Anker Soundcore Space Q45 Wireless Headphones Review

The Anker Soundcore Space Q45 look similar to other headphones from Anker's Q lineup, like the Anker Soundcore Life Q35 Wireless. Overall, the design is quite simple, and there's the manufacturer's logo on each of the ear cups. The outward edge of the ear cups is glossier than the rest of the frame, which has a satin finish. They come in three color variants: 'Black', 'White', and 'Blue'.

The Anker Soundcore Space Q45 are comfortable headphones. They don't clamp very tightly on your head and feel lightweight and airy. The ear cup padding also feels soft on the skin. Unfortunately, the padding on the headband is thinner than that of the Anker Soundcore Life Q35 Wireless and can put pressure on your head over time.

These headphones have a good control scheme. The physical controls are split between both ear cups and are intuitive to use. The buttons are also clicky and easy to press. There are voice prompts for switching between ANC modes, but there aren't any other sound prompts for other commands.

On the left ear cup:

Power button:

• Press and hold: Turns headphones on or off. Holding this button beyond turning the headphones on enters Bluetooth pairing mode.

NC button:

• Single press: Cycles between ANC on, talk-through mode, which allows you to hear your surroundings without removing the headphones, and normal mode. If you prefer to customize these settings, you can remove and remap different ANC modes using the companion app.

On the right ear cup:

Play/Pause button:

• Single press: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and ends calls.
• Double press: Activates voice assistant.
• Press and hold: Rejects a call. If you're already on a call, it mutes and unmutes the mic.

Volume rocker:

• Single press (on the '+'): Raises the volume.
• Single press (on the '-'): Lowers the volume.
• Double press (on the '+'): Skips to the next track.
• Double press (on the '-'): Skips to the previous track.

These headphones aren't very portable. Like most over-ears, they have a bulky design and take up a lot of room in your bag. Luckily, the ear cups can swivel to lay mostly flat, and the headphones can fold to help reduce their overall footprint.

The carrying case is good. It's similar to the Anker Soundcore Life Q35 Wireless with an oval design and a fully-closing zipper. There's a cloth-like fabric inside, but unlike the Q35, there isn't a diagram as to how to place the headphones in the case.

The build quality is good. They're mostly made of plastic, but there's less padding on their headband than on the Anker Soundcore Life Q35 Wireless, which is a little disappointing. When storing our unit, we also noticed that the yokes didn't allow the ear cups to lay completely flat on the table. It also seems like pressing them down puts pressure on the yokes, which can mean that this part may get damaged over time if you're constantly folding and unfolding them to store in their carrying case. However, they still feel better-built and sturdier than the Sony WH-CH720N Wireless overall.

These headphones are fairly stable if you're listening to music at your desk or on your commute. However, they're not ideal for use during physical exercise, as they can easily fall off of your head with moderate to high-intensity head movements.

• Anker Soundcore Space Q45 headphones
• 1/8" TRS to TRS audio cable
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Hard case
• Manuals

These headphones have a v-shaped sound profile that's well-suited for genres like rock and pop. They deliver intense thump, rumble, and boom, while sibilants like cymbals are crisp and bright. However, vocals and instruments sound harsh and lack some detail. Luckily, their companion app supplies a graphic EQ and presets to help you customize their sound to your liking.

Note: These headphones have a high noise floor. It's the noise naturally created by electronic devices, and in most headphones, the noise floor is low enough that you can't hear it. The high noise floor in these headphones is caused by the ANC if it's set to 'Adaptive' or 'Max' once turned on. Over time, the noise becomes less noticeable, but it's still present, which is a bit annoying.

The frequency response consistency is good. They're prone to some inconsistencies in treble delivery due to fit and positioning, so it's important to take the time to ensure you have a good fit each time you use them.

The bass accuracy is decent. The response is overemphasized across the range, resulting in extra thump, rumble, and boom in your mixes. This is great if you like genres like EDM and hip-hop.

These headphones have decent mid-accuracy. The low-mid is very flat and neutral, so vocals and instruments aren't cluttered or muddied by extra bass. However, there's a significant bump in the mid to high-mid, which makes vocals and instruments sound forward and harsh. In songs like Hey Jude by The Beatles, the bass throughout the mix doesn't compete with vocals. However, Paul McCartney's voice, as well as the piano in the chorus, sound very honky and harsh.

