Soundcore Sport X10 Earbuds Review
Ryan
$69.99
$79.99
Amazon.com
Technically Well is supported by our readers. When you purchase an item through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read more in our disclosures.
If you’ve tried working out with AirPods and had trouble with them staying in your ear, check out the Soundcore Sport X10.
Design
The Sport X10 earbuds are geared towards fitness enthusiasts and those who may have had trouble with earbuds falling out in the past. These earbuds have a soft hook that helps secure the earbuds in your ear. While the hook is soft and comfortable, they may fatigue your ears after an hour or so of wear if you’re not used to having something on them.
These earbuds fit snugly in their compact case, which makes them more pocket friendly than other ear-hook earbuds such as these from JLAB. With the earhook, this means there is an extra step of unfolding the hook when you remove them from the case, which might make them a tad more inconvenient for some.
Soundcore Sport X10 vs PowerBeats Pro
The Sport X10 are also a great alternative to the pricier PowerBeats Pro as the Sport X10 offer Active Noise Cancellation with Transparency mode, stronger water and sweat resistance, and weigh about half as much.
Sound Quality of Soundcore Sports X10
As far as sound quality, I was surprised by how strong the bass response is with these earbuds, even without turning on the “BassUP” feature in the app. Soundcore states these earbuds have a metallic housing with 10mm drivers with enhanced bass properties, and this is definitely apparent while using them. And you can customize the sound even further with the Soundcore app, as well as adjust the touch controls.
The Sport X10 earbuds feature Active Noise Cancellation that works fairly well at drowning out constant noise like a plane’s engine, but like most earbuds, it is less effective against a loud television or music blaring nearby. I used the earbuds on a recent flight and they allowed me to listen to my podcasts and music at a comfortable volume, but I found my AirPods Pro were slightly better at blocking the sound of a baby crying nearby.
There is only one Active Noise Cancellation mode in the app, while some of Soundcore’s other earbuds have 3 different settings depending on your environment. There is also a transparency mode option, if you need to hear what’s going on around you without removing the earbuds. I should note that these features were in beta while I was testing and may change in the future.
Features
- Ear Hooks: If you’ve struggled with other earbuds falling out of your ears while working out, the ear hooks on the Sport X10 should definitely help. However, this is an extra step to “swing” the ear hooks open when you take the earbuds out of the case and then to close them before you return them to the case.
- Active Noise Cancellation: In addition to sports, these earbuds are also good for flights (especially if you’re worried about them falling out of your ear and getting lost on the plane) as the Active Noise Cancellation feature is drowning out the engine noise and allowing you to listen to your music and podcasts at a more comfortable level.
- Transparency mode: If you need to hear what’s going on around, you can enable Transparency mode with the touch controls or the app without needing to remove the earbuds.
- IPX7 water resistance: While the Sport X10 earbuds have resistance against splashes and sweat, they should not be submerged in water. The case is not water resistant, so be sure to dry the earbuds before returning them to the case.
- Breathe app: Soundcore includes a “Breathe” section in the Soundcore app that leads you through some deep breathing exercises. Like the “Breathe” app on the Apple Watch, I don’t see a lot of people using this, but it is there if you want to give it a try.
Battery Life
The earbuds can last up to 8 hours on a single charge, with the charging case providing an additional 3 charges for up to 32 hours of total playback time before the charging case needs to be recharged. A quick 10 minute charge can get you up to 2 hours of playback time when you’re short on time.
On a recent 6 hour flight, my iPhone’s battery widget showed that the Sport X10 still had about 20% battery remaining.
