I've been a contributing editor for PCMag since 2011. Before that, I was PCMag's lead audio analyst from 2006 to 2011. Even though I'm a freelancer now, PCMag has been my home for well over a decade, and audio gear reviews are still my primary focus. Prior to my career in reviewing tech, I worked as an audio engineer—my love of recording audio eventually led me to writing about audio gear.

The Anker Soundcore Space Q45 headphones offer solid audio quality and moderately effective noise cancellation for a reasonable price.

The Anker Soundcore Space Q45 noise-cancelling headphones ($149.99) have a similar name to the Bose QuietComfort 45 ($329), perhaps better known as the QC45. Because they cost less than half as much, we don’t expect them to offer same class-leading active noise cancellation (ANC), but Anker's headphones do a good job for the price. We also like how you can customize their sound via the accompanying Soundcore app, and appreciate support for the audiophile-friendly LDAC Bluetooth codec. We still recommend the Sennheiser HD 450BT ($199.95) and the Urbanista Los Angeles ($199) a bit more highly for their stronger audio experience and eco-friendly design, respectively, but the Soundcore Space Q45 headphones are a solid alternative if you're looking to spend even less.

Available in black (and eventually in navy blue or white), the over-ear Space Q45 headphones feature generously cushioned memory foam earpads. Faux leather lines the underside of the headband and earpads, for a secure and comfortable fit even over long listening sessions.

Internally, 40mm dynamic drivers deliver a frequency range of 20Hz to 40KHz. The headphones are compatible with Bluetooth 5.3 and supports the AAC, SBC, and LDAC codecs, but not AptX. Support for the hi-res-capable LDAC codec notably brings this pair in line with Sony's premium WH-1000XM5.

The left earcup’s side panel houses a button that handles power and pairing functions, along with an ANC button that cycles through ANC, Normal, and Transparency modes. The right earcup’s side panel sports a button that controls playback and handles calls. Additionally, you can hold this button down for two seconds to mute the mic or press it twice to summon your device's voice assistant. Next to this, a volume rocker-style control doubles as a track navigation tool when you hold it down. We’re never fans of combining volume and track navigation on the same button, as it’s far too easy to accidentally skip a track when you mean to adjust the volume.

The headphones ship with a USB-A-to-USB-C charging cable and a 3.5mm audio cable for wired (but still battery-powered) listening. The USB-C port sits on the left earcup and the audio jack is on the right. The headphones also ship with a zip-up hard-shell case with a silicone exterior and a sturdy hanging strap; they collapse at hinges and fold down flat to fit inside.

Anker estimates that the headphones can last roughly 50 hours with ANC or 65 hours without ANC. These numbers are quite good, but your results will vary based on your typical listening volume level. Anker claims the pair gains four hours of playback time from five minutes of charging and that it takes roughly two hours to fully charge them. Note that choosing the LDAC codec significantly reduces the battery life—Anker estimates 37 hours with ANC on or 45 hours with ANC off in this scenario.

The Soundcore app (available for Android and iOS) offers plenty of extra features and functionality beyond the standard settings and firmware updates. The app’s main page shows an image of the headphones, their remaining battery life, and four different sections of controls: Ambient Sound (which switches between Noise Cancellation, Transparency, or Normal modes), Safe Volume (to enable a volume limiter), Controls (to customize the on-ear controls), and Sound Effects (which offers several EQ presets and the ability to create a custom one).

In the Ambient Sound section, you can choose between Adaptive Noise Cancellation or Custom Noise cancellation. The former automatically adjusts the ANC levels based on your surroundings and the latter lets you choose between five levels of ANC intensity. You can also choose between five mic levels for the Transparency mode or opt for Talk Mode, which enhances the frequency range of the human voice.

The Safe Volume section allows you to enable a Limit High Volume setting and set a fader to a level between 75dB and 100dB. When this feature is off, a meter here shows your current volume levels and displays an emoji—happy if you’re at acceptable levels or ecstatic if you're at a lower volume level. At high volumes that are borderline uncomfortable, the emoji was still smiling in testing, so take this meter with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, the Limit High Volume function works quite well.

You can customize only a limited number of on-ear functions in the Controls section, but we don't expect nearly as many options compared with an in-ear pair anyway. You can adjust what happens when you press the ANC button once (by default, this cycles through ANC, Transparency, and Normal modes, but you can eliminate one of these options) or twice (by default this does nothing, but you can set it to toggle the BassUp feature).

