Anker Soundcore Flare 2 Speaker Review

The Anker Soundcore Flare 2 is a fairly small speaker with a cylindrical shape. It's meant to sit vertically, and there's a tight fabric wrapping around it. There are light rings on the top and bottom of the speaker, and you can turn them off if you prefer. You can buy this speaker in either 'Black' or 'Blue' color variants.

The Anker Soundcore Flare 2 is incredibly portable. It's small and lightweight, so you can easily carry it in one hand. Also, since it's battery-operated, you can bring it outside without having to worry about plugging it into an outlet.

The Anker Soundcore Flare 2 has a good build quality. It feels solid and durable, and it sits on a rubber base. The tight fabric wrapping around the speaker doesn't seem like it would rip easily. It even has an IPX7 rating for water resistance, though we don't currently test for this. However, the manual warns that you should avoid dropping it.

The controls are very good. On the top of the speaker, some controls let you play/pause your audio, adjust the volume, turn the speaker on/off, and turn the lights on/off. You can press the Play button twice to skip to the next track, and three times to skip to the previous track. The Play button also lets you accept/end calls, and you can hold for two seconds to activate voice assistant. On the rear of the speaker, there's a Bluetooth pairing button and a Bass-Up button that adds an extra thump to your audio. You can hold the Bluetooth button for three seconds to pair other Flare 2 speakers together. Overall, the buttons are responsive and easy-to-use.

• Anker Soundcore Flare 2 Bluetooth speaker
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• User Manual

The Anker Soundcore Flare 2 has passable frequency response accuracy. Using the Default EQ with the BassUp feature turned on, it still struggles to reproduce low-bass. As a result, you don't really feel the deep thump and rumble in bass-heavy music genres. Vocals and lead instruments are clear and present, but higher frequencies are a bit dark and dull due to the underemphasized treble. There's a graphic EQ available in the Soundcore app, so you can customize its sound to your liking.

The soundstage is amazing. This speaker has excellent directivity, so the soundstage is perceived as large and open. Also, unlike the JBL FLIP 5, it has separate speakers for the left and right channels, so it can play stereo content.

The Anker Soundcore Flare 2 has middling dynamics. It doesn't get very loud, and there's a lot of compression when you play it at max volume. As a result, it may not be ideal to use in large rooms or at crowded parties. For a speaker that can get as loud but with less compression, consider the JBL Charge 4.

The Anker Soundcore Flare 2 has a good battery performance. The manufacturer advertises a battery life of 12 hours, but in our tests, the speaker lasted for just over eight hours. However, battery life can vary depending on usage, so your results can differ. The speaker also shuts off after about twenty minutes without audio, which helps conserve its battery life. If you're looking for a portable speaker with a longer battery life, consider the Anker Soundcore Motion+.

This speaker has poor voice assistant capabilities. It uses the voice assistant from your paired smartphone. As part of our methodology, we use recorded voice messages to test the speaker. However, the speaker didn't respond to some of these commands, even when there wasn't any ambient noise. While it responded to a normal speaking voice, this isn't part of our testing process.

The Anker Soundcore app is very good. There are several EQ settings, including 'Default, 'Voice', 'Chill', 'Flat', and a Custom graph that offers a full graphic EQ. You can also turn the extra bass on and off. You can pair two speakers together to create a stereo pair, and there's also a Party Mode feature that lets you pair speakers to play your audio in large, crowded settings. You can even customize the lighting.

This speaker doesn't support any wired connections. Its USB-C to USB-A cable is for charging only.

The Anker Soundcore Flare 2 has decent Bluetooth connectivity. It has an outstanding range, so the speaker stays connected to your Bluetooth device, even if you aren't very close to it. Unfortunately, its latency with iOS devices is likely too high to be suitable for gaming. It performs a little better with Android devices. However, some apps compensate for latency differently, so your experience may vary. Consider the Beats Pill+ if you want a speaker with lower Bluetooth latency with iOS devices.

This speaker isn't Wi-Fi compatible.