Soundcore Spirit Dot 2 by Anker

Wearing comfort

The comfortable fit of these in-ears is worthy of praise straight away as you can hardly notice them when worn, helped by their low weight of six grams per side. At the same time, the specially developed hollow-chamber wings relieve the auditory canal and, thanks to their adaptability, provide stability suitable for sports use. The AirWings are also supplied in three different sizes and can be freely combined with five ear tip variants, allowing fit to be individually optimised. In addition, the slim design embeds itself well in the ear, protrudes only slightly and can, therefore, be easily accommodated under a cap if required. The perfect finish of the headphones also contributes to a positive overall impression, and the same goes for the transport case that serves as a charging station.

Running times

Energy-wise, these sports headphones offer a running time of a good five hours if used at a higher level, while the quick-charge function allows more than one hour of use after just ten minutes of power supply. In contrast, a full charge cycle takes about 90 minutes, whereby the battery reserve of the charging case is sufficient to fully charge the in-ears twice and to make use of the quick-charge function once. All told, the total runtime of this handy package is approximately 17 hours. The battery capacity of the case is also restored in a little over 100 minutes via the USB-C connection, for which a corresponding USB-C to USB-A charging cable is included in the accessories.

Device control

Coupling the Soundcore Spirit Dot 2, which in combination with various Android and iOS devices offer a stable range of about eight metres within an urban development, can be done upon removal from the case. This switches the system on and puts it into pairing mode, with both headphones also available individually in single mode. While these in-ears automatically switch off when they are put back into the charging case, it is also possible to switch them on and off manually with a long hold down on the touch-sensitive surface. Once a wireless connection has been established, a double touch on the right side is used to control the Play/Stop function. You can jump to the next track using the left headphone, and it is also possible to answer and end calls on both sides by double-tapping. In this case, the person on the end of the line is easy to understand when making a call, while your own voice is somewhat obscured and muffled. Voice assistants can also be used by touching one side of the headphone for two seconds, which on the whole works perfectly. One advantage is that this operating mechanism virtually rules out the possibility of mistakes being made by accidental contact. However, jumping back when selecting a track is not supported and volume must also be adjusted on your device.

Sound

These sports headphones are advertised as having strong basses. They use BassUp technology, which is designed to analyse the sound profile in real-time and automatically boost low frequencies. In practice, there is a powerful, full bass response that sounds round and defined enough to provide plenty of listening pleasure. Those who prefer listening to hip-hop or electro productions with lots of depth can also enjoy a considerable presence in the low bass range, even if the sound is slightly dull in these lower ranges. The mid and high frequencies, on the other hand, are clear and are not obscured, making the bass accentuated tuning harmonious over a wide musical spectrum. Only a subtle background noise can be perceived in a quiet environment as the Dot 2 use SBC and AAC codecs. However, we couldn’t get our test equipment to use it, we only managed to activate AAC on the Mac via terminal command. Regardless of that, these delicate headphones impressed us with their power, which encourages you to drive yourself on while doing sports.