Anker Upgraded Soundcore Boost Bluetooth Speaker, Balanced Sound, BassUp, 12H Play, USB-C, IPX7 Waterproof, Custom EQ via APP, Wireless Stereo Pairing

9 reviews for Anker Upgraded Soundcore Boost Bluetooth Speaker, Balanced Sound, BassUp, 12H Play, USB-C, IPX7 Waterproof, Custom EQ via APP, Wireless Stereo Pairing

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Lindsay Corzine – April 7, 2025

   Es una bocina muy buena, un sonido muy equilibrado y digo potente para su tamaño. Recomendado.

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Yanny – April 12, 2025

   My first Anker product. Love the quality of the speaker and its sound! The bass is great! I use it every day for movies , gaming, Switch as well. It is compact and portable. Fast connect by Bluetooth, simply operation.

3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Randy Fajardo – April 13, 2025

   Super

4. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Yanny – April 26, 2025

   How does it sound? I think the overall sound feels softened so that you don’t hear that rough raspy distorted effect on budget speakers. Music sounds good and pleasant to listen to because of this although it might feel muffled when you first hear it. Kind of like if you adjusted an equaliser so that all the sound frequencies were equal… It takes some getting used to. As you turn up the volume, this softened sound effect becomes less noticeable.

   Turning on the “Up” bass boost doesn’t really enhance the thumping low frequencies that much. It’s noticeable but not enough to wow. You have a bit more of that airy hollow effect you’d expect from a wooden subwoofer but bass guitars and sax still sounds a bit on the flat side. Without it on, they sound even more flat. On the other hand, while the bass doesn’t stand out as much as you might expect from its marketed features, some sounds do standout. I found backing vocals were more audible than the regular 2.1 speaker setup I normally use.

   It’s perfect when your out about and just want a to enjoy some music. The unit feels reassuringly heavy when you pick it up. Simple to use power up pair with bluetooth device and you’re in business.

5. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Gianni – May 14, 2025

   Awesome Bluetooth speaker…thanks Amazon and Anker for the best product and affordable price…clear vocal and deep bass.

6. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Mariusz Pyrka – May 16, 2025

   Firstly, this is a review is specifically aimed at the use of two speakers in stereo mode. This is the reason I bought these speakers. So if that’s your interest, I’ve provided detail below. The overall sound quality goes up SIGNIFICANTLY when using two of these speakers in Stereo mode, in comparison with a single speaker. If you can afford two, then I’d say buy two, because two of them sound about 5x better than one.

   That said, as a standalone speaker it’s a great speaker for the money, Anker proves itself over and over to be a cutting edge company that cares about making good products. I’ve purchased their goods for many years and I’ve never been disappointed. The sound quality of this speaker is excellent given it’s price tag (for me $49.99 USD). I can’t imagine anyone not being happy with it given the build quality and price and sound.

   For fun I compared the sound quality against my single $299 Bose Mini-SoundLink II speaker, and of course the Bose is much richer and cleaner, but considering the Soundcore Boost is 1/6th the price of the Bose, it performed absolutely outstanding!! So again, I would recommend the Soundcore highly.

   Battery life so far (owned them for a month), is very impressive. Nice work Anker!!!

   STEREO MODE FUNCTION: Key Points

   – Quite a few people in the reviews complain that the stereo mode function is unreliable, and some seem to think its terrible and claim it’s very difficult to use. I’d agree that it *was* … until I figured out how to use it properly, and then it’s been pretty easy, … so, more on this below for those that care.

   On the issue of stereo connectivity, one should first consider that it’s a $100 set of speakers and this is relatively new technology, so perhaps expectations shouldn’t be so high? One also needs to understand that the speakers will perform differently depending on the hardware they are interacting with, and various other factors, such as speaker placement. THEY WILL NOT PERFORM AS SUCCESSFULLY IN STEREO MODE WITH ALL INPUT DEVICES. MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THIS. Here are my detailed findings:

   – In my case, the speakers operate in stereo mode *almost* perfectly with my iPhone XR and my girlfriend’s IMac Pro, but do not do so well with my Hewlett Packard PC running Windows 10, so I’ve given up trying to use the speakers with my PC. It’s a bit disappointing, but again, what can I expect for $100 bucks?!

   – Note that the sound WILL drop out occasionally even on the Apple devices for maybe 0.2-0.5 seconds, which can be annoying, but it doesn’t happen very often, and sometimes I can play music for many hours without a single issue. So for the price, I can easily deal with these minor disturbances. The problem seems to be worse when streaming online movies. They perform great with streaming Apple music.

