review
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Compared to other portable speakers in its price range, the Anker Soundcore Motion Plus speaker is, by far, the most engineered speaker you can find on the market right now.
The Motion Plus is packed with three types of speakers including two wide-angle 5W tweeters, two 10W woofers and two passive radiators (front and back) for a total of six speakers that deliver 30 watts of sound, which isenough power to fill a large room.
passive radiator on the back
With such elaborate speaker configuration, the Soundcore Motion Plus is able to handle the high frequencies and low frequencies separately, while stretching thefrequency range wider (from 50Hz to 40kHz) than the standard20Hz-20kHz of most portable speakers.
the Motion Plus measures 19cm long, 10cm tall and 5cm thick, and weighs 1 kg
Thanks to the 6-speaker setup with two dedicatedsilk dome tweeters, handling the high frequencies and the Soundcore app, the Soundcore Motion Plus speaker can handle the full range of frequencies with ease and without any distortions.
The material used for the tweeter domes is interesting since most tweeters are hard domes made of metal (i.e. beryllium, aluminum or titanium). Since the tweeters are made of silk, theMotion Plus dome tweeters are soft, producing a smoother high end.
The woofers inside the Soundcore Motion Plus are designed to handle the low and mid-range frequency sounds and are aided by the passive radiators to enhance the bass responsefrom 20 Hz down up to 50 Hz, which makes the bass tighter, faster and truer to the music.
The Soundcore Motion Plus delivers the deepest bass and cleanest treble with very defined vocals you can possibly get on a portable speaker this size and at this price, which is great news for bass junkies and audiophiles alike.
The Soundcore Motion Plus is, indeed, a bass heavy speaker and while there is no dedicated midrange speaker built-in, the Motion Plus speaker also does a sweet job on the mids, thanks to the 9-band Wave Equalizer in the Soundcore app that lets you customize the 1khz, 5khz, 8khz, 12khz bands.
The Soundcore app is a neat little companion to the Motion Plus speaker, not only because you can adjust the sound to your liking but, also because it lets you update the firmware. The latest firmware version is 34.38, which from the previous version 33.35 it fixed the EQ saving issue so, the Motion Plus speaker now saves the EQ setting of your choice when switched off.
The Soundcore Motion Plus supports SBC and aptX Hi-Res codec but doesn't support AAC codec, which is interesting since even the Liberty Air support AAC. Without AAC support, you will notice some lag when streaming content via the YouTube app on an Apple iOS device such as the iPhone.
The input charge of the Soundcore Motion Plus speaker is 5 volts at 2 amps, which means you can use a 10W wall fast charger to fast charge the internal battery. Full charge takes approximately 3.5 hours via a 5V/2A (10W) wall charger and approximately 6 hours to fully charge via a 5V/1A charger.
A USB-A to USB-C cable is included so, you can also recharge theSoundcore Motion Plus speaker via the USB port of a computer, taking about the same time to fully charge when charging via the USB 3.0 port of a computer.When charging via the USB 2.0 port of a computer, expect substantially longer charging times (up to 10 hours) since USB 2.0 can only output 0.5A.
On a full charge and at full volume (100%), the internal 6,700 mAh lithium-ion battery can power the Soundcore Motion Plus for up to 7 hours and up to 12 hours on medium volume (~50% volume). Like with all bluetooth speakers, their battery performance depends on the bluetooth version of the device they are connected to. A bluetooth 5.0 speaker will always have better battery life and more stable bluetooth signal when connected to a bluetooth 5.0 device and theSoundcore Motion Plus speaker is no different.
The Soundcore Motion Plus speaker system is housed within a rubberized sturdy enclosure with a thick rubber cover that seals the USB-C port and 3.5mm audio socket to make the Soundcore Motion Plus speakerIPX7 waterproof resistant so, you can submerge it under a meter of water. The rubberized finish gives the Motion Plus a soft-rugged feel, which is nice but this type of fishing is a fingerprint magnet.
The USB-C port and audio port are located on the side of theSoundcore Motion Plus speaker, just below the power button, which powers the unit on and off. The power button has an led light built-in, which lights white (while playing) and red while the speaker is charging and/or when the battery is running low. While the speaker is charging, you can listen to music via Bluetooth 5.0 or the included aux cable.
The user control buttons consist of a BassUp button (to turn on and off the bass), volume down, volume up and bluetooth button. The user control buttons are located on top of the unit and are physical buttons with a tactile feel similar to theIcon Bluetooth speaker.
The buttons are responsive but they don't integrate led lighting like the buttons on the Flare speaker and Flare+ speaker, which makes them easy to see in low light.
The middle (d) button controls the playing and pausing of the audio, as well as the skipping of tracks. The Bluetooth button also controls the stereo paring (TWS) function, which lets you pair twoSoundcore Motion Plus speakers for stereo sound, giving a total 60W output.
Next to the BassUp button, there is also a microphone built-in that provides a good experience during speakerphone calls and can be further improved via the Soundcore app by selecting the "Voice" EQ preset. Check out the review of the Motion Boom Plus.
