Anker originates in 2011, in Shenzhen, China. Unlike hundreds of similar Chinese companies, this one has entered the global market and earned the trust of thousands of users around the world. It was founded by former Google engineer Stephen Young, I think this played a big role in the further development of the company. Anker began its journey into the technology niche by manufacturing batteries and charging cables, selling these products directly to consumers through Amazon.
Quickly gaining a good rating and high product ratings, the company starts producing batteries for one of HTC’s models. After such a rapid take-off, Anker begins to actively scale, expanding the list of manufactured devices. At the moment, it produces a huge number of devices ranging from charging cables to intelligent robot vacuum cleaners. In my personal ranking of companies,
Design, ease of use
The Anker SoundCore Life Note 3 comes in an informatively designed cardboard box, which allows you to immediately study the main characteristics, as well as download the branded application, which I will talk about a little later. The device is available in three colors: black, white and blue.
The form factor resembles a shell, which complicates its opening with one hand, although after a while you get used to it and the inconvenience passes.
The package bundle of the device is average: a charging cable, 4 pairs of ear pads, a charging case and the headphones themselves. It is noteworthy that there is a special Velcro on the cable, which allows it to be neatly folded, although a trifle, but pleasant.
An excellent solution was the installation of magnetic closers in the charging case, without them it is extremely inconvenient to place headphones in it. I want to note a very comfortable fit, without taking into account ANC, the model came out with excellent passive noise isolation.
Ease of use is added by a proprietary application in which the user is offered many point settings, 3 ANC modes, and several sound profiles. The most convenient search mode activates a loud sound signal that will help you find the earpiece that is lying around. I was surprised by the active noise isolation modes, they allowed me to bypass the real scourge of this technology. Usually when you walk down the street and active noise canceling actively, you can hear some rather unpleasant interference due to the fact that the wind gets into the microphones responsible for the ANC and causes interference.
When the street mode is activated, magic happens and these noises disappear; then we enter the transport (where the wind usually does not blow), activate the transport mode, and a miracle happens: the ANC starts to actively muffle the vibrating, shock sounds. This difference in modes impressed me, even on premium headphones of well-known brands, ANC lost to the wind. In general, this mode is implemented on 4+, of course, there are errors, but for this money you are unlikely to find something better.
Battery
The autonomy of the device is 7 hours, and thanks to the charging case all 35 hours. The results are impressive, not for nothing that Anker was famous for its batteries, for comparison, most TWS earbuds have a battery life of ≈ 5 hours and 20 hours with a case.
Sound
11 mm graphene emitters are responsible for this most important part. At first, it’s hard to believe that they fit such large emitters into such an elegant case. Typically, headphones with these speaker sizes are much larger.
In addition to the classic AAC and SBC codecs, SoundCore Life Note 3 supports the more interesting aptX codec, which allows you to play high quality music. They sound good, the sound is rich and deep. The bass is punchy, tight, thanks to the BassUp technology, which gives incredible richness.
These are one of the most bass models of this class, the low frequencies turned out to be enveloping, which gives its advantage when listening to hip-hop compositions. The mids are well balanced, the vocals sound lively, there are no questions about this part. High frequencies at full volume are slightly distorted, but I would not call these distortions critical. In general, the headphones play well on a solid 9 out of 10 points.
The quality of the sound recording from this device was well done, the microphones, and there are as many as 6 of them, are perfectly tuned. You will forget about interference in the conversation, the sound is recorded with dignity.
Conclusion
For a relatively small budget, we get a balanced product that, in addition to a decent bass sound, allows you to enjoy all the delights of ANC. Adding to this impressive autonomy (35 hours), good assembly, interesting design, together we get a very interesting model of TWS headphones.
