Soundcore Sleep A20 by Anker Sleep Earbuds, 30dB High-Frequency Noise Reduction, Small Earplugs for Side Sleepers, 80H Playtime, Stream Content via Bluetooth 5.3, Sleep Monitor, Personal Alarm

I bought these to help me sleep. I listen to audio books to keep my mind focused and drift off. My mind tends to wander at night and I find these fit comfortably in my ears and let me sleep on my side without any issues. I keep these in all night without discomfort. Battery life is good for the while night 10+ hours when listening to books at low volume. Sound quality is good for voice but these are probably not the best choice for audiophiles. 14 months after I bought these, the left ear bud would not charge past 50%. Soundcore's customer service was outstanding. I sent them an email and they got back to me withing 24 hours with some troubleshooting steps. Unfortunately, they didn't work. However, I called them and was on hold for 10 minutes before I just left a call back number. They called me back in about an hour. Erin, the customer service rep was awesome. She was well spoken, patient, and knowledgeable on the product. She went through the email troubleshooting tips to make sure I did all the steps. After answering a few questions, they replaced the ear buds and even paid for shipping.

I have been an Anker Soundcore Sleep Earbuds customer since the beginning. I purchased the original A10, then backed the A20 in the Kickstarter and purchased a second pair (for my wife) from Amazon. I also backed and received the A30 on Kickstarter and are using those presently. So, I don't give a review like this one lightly. I got my original A20 earbuds back in May 2024 and the 2nd pair in Jan 2025. Honestly, they are awesome. Sound quality is great, periodic cleaning kept them working well, they mask noise well and the battery life was perfectly fine until.... A month or so ago, my A20's got the 1.57 firmware update from Soundcore. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but the right earbud just started refusing to charge above 30%. It would charge from 0% to 30% just fine, indicating it had good contact with the pogo pins. But it simply would not charge over 30%, ever. The left earbud charged perfectly fine to 100% every time. I did some research and it turns out many others are experiencing the same issue, specific to the 1.57 firmware update. Apparently, that firmware has a known issue where it messes up the battery calibration of the right earbud and causes this exact problem. So, in short, Soundcore pushed a firmware update to my A20 earbuds and in the process made them unusable. You might think "Well, they're in the 18 month warranty, just get them replaced". I did reach out to support, and they agreed to replace the earbuds, but what happens when Soundcore pushes out a firmware update that breaks the earbuds when they are just out of warranty? If the warranty is 18 months, and Soundcore can break your device outside of the warranty at any time, this means that the device has an 18 month lifespan. So, if you are going to purchase these be aware that they should be considered disposable and you probably won't get more than 18 months of usage out of them given the above. UPDATE: 2025-12-20 Soundcore sent me replacement A20's for the ones that they damaged with their 1.57 firmware update. These new A20 sleep buds came with a much higher revision of the firmware 03.22. So, it looks like the firmware now skips from 1.50 to 03.22, as Soundcore definitely has pulled 1.57 off their servers (since it broke so many customers' A20s). But... the replacement pair Soundcore sent me were defective. The right earbud consistently discharges at more than 2x the left earbud. So for example, after 7 hours of Sleep Mode white noise playback, the left ear bud would be at 70% while the right ear bud was at 30%. I am continuing to see if I can get Soundcore to actually send me a functioning replacement for the sleep buds they broke. We'll see what happens... UPDATE: 2025-12-29 Soundcore sent me a second replacement for the defective A20's that they sent as the first replacement for the A20's they bricked with the 1.57 firmware update. So, this is now the third pair of A20s... This pair appears to work correctly, and the right and left earbud discharge battery at the same rate and look like they will achieve 12-14 hours of playback at 50% volume in Sleep Mode. So... after several weeks of back and forth, and multiple pairs of bricked or defective earbuds, it looks like I have a properly working pair again. Support was very helpful about all of this, and I found them receptive to all of the issues I was experiencing, so I don't want to be disparaging of Soundcore support at all here. In general, I've found them good to work with. But... I think the quality control of the Soundcore products is not great. I had battery discharge issues with my original A10 earbuds, and went through a similar replacement dance with those as well. It seems like Soundcore's sleepbuds are prone to battery issues very frequently, since I've now seen issues with uneven battery discharge in 4 separate pairs of A10 and A20 earbuds. My wife's A20 sleepbuds are still on the 1.50 firmware, as the 1.57 firmware has been pulled by Soundcore. I asked support about this and they confirmed that there were multiple hardware revisions of the A20's, and the replacement A20's that I got (which are on the 03.22 firmware) are a later hardware revision than the A20s that were on the 1.50 and 1.57 firmware. Support left it very ambiguous as to whether or not hardware with the 1.50 line of firmware would even continue to get firmware updates, or if that hardware revision has been effectively abandoned by Soundcore. If you are going to purchase these, you need to make sure that the firmware is the 03.22 line, and NOT the 1.50/1.57 line, since that means you have an older revision of the hardware.

