Anker SoundCore 2 Review

Keep the music pumping no matter where you go with the powerful Anker SoundCore 2.

Anker has been the go to brand for plenty of top quality accessories over the past few years. From phone chargers to speakers, Anker seems to have the accessory that you need and with availability through Amazon and other online resellers, their products are easy and affordable to buy too.

Over the past few weeks, I've been testing one of Anker's most popular speakers, the Anker SoundCore 2. This affordable speaker is available to buy through numerous online resellers and with a retail price of just $39.99 it's much more affordable than similar products from Bose while retaining many of the same features.

Anker SoundCore 2 Review - Design

The Anker SoundCore 2 is a simple design. It's your basic speaker shape with a rugged rubberized finish that helps to shrug off knocks, bumps, and scrapes that other speakers would easily pick up on a day to day basis.

Measuring in at 2.13 x 6.5 x 1.77 (165mm*54mm*45mm) in and a reassuringly hefty weight of 1.74 lbs, this portable speaker is compact enough to fit in your pocket if need be, but most of us are going to carry the SoundCore 2 in a backpack where it hardly takes any room at all.

Anker's designers built the SoundCore 2 to surive a more rough and tumble life than most portable speakers, hence the rubberized finish, and the water resistant IPX5 nature of the speaker which includes a simple rubber door that protects the micro USB (for charging) and 3.5mm headphone jack.

Looking at the speaker we find a high-quality metal mesh front with subtle Anker logo that sits over the subwoofer and dual-driver spekaers, while the very top of the speaker has simple, chunky, buttons to control the Bluetooth, power, playback, and volume of the device.

Anker SoundCore 2 Review - Features

For $39.99 the Anker SoundCore 2 is surpriginly feature packed. Bluetooth lets the speaker connect to your phone, tablet, laptop or other devices with a range of around 66ft.

While Anker envisions that most users will use the SoundCore 2 for music playback they've also included a microphone in the design too so that you can still answer calls through the device too.

While we don't know the size of the battery in the SoundCore 2 the battery life is very very impressive. Anker claims 24 hours of playback from a single charge!

Lastly on the audio sign of things the Anker comes with 2x 6W drivers which promise clarity and deep bass.

Anker SoundCore 2 Review - Performance

So at $39.99 does the Anker SoundCore 2 have what it takes to battle in the portable speaker market? Well, in the bass department no it doesn't. Bass is weak on the SoundCore 2, but clarity is very good and volume levels are more than enough to fill a good sized garden with clear music.

On a recent camping trip, the SoundCore 2 provided 3 days solid evenings of audio and still has power leftover! And audio levels were more than adequate. What's really impressive is that on some nights the Anker SoundCore 2 spent a good deal of the evening in solid rain yet it continues to operate as well now as it did fresh out of the box.

Anker SoundCore 2 Review - Conclustion

We would have loved to hear the Anker SoundCore 2 had more powerful bass, but to be fair this is a $39.99 speaker, and the only products we've seen with more powerful bass are priced at well over $130 aren't water resistant and has a much shorter batter life.