In the Sound Effects EQ section, the Soundcore Signature EQ preset is on by default, but the BassUp feature (which increases the intensity of low-end frequencies) is off. It's simple enough to enable the latter via a switch. You can choose from many presets, including Bass Reducer, Classical, Jazz, and R&B, just to name a few. Select one and tap custom to adjust the eight bands of a preset and save it as a custom profile. Alternatively, you can create an EQ preset from scratch via the Custom section.

Elsewhere, the settings menu allows you to download firmware updates, adjust the auto-power-off times (or turn off this feature), and toggle in-headphone prompt tones. You can also enable Wind Noise Reduction (off by default) for the mics—this setting impacts the ANC experience but is less noticeable in Transparency mode (it doesn't affect mic clarity, either). Finally, you can also create widgets for some of the functions, like the Ambient Sound controls, for quicker access.

The Space Q45 headphones rely on a four-mic hybrid system to deliver active noise cancellation. We suggest leaving adaptive ANC mode on for the most effective performance, but you can always manually adjust the settings in the app to suit your environment.

The pair effectively dialed back powerful low-frequency rumble (like you hear on an airplane), but a thin band of higher-frequency masking hiss is audible. The hiss isn’t annoying and you won’t even hear it if music is playing, but it's a common characteristic of less expensive ANC models. The headphones handled a recording of a busy restaurant with clanging dishes and boisterous conversation fairly well, though a thin band of highs still comes through. For comparison, both the top-notch Bose QuietComfort 45 and Sony WH-1000XM5 are more effective in the above scenarios and don't introduce a distracting hiss to the signal.

Unfortunately, the Space Q45 headphones also suffer from another common pitfall: Each mode in the Ambient Sound section delivers a different sound signature with varying degrees of bass depth and brightness.

For the majority of our testing, we stuck with the default Soundcore Signature EQ mode (without BassUp on) and turned off ANC. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the headphones deliver a bass-forward sound signature with no distortion at top volumes and robust lows at moderate volumes. The BassUp feature adds some extra thump, but takes away a bit of the clarity, at least on this track. Without it, the lows and highs are more balanced.

Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the sound signature. The drums on this track can sound heavy (in BassUp mode) or full, but natural (without BassUp). Callahan’s baritone vocals receive plenty of low-mid richness and matching high-mid crispness. The acoustic strums and higher-register percussive hits sound bright. There's heavy sculpting regardless of whether BassUp is on, though the eight bands of customization can help you fine-tune the sound to your preference.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop receives an ideal high-mid presence and the attack retains its punch, while the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat come across with respectable depth. That said, neither quite conjure that subwoofer level of depth. Enabling BassUp adds thump to the drum loop, but doesn’t really bring out the deepest frequencies in this mix. Regardless, the sound signature is still rich, full, and crisp—vocals sound clean and clear, but with just a bit of additional sibilance. On this track, we preferred the BassUp function, which gives it a little more low-mid body.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, sound bright and full. The higher-register brass, strings, and vocals exhibit plenty of detail and clarity, while the lower-register instrumentation plays a subtle, supporting role.

The dual-mic system works reasonably well—we didn't have any issue understanding every word in a test recording from an iPhone. Anker notably tunes the signal a bit to focus on the human voice, but the mics still struggled a bit in somewhat noisy environments.

The Anker Soundcore Space Q45 headphones are customizable and capable of strong sound quality—LDAC support in particular opens up the option for hi-res audio streaming. Their ANC is also decently effective for the price—you need to spend more than twice as much to get the best noise cancellation on the market from the aforementioned Bose QuietComfort 45 or Sony WH-1000XM5. In this price range, however, we remain bigger fans of Sennheiser's HD 450BT headphones for their top-notch audio quality, as well as the Urbanista Los Angeles, which notably support solar charging. Even so, the Space Q45 headphones are a solid deal at an even lower price, making them attractive if you're looking for the lowest cost possible.

The Anker Soundcore Space Q45 headphones offer solid audio quality and moderately effective noise cancellation for a reasonable price.

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I've been a contributing editor for PCMag since 2011. Before that, I was PCMag's lead audio analyst from 2006 to 2011. Even though I'm a freelancer now, PCMag has been my home for well over a decade, and audio gear reviews are still my primary focus. Prior to my career in reviewing tech, I worked as an audio engineer—my love of recording audio eventually led me to writing about audio gear.

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