempt from a pair of headphones costing a fraction of the price. My one minor grumble is that you can only switch between the three modes via the app, but having to do so is certainly not a dealbreaker. Anker Soundcore Life Q30 review: How do they sound? I was also impressed by the Life P3’s audio quality. Like the over-ear Life Q30, boosted bass is the focus of the “Soundcore Signature” audio profile. However, it’s not nearly as overwhelming here, with the P3 striking a solid balance between robust low-end reproduction and clarity in the mid and upper registers.
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