   – Getting the speakers synced up with each other and connected in stereo mode with my device for the first time could be tricky and frustrating. On top of that Anker’s instructions to set them up are PATHETICALLY bad (Come on Anker … REALLY?), so it takes a bit of messing around to figure it out. It seems best to follow a specific sequence of events each time, if they are to connect reliably in stereo mode. It seems that the device connects to one of the speakers first, and then the second speaker connects to the first speaker to create stereo mode, so this creates a linear connection rather than a network type connection. One doesn’t want to attempt to connect the device to both speakers if the intent is to use Stereo Mode. Therefore here’s what I’ve found successful:

   1. (see photos provided) Label one of your speakers with a number 1 (using a sticker that you can see in the dark). Label the other number 2 (Or label them A & B, whatever, just some what that you can easily tell them apart). It’s good to make the stickers in the shape of an arrow so it’s easy to see which direction the sound comes out. Why Anker made these into homogeneous rectangular prisms is beyond me … one shouldn’t have to carefully examine a portable speaker every time they put it down to make sure it’s facing the right way, and, it would be nice to be able to see the buttons in a dimly lit room, but they are very flat with very little texture (see photo).

   2. MAKE IT A POLICY TO CONNECT YOUR DEVICE ONLY TO SPEAKER 1. Do not allow your device to pair to Speaker 2 ever, and if you do create a pairing with Speaker 2 by accident, delete that connection from your device.

   3. Once labeled, power on ONLY Speaker 1 and pair it to your device.

   4. Once the device is paired to Speaker 1, then turn on Speaker 2. Then use some combination of the TWS buttons under the rubber connection protectors and the power buttons, to pair the speakers together in Stereo Mode. This can be tricky, and Anker’s instructions don’t make it very clear what order to do this so it works easily. I just kept pressing them in various ways until the two speakers paired. When they pair, a sound is emitted from both speakers. Then you’re ready to go and if your lucky, you won’t have to do this again!

   5. When you’re done listening just touch either power button and both speakers will shut down, COOL!

   6. IMPORTANT: When you return to use your speakers another day, turn on Speaker 1 first and wait for the goofy sound. Then power on Speaker 2, and it will make the same goofy sound, then after a moment, both speakers should repeat the goofy sound together indicating they’ve auto-paired. You are then ready to play music from your paired device in stereo!

   7. To add another device, shut down Speaker 2, pair the 2nd device to Speaker 1, and it should work just like your first device.

   Since getting this process down, they’ve worked great. Why Anker didn’t explain all this more clearly is nuts. They only provide a tiny leaflet with silly, difficult to interpret diagrams on them. Kitschy and cute maybe, but stupid. My only serious complaint. These speakers are great for the money and I recommend them highly … just understand they have limitations.

7. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   David G – May 21, 2025

   Really nice packaging, build quality, materials and weight, the latter boding well for decent speaker drivers and battery stamina. I was a bit worried that the cloth finish might be delicate, but it doesn’t seem to be, instead rather cosmetically stuck on to a hard and robust undersurface. The all-black finish is smart enough but a bit stark; some grey detailing or cloth would improve the looks still further, and perhaps help make the buttons a little clearer in poor light. The user guide is minimal in the extreme, and lacking in one or two important points, but it’s still enough to get started, and the speaker arrived with enough battery charge to get going immediately. A few weeks ago I tried the Akai Dynamx A58048SG, a Bluetooth speaker with a comparable full retail price (though frequently discounted), and it went back as unfit for purpose. In reviewing Anker’s SoundCore Boost, comparisons with that are somewhat inevitable.

   Bluetooth pairing via tapping with NFC was painless (subsequent attempts have been variable in success, but probably the phone playing up), and the sound quality was immediately gratifying, with and without the bass-boost function. Unlike the Akai, which mixed its Bluetooth input down to mono for some reason, the sound was demonstrably stereo and (unlike the Akai in aux-in mode) left and right were the correct way round. Hard to prove if the output is really 20W, but it’s certainly loud, and it’s perfectly full-sounding at lower levels too. When connected via the aux-in (you’ll need your own cable!) overall levels seemed a bit lower, and as I intend to use this as an ad-hoc instrument amp as well as a Bluetooth speaker I’m glad I went for one of the more powerful of the economically available options. There are slightly excessive power-up/down sound effects but they are nowhere near as obtrusively loud as on the Akai. Volume control is by push button with no visible feedback (the battery gauge could be re-purposed while adjusting), and could be slightly more responsive. I would prefer a rotary/slide control, but those are unusual on Bluetooth speakers for some reason. Having fully electronic volume control it would be possible to memorise the level per input, but the speaker does not do so. Although there’s a skip track function (press “Play” twice quickly) there’s no backwards counterpart unlike on the Akai and other speakers, but in fairness most will control that from their phone anyway.

   Doubling up as a power bank, charging the speaker is unusually informative, with a clear four-LED battery gauge (the Akai had a single and barely visible LED), though it gets a bit uncertain towards the 100% end. This gauge also lights up briefly at other times in operation, and additionally when the speaker is being used as a power bank. The BatON Android app usefully reports battery level on the phone. The power bank functionality seems a bit of an afterthought feature, and is not well documented in the user guide, perhaps surprisingly for a company that’s most famous for its power solutions. Simply plugging in a phone or other USB device is not enough to set it charging; you have to press the power button on the speaker too, which immediately sets it into Bluetooth pairing mode (together with start-up sound effect and flashing power light) for a few minutes until it realises there’s nothing there – well so long as Bluetooth is turned off on the device you’re trying to charge, anyway! That must waste a bit of battery that would be better saved for charging. Note that if you want to charge another device, you have to press the power button again after swapping over – no big deal but worth remembering if charging a device with no immediate visual or audible feedback. Power-bank charging is only at a maximum of 1A, so may not be quite as fast as mains on some devices.

