Soundpeats Space review

We’re seeing an influx of sub-$100 headphones hit to market, and the latest low-priced model to come across my desk is the $89 Soundpeats Space.

What makes this product so enticing? Battery life. Never have we seen wireless cans this inexpensive come with 123 hours of listening time. They even boast the most powerful quick-charging technology available (more on that later). Furthermore, the Space sound and look better than their MSRP suggests. 

Unfortunately, Soundpeats’ attempt at incorporating upscaled features like active noise cancelation, app compatibility, and music presets into a bargain package grossly misfires, bringing their overall rating down by several points.

Soundpeats Space review: Price & availability

The Soundpeats Space headphones cost $89 and are available via the Soundpeats website. They can also be found at Amazon where they are regularly discounted. Color options consist of ceramic white, creamy beige, and nebula black.

These headphones cost less than the Anker Soundcore Space One, one of the best cheap headphones around, and they're pricier than the well-received 1More SonoFlow SE ($54). All three models share similar features, including ANC, Bluetooth multipoint, and long playtimes.

Soundpeats Space review: Design

• Premium build quality
• Reliable touch and voice controls
• No carrying case

Plastic makes up most of the Space’s composition, but the material looks and feels nice. The sleek matte finish, along with chic details like the gold accented mic grilles and scripture on the right yoke, add to their attractiveness. I love the leather and soft woven fabric combination on the headband, which provides comfort atop the skull. Both earcups are also wrapped in soft leather. A carrying case is the only thing missing. 

The protruding multifunctional buttons produce solid tactility to properly execute intended commands. Multiple inputs are supported: double press the play/pause button to enable the digital assistant, hold down the low/high volume button to go back/skip a track, and hold down the ANC button to power on/off or place the headphones in pairing mode. Google Assistant and Siri perform well for hands-free voice commands.

Soundpeats Space review: Features

• Adequate feature set
• Buggy app experience

The Soundpeats app hosts several big features: ANC, EQ, Game Mode, and multipoint technology for pairing to two devices simultaneously. However, the app looks generic and lacks the high-end customization found on other companion apps. There’s no way to adjust the adaptive EQ, nor the ANC or Transparent mode. That’s not all.

The app is very buggy. It would crash or freeze a lot. I received the “you clicked too fast” error message many times when selecting the EQ settings. The Dual Device Connection feature apparently works without toggling it, which is bad news for those who want to preserve battery life, though there’s little need since the headphones last an incredibly long time.

Soundpeats Space review: Sound quality

• Strong bass response with notable depth
• Most preset EQs are useless
• Low-latency mode doesn’t make any difference

Soundpeats’ soundstage is satisfying for the price. It’s geared towards bass lovers who want extra thump out of their music, which the Space carry out successfully, depending on the audio setting. Detail and separation are also outstanding in orchestral recordings.

Bass response was monstrous on Justin Timberlake’s “Selfish,” as the booming low end dominated the soundscape at a steady and well-balanced pace while remaining impactful alongside the percussive elements and vocoder harmonies. Jazz classics such as Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man” mellowed me out in a matter of seconds. The soft piano notes and delicate hi-hats sounded clean, and the vibrant horn play carried well over the instrumental backdrop. 

The companion app gives access to a handful of sound settings: adaptive EQ, preset, and custom EQ. How Soundpeats arranged and engineered these features is puzzling. I say that because sound performed best when either selecting the classic preset or custom EQ, the latter being left untouched with a flat frequency range. All other options were detrimental to audio output. Every preset outside of Classic sounded poor; targeted frequencies are too aggressive. Adaptive EQ attempts to deliver more natural sound, but it bloats up the low end. 

Toggling the Game Mode does nothing. Audio synchronization is smooth with or without the feature turned on.

Soundpeats Space review: ANC

• Surprisingly good transparency mode
• Weak noise cancelation
• Not recommended for voice calls

Soundpeats’ noise-canceling technology performed poorly. Numerous external sounds entered the soundstage, and I could easily hear my wife speaking from a few feet away said all I needed to know. High-pitched noises were also piercing; bird chirping and whistles always broke my concentration during walks.

The only thing worse than ANC was call quality. According to the missus, my voice sounded harsh in all environments and the background was always chaotic due to ambient noise entering our conversations. She could barely hear or make out any of my words. That same feedback was shared from clients during video chats; most complaints were about too much background noise.

One advantage of Soundpeats’ ineffective noise-filtering technology is that it made for great ambient listening when enabling transparency mode. The mics picked up a lot of external sound and showcased strong vocal capture. I only wished there was a way to tweak the setting because some noises were annoyingly loud.

Soundpeats Space review: Battery life

• Extensive playtimes
• Ridiculously powerful quick charging

You’ll never have to worry about music stopping, because the Space hold up to 123 hours of listening time. Listening with ANC on cuts playtime in half (61 hours), and that can end up being lower when factoring in high volume and multipoint technology, which operates well. These are accurate ratings. If at any point you need to recharge the headphones, know that a 10-minute charge can net you a phenomenal 12 hours of playtime.

Soundpeats Space review: Verdict

The Soundpeats Space are the epitome of give and take. For every impressive trait they offer, there's a poor one in return. Sound was satisfying, but awkwardly engineered, producing favorable bass that was ruined when enabling the music presets. The dynamic mic array demonstrated great vocal capture for terrific ambient listening and voice assistance, yet it performed badly when it came to noise-canceling. Soundpeats’ companion app has some serviceable features, but bugs make them difficult to access at times. 

Their saving grace is the extensive battery life, which is the highest we’ve seen in the category. Is that enough to warrant purchasing these headphones? Sure, if playtime is your only concern. Otherwise, consider exploring budget-friendly noise-cancelers like the Anker Soundcore Space One or 1More SonoFlow, two models that sound great and offer better functionality.

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