The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are versatile, reasonably comfortable truly wireless earbuds. They're well-built and should easily stay in your ears during workouts. Their sound profile has a bit of extra bass to keep you pumped up without being overwhelming. They have over seven hours of continuous battery life and their case is advertised to hold enough extra charges for just under 100 hours of playback. However, we don't currently test it. On the downside, they lack app support and their controls aren't the most intuitive.
Our Verdict
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are decent for neutral sound. Their sound profile is well-balanced, with overemphasis across the bass range that adds rumble, punch, and boom. Vocals and lead instruments are mostly accurate and clear, but some details may seem veiled. Their soundstage is perceived as small and inside your head, which is typical of headphones with an in-ear design. Unfortunately, they don't have a companion app and lack sound customization features like an EQ or presets.
- Punchy, reasonably well-balanced sound profile.
- Stable and decently comfortable.
- Closed-off soundstage.
- No sound customization features.
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are a good choice for commuting and traveling. They’re extremely portable, quite well-built, and have an advertised total battery life of nearly 100 hours. While don't currently test for that, they should have enough battery life to get you through a couple of long trips if you put them back in their case to charge every once in a while. They also do a solid job of passively isolating you from noise, although they struggle to block out the sound of rumbling engines.
- Outstanding total battery life.
- Solid build quality.
- Impressive noise isolation and audio leakage performance.
- Stable and decently comfortable.
- Bluetooth audio latency too high for streaming video without audio lag.
- No sound customization features.
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are a great pick for sports and fitness. Once you find the right size of stability sleeves and ear tips, they shouldn’t fall out of your ears, even during intense workouts. They’re also quite sturdy and have an IPX5 rating for water resistance, though we don’t test for that currently. On the downside, their control scheme takes some getting used to and lacks a volume function.
- Solid build quality.
- Stable and decently comfortable.
- Unintuitive control scheme.
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are decent for office use. Their continuous battery life of just over seven hours is a bit short for a 9-5 workday, but they come with a case advertised to hold a lot of extra charges, so you can top them up as needed. They passively isolate you from a good amount of office-type noise like chatting co-workers and humming A/C units. They also hardly leak any audio, so your music shouldn't bother people sitting nearby. However, they don’t support multi-device pairing, which is a little annoying if you tend to switch between using your phone and computer.
- Outstanding total battery life.
- Impressive noise isolation and audio leakage performance.
- Stable and decently comfortable.
- No sound customization features.
- No multi-device or NFC pairing.
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are Bluetooth-only headphones. They're compatible with Bluetooth-enabled PCs and mobile devices, but their latency is too high for them to be suitable for gaming.
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are truly wireless headphones and can't be used wired.
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are okay for phone calls. People on the other end of the line should hear your voice clearly and without distortion, but it doesn't sound very full-bodied. The integrated mic also struggles to separate speech from loud ambient noise. On the plus side, the earbuds isolate you from a good amount of background noise, making it easier for you to hear your call.
- Stable and decently comfortable.
- Inadequate noise handling.
Changelog
- Updated Aug 26, 2021: Updated review for accuracy and clarity.
- Updated Jun 29, 2021: Converted to Test Bench 1.5.
- Updated Aug 03, 2020: Review published.
- Updated Jul 29, 2020: Early access published.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the Anker Life Dot 2 in 'Black'. There's also a 'Green' color variant that we expect to perform similarly.
You can see the label for the unit we tested here. If you come across another variant or your headphones are different, please let us know in the discussions below so we can update our review.
Popular Headphones Comparisons
The Anker Life Dot 2 are versatile truly wireless in-ear headphones with a high price-to-performance ratio. They’re quite well-built, reasonably comfortable, and provide a decently well-balanced sound profile. On the downside, their one-button control scheme lacks some functionality and takes some getting used to.
If you’re looking for similar options, take a look at our list of recommendations for the best wireless Bluetooth earbuds under $50, the best true wireless headphones, and the best wireless Bluetooth earbuds.
The Anker SoundCore Life P3 Truly Wireless are slightly better than the Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 Truly Wireless. The Life P3 are more comfortable, and thanks to their ANC feature, they have better noise isolation. Also, they're compatible with the Anker Soundcore app, so you can customize their sound using the graphic EQ and presets.
The Mpow M30 Truly Wireless and Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 Truly Wireless are similarly performing truly wireless headphones. The Mpow have an easier-to-use control scheme, a more stable fit, and a higher IPX8 rating for water resistance, although we don’t test for that. Meanwhile, the Anker have a much longer battery life, a better-balanced sound profile, and reduce the volume of ambient noise more effectively.
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 Truly Wireless and TaoTronics SoundLiberty 79 Truly Wireless have different strengths. The Anker are well-suited for the daily commute and working in the office, since they’re better at blocking out ambient noise, leak less audio, and have a longer battery life. The TaoTronics are better for sports and fitness, since they offer a more secure fit and have a control scheme that’s easier to use when you’re on the move.
The Anker Soundcore Liberty Air 2 and the Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 Truly Wireless are very well-matched for mixed usage. The Liberty Air 2 have a more comprehensive touch-sensitive control scheme, an integrated microphone that does a better job of isolating speech from ambient noise, and a dedicated companion app with a graphic EQ and audio presets. On the other hand, the Life Dot 2 are a bit cheaper, have a much longer total battery life, and marginally better noise isolation performance.
Our How We Test Headphones article takes you behind the scenes in our lab. You'll learn how we choose and purchase products and dive into the details of our review philosophy, from testing and scoring to writing and editing.
You can also discover how we produce recommendations like this one so that you can find the best headphones (or earbuds!) for your needs.
Test Results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
