Today, we’re going to look at Soundcore’s brand new Space series, which focuses on noise cancellation and ultra-long battery life. Here we have two new products, the Soundcore Space A40 earbuds and the Q45 over-ear headphones.
We’ll cover both styles’ specs and features, depending on how you listen. Q45 headphones replace the Life Q35. Today we will discuss how the 45S improves on those and whether upgrading from the Q30 and 35S is worth it.
Design
The A40 is Soundcore’s smallest, making it portable. It has a matte finish and is heavier than expected to give it a premium feel. The case has a weighted lid, LED indicators, and a pairing button next to the USB charging port. The earbuds are sleek and tiny.
The Soundcore Q45’s matte exterior, refined shape, and aluminum hinges make it look more luxurious than previous models.
These are the best ANC headphones, especially in black. Again, this is a sleek and minimal design, but the glossy ring around each ear cup complements the reflective sound core logo and space branding to add luxury.
The Soundcore Q45’s roomier ear cups let your ears breathe better. The new ear cushions are softer, but the headband padding has been reduced, which seems odd. The clamping force is tighter, and the 45 is heavier than the 35, so you can feel the difference.
Soundcore App
Soundcore apps are also great. It has the most EQ presets of any audio app. The HearID feature is also great on the A40 earbuds. It adjusts sound to your hearing. Avoiding manual EQ saves time.
If HearID can’t capture your sound preference or you have the Q45 cans, you can manually EQ them with a wide range of EQ presets or a graphic EQ.
Connectivity
Bluetooth 5.2 is available for the AA40s, and Bluetooth 5.3 is available for the Q45s. They both support SBC, AAC, and LDAC, so they each provide a high-resolution codec, and the latency stability with LDAC was pretty good with both of them. Both were adequate for watching movies, but I would not recommend them for gaming.
The removal of NFC is a minor connectivity downgrade from the 35s. So you can’t tap your phone to the ear cup for instant pairing anymore, which is a shame.
However, the A40 and Q45 both support multi-point connectivity, allowing you to connect to two devices at the same time, and the feature works extremely well.
ANC
Both had good active noise cancellation. The Q45s were better at cancelling mid-range noise than the A40, so you’ll hear less human chatter and more silence in restaurants and cafes.
Battery Life
The boxes show Hi-Res certification. It must support LDAC and be able to play back up to 40 kHz, which is twice as much as the human ear can hear.
An ANC-enabled Q45 can play for 50 hours. ANC Soundcore lasts 65 hours. That’s 30% more than most popular noise-cancelling headphones.
The A40 earphones can last up to 8 hours with ANC on and 40 hours with their case, outperforming most other earphones. Hi-Res will affect your mileage. LDAC uses more energy than SBC or AAC.
Conclusion!
The Q45 sounds great and is well-built for its price. It has a firm clamp, but the thick cushions make it comfortable to wear for hours. I like that it has multipoint pairing, so I can connect my laptop and phone simultaneously. Hi-Res LDAC streaming can be enabled by power users, but not multipoint. Q45’s transparency and noise cancellation are excellent. It has a hard case and folds flat.
Controls are my only complaint. Since both earcups have buttons, it’s a learning curve. But overall, these are great headphones for the price.
The Soundcore Space A40 confuses me. These are good noise-canceling headphones that are also transparent. In gaming mode, it reduces latency.
However, these are better than the Liberty 3 Pro because they have a bigger battery, a more reliable Bluetooth signal, and no stuttering. That may sway some.
