Soundcore Spirit X 2019 Version

My 5 star review is based on the very reasonable purchase price of the Soundcore Spirit X wireless earphones. Background = for decades I have always been into sound/music. I always researched and purchased quality equipment. Most times this equipment was well priced high end equipment. I know sound and what its supposed to sound like, the ideal is to have the equipment reproduce as close as possible to what was recorded in the recording studio as this was how the artist intended their work to be presented. Anyway, new iPhone, Apple Music Subscription and more time on my hands to kick back a little and get back into this stuff. After reading up hundreds of different reviews and products I narrowed down the list to a select few. The Soundcore Spirit X was on that list and here is my review; Ready? All I can say is WOW! The Soundcore Spirit X in my opinion is a gem of a find. This is the one I kept after trying quite a few earphones. For the price, you get a wonderful sound, fantastic battery life and to me, nice build quality. I held off writing this review for a couple weeks, making sure of everything I was going to write and also to maybe pick up on a flaw or two. I just cant find any, so instead of rambling on I will highlight my thoughts. Pro- *Seamless blue tooth paring/operation and range. Just wonderful, I can walk around my 3000 sq ft home and never an issue losing my bluetooth signal. *Battery life is fantastic, I struggle to remember when I last charged them, I think only once in two weeks and many times I use these if I wake up during the night, Ill lay in bed listen to music with them on, fall asleep and wake up later with them still playing. * Comfort for my ears are terrific, I use the larger set of supplied silicone tips, they are very comfortable, in fact, really the Soundcores were the only earbuds where I did not feel any pain, as we know earbuds really need to fit right for proper sound and with others, I felt like I really had to push them in hard to get that sound, not so much with the Soundcore Spirit X. * Controls, for me, worked perfect paired with my iPhone XR, allowing me to skip songs, raise and lower volume. When powering up the earbuds, they seamlessly connect without a thought, when I turn them off, they seamlessly turn off my iPhone music. *** Sound! Wow! I am soooo impressed, nice balanced sound, thank goodness, sometimes its hard to get good sound at a lower cost, many manufacturers boast bass at the cost of the midrange and sometimes the treble on cheap equipment. Well if you truly want to hear nice clear vocals and instruments in the midrange, boasting bass too unreasonably kills the experience. The Soundcore Spirit X to me sounds much more accurate like a much more expensive product of the name brands many of us know. I personally feel, the SoundCore sounds just as good or the same or better then products 4 and 5 times its price. Cons - In this price range, I have to admit and this is true. I can not for the life of me think of anything negative to say about this product. What more can I ask for? A well made product with great sound, great bluetooth, great performance, I guess only time will tell reliability but that goes the same for products 5 times the cost. Summary and other thoughts- I highly recommend this product (in case you haven't noticed*L*) Well priced, I love having a wire from one earphone to the other, its so much easy yo manage and not lose anything, it also eliminates issues you read about regarding earphones/earbuds without a wire that dont connect properly etc. The wire also is great when you want to pull them off for a second or two or when your laying in bed, reach onto your night stand to put them on, it doesnt turn into a project. Then, last and besides the sound, battery life that will blow you away compared to true wireless earbuds, never would I settle for less then 12 hours in any device, at 18 hours I am well covered. Last thing I want to do is run out of a charge.

