Soundcore Space One Pro Review: Headphones That Twist Instead of Fold

Just when you think headphones have peaked, the Soundcore Space One Pro come along and bring a unique way to fold up, by twisting. On top of a new design, the headphones are incredibly comfortable and sound good. With the exception of one disappointing feature, I was thoroughly impressed.

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Price and Availability

The Soundcore Space One Pro headphones are available now and retail for $199.99. They join the standard Space One headphones, which retail for $99.99.

I flew across the U.S. with these headphones to give them a proper test where people will likely want to use them the most—on a plane. I observed how their sound, active noise-canceling performance, and design all handled being on the road.

Let’s start with the design, which is the most interesting aspect of the Soundcore Space One Pro headphones.

Although they look normal while being worn, the headband is extra flexible, which allows it to wrap tighter around the earcups. I was impressed the first time I saw the twist demonstrated, but I was even more thrilled when I tried it myself.

At first glance, it looks like more is happening with the folding mechanism, but really, it’s just a few clever tweaks to how most headphones currently fold that give them a new twist on life. For example, as far as I can tell, no special magnets are holding them closed or anything like that.

In practice, this twisting fold makes them easy to put away quickly and makes the headphones feel fairly compact. They fit nicely in the bottom of my carry-on backpack.

There are no touch controls on the outside of the headphones. All the controls, from volume to ANC, are physical buttons. That’s great. I hate accidentally changing tracks with touch controls when adjusting my headphones. Skipping tracks is a little confusing because you need to press and hold the volume up button for two seconds, but otherwise, I had no issues actually using the controls.

The Fit and Comfort Is the Best Feature

As much as I like the twisting mechanism, the highlight of these headphones is their comfort. It was the first thing I noticed, and I continued to appreciate it every time I put them on.

The headband is squishy and resists adding nearly any pressure. I never felt it resting on top of my head. Similarly, the foam earcups seemed to float right around my ears, applying only a little pressure to my face without feeling too loose or insecure.

The 286-gram weight likely plays a big part in making these headphones disappear while wearing them. The lightweight is, of course, also nice for travel. For comparison, Apple’s AirPods Max weigh 385 grams.

ANC Performance Is Fine

Sitting on an airplane, I felt the ANC only helped block about 50% of the engine noise, whereas some other ones I’ve tested on planes, including the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and Sonos Ace, blocked out more noise, somewhere closer to 85%. It's hard to quantify this aspect; those numbers are just approximations for comparison. Stating the obvious: more expensive headphones can perform better in this area.

On the other hand, while sitting at home during the day using these headphones to listen to music while I typed out a story, the ANC strength was perfectly adequate to cover the miscellaneous noises that might normally distract me.

Even though these don’t provide the strongest ANC capabilities, they're fine for more general use. They're good for their price class. However, if you do want the strongest and most effective ANC performance, you should look at the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones—just be prepared to spend a significant amount of money.

Audio Quality is Good, And Tailored to Your Ears

While I was a bit disappointed by the ANC performance on a plane, I was satisfied with the sound quality. These headphones don’t offer exceptionally booming bass or the most pristine details I’ve ever heard, but the sound is very good and should be enough to keep most people engaged in the music rather than distracted by how their favorite songs sound.

Skimming through my usual playlists of songs for testing headphones yielded the expected results. Pop songs were punchy; vocals were clear and present.

At the end of the day, music evaluation is mostly moot because the Soundcore app (available for iPhone and Android) offers a personalized sound feature, HearID, which allows you to tweak the sound profile to their exact taste. First, the app walks you through a basic hearing test to check how well you can hear certain frequencies, and then it adjusts the EQ based on those results by going through different A/B tests.

If you want an ultra-clear mid-range to focus on vocals, you can get that. But by default, the sound is well-balanced and should complement most genres of songs.

Get Up to 60 Hours of Battery Life

Battery life was great—so good, in fact, that I had trouble burning through it. Soundcore advertises 60 hours without ANC and 40 hours with it turned on. To put that in perspective, you could theoretically clock in for a traditional job on Monday morning and wear the headphones, with noise-canceling on, every work hour until you clocked out on Friday afternoon. Battery life keeps creeping up on headphones, but this is still impressive.

I had no problems with the battery life lasting for all my flights and didn’t even consider charging them for my entire trip. Eventually, you’ll need to plug them in for a little bit, but there’s no need to worry about the power here. Charging the headphones for five minutes will net them eight hours of playback time.

Should You Buy the Soundcore Space One Pro?

For their $199.99 retail price, I wish the Soundcore Space One Pro's active noise-canceling performance was a tad stronger to block out more of the most distracting environments. I could have used a touch more thump in the low-end bass with the default EQ, but otherwise, these headphones are the total package.

They do sound good and better than a lot of other sub-$200 headphones. Most importantly, they’re extremely comfortable, which means I found myself actually wanting to wear them more often than other headphone options. The twisting fold design is cool and works well as a cherry on top. I don’t know if these are “professional” headphones, but anyone venturing into the premium headphone space should enjoy what these offer.