Anker Soundcore Space 2 review: These headphones belie their price

It's arguably a faux pas to admit this, but I've been obsessed with a bit of audio analysis around the best headphones from another big tech site for quite a while now.

Back in September last year, Wired UK got a bunch of audiophiles to blind test headphones and rank them, and the completely unexpected winner was Anker's Soundcore Space One Pro, the cheapest pair of headphones in the test by a long way.

I really liked the Space One Pro when I reviewed them about a year before that, and their outrageous comfort and great sound for the price have lived long in my memory, which made me excited to try out the latest launch in the line, the Space 2.

These drop the "Pro" name because they're intended to be the new default Soundcore Space experience in over-ears, and I've had them for a few weeks to see how they stack up to the far pricier competition.

Price and availability

The Soundcore Space 2 are available globally now (starting 21 April 2026), so you'll find them live on Amazon and directly through Anker. The headphones are priced at £129.99, which is $129.99 in the USA.

That positions the product among the more affordable end of the headphones scale that we test at T3. But while it undercuts much of the active noise-cancelling (ANC) competition, it's worth noting that it represents a price hike compared to the Space One, which cost $100 at launch.

Design and Features

The Soundcore Space 2 have a very familiar silhouette if you've ever laid your hands on the Space One or Space One Pro – they're clearly from the same design background, which is no bad thing.

The headphones come in three colours: white, black and the nice pale green I've been testing. They're constructed almost entirely out of soft-touch plastic externally, with most of the headband covered in pleather, and there's a good amount of cushioning under that band.

The outside of each earcup houses a fairly subtle Soundcore logo, and there are controls on each. The right earcup has a play/pause button along with volume controls, while the left offers up a power and pairing button, a noise-cancelling toggle, a USB-C port for charging, and a 3.5mm jack for wired audio.

Inside that same earcup you'll also see a sensor that activates on-head detection, so that your media can pause when you take the headphones off, which is nice and handy.

The crucial figure here is that they weigh just 265g according to my scale, which sees the Space 2 come in as another incredibly comfortable pair of headphones from Soundcore.

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I happily wore them for hours at a time without any clamping or discomfort, and they have enough flex that that should go for most people, I'd hope. They also fold when you're not using them (albeit not quite as neatly as some others), making them easier to store or pack.

Battery life is another strong point, coming in at a quoted 50 hours on a charge with active noise-cancelling (ANC) turned on, and 70 hours with it turned off. Whichever you choose, that's enough to get through multiple days of non-stop use, which is great to see.

Plus, from a codec perspective, the Space 2 has Hi-Res Audio certification both wirelessly and wired, as well as LDAC support, which means it should be a solid choice even if you're branching into more high-spec audio files, thanks to its 40mm drivers and compatibility.

Sound and Performance

When you're looking to score a bargain in the world of the best noise-cancelling headphones, it's often not really important how classy the design notes are or how lightweight the cans feel – it's more about what sort of sound and ANC you get for your money.

On that front, there's no doubt the Space 2 are a really solid entry from Anker and Soundcore, and I suspect they'll rack up plenty of fans over the next couple of years. For this money, I don't have a single complaint to levy about the sound quality on offer.

It's decently warm and detailed, and the sound stage is pretty solid, too. Starting off with a bit of Dire Straits' Making Movies, it's impressively easy to pick apart the different instruments in cleanly produced tracks. On Samm Henshaw's recent It Could Be Worse, the blending of choral backing tracks with main vocals is great, layered just as I'd hope it would be, although there's perhaps a slight surfeit of depth to the richness of the album's low-end notes.

I don't come to headphones at this price point expecting them to outclass sets two or three times their price, though. Besides, for the price that Anker is asking, I think the Space 2 are pretty great – and the ANC picture makes them even more compelling.

I've used the headphones with a few types of background noise and found them impressive in a bunch of scenarios. With ANC turned on, the amount of isolation you get is genuinely great – I found that it tuned out robot vacuums and train engines pretty terrifically on the whole.

If you're ever tempted to turn ANC off to eke out more battery life, though, I'd recommend that you don't. The Space 2 seems to toggle between ANC and a transparency mode by default (rather than simply turning all processing off), and the latter isn't amazing. Use it without any music and you'll hear a telltale static sound that makes the world feel a little odd, but with audio playing it's still leagues away from what the likes of Apple and Sony can do with their earbuds and headphones.

Still, I strongly suspect that the vast majority of users will keep ANC on at all times, so this really won't be a problem for most people. Plus, 50 hours is still a great bar to clear with ANC on, and I found the headphones did indeed last for days and days when testing, making regular charging basically a non-issue.

Verdict

Anker's new headphones are a really great new option for those looking to keep their budget low – as they're priced sensibly, despite a slight rise compared to the last generation.

Plenty of pricier headphones than these have felt less comfortable in the actual wearing and listening, too, which is another point in their favour. The generic design doesn't drag things down, because it doesn't bring any real issues.

Overall, the Anker Soundcore Space 2 deliver good sound with really solid active noise-cancelling (ANC), at a price way below many competitors. So if you want a new set of headphones that don't cost a fortune, with minimal compromise, these are a winner.

Also consider

Keeping on top of your budget for new headphones can generally mean that you don't have the option to pick up anything with a genuinely interesting design, but Nothing has bucked that trend with the Headphone (a), which feel more premium and look way more interesting than the Soundcore 1 – but won't be to everyone's tastes.

Of course, if you do find some money down the back of your sofa or decide to just splash out a little bit more because you're worth it, the best over-ears I've tried in recent years are Sony's WH-1000XM6, which continue to get regular use whenever I travel, and have never let me down.