Anker Soundcore Life P3 review: Cheap noise-cancelling earbuds impress
Our Verdict
The Anker Soundcore Life P3 is a pleasantly surprising pair of earbuds, with strong sound that matches its powerful dissonance cancellation — all for less than $80.
For
- Customizable, warm sound
- Surprisingly good ANC for the price
- Numerous features via Soundcore app
- BassUp engineering science has been improved
- Lengthy playtimes
Against
- Mediocre phone call quality
- Finicky touch controls
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Anker Soundcore Life P3 is a pleasantly surprising pair of earbuds, with strong sound that matches its powerful racket counterfoil — all for less than $eighty.
Pros
- +
Customizable, warm audio
- +
Surprisingly good ANC for the price
- +
Numerous features via Soundcore app
- +
BassUp engineering has been improved
- +
Lengthy playtimes
Cons
- -
Mediocre call quality
- -
Finicky bear on controls
Anker Soundcore Life P3 specs
Cost: $79
Colors:Black, Navy Blue, Oat White, Sky Blue, and Coral Red
Bombardment life (rated): half-dozen hours (ANC on), vii hours (ANC off), 30 hours (with charging example and ANC on), 35 hours (with charging instance and ANC off)
Connectivity: Bluetooth five.0
Processor: BES2300Y
Size: 1.5 ten 0.nine x 0.9 inches (per bud), 2.4 x 2 x i.2 inches (charging example)
Weight: 0.2 ounces (per bud), 1.viii ounces (charging instance)
Anker continues its tendency of stealth releases, recently dropping the Soundcore Life P3 out of nowhere. This production essentially replaces the disappointing Life A2 NC as the brand'south flagship ANC model under $100. It comes with bassy audio and enough features to requite even the best noise-cancelling earbuds interruption.
Aesthetics have been upgraded to give this third-gen version moisture and h2o protection, while battery life has been increased to enjoy playback for several hours. Nonetheless, not everything runs smoothly on the Life P3: phone call quality and the touch controls aren't as reliable every bit one would expect from a new release. Are these deal-breakers? Read our Anker Soundcore Life P3 review to see whether these drawbacks even matter when breaking down overall performance.
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Anker Soundcore Life P3 review: Toll and availability
- $79 MSRP
- Five color options
The Anker Soundcore Life P3 is bachelor from Anker or Amazon. It will run you $79 and is sold in v colors: Black, Coral Red, Navy Blue, Oat White, and Sky Blue.
Anker provides great dissonance neutralization and sound for less than half the price of the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro ($199) and most a 3rd of the AirPods Pro ($249). If you lot're seeking wireless earbuds with tenable ANC for a lower cost, the Edifier TWS NBQ ($59) is worth a look.
For all of the latest headphones sales, bookmark our all-time headphones deals page.
Anker Soundcore Life P3 review: Pattern and comfort
- Deadening, merely practical
- Fit is comfortable enough
The Life P series isn't exactly known for its looks. A redesign would have been appreciated for the Life P3, but, instead, we're given the same unibody build with long-stem silhouette and minimalist details. These buds exercise bear more resemblance to the Freedom Air two Pro rather than the Life P2, except they have protruding bear upon panels and bigger mic enclosures for "boosted phone call quality." The Soundcore logo is nicely printed at the top and the shiny matte terminate is elegant.
Structure is sturdy with the all-plastic frame capable of withstanding the daily abuse you'll put these buds through; they won't crack open if dropped from a high distance. IPX5 water resistance ensures protection against rain and sweat, too.
The pebble-shaped charging instance besides looks like to the Freedom Air 2 Pro case, only instead of a slide-up door, it has a flimsy lid height to open or close shut. Size is perfect for portability, and the example tin can be conveniently stored in denim pockets or any travel pocketbook. I like the soft touch finish with imprinted logo on top. Placing a Bluetooth button in the middle is a thoughtful gesture that comes in handy when you need to manually pair the buds.
Moderately comfortable is one way to describe wearing the Life P3. The buds rest pleasantly on the ears, though your concha might experience sore after almost 2 to 3 hours of use, which is a longer stretch than what nearly other wireless earbuds requite you. Fit is fine with the ear tips creating a tight seal around the ear for proper stabilization.
Anker also took a page out of Apple's playbook and developed its own Ear Fit Tip Exam, which analyzes your ears to determine the best fit for optimal performance. It's OK, just I thought Apple'southward and Sony's versions generated improve feedback; with the Life P3, the answers were similar no thing which size tips I installed.
