Soundcore by Anker Space Q45 Adaptive Active Noise Cancelling Headphones, Reduce Noise by Up to 98%, 50H Playtime, App Control, LDAC Hi-Res Wireless Audio, Comfortable Fit, Clear Calls, Bluetooth 5.3

I'll do this review as a pro/con. For reference, my previous travel headphones were the very old-school Bose QC15, which were the only game in town for true noise cancelling headphones in the day but didn't have Bluetooth (without a 3rd-party thingy with a funky charger that went into the headphone port), and they finally gave up the ghost after a long, hard travel run.PROS:1. Sound quality. I'm not an audiophile, but these sound great to my ears, especially after tuning using their HearID function. (#2 below).2. The app is really helpful. I especially like the HearID (auto EQ), which provides tones of varying volume and pitch and adjusts the EQ for your hearing after making you realize you're getting old and just how many high tones you can no longer hear. It is surprising how much better music sounds after doing this, and I hate manually adjusting EQs. I use Android, and there is even a widget that allows control of the noise cancelling right from the main screen.3. Battery life. Still had battery level "medium" after an 11-hour international plane trip (used them for probably 7-8 hours of this).4. Noise cancelling, which works quite well on airplanes. Turn them on, and silence... sometimes I just do that without music for some peace and quiet during air travel.5. The carrying case is hard-shelled and has withstood travel well so far. Initially it can be a little tricky folding them right to fit.CONS (quibbles, really):1. They are a little bulky on the ears. They are not heavy (quite light actually), and unnoticeable when sitting upright. But using them while laying down can be a little uncomfortable.2. The pads that go around your ears are overall quite comfortable, but they don't breathe particularly well so your ears tend to get a little hot and sweaty after several hours. I think this is just the nature of around-the-ear headphones, as my Bose set had this problem but not quite as bad.3. The buttons are tiny, with black shiny icons on a matte black button. When you're getting older, the inability to hear high tones comes with the need for reading glasses to read darn near anything, so those tiny icons can be difficult to see for me. Once you're used to where buttons are, it becomes less of an issue, but they are small and take some "muscle memory" when they are on your ears to remember where the power button is and where the volume up/down is.Overall, even with the minor quibbles, I am really happy with them. Sound-wise, they are comparable if not a little better than my old Bose set. Functionality-wise, they are way better, especially when combined with the app and the HearID function. I think Anker has done a great job with their Soundcore line, providing a quality product for a reasonable price.

