Our editorial verdict, built on published evidence: the Soundcore Space One is one of the easiest $100 headphone buys for commuters who care about battery and noise cancelling more than out-of-the-box sound. The 40-hour ANC battery is real (SoundGuys measured nearly 43 hours), and the ANC is effective for the price — clearly short of Sony and Bose, comfortably ahead of most budget rivals. The honest catch: two good outlets disagree completely on call quality, the default tuning needs the app EQ, and there is no hard case or USB-C audio. At its frequent $69–$80 sale prices the compromises are easy to live with; check the current price on Amazon.
— THE VERDICT · JUDGEANY EDITORSA $100 ANC headphone with a real battery story
The Soundcore Space One launched in August 2023 at $99.99 as Anker's mid-range answer to the flagship noise-cancelling crowd: 40 mm drivers, adaptive ANC, LDAC, and a claimed 40 hours of battery with ANC on. SoundGuys later caught it at $69 during Amazon's March 2026 Spring Sale — judge it at its street price, not the launch MSRP, and check the current price on Amazon before you buy. This review is built from published reviews, lab measurements, and owner feedback. We don't run a test lab: every measurement below belongs to the outlet that published it, and the score is our editorial judgment based on that public evidence.
Sound: V-shaped out of the box, EQ fixes it
Sound is the most argued-over part of the Space One. SoundGuys' lab measured a U-shaped frequency response — boosted lows and highs, with mids (vocals, piano, guitar) sitting further back — yet their MDAQS algorithm still scored its timbre and immersiveness highly. Tom's Guide heard it differently, calling the default tuning balanced and leaning toward the upper mids rather than a bass-monster signature. Owners split the same way: plenty praise the out-of-the-box sound, while others say the first thing to do is open the soundcore app and tune the EQ (HearID 2.0 personalization is included). With the EQ set to taste, the consensus lands at "good, not exceptional" — fine for the price, never flagship-tier.
Noise cancelling: genuinely good, not flagship
ANC is the stronger half of the story. SoundGuys measured ambient noise dropping to roughly a quarter of its original level with ANC maxed out, scoring it 8/10 — but their own data shows it outperforming only about 36% of the over-ear headphones they have measured, which puts Anker's "2X stronger voice reduction" marketing in perspective. T3's review found the ANC good at muffling low-frequency rumble without fully erasing it. The honest position: this is effective noise cancelling for commutes and offices, clearly a step below the Sony and Bose flagships, and comfortably ahead of most other $100 headphones.
The call-quality fight
Here two respected outlets flatly disagree, and there is no way to average them into one truth. SoundGuys tested the three-mic array with AI noise reduction across office, street, and windy conditions — plus a listener vote of 3,872 samples — and called the result excellent at isolating the voice from background noise. Tom's Guide ran real calls and heard the opposite: voices sounding muffled indoors and out, with friends and clients complaining about it on Zoom and struggling to understand the reviewer in a windy car. Same hardware, same era, opposite verdicts. If calls are a big part of your day, treat this as a coin flip until you can test a unit yourself.
Battery life: the headline feature
Battery is where the Space One over-delivers. SoundGuys' lab measured 42 hours 57 minutes with ANC on — above Anker's 40-hour claim, and 55 hours with ANC off. Tom's Guide used it five to six hours a day for a week and still had about 40% left. A five-minute quick charge adds about four hours of playback. In a category where most budget ANC headphones barely clear 30 hours, this is the feature that justifies the purchase.
What it gives up
The compromises are the usual budget ones, plus a few oddities. The 265-gram frame is comfortable — owners consistently praise the fit — but Tom's Guide found it looks oversized on smaller heads and called the low-slung physical buttons awkward to find by touch. There is no USB-C wired audio, no NFC pairing, and no water-resistance rating, so these stay home in heavy rain. The box ships with a drawstring pouch instead of a hard case, a complaint ZDNet and several owners echo. Multipoint works for two devices at once; wired listening uses the 3.5 mm cable, and SoundGuys found the powered-off wired sound heavily bloated in the low mids, so keep them switched on.