Pros: - Extremely comfortable, I even sleep with these on and they stay on my ears. Sometimes I feel like I'm not eveen wearing anything. I think the reason why it's so comfortable is because of the flexible rubbery thing that goes over your ears. - Very long battery life, I use these pretty much all day and don't even have to recharge it. I can't even remember it ever getting low, and I usually charge it once every 1-2 days - Very durable, I feel like it's kind of indestructible the way it's built - I keep it in my pockets all day and throw it around and it doesn't get damaged, again I think because of the rubber thing, which is a genius design imo. - Stylish, much more than I'd expected - Versatile because of design (much better than truly wireless earphones, which I've tried before). You can wear it only on one side comfortably if you want. - Great sound quality, although I'm not an audiophile. It sort of sounds like you're listening to live music. I've only owned a few headphones in my life, though, and the max I've ever spent was like $45 on a pair. - Awesome, discreet charging port - A lot of options so that they fit your ears better; personally, I had to swap the sizes and found it way more comfortable after. Cons: - Very minor, but sometimes I find the buttons are a little annoying to use. They are a bit stiff, occasionally takes long to respond, somewhat unintuitive? Not really something I care about, because the earphones are amazing overall, but if I had to list a con, this would be it. I really love these headphones. I'm shocked by how good they are overall, especially in terms of comfort. It's a genius design imo, and compared to a lot of other more popular brands (Airpods), it is DEFINITELY worth purchasing. I would love to comment more in-detail about the sound, but I don't want to mislead real audiophiles out there. All I can say is that I am completely content with the sound. I HIGHLY recommend these headphones to anyone considering them. I initially purchased the older model, but it took too long to arrive, so I decided to buy this one and I'm soo happy I did.

Overall the headset is pretty good. I have enjoyed most of the Anker products. This style is a change for me, typically stick with the single BT unit for my phone(s) but really looking for something with extended battery and this certainly has it. Haven't timed it but had gone 3 days without recharging the unit and it wasn't dead yet, typically use my BT between 3-6hrs daily. Sound quality is fine for me but I'm no audiophile so what do I know, but I would say there isn't any deep bass and I'm okay with that - typically listen to talk radio and some comedy thru it. If I want music thru my phone I end up with the Anker portable BT speaker instead. Does have the capability to connect to 2 phones. Doesn't fall out of my ear. Default attachments are comfortable for me, can wear it all day no issues unlike most mono/single BT units (although much larger than most). Initially MIC pickup seemed to be kinda crummy but that is likely more to do with the cord and slippage, when it stays in where it should then usually seems fine but in noisy area might not be the best. Now, it is a bit bulky around the ears but I typically only have 1 side in, unless in noisy area when talking on phone, then having the 2 earbuds is great. However, as stated above it is comfortable even being bulky and seems fairly durable. Also can wear it in bed (not all night) to listen to audio without disturbing my sleeping wife. Do whish the over ear portion was either removable or adjustable; however, after a week I'm now comfortable with it. BT reception is better than my last few mono BT - more solid signal through walls/floors at work. At least with the dual corded setup I can take the earbud(s) out completely and not have to worry about leaving it somewhere to then forget or lose it as they rest right there on my chest. I do wish the cord was a bit longer, maybe about 2 inches. Would also have appreciated 2 x collar clips (comes with 1) which can work perfectly for the 1 side for the controls/mic; however, the cord is nearly impossible to get it to stay in place. What I had to do was use one of the circular cord holders to place between the controller and the clip (right next to the clip) so that the cord wouldn't keep slipping. Otherwise the cord would slip through and when turning my head to the left it would then tug on the earpiece as the cord was now too short. Also this would cause the control/mic to hang too far to the back and thus not pickup my speech as well. The little round cord holder at that spot works perfect to keep the controller at perfect length and not slip. Think it would also be an upgrade to include magnets on the earpieces (at the tip that is sticking out from your ear) so that when both are off they can stick together to keep them from flopping around as much. The only real major issue I have is that the multipoint does not consistently connect to both phones. So far out of 1 week I had only 1 day that it reconnected to both phones on startup in the morning. Half the time off/on again will connect to both. Otherwise I have to re-pair the whichever phone it doesn't reconnect to, which is not always the same. That involves forgetting the unit, Scan, pair it up again. Bit of a hassle and this is one of the primary points of getting this headset. However, once I know it isn't connected then it just takes a minute to set it up. Overall a good unit for the pricepoint. I have paid $30+ for mono sets that have less than 1/3 the charge, BT 5 but not as good of signal, and well they are mono sound. Can be a bit annoying on the multipoint, that certainly can be improved upon.