The Anker Soundcore Space Q45's treble accuracy is fair. There's a dip in the low treble, which veils the upper harmonics of vocals and instruments. Sibilants like S and T sounds are piercing and harsh.

The peaks and dips performance is mediocre. A peak between the mid to high-bass adds extra punch and boom to mixes, while a dip between the high-bass to low-mid thins out vocals and instruments. A large peak in the mid to high-mid makes vocals and instruments harsh, but a very deep dip in the low treble hurts their clarity and detail. Another big peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals piercing.

The imaging performance is excellent. Although other headphones from this manufacturer, like the Anker Soundcore Life Q35 Wireless and the Anker Soundcore Life Q30 Wireless, show L/R phase mismatch, which can cause inaccuracies in the stereo image, these over-ears don't display these issues. This may indicate better quality control with this model, but imaging varies between units and can also be related to headphones' ergonomics. That said, our unit's drivers are well-matched, which ensures that sound objects like voices are accurately reproduced in the stereo image.

The Anker Soundcore Space Q45 Wireless' passive soundstage performance is poor. They're closed-back headphones, so their soundstage doesn't seem as open or spacious as open-back headphones. Their soundstage also seems unnatural, small, and as if sound is coming from inside your head rather than from speakers in the room around you.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is decent. There are a couple of small peaks in the low treble at moderate and high volumes, but they're very hard to hear, even with real-life content. As a result, most frequencies fall within good limits, which results in relatively clear and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The Anker Soundcore Space Q45's noise isolation performance is outstanding. Unlike previous headphones from this manufacturer's Q lineup, they have an adaptive ANC system, which the manufacturer advertises to adapt to your surroundings automatically. They can block out slightly more ambient noise than the Anker Soundcore Life Q30 Wireless and a lot more noise than their budget-friendly sibling, the Anker Soundcore Space One Wireless. If you're on your daily commute or a noisy flight, they can easily block out the low rumbles of engines. They can also easily reduce ambient chatter and cut down higher-pitched noise like the hum of computer fans.

The leakage performance of these over-ears is good. Leakage is mainly concentrated in the mid-range, which sounds somewhat full. If you're in a moderately noisy environment and you crank up the volume, others around you won't be too bothered by it.

The mic's recording quality is mediocre. Your voice sounds thin, dark, and lacking depth. While the recording quality isn't as good as the Anker Soundcore Life Q35 Wireless, your voice will still sound somewhat clear.

The integrated mic's noise-handling performance is great. If you're taking a call in a noisy environment, the mic can keep the background sound low so your voice stays understandable and clear.

These headphones have excellent battery performance. They're advertised to last 50 hours continuously with their ANC on, but we measured significantly less than that. However, their reported battery life may be attributed to the volume at which the Anker tests, which is lower than our test volume. As a result, we plan to retest the battery life using their criteria.

These headphones also have an auto-off timer you can adjust in their companion app. You can use them passively if you run out of battery life via their TRS cable.

The Anker Soundcore app is great, and you can see a video of how it works here. You can toggle between ANC on, 'Normal', and transparency mode as well as switch between adaptive noise cancelling mode and manual ANC, which has five different strength levels. You can also set a volume limit and a safe volume. The app provides an 8-band graphic EQ and presets if you want to adjust their sound.

The Anker Soundcore Space Q45 have excellent Bluetooth compatibility. They support multi-device pairing, meaning you can connect them with up to two devices at a time, and they also support NFC pairing for quicker pairing. Keep in mind that you can't use multi-device pairing if you're using LDAC. That said, they have high latency on PCs, as well as on Android and iOS devices, so your audio and visuals can fall out of sync while streaming video. Their latency using LDAC is lower, and we measured 120 ms. However, latency can vary depending on the device and app.

These headphones come with a 1/8" TRS to 1/8" TRS cable that you can use to receive audio. They also have a USB-A to USB-C charging cable for recharging the headphones.

These headphones can connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full audio and mic compatibility. If you want to use them wired, you can also use their TRS cable, but you'll only receive audio.

The Anker Soundcore Space Q45 only support audio via their 1/8" TRS cable plugged into your PS4 or PS5 controller's AUX port.

You can only use these headphones to receive audio when connected via analog to your Xbox console.