Soundcore Space A40 Review: Perfect for all-day, all-week listening

If you're like me you live in your earphones. The day only really starts once you pop your earbuds in and head to work. They're an escape from the heaving cacophony of sound that is the outside world. Anker's Soundcore Space A40 wireless earbuds come with adaptive noise cancelling (ANC) and a whole lot of juice for just $129.99, we may not be talking about the best earphones in the market but these certainly hold up for everyday use, and I mean every day. 

Listen all week long

The big draw for these earbuds is the promise of "50 hours of personal space", which I'm happy to report they live up to. During my first week or so using the Soundcore Space A40s I didn't even notice I didn't recharge the battery case once. Anker promises a 10-hour single-charge playtime which amounts to 50 hours of listening total with the case to recharge. 

A single charge saw me through my commute, workday, and out the other side before I got any low battery message. With fast charging enabled, a quick 10 to 20-minute charge gives you enough juice for hours of listening. I'd feel comfortable going away for a week-long trip without packing a charger.

The Soundcore Space A40 earbuds come with five sets of ear tips to suit a range of sizes. They're not heavy at all and sit very comfortably in your ears for hours on end with no discomfort. I often found myself in that happy place where you forget you have them in at all. Now, I don't find myself headbanging at my desk all day long but the fit is snug and I never felt like they were going to fall out. 

Be in control your own soundscape

The beauty of a long-lasting battery is the fact that you can stay in your own bubble (if you so desire) for longer. Noise-cancelling of course, takes it just to that next level. In an office environment, only a tradesperson with a drill coming to fix a broken door could burst my noise-free paradise. Now it's not the best noise-cancelling we've seen on the market, but for this price, these buds do the job well enough. 

Overall the Soundcore Space A40s sound really good, with a nice easy-listening experience that you'd expect for this price range. They're not perfect but vocals come through clearly and the bass is heavy when it needs to be. If you're the kind of person who likes total control, you can customise the EQ to your liking in the Soundcore app.

A quick press to the side of one earbud turns on the ambient transparency mode - a neat trick for when you run into someone and stop for a chat or want to be polite at the supermarket. It's not a feature you'd want to use for very long as it tends to pick up ALL the background noise around you and can be tinny. 

Unfortunately, the word tinny also applies to microphone quality - but that's pretty understandable. At this price, something had to give. If you're taking lots of meetings online (especially external ones), consider upgrading to something with more sense of polish like Apple AirPods 3 or Jabra Elite 5 earbuds. Apple tends to have superior microphone quality overall but the Jabra Elite 5 are a significant improvement over the Space A40s and not for much more money. 

Where things could be improved

The case has a nice matte black finish and fits nicely in the back pocket of your jeans but is a little heavier than some other charge cases of the same size (probably due to the massive battery). 

The case, however, is also where the design falls down somewhat. It doesn't feel as secure as it could be. While there's a small magnet to keep the lid snapped shut there's no perfect seal. There's half a millimetre or so of space between both parts and you can feel it move when you squeeze it together. The one time the case fell out of my backpack, it came wide open and both earbuds went rolling out onto the floor. 

Multipoint support worked really well and made it easy to transition from listening on my phone to my laptop at my desk. However, connectivity could sometimes be a pain. I'd get things set up nicely and they might last the entirety of a day but then the earbuds would fail to re-pair the next. I had to forget the device entirely several times to get things connected again. It got really annoying after a while. A very when it works, it works. When it doesn't, it really doesn't scenario.  

Soundcore Space A40 - Final thoughts

Re-pairing issues to one side, Anker's Soundcore Space A40s are a powerful pair of earbuds well-suited to people who want them to spend more time in their ears than in the case charging. They're the perfect companion at the gym, the office, and the supermarket - all on the same day. 

The in-ear design fits well and they look good, but more importantly, sound good. Best of all being on the cheaper side of the price scale they won't make too much of a dent in your hip pocket. 

Dylan Crismale

Digital Content Editor

Dylan Crismale is a Digital Content Editor at WhistleOut, has been writing for almost a decade across a variety of Australian publications. He previously worked as a writer at Finder covering energy, internet and mobile plans. Dylan is passionate about finding the best deals to save people money and educating people about tech. When he's not sat at his desk Dylan loves working out, bingeing TV and hanging out with friends.​

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