Soundcore Space A40 earbud specifications
Packed with affordable features, these buds don't disappoint you – but it's the long battery life that makes them really worth your money.
Key features
Battery life 50 hours
Charging compatible with wireless charging
Introduction
It's not long before spending less than £100 on a pair of true wireless earbuds will only give you the bare minimum. But things have changed a lot lately, and now you can pick up the buds with all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a more expensive pair for less than a ton.
That's definitely a description that applies to the £90 Soundcore's Space A40, which features noise cancellation, supports High-Resolution Audio, and works with an app that lets you modify the audio profile to suit your individual ears.
So how much of these shoots is this deal? Or is there a hidden catch?
design
It looks normal
IPX4 water resistance
Wireless charging case
There's only a lot you can do to make a pair of true wireless earbuds stand out from the ever-growing crowd, and if you remove the logo from the Space A40, it will be combined with all the other trunkless options. They are made of glossy black plastic (blue and white versions are also available), with silicone tips at one end and a dark gray touch-sensitive surface at the other.
For many people, fitness is more important than fashion – and the Space A40 sits neatly inside your ears without protruding too much. You can have five different pairs of tips in the box, so finding some of them that fit snugly shouldn't be a problem, and I found them comfortable to wear for long periods, although they can be a bit tricky to get out of the box.
The IPX4 rating means they're waterproof, so you don't have to worry about getting caught in the rain, but the lack of installation features means it won't be my first choice for exercise.
The case itself is also made of sleek black plastic, which makes it a little slippery to handle, and while it's not the smallest I've encountered, it's still quite in the pocket. When opened, three LEDs in front indicate how much energy is left inside. Charging is either via the USB-C port on the back, or you can just place it on any Qi-compatible charging dock.
Attributes
ANC mode and transparency
Support for high-resolution audio
Long battery life
The Soundcore Space A40 costs less than £100, but you won't know it by looking at the list of features.
You get active noise cancellation, support for high-fidelity audio, wireless charging, and multi-point Bluetooth. In fact, the only thing that stands out for its absence is the lack of wear sensors, so do not automatically stop turning on anything that turns on when one of them is removed from your ear.
It also works with the Anker Soundcore app, which is simple but fairly powerful, allowing you to choose from different noise cancellation modes, check the remaining battery in each earbud, adjust the EQ, or run the Soundcore's HearID process, which personalizes the vocal performance of your ears using a simple hearing test. You could also use it to update the firmware, causing the review pair to stop working properly, even though Anker told me this was a one-time problem and not a broader problem they faced.
Perhaps the most striking feature of these headphones is the battery life. 50 hours isn't exactly the longest – for example, Lypertek's Pureplay Z3 2.0 runs 80 hours in total – but it's definitely there. Of course, how long it actually takes to get rid of them depends on how they are used, but 10 hours in the buds themselves, they are comfortably the longest lasting in the anker range inside the ear and will last a long time after many similarly priced competitors have occupied. I barely had to ship them during the review period.
The app also allows you to customize the controls, with multiple functions available for single and double clicks, including playback and volume, as well as a two-second press which is better for switching between noise cancellation modes or calling the phone's voice assistant. As with a lot of touch-sensitive controls, it takes a while to get used to and there's a slight lag before they interact, but once you save what each element does, it works effectively. Click commands are turned off once by default and it's probably worth leaving them that way because it's very easy to trigger them by accident.
In terms of codec support, they'll be happy to run SBC and AAC which is one of the few non-Sony products that has LDAC – a high-resolution audio format not available if you're using an iPhone, but it's widely available on android.
Noise cancellation is effective against a low-level jibber-jabber supermarket and the like, and it will certainly reduce the volume of traffic passing when walking down the street, but don't expect it to plunge you into a bubble of absolute silence.
It is also worth noting how strong the Bluetooth connection is. A lot of cheaper headphones suffer from accidental leaks, but they've been flawless all the time I've tested them.
Sound quality
Well-balanced performance
Detailed, vibrant sound
Effective noise cancellation
Even without using LDAC, the sound quality of the Space A40 is great, with a pleasant balance across the full frequency range when using the default EQ settings.
The simple drums in Julia Jacklin's Moviegoers look clean and natural, the Twin Peaks-esque guitar line echoes gently, and the Australian singer's vocals are clear and vibrant. They have a good sense of space too, with the strings at BADBADNOTGOOD's In Your Eyes offering a nice, spacious sound stage. Switch to something more vocal and unrelenting, as The Jesus Lizard's Mouth Breather sounds exactly as it is supposed to, while the drums are appropriately large and loud.
They are not the most attractive shoots, but this does not mean that they lack low attractiveness. J Dilla's Motor City 17 beats gently, Nas's NY State of Mind hits just as it should, and The Smile's Skrting on the Surface bass line is taut and reliable without beating the brass parts or intricate guitar.
It wouldn't be fair to say that these headphones lack the candid music that separates the best headphones from the rest, but those who have never spent more than £100 on a pair of these headphones will not notice it and will be more than satisfied with how it is done. A40 audio. They can easily pass for a more expensive pair.