Anker Soundcore Life P3 review: Controls and digital assistant
- Supports assistants, but non hands-costless activation
- Touch controls can be unresponsive
The Life P3'due south control scheme consists of digital aid and tap/hold gestures, which are a mixed bag. Google Assistant and Siri work well, interpreting and executing voice commands correctly. My but issue is the piercingly loud prompt when activating Google Assistant on Android devices – there'due south no way to set up this. I also would have loved to run across vocalism activation, but the buds won't respond to the "Hey Siri" or "Hey Google" activity phrase.
Anker programmed the Life P3 with a full suite of media controls, including playback, volume, and listening manner activation only to proper name a few. These can be assigned to single and double taps or a 2-2d hold. If merely the touch panels were more responsive to taps. Multiple attempts were frequently required to trigger an activity.
Sadly, Anker left on-ear detection off the spec sheet, so the buds won't automatically pause when removing them from your ears or resume playback when placed back on.
Anker Soundcore Life P3 review: Sound quality
- Strong bass at slight cost of mids and treble
- Gaming mode for minimal latency
The default Soundcore Signature EQ runs the show and produces warm, satisfying sound. A BassUp toggle was added to the setting for increased bass response. Those familiar with Anker headphones know about this tech; it'south been a bit gimmicky in the past, but it's improved on the Life P3 and works well. If you're the type that wants rumbling lows blasting through the 11-millimeter drivers, enabling BassUp will exit a Joker-similar smile on your face up. Just know that clarity takes a hitting in certain areas.
LL Cool J's "Murdergram" put on a headbanging clinic, led by fiery rhymes and rattling uptempo drums that blended superbly over the ominous bass loop. Despite this recording existence a live performance, the overall production sounded tight. Even understated sonic elements like the crowd interaction and siren-like effects were given shine. Disabling BassUp toned downwardly the depression stop, but it even so packed a mean punch when listening with ANC on.
The Life P3 clearly favors bouncy, contemporary music genres, but also performs decently in others. On acoustic tracks like Sam Smith's "Latch," mids were well represented with vocals conveying strong over the melodic piano-inspired backdrop. Turning on BassUp did bring down the quality.
There isn't much loftier-terminate presence on these buds either. While I could hear the steady hello-hats on Ahmad Jamal'south "The Enkindling," they lacked emphasis and got lost in the background once louder instruments and notes were played.
Anker also adult a Gaming Mode that advertises less latency and enhanced audio effects when mobile gaming. Notwithstanding, there is one caveat: the inform tab states that connectedness instability may occur. I don't practice much mobile gaming, but from the xxx minutes that I played Mario Kart Tour, the only major connectivity issue I encountered was the startup screen taking longer than expected to load. Those with detailed hearing may detect that the drifting and weapon effects audio better than when listening in standard mode.
Codec support is limited to ACC and SBC; aptX would take ensured the best streaming quality possible.
Anker Soundcore Life P3 review: Active noise cancellation
- Three different ANC modes
- Not a huge deviation between them, but they're effective
In that location are 3 levels of agile dissonance cancellation on the Life P3: Transport, Indoor, and Outdoor. The differences between them are marginal, just the good news is that all 3 are effective at blocking out distracting dissonance.
Send was designed to target depression-end frequencies similar engines and road racket, and does the least convincing job of making you feel that it offers a unique ANC experience. Yous may non even be able to tell it apart from Outdoor, which is better engineered to deal with environmental noises. On walks, I barely heard cars whisking by and joggers using their Apple AirPods for calls. Further fracas like the barge piece of work taking place on the waterway near our house was silent. Neither ANC mode is strong enough to put a kibosh on high frequencies, but they do an beauteous job of minimizing them; ambulance sirens and crying babies don't audio and then loud.
Indoors was my favorite of the three and served well during office hours. I managed to block out my wife's Zoom calls, along with door buzzers, loud TVs, and kitchen appliances running in the kitchen. This mode also decreases bustling noises at a loftier level; the centralized Air conditioning unit and deep freezer never distracted me. Trying to avoid my infant's intense cries wasn't so easy, though at to the lowest degree the Life P3 fabricated his grunting less noticeable.
At that place's also a ii-level Transparency Mode to either proceeds greater awareness of your environment (Fully Transparent) or emphasize vocals to hear people speak more clearly (Vocal Manner). Neither option worked also as I would have liked. I had to drop the volume to l% in order to hear people speaking, and even then, I could barely make out their words. Some external sounds came off harsh and were difficult to identify.