For the price I'd wager you can't beat these headphones. Best standout features are how well they stay in my ears when im doing dynamic exercises or running- which has usually been a big problem with nearly every other bluetooth headphones I've tried. And they are comfortable to wear. Next, the battery life is pretty phenomenal. It seems like I rarely have to charge them. And when I do they charge quickly. I also appreciate how it tells you the remaining battery level when you turn them on. Sounds quality seems pretty good. I have zero complaints here. Durability- I had to buy a second pair because I left my first in the laundry and it went through a wash- to which it aaaalmost survived. One bud was totally fine but the other has some reverberation issues which got worse over time. Impressive considering the cost. Only con I can think of is sometimes I have issues connecting it to some of my devices- Namely my windows surface laptop but I'm nearly certain that is more the laptop being a POS and not the headphones.

I've now owned two sets of these headphones. The first set was lost so they were not replaced for a mechanical failure. The current set that I have is close to two years old. I have gotten an incredible amount of use out of these headphones. I basically bring them everywhere with me, and I've used them for phone calls and music for hundreds of collective hours (mainly music or podcasts). I've used them at the gym. office, care, hiking, shopping, etc. I've used them in virtually every capacity that someone who is looking to avoid overhearing random strangers conversations can use them. One complaint that I have is that the earpieces can come detached if a some force is applied, but it takes a little bit of force. There is also value of them detaching because they come in various sizes to fit different sized ear canals. It also seems that occasionally someone will complain about the quality of the audio during a phone conversation. This is not a continuous complaint, and it did not seem to occur until over a year of incredibly regular use. They are not active noise cancelling, but they do fit fairly snuggly into the your ear canal with the right setting, and they stay in place since they loop over your ear. This is why they are great for physical activities. The little hook that comes with them is less than ideal, but it also is not vital. It is meant to attach the headphones onto your shirt, but they will pretty much stay around your neck without the hook. As a matter of fact, I've not used the hook very much because I have trouble getting it to stay attached to the headphones. I still give the headphones 5 stars overall because of the high quality of sound and the incredible durability. These are the first headphones that I've owned (besides one pair of higher end, over the ear noise cancelling headphones which I rarely use) that have not had one of the ear pieces cease to function within 3-4 months. These headphones, and likely their future iterations, are the best investment I've made in headphones. I can't say that the completely wireless headphones that fit in your ear are not better in some respects (I have not owned a pair yet), but there is no way they stay in your ear better than these headphones. You won't regret this purchase.

These earphones are very good. I use them for cycling outdoors and on an indoor bike trainer. They stay on and don't move at all even when sweating. I was hesitant because of the earhook. I've tried many of these type in the past, but they bothered the back of my ears. These are super comfortable and flexible! Really surprised me. In fact I barely notice the earhooks. If they do begin to bother me after a long time wearing them, i just reach up and slightly adjust them. The longest I've had them on for is 1hr, 45 minutes. I also use these with my Samsung phone Acer Laptop and Sandisk MP3 player. They sound very good to me. That said, I am not a person who is into heavy bass or super crystal clear sound. I use them for listening to music while working out and around my place. Again, they sound really good to me. Instead of putting the cord behind my neck like most probably do, I put them in front of my neck but loosely let them hang. I tighten them up and the cord does not interfere with anything I do. The reason I put them in front instead of the back of my neck is that can't stand having the cord on my neck - drives me insane. Don't know if they are recommended to use this way. Putting them in front does not loosen them from my ears or change how comfortable they are. Another big reason I put them in front is that it is soo much easier to press the volume buttons or answer a phone call. If I put them on the back of my neck this would be much harder. Especially when cycling outdoors I don't want to reach up behind my neck to press the buttons. I walk all around my house and the music never changes. I live in a 1200 sq. feet home. So I can do chores around my place and they are perfect for that. The buttons are easy to find and are easy to press. The only issue I had was pairing them with my different devices. It took some time for me to figure out. The directions are not that great for lotta help. That is why we have YouTube. Found a couple helpful ones. After pairing them things work great. You can pair with 2 devices simultaneously. They do come with different size ear buds. I just stayed with those that were on the set. They have a clip for your clothing. I didn't try the clip so I can't offer an opinion. It comes with different sizes of the piece that holds the ear bud against your ear. Yeah I know this doesn't make sense. If I only knew what that piece is called. Maybe if someone knows that name, please let us know. Sorry!! I did not use any of the extras of these thing! :) Stuff that I don't much care about but some of you might. The box the device, extra pieces and manual (weak manual) is damn nice. If it came in a brown paper bag I would be happy. The play time seems in line with what is described. Lastly, I don't like ear buds without any wire for cycling, I don't trust if I crashed or hit a big bump that they would stay in. If these fell out it would have to be a catastrophe. Plus with the wire they'd be easy to find. Good luck!

