Anker Soundcore Space One Pro Review

Anker's Soundcore range has long specialised in undercutting the big noise-cancelling names, and the Space One Pro is its most ambitious over-ear attempt yet. The lab verdict says the ambition landed: a "very good" (1.4), currently 17th of 56 Bluetooth headphones tested — and, unusually for a dynamic ranking, its grade has actually improved since launch as the field around it grew.

At a light 290 g the Space One Pro sits comfortably and generates barely any warmth on the ears — ideal for long sessions. The one cosmetic gripe from testing: the ear pads can feel slightly tacky and occasionally wrinkle, a small mismatch with an otherwise premium build that scored "very good" (1.4) for workmanship, alongside "good" (2.0) for fit and adjustment.

The party trick is the fold. The headphones collapse into a genuinely compact travel bundle — a clever piece of design — though the included case is only a simple cloth pouch; a semi-open hard case is sold separately. A 3.5 mm audio cable and USB-C charging cable complete the box, and the analogue jack keeps working even with the battery flat or the headphones switched off.

Bluetooth 5.3 with multipoint lets the headphones hold connections to several devices and hop between them, and the measured Bluetooth range earned a perfect "very good" (1.0). The Soundcore app is one of the richest at this price: exact battery percentage, remappable buttons, noise-cancelling adjustment, at-ear volume measurement, and an extensive equaliser with presets and guided hearing tests.

The equaliser also houses the test's clearest software criticism: its bands interact, so adjusting one frequency region audibly shifts others — raise the treble and the bass recedes. Fine-tuning becomes trial and error. On codecs, there is no aptX; the official listing specifies Hi-Res wireless audio with LDAC instead.

The default tuning is powerful, with rich bass, pleasingly deep sub-bass and clear, detailed vocal reproduction. Two limits emerged in listening: the upper bass loses some precision and can sound slightly woolly, and the treble lacks a final degree of brilliance — high frequencies stay a touch reserved, leaving the overall picture occasionally a shade damped. The equaliser can chase these tendencies, within the band-interaction caveat above.

The ANC system offers five strength levels plus an adaptive mode and wind-noise reduction. Monotonous sources — fan hum, engine drone — are removed almost completely, and the system copes well with changing environments too, which is exactly the profile you want for offices, aircraft and public transport.

Call quality splits by setting. In quiet surroundings voices come across clear and clean; in louder places intelligibility dips as the aggressive filtering of high frequencies leaves the voice slightly dull and boomy. Background noise is not transmitted to the other side at all, so the caller is barely disturbed by their surroundings — excellent for quiet rooms, usable with caveats in noise.

The measurements are outstanding. Without noise cancelling the Space One Pro ran for 69 hours 16 minutes — an excellent figure — and with ANC active it still managed 30 hours 6 minutes. Charging is quick at 1 hour 25 minutes, and a 15-minute top-up alone delivers 9 hours 47 minutes of playback without ANC, or 8 hours 38 minutes with it. For long-haul travel or heavy daily use, this is the category's endurance benchmark territory.

The overall grade weights sound quality at 40 per cent, noise cancelling at 20, mobility and comfort at 15 each and equipment at 10. The ranking is dynamic — the class leader sets the benchmark and every product re-scores as the field moves. First tested in February 2025, the Space One Pro entered at 10th of 34 with a "very good" (1.5); today it stands 17th of 56, with the grade itself edging up to 1.4 and a price assessment of "inexpensive" — mid-table placement in a far larger field, on unchanged strengths.

At the time of writing, Amazon UK lists the Space One Pro in Jet Black at £149.00, new, sold by Anker's official AnkerDirect UK storefront; a Cream White version is listed alongside it. Shoppers should read listings carefully here: renewed units circulate at noticeably lower prices on the same search results, and this page's price refers to a new unit only.

The Space One Pro delivers the things that are expensive to engineer — near-benchmark battery life, genuinely effective adaptive noise cancelling, strong build, multipoint and a travel-friendly folding design — and economises on the things that are cheap to forgive, like the cloth-pouch case and a slightly reserved treble. The fiddly equaliser and the softer call quality in noise are the honest asterisks. As a complete package at its price, it more than earns its "very good": most of the flagship experience, for a fraction of the flagship money.