Anker Soundcore Space Q45 Wireless Headphones Review

The Anker Space Q45 look similar to other headphones from Anker's Q lineup, like the Anker Soundcore Life Q35 Wireless. Overall, the design is quite simple, though the manufacturer's logo is found on the center of each of the ear cups. The outward edge of the ear cups is glossier than the rest of the frame, which has a satin finish. They come in three color variants: 'Black', 'White', and 'Blue'.

The Anker Q45 are comfortable headphones. They don't clamp very tightly on your head and feel lightweight and airy. The ear cup padding also feels soft against the skin. Unfortunately, the padding on the headband is thinner than that of the Anker Soundcore Life Q35 Wireless and can put pressure on your head over time.

These headphones have a good control scheme. The physical controls are split between both ear cups and are intuitive to use. The buttons are also clicky and easy to press. There are voice prompts for switching between ANC modes, but there aren't any other sound prompts for other commands.

On the left ear cup:

Power button:

• Press and hold: Turns headphones on or off. Holding this button beyond turning the headphones on enters Bluetooth pairing mode.

NC button:

• Single press: Cycles between ANC on, talk-through mode, which allows you to hear your surroundings without removing the headphones, and normal mode. If you prefer to customize these settings, you can remove and remap different ANC modes using the companion app.

On the right ear cup:

Play/Pause button:

• Single press: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and ends calls.
• Double press: Activates voice assistant.
• Press and hold: Rejects a call. If you're already on a call, it mutes and unmutes the mic.

Volume rocker:

• Single press (on the '+'): Raises the volume.
• Single press (on the '-'): Lowers the volume.
• Double press (on the '+'): Skips to the next track.
• Double press (on the '-'): Skips to the previous track.

These headphones aren't very portable. Like most over-ears, they have a bulky design and take up a lot of room in your bag. Luckily, the ear cups can swivel to lay mostly flat, and the headphones can fold to help reduce their overall footprint.

The carrying case is good. It's similar to the Anker Soundcore Life Q35 Wireless with an oval design and a fully-closing zipper. There's a cloth-like fabric inside, but unlike the Q35, there isn't a diagram as to how to place the headphones in the case.

The build quality is decent. They're mostly made of plastic, and their headband has less padding than the Anker Soundcore Life Q35 Wireless, which is a little disappointing since it can make the headphones a little less comfortable over long listening sessions. They feel similar in build to the decently made but fairly plasticky Sony WH-CH720N Wireless.

When storing our unit, we noticed that the yokes didn't allow the ear cups to lay flat on the table. It also seems like pressing them down puts pressure on the yokes, which can mean that this part may get damaged over time if you're constantly folding and unfolding them to store in their carrying case. While our unit hasn't had issues, there are reports (for example, here and here) that the hinges and headband can crack.

If you're sitting at your desk or couch listening to audio, they'll stay in place on your head. However, if you're headbanging to your favorite tunes or want to wear them while out on a jog or run, they can easily move in positioning and even fall off of your head.

• Anker Space Q45 headphones
• 1/8" TRS to TRS audio cable
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Hard case
• Manuals

These headphones have a V-shaped sound profile that's well-suited for genres like rock and pop. They deliver intense thump, rumble, and boom, while sibilants like cymbals are crisp and bright. However, vocals and instruments sound harsh and lack some detail. Luckily, their companion app supplies a graphic EQ and presets to help you customize their sound.

Note: These headphones have a high noise floor. This is the sound naturally created by electronic devices, and in most headphones, the noise floor is low enough that you can't hear it. The high noise floor in these headphones is caused by the ANC if it's set to 'Adaptive' or 'Max' once turned on. Over time, the noise becomes less noticeable, but it's still present, which is a bit annoying.

These over-ears have good frequency response consistency. Although they're prone to inconsistencies in treble delivery, once you take the time to ensure a good fit and positioning, you'll achieve a more consistent sound each time you use them.

These over-ears have decent bass accuracy. They deliver extra thump, punch, and boom as the response is quite overemphasized across the range. This kind of sound is well-suited for bassy genres like EDM and hip-hop.

The Anker Space Q45 have decent mid-accuracy. The low-mid is very flat and neutral, so vocals and instruments aren't cluttered or muddied by extra bass. However, there's a significant bump in the mid to high-mid, which makes vocals and instruments, like Paul McCartney's voice in the chorus of the song Hey Jude by The Beatles, sound forward and harsh. While you can play around with EQ to even out the mids, the Sennheiser ACCENTUM Plus Wireless also sound bassy but with a more accurate midrange by default if you don't want to tinker too much.

The Anker Q45's treble accuracy is fair. They're less harsh-sounding than the Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2 Wireless, but still have some over-emphasized treble, particularly in the mid-treble. This makes sibilants like cymbals sound harsh and piercing. In contrast, the dip in the low-treble veils the upper harmonics of vocals and instruments.

These headphones have a mediocre peaks and dips performance. They struggle to control their sound profile well, which results in a few notable deviations in their sound profile. A peak between the mid to high-bass adds extra punch and boom to mixes, while a dip between the high-bass to low-mid thins out vocals and instruments. A large peak in the mid to high-mid makes vocals and instruments harsh, but a very deep dip in the low treble hurts their clarity and detail. Another big peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals piercing.