I've had these a few weeks now, and they are perfect for my workout use. I tried a pair of true wireless buds I bought from a crowdfunding campaign, and while they were good in most respects, and I loved the complete lack of wires, they simply could not keep a stable connection between them with all the interference in the gym. Obviously that's not an issue with these, since they connect the the phone wirelessly, but are wired together. By using the cord tethers, I keep the wire off my shirt to keep it from snagging, and while I obviously notice it, it is much preferable to a wire all the way to the phone. The range on these is excellent, to the point that I have walked away from the elliptical multiple times without my phone and gone to do other exercises without even realizing it - at least 60 to 70 feet away in a room with tons of interference, and never lost the connection. Battery life is more than sufficient for my needs. I've used them for an entire week, an hour every morning, and they still register 90-100% battery. I can easily charge weekly - I could even charge daily if I had to, but it's nice not to have to bother. With the ear hooks, they are obviously very stable, and they're as comfortable as they can be, being pretty flexible. There's simply no way these will fall out on their own, as the true wireless ones did a few times. I haven't tried the different earpiece sizes yet, but I need to go a bit larger on one side - it is nice it offers so many sizes. I can't speak to sound quality, because I listen to audiobooks and podcasts, and these are plenty clear for that, as are most headphones. While they don't have active noise cancellation, they seal out external sound well, so I can get plenty of volume without having to turn things all the way up.

TL;DR: The audio quality coming from the Soundcore Spirit X (2019 Version) Bluetooth earphones is acceptable for their price point. Their battery life is good, and they've survived 3 months of nightly use (and one playful kitten) with no damage. These will probably work well for most people. That said, I kind of hate them because I can't get them to fit my little ears properly. I bought these in September 2020, primarily for listening to things meant to help me fall asleep. I've also, more rarely, listened to music through these while riding public transportation. Given this usage pattern, I can get two or three nights' worth of listening out of a single charge. Spoken-word content and music are both clear through these, though some tinniness is apparent at higher volumes. The bass isn't as powerful as the product page claims, but, given that I use these most often for sleep and not for blood-pumping music, it doesn't bother me. Audiophile-grade earphones, these are not, but... come on. If you're looking for high audio fidelity in $30 Bluetooth sports headphones, you're barking up the wrong tree. The build quality seems good to me. I've used these every night for 3+ months and they show no signs of damage. Considering I've had to rescue these from my kitten a couple of times, I'm pleased with how they've held up. The cord management clips are a greatly-appreciated addition, too. Unfortunately, my biggest problem with these is... the fit. Whether sitting/standing upright or laying down, the earbuds absolutely refuse to stay in my ears, let alone make a good seal. I've tried all the sizes of the eartips and stabilization wings included with these to adjust the fit, with limited success. If not for the ear hooks, these wouldn't stay on my head at all. Keep in mind, though, that I have small ears for an adult human, so my trouble with in-ear headphones/earbuds is 1) not a universal experience, and 2) not limited to the Soundcore Spirit X. If you have average-to-large ears, you'll probably have better luck getting a good fit from these than I did. Nonetheless, I must give kudos to Anker/Soundcore for including the different sizes of eartips and stabilization wings. I'm glad to see companies recognizing that in-ear headphones aren't one-size-fits-all. I have no comments about the microphone, as I have not used it.