Just like many Anker products, the metal outer reminds you that you haven’t just bought another piece of plastic junk. Water Shmorter: IPX7 waterproofing says your pool and beach party can get as wild as you want it to. Or just listen worry-free in the bathroom and kitchen! However, plug in a microUSB cable to act as an antenna, long-press the “play” button on the front and the Soundcore Mini starts scanning for stations. You then long-press the volume up/down buttons to change stations. Still, for an extra feature that seems to be thrown in for good measure, the FM radio option is a nice extra touch. We just wish that Anker had thought the feature through a little more.

To begin with, Bluetooth connectivity is at the stronger end. Using an iPhone 11, we found reception stayed consistent across rooms and through various walls, with no skips or dropouts, and this proved to be the case while on the go too. Pairing is also easy, with the buds connecting immediately to the last device used when removed from their case. The active driver and passive radiator included in this product help to amplify the bass of the main driver, avoid the scratchy sound of older speakers, and deliver some serious volume. And yet, the Anker Soundcore Life P2 buds manage to stand out from the crowd. They have a comfortable, fuss-free design, good sound, decent call quality, and endurance to spare. They can’t offer the highest grade of sound reproduction, but what they do produce does bely their price point and is certainly good enough for the average listener. It's a fast charger also, doesn't take long at all to charge & my Wife & I listen to podcasts every night, or shall I say, we fall asleep with this on & it's still going in the morning..

Price comparison

Even the extra features like FM radio and SD card functionality wouldn’t save the Anker Soundcore Mini if it sounded just as tinny as terrible as most mini speakers. However, that doesn’t seem to be a problem. Another thing to note is that the Anker comes with FM radio built-in. This is a nice extra connectivity touch. You plug the MicroUSB cable into the device so it can act as an antenna, then you press the play button until you start scanning for stations. This is probably one of the smallest speakers that we’ve ever seen that still manages to be a joy to listen to.

I got mine at Walmart around the same price & it's definitely a winner for those looking for a good long lasting, fast charging and great sounding speaker..Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. See how we test. I was flat-out surprised when comparing the Soundcore Mini to the much larger UE Roll 2. The Anker may have a smaller sound field and lower max volume, but tonally it doesn’t sound too far off.

This speaker easily bests the old favourite Jam Classic 2.0. While that larger speaker has a solid 2-inch driver, the passive radiator here substantially lowers the bass floor so your music sounds fuller, beefier, more powerful. Finding a connection and keeping it is notoriously difficult, to the point where we gave up and used the aux input a few times.

Why is Anker SoundCore 2 better than Anker SoundCore Mini?

Constructed with durability in mind, the Anker SoundCore Mini is made from high-quality materials that ensure long-lasting use. The cradle is designed to securely hold your device in place, preventing accidental slips or falls. Additionally, it features a non-slip base that keeps the cradle stable on any surface.

The Bluetooth connectivity in the Anker SoundCore mini isn’t the best. It’s the thing that let us down most when we were conducting this review. I haven’t been as pleasantly surprised by a small speaker in years. A few issues with Bluetooth reception and the fact that the now-similarly-priced Creative Muvo 2C has deeper bass keep it away from the highest review scores. But a lot of people will fall in love with this tiny speaker, with good reason. Bluetooth signal is one of the Mini’s few little weak spots. The signal is not ultra-reliable, and occasionally you’ll hear cut-outs, and then what almost sounds like a sped-up portion of audio as the speaker makes up for lost time. It’s only recently that this promise has really started to bear fruit, though – with a tidal wave of true wireless earbud models at affordable prices, rather than just the high-end versions we’d had to make do with before.

The speaker's mic offers solid intelligibility. I tested it with the Voice Memos app on an iPhone and could understand every word I recorded. The speaker is capable of maintaining a strong Bluetooth signal and keeps audio artifacts to a minimum, so with a sufficient cell signal, callers should have no issue understanding you. A Small Speaker With Some Punch