Soundcore Motion 300 by Anker

The Soundcore Motion 300 by Anker comes with IPX7 certification, meaning that the speaker can be completely submerged in water for a short time without any problems. It can, therefore, easily withstand heavy rain showers or be used while taking a shower. Unfortunately, it is currently not possible to say how resistant it was to dirt or dust, as the Soundcore Motion 300 does not have this certification, and the manufacturer does not provide any relevant information.

Design of the Soundcore Motion 300

The Soundcore Motion 300 weighs just under 780 grams and has handy dimensions of approx. 20 x 9.9 x 5.4 cm. The speaker, which is available in green, blue and black, has rounded edges and a small carrying strap on the left, which is attached with a push button. This looks neatly finished, as evidenced by the eyelet, which is stitched to prevent fraying. However, I would have liked the detachable loop to be a finger’s width longer so that it could be slipped on quickly and comfortably with two fingers.

The silicone coating with small splashes of colour protects the sides and the underside. The top is surrounded by a grid that prominently features the manufacturer’s logo, while soft rubber feet on the bottom and back provide a stable and securely separated footing. The USB-C charging port is secured by a rubber cover on the narrow right-hand side, while the power button, pairing button and other controls are located on the top. More on this later.

In the compact cardboard box, which was barely larger than the speaker itself, you will also find an approx. 53cm long USB-C to C charging cable and a small booklet with regulatory information. Somewhat curiously, only the first few pages were printed; the rest were blank. This might have changed when the speakers got released; otherwise, perhaps you can use it to make a DIY flipbook.

The technology of the Soundcore Motion 300

Soundcore uses two full-range drivers in the Motion 300, and these have an astonishingly wide frequency range of 65 Hz to 40 kHz. The stereo speaker is technically state-of-the-art and offers Bluetooth 5.3 including SBC, AAC and LDAC codecs. The latter means that it is Hi-Res Audio certified. We will explain how well this works in the “Sound” section below.

Thanks to Soundcore’s SmartTune technology, the Motion 300 also recognises changes in the speaker’s orientation, and the sound adjusts automatically – regardless of whether the speaker is hanging by its loop, on a table or standing on a shelf.

It should be made clear, however, that due to the design, the stereo image was quite narrow, and channel separation was correspondingly difficult. You can change this by simply pairing a second Motion 300 speaker. Due to the lack of a second device to test, we were unfortunately unable to measure this effectively.

Battery life

The manufacturer states that the Soundcore Motion 300 lasts around 13 hours on a single charge. Of course, this will depend heavily on the volume and the codecs you use. A full charge takes around five hours.

Operation

On the narrow top side, you will find the control panel: Power On/Off, Bluetooth pairing, BassUp mode, volume down, playback and volume up. Press the play button twice to skip forward one track, press it three times to skip back one track and during phone calls, use it to accept, hang up or reject them. Pressing and holding summons the voice assistant. Incidentally, all commands were always executed reliably without any issues or problems.

App connection

Our attentive readers will already be familiar with the Soundcore app (Android and iOS) from our reviews of this brand’s headphones. This management app is also used with this speaker and shows the battery life on the start page (unfortunately, only as a small battery symbol without a percentage display), as well as a play/pause button and a volume control. This only changes the volume when it is unlocked or when you tap anywhere on the bar.

Below, you can click on the equaliser. Here, the sound is pre-set to adapt automatically when the Motion 300 is upright, horizontal or hanging. If these adaptive sound pre-sets don’t suit you, you can define your own pre-sets with a 9-band EQ. You can also choose between four additional EQ curves (“Soundcore Signature”, “Extra Bass”, “Voice” and “Balanced”).

In the Soundcore app, you can deactivate the start and shutdown sound, which was a bit too loud for our taste, and you can also adjust the automatic switch-off time (switch off or 5, 10, 20, 60 minutes), adjust the brightness of the buttons (Off, Low, Mid, High) and run firmware updates.

How does the Soundcore Motion 300 by Anker sound?

With a speaker of this size, it should be obvious that sub-bass cannot be adequately reproduced. This is simply due to a lack of driver size and resonance body. That’s why they use a DSP here, and this primarily amplifies the low and mid-range. However, the bass was still reproduced with vigour and the BassUp switch added a bit more weight to this. However, it did not always fit. Some tracks simply thudded at the bottom, while others seemed to sound duller when the function was switched on. You will need to experiment here.

The mids were clear but could be masked by bass. For spoken content such as podcasts or radio plays, it would be worth using the “Voice” EQ pre-set, which provided better intelligibility.

The treble was surprisingly clear and present, although it was noticeable that it felt more present when the Soundcore Motion 300 was lying down and not when it was standing upright.

If you turn this small speaker up really loud, you can hear how the DSP tries to prevent distortion. It does this quite well, but you could not say that this was a fine-resolution sound image. It also seemed as if the BassUp function artificially cut the bass and took away energy in order to avoid annoying resonances or distortions.

And what exactly was the benefit of the high-resolution LDAC codec? Did the qualitative gain ever materialise? It should be apparent that you shouldn’t expect too much from drivers of this size when used in this small design. Our 24-bit/96kHz test tracks, therefore, only demonstrated minimal differences – if any – when we switched back and forth between AAC and LDAC. The codec-related forced pause when switching made a 1:1 comparison extremely difficult. Nevertheless, we had the feeling that the sound was a little more open and detailed on some tracks. I don’t want to go too far out on a limb here; this was a blind comparison, and depending on how you feel on the day, the brain can play tricks.

Phone calls with Soundcore’s Motion 300

During our test calls, we were always able to understand the other person well and were surprised at how clear and unmuffled their voice was. Our conversation partner had just as few problems the other way around. A nice extra that not many competitors offer is that this makes the speaker suitable for video conferencing.

Conclusion

Considering its current price of just under 90 euros, the Soundcore Motion 300 by Anker is a really good accessory for adventures where things might get a bit rough. Thanks to its IPX7 rating, it is waterproof and the robust design can easily withstand being dropped.

The Motion 300 also delivers a decent sound for its size, and its app connection is more than just a nice extra thanks to the extensive equaliser. You shouldn’t expect too much from the LDAC compatibility, but it’s still a nice thing to have. Another great feature is the automatic sound adjustment, which reacts to how the Bluetooth speaker is positioned. We therefore recommend the Soundcore Motion 300 by Anker, not least because Soundcore is known for offering discounts throughout the year.