   Splash resistance is presumably a good thing, but it does mean the sockets for charging and aux-in are behind a fiddly rubber seal. When it’s open, it’s not easy to get plugs into the sockets because the seal still gets in the way, and additionally the sockets are very close together making it rather difficult to e.g. charge and use the aux-in at the same time. The seal should open more freely (or be able to be removed altogether with ease), and a couple more millimetres between each socket really wouldn’t have made much difference to anything else.

   So overall, not perfect, but really any deficiencies are mitigated by the reasonable cost for a unit of this general quality. I expect Anker will produce an updated version of this soon as they have with other models in their range, and I have identified a few things that could certainly be improved. Nothing is a deal breaker for me though, so nice one so far Anker.

   Pros:
   – beautiful build quality and materials
   – ready to go, out of the box
   – good full stereo sound at all volumes, with no hiss or crackle
   – up to date date Bluetooth implementation unlike many speakers
   – power bank functionality is welcome, with a nice big battery to help
   – battery life is as good as advertised, still going strong after 12+ hours at modest volume
   – useful (if sometimes slightly inaccurate) battery gauge

   Cons:
   – volume control could be physical and/or more informative
   – some colour detailing could help with button legibility
   – volumes should be memorised per input
   – no track skip backwards function
   – power bank should be able to be used without fully turning on
   – socket array needs a bit more space

   Good news: I see they are now, finally, shipping an updated version. Bad news: they resolved the socket array issue by dumping the aux input altogether. Good thing I bought when I did since that would have been a deal-breaker.

8. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Vignesh A – June 13, 2025

   Anker – The name should have been anchor.

   This product proves the quality of Anker yet again at a affordable Price. I do have a passion to seek perfectness in audio quality (Even there is no ideal state and can only be comparable with other).

   Design: The product has a professional look to it. You can’t expect any fancy stuffs as in Bose or other speakers with aluminium finish. But it is IPX5 rated which means you can make it shower with accidental spills on it. But there is a difference between Water resistance and Waterproof. This is Water resistant. i.e. you can spill water on it but you cannot drop it inside a pool. My personal view, this is the best look on a water resistant speaker so far I have seen with a professional finish to it. The star of the show is the dedicated button for bass boost. You can turn the bass down if you are in mood for some mild music on night. It packs a bit of weight, but remember heavy speakers are always best sounding speakers. Battery indicator was provided with 4 light dots which is quite handy to keep an eye of charge levels while playing music.

   Note: It can charge external device with its 5200 mAH battery which means its a speaker as well as a powerbank. But if you spend the battery on charging then reduced play time as any common sense would say.

   Sound: High quality sound I would say in a single term. For persons claiming Anker Soundcore is way too good, they should try this boost. The main reason I loved it is it adds lot of powerful bass to it but without compromising the quality/clarity of the music. Usually there will be a trade off between Bass & Clarity (Sound core is too clear but lacks bass), but this maintains the balance pretty good and it is quite capable of annoying your neighbours in terms of volume when turned high. Again have to appreciate the bass button here, for some songs if you feel the rumble is too much, then you can turn it down which plays the balanced sound without any distortion. But I LOVE ITS THUMPING BASS! especially for its size. As per my title, it anchored sound quality on this one.

   Connectivity: Never had an issue so far for a week while connecting to my iphone, ipad or Echo dot. Haven’t tried NFC yet though.

   Battery: Anker claims 12 hours of music. Have listened to it for 3 days straight out of box at 50 -60% of volume (Enough for my room size) at average use of 2 hrs per day and still going strong with 1 point out of 4 in the battery indicator. Out of box it had just 75% battery with 3 points, so you can imagine it pretty much matches its spec but might vary if played on high volumes. I am yet to charge it, so will let you know if any major deviations on the charging time from specs.

   Verdict: I am more than happy to give this gem a 5 star rating for the build and sound quality at an affordable price range. You should pay 3 times of this money to get similar sound quality products from brands like Bose, Sonos, etc. My personal view is Bose Sound link mini cannot even compete with this interms of bass. I like the sound of Bose soundtouch 10 and it almost matches it (may not be on volume due to size restrictions). Anker keep surprising with some more quality products. I am Happy to review them if I get a chance.

   Finally I never had a need to reach to Anker customer care so far but heard its one of the best.

9. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Rob – July 3, 2025

   Sicuramente un buon prodotto considerando il prezzo, purtroppo ho dovuto restituirlo perché non compatibile con il mio televisore. Ho potuto però testarlo con il mio smartphone, devo dire che la resa acustica è più che buona, interessante anche la possibilità di gestione da smartphone mediante app specifica.