- Noise Cancellation - Coming from Bose QC earbud I thought it’ll be hard to impress me with the quality Bose has provided especially when Bose’s famous for noise cancellation. However, I find that this soundcore earbuds can provide me with the same level of noise canceling with Bose’s only with slightly differences. I experienced loud high pitch noise a lot as I have a young child at home, I noticed they both can cancel loud deeper noises fine but having a hard time with high pitch noises but they way they handle those noises are different. Bose seems to ‘lower the volume’ of the noises they can’t block while Soundcore seems to make the sounds seem ‘farther away’. Away, the level of cleanliness in sounds that could and could not peak through are about the same. - Comfort - Soundcore really stand out in this area as it’s made for comfort in sleep positions, it has light weight to the point sometimes I forgot I’m wearing it. Problem is… the noise canceling silicones can make your ears sweat and greasy. I find myself often feel uncomfortable and needed to clean my ears often if I wear these earbuds just to filter out the noises during the day or still watching something before sleeping. And the moment I wake up I’d have the urge to clean my ears right away as well. Before I got Soundcore I used to use Bose during sleep. Bose always fell off even with the wings, and they are heavy and make my ears sore. Because they’re kind of bulky I have a hard time sleeping in my comfort position as I’m a side sleeper. And using Bose to help me sleep for a week straight led me to have some bleeding before. - Durable - Material … I heard a review from a YouTuber that the material is soft and can easily be torn. I do agree that the silicone part really feel soft and it might rip apart while changing the sizes, however, I never have a problem with it… I’ve try to be mindful but not too gentle with it and my earbuds are still fine. I never pull the silicones while using them so I never experienced any risks. I’d say they are quite sturdy more than how they feel. Battery … the life of the battery is amazing especially comparing to Bose. I never test if they really do last 50 hours as they claimed but I can use Soundcore earbuds for a few days and nights straight without charging them. While Bose last about 2-3 hrs with noise cancellation mode, Soundcore can last the whole night from before I’m actually sleeping to when I wake up, so I can play my calming noises all night. Charging is quite fast…. Honestly I just never experienced it running out of power at all even I use it quite a lot. Unlike Bose that I feel I constantly need to charge the whole thing daily because of my heavy use. I’d say they both have pros and cons, I still use both of them, especially when going out since you can’t turn off Soundcore’s noise cancellation unless you change the silicone buds but Bose can with just a tap. I prefer using Soundcore’s while I’m at home since they do stay in place better, but then again I still have to take them out and clean my ears and the earbuds often. Bose would be better if I plan to use noise cancellation in short period. And I still use my eye mask with headphones over Soundcore’s earbud sometimes, they don’t stay as good but my ears feel less icky.

Je cherchais des écouteurs avec suffisamment d’autonomie, qui ne fassent pas mal aux oreilles pour la nuit. Après un mois d’utilisation je peux dire que ce produit dépasse largement mes attentes. L’ autonomie : la batterie tient toute la nuit et le boiter ne nécessite qu’une recharge par semaine environ. L’ergonomie est juste extra pour la nuit. L’écouteur extra plat se positionne parfaitement dans l’oreille. Il faut juste prendre le coup de main pour bien l’insérer et après il reste parfaitement en place. Le design du boîtier est lui aussi très sympathique, élégant et dans une matière douce. Enfin le vrai plus qui me paraissait être du gadget, c’est le mode sommeil. On bascule du mode Bluetooth au mode sommeil en tapotant une fois sur l’oreillette. J’ai l’habitude de m’endormir avec des podcasts en Bluetooth et bien évidemment lorsque je me réveille la nuit, j’ai du son dans les oreilles. Là je peux programmer l’appareil pour qu’il s’arrête au bout d’un certain temps avec la minuterie où je bascule en tapotant sur l’oreillette et l’appareil diffuse alors des sons apaisants que je peux même composer moi même. Bref je suis ravie, pour la conception très aboutie de ce produit.

Positief verrast. Prima mee op de zij te slapen. Groot voordeel is ook dat de batterij enorm lang mee gaat doordat je kunt instellen dat de buds overschakelen van bluetooth naar slaap geluiden. Eens per week opladen is voor mij voldoende terwijl ik ze elke nacht gebruik om mee in slaap te vallen. Er is voldoende noise cancellation om luide ademhaling en licht snurken te onderdrukken.

Pretty solid like set of earphones. Sound quality is decent, battery time not fantastic but not terrible. Super comfy and I can wear them all night long as a side sleeper. The app can be wiggy but maybe I can't use technology. Overall happy so far with purchase

W tych słuchawkach można naprawdę wygodnie leżeć na boku. Nie spodziewałem się tego, mimo obejrzanych przeze mnie recenzji, bo nawet małe zatyczki do uszu, które posiadam, wywierają presję na ucho. Tutaj prawie tego nie ma. Wreszcie mogę wygodnie słuchać audiobooków przed snem! W zestawie, oprócz standardowych gumek, są też takie przepuszczające powietrze (i dźwięk). Te są nawet wygodniejsze od tych tradycyjnych, chociaż dźwięk traci nieco na jakości (jest o wiele mniej basu). Do podcastów czy audiobooków jednak basy nie są aż tak potrzebne, liczy się wygoda. :) Gęsty stuknięciami w słuchawkę są bardzo przydatne, choć trzeba się do nich trochę przyzwyczaić (musiałem się nauczyć w nie stukać mocniej niż się spodziewałem). Ogółem, jestem bardzo zadowolony z zakupu i polecam te słuchawki każdemu, kto lubi sobie czegoś posłuchać przed snem.

I have used these headphones every day since I got them. They are comfortable enough to sleep in, which is a priority for me because my husbands snoring keeps me awake. They are easy to use, I love the case. Would replace immediately if I lost them