Soundcore Space One review: 42 hours of cancellation, at a third of flagship money

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Battery figures on headphone boxes are written by the people selling them, and they generally flatter. This is the uncommon case where independent measurement came in above the claim.

Anker quotes 40 hours with cancellation running. SoundGuys measured 42 hours and 57 minutes.

The verdict, before the detail

If the object is to make a cabin quieter rather than to hear a recording accurately, this is the least you can spend and still get the job done properly.

It discounts frequently, so the list price is rarely the price — check what it costs today.

The Space One is the mainstream cancelling headphone from Soundcore, which is Anker's audio brand. It is positioned below the flagships on purpose, not by accident.

It sits at roughly a third of what a Sony WH-1000XM5 or a Bose QuietComfort trades at. That gap is the whole argument, and everything below is an assessment of what the gap costs you.

The hardware is a 265-gram over-ear with 40mm drivers and Bluetooth 5.3. A 3.5mm cable is included, which is the only way to route in-flight entertainment through your own headphones.

Weight265 gANC on40 h claimed, 42 h 57 m measuredANC off55 hFast charge5 min → 4 hCodecsLDAC, AAC, SBCWired3.5mm included

What the money buys

A battery that outruns its own specification

Manufacturers round in their own favour, so a tested figure above the printed one is unusual enough to be worth stating plainly.

Forty-three hours with cancellation on covers a long-haul return, the waiting at both ends, and a fortnight of commuting afterwards. Charging becomes something you remember monthly.

Five minutes at a socket returns four hours of listening

This ratio matters precisely once: at the gate, when the headphones turn out to be flat and boarding has been called.

Four hours covers most flights a person takes without planning for them. It is a modest specification that removes a specific and recurring irritation.

LDAC and multipoint, at a price where both are usually the first cuts

LDAC carries around three times the data of SBC and is normally absent at this end of the market. Here it is present, if seldom decisive.

Multipoint is the more useful of the pair day to day. A phone and a laptop stay connected simultaneously, so answering a call does not mean re-pairing anything.

Those are the numbers — see what it costs today.

Where the savings were made

The tuning leans heavily on the bass

Reviews agree on the direction of this. The low end is boosted enough to crowd the middle and upper registers, and the app's equaliser shifts it only modestly.

For podcasts, audiobooks and streamed pop that is unobjectionable. For listening to music attentively, it is the wrong purchase at any price.

The build feels its price, and the hinge is the part to watch

Finish quality draws consistent remarks, and the hinge is named repeatedly as the likely long-term failure point. A headphone folded and unfolded twice a day is exactly the case that finds out.

Wear detection — the automatic pause when they come off — is also reported as unreliable. Some find them heavy at first, though reviewers who persisted a fortnight generally stopped noticing.

Who this suits

A good fit if you

• Want a first cancelling headphone and have no intention of spending flagship money on one
• Fly long-haul and would rather forget about charging than manage it
• Listen to podcasts, audiobooks and streamed music rather than listening attentively

Look elsewhere if you

• Value accurate mids and treble above outright quiet
• Fold and unfold your headphones several times daily and want the build to outlast the battery

Still on your list? See today's price.

What to pay

The list price is largely notional. Soundcore discounts this model routinely and sale events have taken it appreciably lower still.

That changes the usual advice. There is little point waiting for a discount when discounts arrive constantly — buy it when you need it, at whatever the current price happens to be.

Check today's price on AmazonSoundcore Space One →

Questions people ask before buying

Is budget cancellation enough for a long-haul flight?

For engine drone, largely yes. Steady low-frequency noise is the easiest thing for any cancelling system to remove, and this one removes most of it. Louder and more variable cabins are where a flagship pulls ahead.

Do over-ear headphones cancel more than earbuds?

Across the low frequencies that dominate an aircraft or a train, yes, because the cup adds physical isolation on top of the electronics. We set out both cases in over-ear vs in-ear noise cancelling.

Does LDAC support change what you hear?

Seldom, and by less than the specification implies. The bass tuning shapes the sound here far more than the codec does.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post contains affiliate links. We were not given this product and were not paid to write about it.