The imaging performance is excellent. Although other headphones from this manufacturer, like the Anker Soundcore Life Q35 Wireless and the Anker Soundcore Life Q30 Wireless, show L/R phase mismatch, which can cause inaccuracies in the stereo image, these over-ears don't display these issues. This may indicate better quality control with this model, but imaging varies between units and can also be related to headphones' ergonomics. That said, our unit's drivers are well-matched, which ensures that sound objects like voices are accurately reproduced in the stereo image.

The Anker Space Q45's passive soundstage performance is poor. They're closed-back headphones, so their soundstage doesn't seem as open or spacious as open-back headphones. Their soundstage is also perceived as unnatural, small, and as if sound is coming from inside your head rather than from speakers in the room around you.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is decent. There are a few small peaks in the low treble at moderate and high volumes, but they're very hard to hear, even with real-life content, as they affect very narrow frequency bands. As a result, most frequencies fall within good limits, which results in relatively clear and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The Anker Q45's noise isolation performance is excellent. Unlike previous headphones from this manufacturer's Q lineup, they have an adaptive ANC system, so the ANC dynamically adapts to your surroundings to give you the best isolation possible. If you're on your daily commute or a noisy flight, they can cut down bass range noise like the low rumbles of engines. They can also easily reduce ambient chatter and higher-pitched noise like the hum of computer fans. As a whole, the ANC blocks out a lot more noise than their budget-friendly sibling, the Anker Soundcore Space One Wireless.

In addition to the adaptive ANC, you can also turn on manual ANC via the companion app. There are five modes with varying strengths, which is nice if you don't want full noise cancellation but still some degree of isolation.

These over-ears similarly do an excellent job when it comes to blocking out more dynamic everyday environments. If you're traveling by plane or walking down the street, the ANC system can block out a significant amount of these ambient sounds. It reduces ambient office sounds very well, too, which is handy if your work is especially noisy.

These headphones have a wind reduction feature, although the manufacturer doesn't elaborate on how it works. We tested wind handling with this mode on, but you can see a comparison of this feature on and off here. Overall, this feature can reduce some wind noise, though its performance also differs depending on wind angle.

Wind noise passes over and directly interacts with the ANC's microphones. As a response, the ANC creates anti-noise to cancel the sound, even though it doesn't make it to your ear. This results in unwanted sound. It's worth noting that using this wind reduction feature in a noisy environment could impact ANC performance.

These over-ears have a good leakage performance. Most of the leakage is found in the mid-range, so escaping audio sounds somewhat full-bodied. That said, if you're in a moderately noisy environment like an office, you can raise the audio volume without others around you hearing it.

The mic's recording quality is mediocre. Your voice sounds thin, dark, and lacking depth. While the recording quality isn't as good as the Anker Soundcore Life Q35 Wireless or the Sony ULT WEAR Wireless, your voice still sounds somewhat clear to the person on the other end of the line.

The integrated mic's noise-handling performance is great. If you're taking a call in a noisy environment, the mic can keep the background sound low so your voice stays understandable and clear.

These headphones have an excellent battery performance. Anker advertises them to last 50 hours continuously with their ANC on, but we measured significantly less than that. However, this may be attributed to the volume at which the Anker tests, which could be lower than our test volume. Battery life varies depending on which features you're using (like ANC or the mic) as well as use, though, so if you're looking to extend your playback time, you'll want to utilize their auto-off timer, which you can adjust in their companion app. You can also use them passively if you run out of battery life via their TRS cable.

The Anker Soundcore app is great, and you can see a video of how it works here. You can toggle between ANC on, 'Normal', and transparency mode as well as switch between adaptive noise cancelling mode and manual ANC, which has five different strength levels. You can also set a volume limit and a safe volume. The app provides an 8-band graphic EQ and presets if you want to adjust their sound.

Unlike the Sennheiser ACCENTUM Wireless, the Anker Space Q45 support analog audio and come with a 1/8" TRS to 1/8" TRS cable. This connection only supports audio, though, so you won't be able to use their mic. They also have a USB-A to USB-C charging cable for recharging the headphones.

Our analog latency results represent the performance when the headphones are on. If you turn the headphones off, you'll achieve even lower latency.

The Anker Q45 have great Bluetooth compatibility. They support multi-device pairing, meaning you can connect them with up to two devices at a time, and they also support NFC pairing for quicker pairing. You can't use multi-device pairing if you're using LDAC, though. They also have high latency on PCs, so your audio and visuals fall out of sync while streaming video. They also have high latency via LDAC, but latency isn't really noticeable if you're only streaming audio. Latency can vary depending on the device and app.

These headphones can connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full audio and mic compatibility. If you want to use them wired, you can also use their TRS cable, but you'll only receive audio.

The Anker Soundcore Space Q45 only support audio via their 1/8" TRS cable plugged into your PS4 or PS5 controller's AUX port.

You can only use these headphones to receive audio when connected via analog to your Xbox console.