Anker Soundcore Life P3 review: App and special features
- Very feature-rich app
- Huge amount of EQ presets and audio modes
It seems similar the Soundcore app continues to abound with every new headphone release, which works for me. Much of the same functionality remains intact, but you might observe one or 2 actress features that have been thrown into the mix. ANC, Ambient Sound, BassUp, Gaming Mode, control customization, and the Tip Fit Examination have already been discussed. Let'due south get to the rest of the goodies.
When opening the app, all optics volition be directed towards the Equalizer, which has 22 presets and lets yous create sound profiles past tweaking frequency levels. I can tell Anker has worked hard to meliorate most of the EQs, offering up more variety to complement all music genres along with content like movies, podcasts and eBooks.
Anker also created a soundscapes way (Superior Sleep) to help amend your sleep. I don't see anyone wanting to wear earbuds overnight, even if white noise helps earn them a cracking night's rest. What I will say is that the 11 different sound profiles assist to relieve any feet or tension you're experiencing throughout the solar day.
Yous also have admission to the LÜM music service, which is bachelor on the app'southward homepage and lets you discover thousands of contained artists. Bombardment level indicators for the earbuds, toggle controls, firmware updates, a quick first guide, and a Find Device setting round out the Soundcore app.
Anker Soundcore Life P3 review: Bombardment life and charging instance
- Ameliorate longevity than AirPods Pro
- Decent fast-charging
Anker rates battery life at 6 hours with ANC on. Our testing saw the buds last v.5 hours when using the characteristic, which is shut enough. Playtime can be extended to 7 hours when turning off ANC, but volume, streaming, and other special features drops it by 30 minutes to i hr. No complaints here, peculiarly since this is more the industry-average time prepare by the regular AirPods: 5 hours. Not to mention ANC playback is higher than the AirPods Pro (5.5. hours). A full charge should be OK for a few days of moderate listening.
The charging case holds an additional 24 hours, giving it a max chapters of 35 hours. Again, a much higher amount to work with compared to the AirPods Pro charging case (24 hours). Anker added wireless charging for proficient measure.
Quick charging is not mentioned on the Life P3's production page, simply its spec sail lists the fast-charging time at 10 minutes for 2 hours. I saw battery levels increase from 70 percent to ninety percent in 5 minutes. Anker states that fully charging the buds takes two hours, while the charging case takes 3 hours.
Anker Soundcore Life P3 review: Call quality and connectivity
- Respectable mic performance in most conditions
- Only Bluetooth 5.0, but works reliably
I'd place telephone call quality at above boilerplate. The Life P3 is most serviceable indoors for voice and video calls. My married woman mentioned that volume and clarity were nigh every bit practiced equally if I was talking straight through the phone, at least until I walked into the laundry room, where clicks and other noises produced by the washer made their way into our conversation. Talking exterior was a bit polarizing, equally the mics managed to block out the majority of groundwork sounds,, withal calls had an repeat-similar upshot as if I was speaking in a small room. This made communicating hard.
These buds run on Bluetooth 5.0 and go you stable connectivity. Pairing to mobile devices and laptops was instantaneous and re-pairing to my last connected device was even quicker. It would have been dainty if the Life P3 received Bluetooth 5.2, peculiarly when seeing other upkeep audio brands like EarFun and Tribit featuring the technology on their newest releases. In improver, multipoint technology, which would have allowed users to connect the buds to two devices simultaneously.
Anker Soundcore Life P3 review: Verdict
Anker gets affordable ANC right on the Soundcore Life P3, presenting an acceptable noise-cancelling solution that is attainable for all. It won't outperform the Liberty Air 2 Pro in well-nigh areas, simply the fact that it'south capable of going toe-to-toe with its pricier, more than powerful sibling says a lot.
The Life P3 beats the AirPods Pro in standard audio performance (not including spatial audio), pumping out dynamic lows and solid mids. Versatile ANC gives you multiple ways to block out ambient noise in diverse settings. Battery life is likewise sufficient, no matter what listening fashion or features you lot employ.
If the wearisome design or finicky controls seem like deal-breakers, the Beats Studio Buds ($149) are another relatively affordable competitor worth checking out. Otherwise, don't hesitate to spend the $80 on these buds, and fifty-fifty consider gifting a pair to someone if y'all're feeling generous.
- More: The best headphones with a mic for voice and video calls
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/anker-soundcore-life-p3
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