Anker is a multi-faceted company having a hand in everything from portable chargers to cables to audio equipment under the Soundcore brand. The Anker Soundcore Life A2 NC earbuds is the latest addition to the company’s entry-level lineup, including 11mm drivers for powerful bass, 37 hours of battery life, and, most importantly, Active Noise Cancellation, a feature not commonly found in truly wireless earbuds under £59.99/ $46.19.
The Anker Soundcore Life A2 NC earbuds arrives at a time when the company is on a roll. Anker recently released numerous true wireless earbuds, including the flagship Liberty Air 2 Pro, and with the Life A2 NC, it now offers active noise canceling (ANC) at a lower price.
Anker’s Soundcore Life A2 NC earbuds are entry-level buds that start at £59.99/ $46.19 from Amazon in the UK and Anker in the US, despite the remarkable ANC and competitive battery life on offer.
The Life A2 NC buds are hard to match in the sub-£100/$100 wireless earbud market since they are difficult to get such a great-sounding set of buds at a low price.
From the form to the size of the touch panels, the Anker Soundcore Life A2 NC earbuds seems like that of the Liberty 2 Pro. The matte finish and black/dark silver color scheme are consistent with Anker’s prior offerings, giving these budget headphones a surprisingly luxurious appearance. IPX5 protection also protects against sweat and water.
The charging case is as fashionable as the buds themselves. Many people will find it useful for commuting because of its small size and lightweight. The form of the stone is also remarkable. Craftsmanship, which isn’t of the best quality, as the pricing suggests.
The lid is quite flimsy, and the plastic construction is a scuff-and-scratch magnet. Another concern is the poorly constructed protective flap that covers the USB-C connection, which constantly gets in the way while trying to attach the charging cable.
The Life A2 NC comes with a selection of ear tips and fins for the best possible fit, which it achieves to a high degree. The tips form a tight seal that keeps the buds in place on the ear while moving about, and the fins rest securely on the concha, preventing pressure from being applied to the ear. But particularly enjoyed how the angled sound port slid into the ear canal with ease.
Touch controls are included with the Life A2 NC, although they only work half of the time and are confined to double-tap and hold movements. You’ll need to spend some time deciding which commands to attach to each bud. Also lacking is on-ear recognition, which means you won’t be able to instantly pause music while removing the buds. At the very least, you’ll have access to a full range of settings, like playback, call handling, voice assistant, listening modes, & volume.
If only the touch panels were more responsive. The hold gesture was more effective, although it lacked latency, taking 1-2 seconds to cycle between the listening modes or activate the digital assistant.
Siri and Google Assistant are both available on the Life A2 NC and work reasonably well. Anker’s microphone array excels at speech recognition, capturing every word for Apple and Google’s AI bots to completely comprehend. However, be cautious when using the feature because the beep noise that signals you to talk is uncomfortably loud, regardless of the volume setting.
Knowing how well ANC worked on the Liberty Air 2 Pro, the Life A2 NC had a chance to be good. Dissatisfied with its noise neutralization, which does not “remove up to 90% of noise from your environment,” as Anker says. It’s closer to 50%, with the majority of exterior sounds intruding onto the soundstage.
Transport, Indoor, and Outdoor are the three main ANC modes to choose from. Each of these is designed to deal with varying amounts of ambient noise, but none of them makes a lasting impact. In fact, the modes were misplaced because the description on one was more applicable to the other.
Transport was the most usable, and while it didn’t perform the best job of muting low-end frequencies, it did a better job of quieting city noises than Outdoors.
Ambient Sound also failed to impress, as both of its modes (Fully Transparent and Vocal) performed identically and poorly.
In Anker’s current true wireless selection, the Life A2 NC isn’t the most musically balanced option. However, in the under-$100 category, its bottom end will surpass the majority of the competitors. Expect subpar mid- and high-ranges from these earbuds, but you may tweak the sounds to your liking by fiddling with the EQs in the companion app (more on that in the next section).
The Liberty Air 2 Pro not only improves the clarity of his scratchy rhymes, but it also better reproduces characteristic features like the “Human Nature” string sample, allowing you to hear it.
On melodic tracks like Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit,” reproduction took a plunge. The music was hardly inaudible. The soundstage emphasized background static more than Holiday’s heartfelt vocals, in my opinion. When listening to certain recordings, there was also some hissing; Method Man & Redman’s “A-YO” was a great example.
This is one of the few inexpensive Anker versions that work with Soundcore. Although you won’t have access to all of the features offered on the brand’s premium services, there are still some that will improve your user experience.
Let’s start with the EQ, which offers 22 presets built for certain video and music genres, as well as a programmable setting for creating your own audio profile. The bulk of these is worth checking out, particularly because the default EQ (Soundcore Signature) on these buds is sonically off. For hip-hop albums, Bass Booster and Hip-Hop come in helpful, and I recommend Spoken Word or Podcast for commentary clips or movies.
Ambient Sound and control customization toggles are available, as well as battery level indicators for each earbud. When you press the ellipsis on the top right, you’ll see a few extra options, including firmware updates, a toggle for Touch Tone, and an Auto Power Off setting that puts the buds to sleep when they’re not in use. If you enjoy finding indie artists and music, the LÜM music service is also available on the home screen.
HearID and Tip Fit Test are two more key features that aren’t available on the Life A2 NC. It’s common for Anker to save HearID for their more costly earbuds, but I’m not sure why Tip Fit Test isn’t included, especially when the business went out of its way to include many pairs of ear tips in various sizes with these buds.
Anker claims a 7-hour battery life but does not specify if this is with or without ANC enabled. It was the latter, according to a representative. When you consider listening modes and high volume, you get 4.5 hours. This will suffice for three days of light listening (1.5 hours daily). Still, it’s always frustrating to see any set of buds, let alone noise-canceling buds, have the same battery life as the AirPods Pro (4.5 hours).
When completely charged, the charging case can last up to 35 hours, amounting to around six further charges. It also outperforms the AirPods Pro (24 hours) and the Liberty Air 2 Pro in terms of battery life (26 hours). Keep in mind that the Life A2 NC’s case doesn’t enable wireless charging and has significantly slower fast charging: a 10-minute charge gets you 1.5 hours of playtime, but the Liberty Air 2 Pro’s case provides you double that amount of playtime on a 15-minute charge.
Noise cancellation is available on a budget with Soundcore’s Space NC over-the-ear Bluetooth headphones. If you want to listen to your favorite music in solitude, the Space NC will do the job for a fraction of the price of leading brands.
For 10 seconds, press and hold the case’s button until the earbud LED indicators to flash red three times and then turn white. Wait until one of the earbuds’ LED indicators flashes quickly while the other breaths gently. This indicates that the reset was successful and that your earbuds are now ready to use.
Volume control is available on the majority of wireless earphones. This is usually accomplished with a smart touch feature that allows you to adjust the volume by tapping either side of the earbuds.
The Anker Soundcore Life A2 NC buds are a great option if you’re searching for a budget-friendly pair of wireless earphones. There’s strong, solid bass that doesn’t drown out vocals, ANC with three presets customized to different environments, and a well-designed companion app that lets you modify the EQ, touch controls, and even the ANC mode on the fly. The battery life is nearly twice as long as the competitive Huawei Freebuds 3i, and it’s on pace with Apple’s premium AirPods Pro.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a pair of affordable wireless earbuds with a more well-rounded feature set than the Life A2 NC buds.
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