Nowadays, I wouldn't buy a pair of bluetooth headphones blindly (or deafly?) online unless it comes with an app that allows you to tweak the sound/EQ. There's no point in spending money on a pair of headphones, only to not like the sound when they arrive. There are 3rd-party EQ phone apps, but those are sometimes dubious, plus they only work with the phone/tablet device being used at the time. It's best to have the native headphone's app do it within the headphones themselves, in which the custom EQ settings travel with the headphones to whatever device/system is being used -- even those without the possibility of EQ apps. So with built-in EQ, you don't have to worry as much about whether the headphones match your preferred sound profile -- at least, to a point, since some things like soundstage and the "feel" of open vs. closed headphones can't be customized, although the "Transparency" app settings sort of emulate the latter a bit, albeit via noise cancellation.These headphones come with a really good app for configuring most things (with one feature request down below*), including the EQ, noise cancelation, volume limiter, firmware updates, etc. You can also configure the headphones to auto-power-off if not in-use after 30/60/90/120 minutes or "never" (default is 60 minutes). The 8-band EQ has a 21 presets (or 22 if you count the "BassUP" on/off toggle on their "sound core Signature" preset), along with allowing to create/save multiple custom EQ profiles. The app finds and connects to the headphones immediately with both my Pixel 7 and Pixel 3 (which I now use as just a tiny tablet, since it only has WiFi). I only have Android phones, so I can't speak for the iPhone app, but I'd guess that it is the same, other than the LDAC stuff (which Apple devices don't support, and will default to AAC). Note that these headphones don't support any aptX protocols, so your options are LDAC/AAC/SBC for Android devices and AAC/SBC for Apple devices (both phones and computers). My computer is an Apple MacBook Air M1, so I can vouch for the AAC connection on that, although when sitting at my computer, I prefer using my wired headphones (Beyerdynamic 880's). But overall, I am liking these Q45's more than my Sennheiser HD 350BT bluetooth headphones.I don't really use noise cancelation, so I can't speak to that in subjective terms, and so keep in mind that my rating does not take into account noise cancellation. But in terms of features, it has a lot of customization, with both traditional NC modes (with five custom levels plus adaptive/automated) as well as separate transparency modes (with five custom levels plus "talk" mode). But even with the NC turned off ("Normal" setting), the headphones actually block-out quite a bit of noise naturally, since they seem to form an almost air-tight suction.The battery seems to last long too. I'm a person that re-charges any device before it goes below 60%, so I can't say how long a full battery drain lasts, but I go quite awhile between charges nonetheless, even using LDAC (which uses more battery). In AAC/SBS mode (not LDAC), probably slightly better than my Sennheiser HD 350BT's, while in LDAC mode, probably a bit worse (but only a bit).For comfort, I find these very comfortable with prolonged use.I just bought a new Pixel 7 phone (w/Android 13), and the bluetooth w/LDAC works extremely well with this phone/headphone combo, with no connectivity issues under reasonable use, even when LDAC is forced to 990kbps. The headphones also connect to the phones fairly quickly. In terms of holding the connection w/LDAC, I live in a two-bedroom apt with each bedroom on opposite ends of the apt, separated by ~20 feet. I put the phone in the furthest corner of one bedroom, shut the door, and walked around the apt:--LDAC @990kbps: It worked fine without any skips up to ~30 feet away and through one wall (including door closed). I didn't start to have skips until going into the other bedroom with its door also closed -- so not until over 30 feet away and through two walls.--LDAC @660kbps: I couldn't break it within my apt. No skips, even in the second bedroom with both bedroom doors closed -- so it still worked at ~35 feet away and through two walls (including both doors closed).--I didn't bother checking 330kbps, since 660kbps worked so well in all my scenarios.--LDAC Best Effort (Adaptive): Same behavior as @660kbps (never breaks/skips), which tells me that Android isn't actually operating at @990kbps (either part of the time or never), even though the Android ADB logs always say @990kbps at initial connection with no subsequent changes. So at least partially, it is operating @660kbps or @330kpbs. But the vagueness of Adaptive LDAC mode isn't the fault of these (or any) headphones -- this is an Android issue. However, the choice to use Adaptive LDAC mode in the first place is controllable, which brings me to my one gripe below...*My one complaint/request for the app is that it could force-customize the LDAC settings. All it allows you to do is enable LDAC (Preferred auto quality) or disable LDAC (Combine audio and connection, which then defaults to AAC). In the Android Developer settings, it always defaults to "Best Effort/Adaptive", which doesn't tell you what it's doing, even in the ADB logs, which only logs 990kbps at first connection, but never logs subsequent adaptive changes.There's a Sony Music Center app that works for some people in forcing the LDAC bit rate mode, but when I tried it, it only worked around 50% of the time on both my Pixel 7 w/Android 13 and Pixel 3 w/Android 12, so I ended-up removing the app. But it apparently works for others, and if Sony can apparently force the LDAC settings within their app, why shouldn't the SoundCore app be able to do it too? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like the SoundCore app to force-customize the LDAC settings. Ideally, I'd like it to control the actual bit rate mode (ie, explicitly set it to 990kbps or 660kbps), as well as set the sample rate and bit size, since I don't listen to music beyond 44.1kHz/16-bit anyway, and so I also like to down-tune the sample rate/bit size to 44.1kHz/16-bit, to save a bit of phone battery. But at the very least, the app should be able to force-set the main LDAC bit rate setting (990/660/330/adaptive), so we don't have to go into the Android Developer settings every time the headphones re-connect. It's a minor nuisance, but considering that LDAC is a major selling point of the headphones -- you'd think they'd want to allow people to ensure ideal LDAC settings? Regardless, I'd still give these headphones five stars for the price range.

3.5/5, so i'm generously rounding up here. Headphones are an excellent value and have good sound, good mic quality, a great feature set, hold a long charge and charge quickly, and are comfortable and easy to set up.There are two problems I've had that I hope Anker addresses in future versions:1. The padding on the headphones at the ears and top of the headpiece should use better materials and be replaceable. At less than a year old mine have started to detach and tear from the main plastic assembly. The top padding wont be a big problem, but when the ear cups are gone I have no idea how to replace them with returning them. --actually, it looks like third parties have produced replacements, but i'm not sure how well they work.2. When they are connected to two sources, I often get dropped connections from one source if it goes idle for even less than a minute. Its an annoying quirk that often has me scrambling to connect to the computer or the phone while trying to join a call.