Read enough reviews of the Soundcore Life P2 and you start to wonder if everyone had the same product. HeadphoneCheck gave it 4.5 out of 5 and called it a convincing all-rounder. SoundGuys bought a pair, used it for a week, gave it a 6.4 and warned about a “painful shortcoming”. Both are describing the same light stem earbuds in the same USB-C case.
After going through the reports and reviews, I think both scores are fair. The P2 has one very good side, and one side that depends on your ears and on how you make calls.
Product image from the Amazon listing.
First, check the name. This is the older Life P2 with stems. The Life P2 Mini and the P2i are different earbuds, and listings and help pages mix the three all the time. Nothing here is about those two.
The Buttons Decide Whether You Keep Them
Most cheap earbuds of this type use touch panels. The P2 uses a real button on each stem, and that one choice causes more trouble than anything else.
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SoundGuys says the buttons are hard to press and put painful pressure on the outer ear. Their workaround is to hold the stem and press with your index finger, which tells you how bad it was. Stuff in South Africa also says the buttons need a lot of force. China-Gadgets adds a smaller point: pressing can shift the earbud in your ear, even though the buttons worked reliably in daily use.
Not everyone minds. In the China-Gadgets comments, one owner prefers the buttons, because touch controls on other earbuds kept pausing music by accident.
The bigger miss is volume. There is no volume control on the earbuds at all, and HeadphoneCheck calls this the main shortcoming. Readers at China-Gadgets find it annoying too. There is also no app to change what the buttons do, so you will reach for your phone or your Mac every time you want it louder.
A Fit That Splits People
Comfort reports go in two directions. The author of a short write-up at scivision.dev found them comfortable for several hours a day, and several China-Gadgets readers say they stay in place while jogging. SoundGuys scored comfort at 4.7 out of 10 and says they fall out during hard workouts, with stems that catch on a towel.
Stuff describes the seal well. The buds grip the ear canal tightly, which felt like water trapped in the ear until it eased after a few minutes. One China-Gadgets commenter simply did not like that sealed feeling. If you already dislike deep-fitting earbuds, I would take that as your answer.
Oddly, that tight seal does not buy much quiet for everyone. SoundGuys rated isolation as poor, and said bass fades fast against background noise. On a loud bus, expect to lose the low end first.
Product image from the Amazon listing.
Calls Are a Coin Toss
This is where the reports disagree most, so I will give you both sides.
On the good side, HeadphoneCheck praises speech clarity from the four microphones. Home&Smart says callers understood the wearer clearly, even in wind. The scivision write-up says they work well for videoconferencing.
On the bad side, SoundGuys scored the microphone at 5.0 and does not recommend it for professional calls. In their reader poll of 2,287 votes, 52 percent rated a sample “Okay”, which is hardly a rave. RTINGS calls them sub-par for calls, with a muffled sound. A Slickdeals commenter reports that callers found the mic lousy and the sound tinny.
The most interesting detail sits in a note added to the China-Gadgets review in April 2021. Several readers said microphone quality had clearly dropped in a recent production run, and the editors could no longer give their earlier praise without reservation. They planned to order a sample and check, and I found no follow-up. One owner there also said callers could barely hear them through an older Honor phone, while a Samsung phone worked well.
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I can’t tell you which pair you would get. For quick calls in a quiet room, the reports suggest you will be fine. For a job that means hours of meetings, I would not buy these for the microphone.
Mac and Laptop Use Takes Patience
Phones are the easy case. Laptops are where owners run into trouble.
Stuff’s reviewer could not get the buds to work properly with an M1 MacBook Air after about 30 minutes of trying, then connected to a smartphone with no problem. A China-Gadgets commenter also wanted a fix for laptop pairing and did not get one in that thread.
Owners on Anker’s community forum have reported more of this. One owner said the mic sounded muffled and far away on a MacBook and fine on an iPhone. Another saw the P2 listed as a mic in Zoom, but no sound came through. A third said colleagues found the buds clearer than a MacBook Air’s built-in mics, so the picture is not all bad.
Some of this is how Bluetooth headsets behave on computers. The scivision write-up notes that you may need to switch by hand between headset and stereo modes. If music turns thin during a call, setting your Mac’s own microphone as the input is a sensible first thing to try. An owner of Anker’s Liberty Air 2 reported that this restored good sound on a MacBook Pro.
Two more limits matter if you share these between a phone and a laptop. SoundGuys and scivision both say there is no multipoint, so you change devices by hand. SoundGuys also lists audio and video lag as a weakness, which you may notice while watching something on a laptop.
Product image from the Amazon listing.
Battery Is the Easy Win
Here the reports finally agree. SoundGuys measured 6 hours 41 minutes on one charge. HeadphoneCheck got over seven hours at a raised volume. The total with the case is about 40 hours, and ten minutes in the case gives about an hour of play.
The case charges over USB-C and has no wireless charging. Home&Smart says it feels cheap, and scivision complains that the status light is so bright at night that it works as a “mug me” beacon. Those are small complaints. The IPX7 rating SoundGuys lists covers full submersion for up to 30 minutes, so sweat and rain should not be a concern either.
Sound Beats the Price
Almost nobody complains about the music. Stuff says audio quality is far better than the price suggests. HeadphoneCheck calls the tuning balanced and clear, with treble that can peak at high volume. SoundGuys hears gently boosted bass and bright treble that can pull attention from vocals.
Most China-Gadgets commenters are happy for the money, though a couple wanted more bass. With no app, you have to use an equalizer on your phone for that. aptX support helps some Android phones, but iPhone owners get AAC, so do not pay extra for this feature if you live on Apple gear.
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When One Side Goes Quiet
One fault keeps coming up: the two buds losing touch with each other. Scivision says they sometimes lose sync and work only one at a time, and gives a multi-step re-pairing routine to fix it. Soundcore’s charging help page covers the related problem of a bud that won’t charge, with advice to clean the contacts, seat the bud properly and reset. It is general advice, but it is the right place to start.
One China-Gadgets reader also reported a high-pitched whine from the left bud and ordered a second pair to compare. I can’t say how common any of this is, because forum posts only come from people with problems.
Good Music Earbuds, If You Rarely Touch Them
I would buy the P2 for one kind of person: someone who wants long battery life and good sound for little money, mostly listens from a phone, and is happy to control everything from that phone. A gym bag or a commute suits them well, as long as your ears like the seal.
I would skip them if you spend your day on calls or plan to use them mainly with a Mac. I would also skip them if you press controls often, because that is exactly where the pain reports come from. SoundGuys points to the Liberty Air 2 as an option with touch controls and a better mic, and I think that is the sensible step up.
For music and long days away from a charger, the Anker Soundcore Life P2 is still a fair pick, with its limits in plain view. This is an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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