The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are versatile truly wireless in-ear headphones that offer good value. They’re quite well-built, reasonably comfortable, and should do a good job of staying in your ear when you’re on the move. They have a decently well-balanced sound profile that provides a bit of extra bass to keep you pumped up, but not to the point where it overwhelms finer details. Their case is advertised to hold enough charge for just under 100 hours of playback, so they’ll be able to cope with the daily grind without completely running out of battery. On the downside, their control scheme is somewhat limited in functionality and takes some time to get used to.
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are decent for mixed usage. They’re well-built and decently comfortable, so they shouldn’t be too fatiguing to wear for extended periods. While their 7.3-hour battery life isn’t best in class, it should be more than enough to get you through the day when you take their charging case with you. They provide a reasonably well-balanced sound profile overall that’s versatile enough for everything from audiobooks to EDM.
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are alright for neutral sound. They provide an amazingly consistent listening experience with overemphasized bass, very accurate mids, and slightly dull treble. Unfortunately, like most truly wireless in-ear headphones, they have a very closed-off soundstage.
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are a very good choice for commuting and traveling. They’re extremely portable, quite well-built, and do a solid job of isolating you from ambient noise. Their advertised near-100-hour total battery life should be more than enough to get you through a couple of long trips if you put them back in their case to charge every once in a while.
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are a great pick for sports and fitness. Once you find the right-sized stability sleeves and ear tips to ensure a tight seal, they shouldn’t fall out of your ears even if you’re moving around vigorously. They’re also quite sturdy and are rated IPX5 for sweat and water resistance, though we don’t test that claim. On the downside, their control scheme is missing volume controls and is a little unintuitive due to its single-button layout.
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 are decent for office use. They block out quite a bit of sound, meaning that you shouldn’t hear the chatter of nearby coworkers, and barely leak any audio, so you can listen to your music at very high volumes without having to worry about disrupting people nearby. Unfortunately, they don’t support multi-device pairing, which is a little annoying if you tend to switch between your phone and computer when listening to content.
Due to their high latency, the Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 aren't suitable for wireless 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 making phone calls. Those on the other end of the line should hear your voice as sounding clear and almost completely free of distortion, but their integrated mic struggles to isolate speech from loud ambient noise.
The Anker Life Dot 2 are fairly traditional-looking truly wireless headphones. They’re a little on the bigger side and stick further outside of the ears than the smaller Samsung Galaxy Buds+ Truly Wireless, but they’re also a long way from being annoyingly cumbersome or bulky. The buds feature a primarily glossy plastic construction, though the center caps are made of a matte speckled material that adds a bit of contrast.
The Anker Life Dot 2 are decently comfortable. They enter pretty deeply into the ear canal but don’t exert much in the way of pressure, so they shouldn’t be too irritating to wear throughout long listening sessions. They come with a pretty broad selection of ear tips and stability sleeves, so finding a comfortable, secure seal shouldn’t be too hard.
They have a somewhat disappointing control scheme that can take some time to get used to due to their one-button layout. Functions comprise pausing and playing music, track skipping and rewinding, and accepting or rejecting phone calls, which are achieved through hold or tap commands. Unfortunately, there are no volume controls. A single tap on either bud pauses and plays music, but also answers calls while a 1s press rejects them. Meanwhile, a 1s press on the right bud skips forward and a 1s press on the left one rewinds. Mobile voice assistants are activated via a quick double-tap on either bud. Thankfully, a beeping audio prompt is heard when inputs are registered.
These headphones come with a good charging case. It feels solid and looks somewhat premium, with dense construction and glossy plastic interior. The large battery inside is advertised as providing 100 hours of total playback, but that comes at the cost of portability.
The Anker Life Dot 2 are quite stable in the ear. Once you find the right-sized stability sleeves and ear tips, they create a pretty tight seal in the ear and shouldn’t fall out, even during high-intensity workouts. That said, if you're looking for truly wireless headphones that are even less likely to fall out of your ears, take a look at the SoundPeats TrueFree 2 Wireless.
The Anker Life Dot 2's sound profile is reasonably well-balanced overall. Bass is overemphasized across the range but very flat, which adds some thump and rumble to your favorite EDM and hip-hop tracks without much in the way of boominess. Mids are reproduced very accurately, so vocals and instruments should also be clear and present, but a dip in the treble range slightly dulls some finer details. You may want to take a look at the JBL Tune 125TWS Truly Wireless if you want a pair of truly wireless headphones with a less overemphasized bass response and more even treble range.
The Anker Life Dot 2 have very good bass accuracy. It’s overemphasized but very flat across the range, so there should be enough thump and rumble to please bass-hungry listeners without sounding overpowering or boomy.
