Anker Soundcore Space 2 Pro review: Unrivalled call quality – but does the sound quality match?

Anker is making some big moves this year, not least in the form of a slight branding rejig to really centre its own name on its products more (making the likes of Soundcore and Nebula more part of product names, rather than sub-brands in their own right).

That's a little arcane for the average customer to care about, though – we're more interested in new launches. So, on that note, here comes the Soundcore Space 2 Pro to make things interesting.

The follow-up to Anker's mid-range set of headphones – which I rated highly back in 2024 when I reviewed them – the new Pro is a step up in price, with Anker hoping that some added quality will make it work for people. So, has it succeeded?

Price and Availability

The Soundcore Space 2 Pro is an interesting swing from Anker on the pricing front, having launched this September. You can order them now from a range of retailers, with Amazon being the most prominent in most regions, for £199.99 in the UK or $199.99 in the US. Availability in other regions seems to be rolling out slightly more slowly.

This price puts them a good chunk more expensive than the recent standard Space 2 (£129.99 / $129.99), which are already seeing discounts to make them cheaper. The price is also a £50/$50 bump over the Space One Pro from 2024, again underlining Anker's gambit.

Design and Features

The Space 2 Pro is a very familiar proposition, having handled the Space 2 extensively earlier this year, with both units provided by Anker for testing. These are headphones that lean into subtle design, surprisingly so from a brand that used to be a lot louder in its design work.

In fact, shorn of that previously recognisable Soundcore logo, the earcups of the Space 2 Pro are actually some of the most anonymous and simple of any headphones I've used recently (and not even in the same league as the Nothing Headphone (1) Pro). They're dead clean, with just a subtle reflective bit of logo work around their edge.

On the right earcup, you'll find a play/pause button, along with a rocker for putting the volume up or down. The other earcup has a 3.5mm jack, a USB-C port for charging, a power button that doubles as a pairing button, and a toggle for the noise-cancelling modes on offer.

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Slipping the headphones on confirms that the generous-looking cushioning is indeed extremely comfortable, with a good amount of give on both the headband and those earcups. It's soft-touch, and I've found the Space 2 Pro great to wear for long stretches as a result.

That said, the Space One Pro was one of the most comfortable headphones ever made, and this is surprisingly a bit of a step down, I'd say. That doesn't make it a bad fit, but it's not the direction of travel I'd have chosen.

The headphones do fold, meanwhile, but don't do so into the smallest shape I'd have expected, and they're a little fiddly to collapse. You do get a carrying pouch in the box with them, but I'd have liked this to be more protective given the bump in price that Anker has brought in this time.

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So, what about the features on offer? Well, in keeping with the Space 2 below it in the range, you get sophisticated adaptive noise-cancelling (ANC) here, enabled via eight microphones. The Space 2 Pro also has on-head detection for auto-pausing, which I always welcome.

Anker's making a big deal out of the new microphone array on the headphones, which it says has garnered a Guinness World Record for the best wireless over-ear call quality (however that could possibly be proven). I'll talk on that later, but it's something that's not on cheaper models.

Battery life is interesting, because it's quoted at 60 hours, but halves to 30 hours with ANC turned on, and goes down to 20 if you're on calls continuously, thanks to the new AI processes for its voice detection.

In terms of audio quality, 35mm drivers are housed in each earcup, and they support spatial audio if you want it activated. You'll also find support for LDAC and Hi-Res Audio in either wired or wireless modes, which is always nice.

Sound and Performance

While comfort and sound quality might not seem like they're necessarily related to parts of a headphone's performance, the reality is that cushioning has everything to do with the passive seal that great headphones now use for part of their noise-cancelling. That's why it's good to report that the Space 2 Pro has some of the best comfort on the head that I've tried in ages.

As I say, I still think it's slightly less perfect than the Space One Pro, but I still happily wore the headphones for three hours at a time without any clamping issues or discomfort. Even without powering them on, meanwhile, the amount of noise cancelled out was very decent.

Turned on, though, the ANC in this release becomes extremely obvious and impressive. Anker might not be able to quite say it's the best on the market, but this is definitely the best noise-cancelling I've tried on headphones under £/$200 in recent memory – and that's quite the boast.

That same level of positivity can be redoubled when it comes to the call quality on these headphones, something that I normally skip over as being relatively secondary in importance. I still think that, but when it's this good it's worth mentioning. Anker says its "Thus" chip is the reason for the clarity and pick-up quality that the headphones manage, with AI playing a part, and it makes for impressively clear audio when you're on calls – which is rare for this sort of headphone.

That's a fairly brilliant start to matters, but it's a slight shame that Anker can't bring five-star audio quality to match its ANC and microphones. That's not to say that there's anything explicitly wrong with Anker's tuning, but it's certainly not the most refined you'll find out there.

It leans quite heavily on bass, for one thing, which does mean that you get a good amount of warmth in the low-end of tracks, but this hurts the detail in other registers. The start of Eric Clapton's After Midnight (Live) from 2021 showcases this – its opening twangs are just a little overdone, lacking balance.

You can still have a great deal of fun with the headphones, though, in particular using Anker's app to customise their sound and create a personalised range of settings to make things a little more clinical. Out of the box, though, they're not particularly sophisticated, and that's a bit of a shame.

I found battery life to live up to the billing pretty closely, though, which means they're more than competitive with most of the other options you can find at this price. Some standouts go far beyond the 30-hour mark with ANC on, though.

Verdict

The Sound 2 Pro is an interesting launch from Anker, not least because these headphones are substantially more expensive than the Space One Pro, let alone the more recent Space 2 (Anker's approach to numbers and text is also clearly quite fluid).

I'm not sure they merit the price hike that they've been given, and that's the shortest version of my verdict.

However, there's nuance to be had here. The call quality here is really quite remarkable, and Anker clearly thinks that'll matter to certain people – like those who'll use them primarily in the workplace and need that to be reliable. The ANC is similarly really great for the price, and that's an interesting pair of strengths to maximise.

If their music performance could only match them, Anker would have a real stunner on its hands. Instead, this is an interesting launch that will suit a specifc set of users, while leaving others potentially wishing they'd spend a little more on genuine musical excellence.

Also Consider

If you want much of what makes the Space 2 Pro great, but fancy saving a bunch of cash without a huge downgrade, then consider the standard Space 2. Super comfy to wear, with a look that's just as clean, plus they're a bit more of a bargain.

Alternatively, if reading my verdict has made you realise that you'd rather spend more and get better audio quality, then I'd point you towards the Sonos Ace Ultra. We just slapped a five-star verdict on them, and I've been using them a little to confirm that they are indeed stellar and as comfortable as anything on the market.