Two respected reviews looked at the same headphones in 2022 and reached opposite conclusions about the same feature. Laptop Mag called the noise cancelling “one of the strongest I’ve ever used.” SoundGuys scored it 6.5 out of 10 in the lab, below average, and described it as “fairly solid.” Both had the Soundcore Space Q45 on their heads. Working out why they differ is the best way to decide whether these are right for your desk.
I found much less owner feedback than I wanted. Most of what follows comes from hands-on reviews at five outlets, with one short owner comment and a few comments from retail buyers.
Product image from the Amazon listing.
This is also a separate model from the cheaper Q20 and Q30. Laptop Mag even suggests that many buyers would be just as happy with the Q35, so do not assume the top of the range is what you need.
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Noise Cancelling: Strong for the Price, Short of the Best
My reading of the disagreement is that it comes down to what kind of noise you care about. A lab score is one measure across a range of sounds. A person wearing them through a normal day is another. HeadphoneCheck said ambient noise was “almost completely blocked out” at moderate volume. The AU Review called it “some of the best ANC in its class.” So the people wearing them were happy, and SoundGuys warns only that it does not compare as well with the market leaders.
The word “class” matters. Laptop Mag listed these at $149. Nobody I read says they beat Sony or Bose at the top end across the board, and I would not expect it. For the hum of an office, a fan or a coffee shop, the reports suggest you will be pleased.
One catch: HeadphoneCheck names only one con, and it is hiss. You “will have to accept background noise in ANC and transparency mode,” and in transparency mode it became audible from the third level up. If you work in a silent room with no music, you may notice that faint noise floor. If you play music, you probably will not.
The app offers five ANC levels plus an adaptive mode, according to SmartWorld. That gives you a way to back off if the strongest setting feels like too much.
Battery Is the Easy Win
Here all the reviews agree. Anker claims 50 hours with ANC on and 65 with it off. SoundGuys measured 55 hours and 48 minutes in its own test, and a five-minute charge gives about four hours. Laptop Mag listed “Insanely good battery life” as a highlight.
For a working week, this means you could charge on Monday and forget about it until the following week, even with long days. That is a real comfort for someone who has been caught by a flat headset five minutes before a meeting. There is also a wired option, per SoundGuys, so a dead battery is not the end of a call.
Product image from the Amazon listing.
Calls: Fine at Home, Mixed Outside
This is the point I would weigh most for work, and the reviews do not line up neatly.
SoundGuys calls the microphone “surprisingly good” and says it rejects background noise well in office, street and windy settings. SmartWorld agrees that the mics remove noise very well, but found something odd: they did relatively better in noisy places than in quiet ones, where the voice sounded less bright. HeadphoneCheck says that in a quiet place the Q45 is “perfect for communicating,” while loud street or building noise “regularly” got through in short bursts. The AU Review sums up its call quality as “a little hit and miss,” struggling in busy public spots and in wind.
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Put together, I would expect a home office call to go well. Outdoor calls are a coin toss. These are music headphones with decent call features, and if your whole day is meetings in loud places, a proper headset will do better.
Multipoint With a Mac and a Phone
Multipoint lets the headphones stay connected to two devices, so you can listen on a Mac and pick up a call on your phone. SoundGuys lists it among the things it likes. The most useful account comes from SmartWorld, whose reviewer used exactly this pairing.
He says it works very well overall, but that it sometimes froze. On one occasion, pausing music on his Mac stopped him from playing anything from his smartphone. He writes that this happened much more often at first, and that a later update mostly cured it, without removing it entirely. The app lets you manage the two devices, so you do have some control.
An owner on the SoundGuys page also calls the Bluetooth connection sometimes jumpy. One comment proves nothing, but it fits. I would plan for an occasional need to reconnect, and I would install firmware updates through the app on day one.
Note also that the headphones support the LDAC codec, listed by SoundGuys. As far as I know, Macs and iPhones do not use LDAC, so that feature is for Android listeners and will not change anything on Apple gear.
Product image from the Amazon listing.
The Sound Is Where Opinions Split Again
Laptop Mag praised “top-notch sound quality.” HeadphoneCheck found a balanced tuning with tight bass, though treble “sometimes sounded a bit sharp” at higher volumes. SoundGuys went the other way and called sound quality “probably the headset’s biggest issue,” with an uneven high end and a slightly scooped midrange, “adequate for most listeners.” The AU Review noticed bass fading when treble took over.
The app has an 8-band equalizer and a hearing-based profile called HearID, which may close some of that gap. The app itself is not loved, though. SoundGuys lists a “Finicky app experience” and says it feels cheaper than the headphones. I would still install it, because that is where the useful controls live.
Comfort Over a Long Day
The Q45 weighs about 295 g, per SmartWorld and HeadphoneCheck. SmartWorld calls them very comfortable for long periods. HeadphoneCheck reports no excessive heat. SoundGuys is less warm: it found them comfortable for “a couple of hours at a time” and thought the cups could breathe better. Laptop Mag liked the padding, while a retail buyer said the headband comfort was not that good.
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Durability evidence is scarce. The owner on the SoundGuys page calls the ear pads poor quality. The AU Review finds the plastic build less premium than it could be, and the design bulky, with small buttons. The cups fold flat into a case for travel, which helps. There is no wear detection, says Laptop Mag, so music will not pause when you take them off. For a person who is always pulling headphones off to answer a colleague, that is a daily small annoyance.
A Strong Value Pick, With Caveats
I like the Space Q45 as a work headset for a home office or a shared room: long battery, good noise cancelling for the money, and multipoint that mostly works with a Mac and a phone. It suits someone who wants most of what the expensive brands offer at a much lower price, and who can live with a slightly fiddly app.
Skip it if you need the very best noise cancelling money can buy, if you take most calls outdoors, or if you sit in a silent room and hiss would drive you mad. And if your budget is tight, look at the cheaper Q35 before you pay for this one.
For the home office buyer, the Anker soundcore Space Q45 looks like good value, as long as you update the firmware early and test the two-device switching in your first week. This is an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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