Their mid-range accuracy is excellent. It’s quite flat across the entire range, so vocals should sound full, clear, and present. While a small dip in the middle of the mid-range nudges vocals slightly toward the back of the mix, this shouldn’t be too noticeable for most listeners.
The Anker Life Dot 2’s stereo imaging performance is very good. Their weighted group delay falls entirely beneath the audibility threshold, ensuring tight bass and transparent treble. The L/R drivers are remarkably well-matched in regards to frequency, amplitude, and phase response, so they can model the location of objects in the stereo field with reasonable accuracy. That said, these results are only valid for our test unit, and yours may perform differently.
These headphones have a terrible passive soundstage, which is normal for closed-back in-ear headphones. They completely bypass outer-ear interaction and employ a closed-back design, creating an extremely closed-off listening experience that causes sound to perceived as coming from the inside of your head rather than in front of you.
These headphones don’t have any virtual soundstage features.
These are the settings used to test these headphones. These results are only valid when using these settings.
The Anker Life Dot 2 do a good job of passively blocking out ambient noise. They perform quite well in the mid and treble range, so you shouldn’t have to crank up your music to drown out chatting coworkers or the high-pitched hum of a nearby AC unit. That said, some sound in the bass range might sneak in, so you'll probably hear the rumbling of bus engines if you wear them on your commute.
These headphones have an integrated microphone.
The recording quality of the microphone is okay. While your voice should sound clear and almost completely distortion-free to those on the other end of the line, it might also be lacking body and detail.
These headphones offer a decent battery life of 7.3 hours. That’s much less than the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ Truly Wireless’ 13-hour battery life, but that’s somewhat mitigated by the fact that they have a case that provides just under 100 hours of charge according to the manufacturer, but we don't test this. There’s no master bud, so one can be used while the other charges in the case. They also have a standby timer, turning off the headphones after two minutes of inactivity. Anker indicates that a 10-minute charge yields 90 minutes of playback in their promotional material, but we also don’t test for this.
These headphones don’t have a companion app. For similar in-ears that offer a companion app with a graphic EQ, check out the Creative Outlier Air V2 True Wireless.
The Anker Life Dot 2 are Bluetooth 5.0-compatible but unfortunately don’t support multi-device or NFC pairing. While their latency on PC and mobile devices is too high to play video games or stream videos without noticeable audio lag, some apps do a better job of compensating for this, so your experience may vary.
The Anker Life Dot 2 are Bluetooth-only.
These headphones can only be used for PC gaming via Bluetooth, and aren’t PS4-compatible. Their relatively high latency makes them a poor fit for gaming anyway.
The Anker Soundcore 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 listening experience. 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 P2 Truly Wireless and the Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 Truly Wireless are very similar truly wireless headphones. The Life Dot 2 block out more ambient noise, feature a better integrated mic, and have a much longer total runtime of close to 100 hours. Conversely, the Life P2 support the aptX Bluetooth codec and have much lower latency on mobile Android and iOS devices.
The Anker Liberty Air 2 Truly Wireless and Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 Truly Wirelessare 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.
The Samsung Galaxy Buds+ Truly Wireless are better truly wireless headphones for mixed usage than the Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 Truly Wireless. The Samsung offer a more comfortable, stable fit, a better-balanced sound profile with EQ presets in their companion app, as well as a longer battery life off of a single charge. Conversely, the Anker block out more ambient noise and have a case that yields almost four times the battery life as that of the Samsung.
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 are slightly better overall than the JBL Tune 125TWS Truly Wireless. The Anker are better-built, more stable in the ear, block out more ambient noise, and leak less audio. They have a much longer total battery life of almost 100 hours, not to mention a battery-saving standby mode. However, the JBL have an easier-to-use control scheme and a better-balanced sound profile.
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 Life Dot 2 Truly Wireless and the Creative Outlier Air V2 True Wireless are similarly-performing headphones, so depending on your listening habits, you may prefer one over the other. Out-of-the-box, the Anker have a more neutral sound profile, so they're better for neutral sound. They also have better noise isolation. However, the Creative are more comfortable, with a longer continuous battery life and a companion app that offers a graphic EQ and surround support.
The Anker Soundcore Life Dot 2 Truly Wireless are slightly better for mixed usage than the TOZO T12 Truly Wireless. The Anker offer a more neutral listening experience, block out a greater amount of ambient noise, and have a better integrated microphone. However, their largest advantage is their battery life: not only do they last longer off of a single charge, they also have a case that yields almost 100 hours of total runtime, which comfortably eclipses the TOZO’s 23.9-hour total battery life. With that said, the TOZO have slightly lower latency on mobile devices, charge a bit faster, and have a higher IPX8 rating for water resistance, though we don’t currently test for this.
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