Just got these today - special offer of £33 on Amazon. They’re great, but have some weird bugs.
Bugs
Here’s a list of the minor annoyances I’ve found.
- Press the bass-boost button once, and a posh English voice saying “Bass up”. But press it again and a tinny American voice says “Normal”. Indicates a lack of testing and quality assurance.
- Can’t play while charging. This was a weird one, they charge quickly enough for it not to be a major concern.
- The box says “High-Res Audio” - that’s, politely, an exaggeration. It supports the AAC codec. There’s no aptX or lossless codecs. It’s better than the bare minimum SBC, but that’s about it. Listen to the music, not the headphones right?
- They play a daft little tune when you turn them on or off. No way to disable that.
- It also speaks the battery level which is useful. But just seems to say high, medium, or low.
Firmware upgrades
Rather prominently, the Amazon listing says “This product is not currently compatible with iPhone 11 series, but is being upgraded.”
Linux’s lsusb doesn’t show anything. I would have expected something to show up for firmware updates. Sadly, the SoundCore website lists no firmware updates for anything.
Which leads us on to the last problem: the Q10 doesn’t exit.
There’s nothing on the main SoundCore pages about it. Nothing on Anker. The headphones physically exist - but they seem completely unsupported by the manufacturer. That’s not a huge problem, I guess. But a bit odd.
The only info seems to be in these forums. I would have expected a product page at least…
Verdict
I bought these because they were the only reasonably priced headphones to support USB-C charging. Now my phone, eReader, games console, and laptop all take the same charger.
For forty-odd quid, these are stunning. Great sound quality, comfortable, long lasting. Bluetooth functionality works perfectly. Only marred by weird support decisions by Anker / SoundCore.
Happy to answer any questions about them.