True champion | Soundcore Motion Plus long-term review
Motion+ is a champion for sound quality, features, build and design under 100 (USD). On
sale you can get it at as low as 80 (USD) which in my opinion makes the motion+ a true pound for pound budget champ. I will delve into the details but first I should say that motion+ is a bluetooth speaker released by soundcore (an audio sub-brand) under ANKER innovations brand. Soundcore makes great audio products that can compete with big brands like JBL, SONY, BOSE, LG, Harman Kardon and sometimes even beat them in sound quality at a much lower price. This is where real innovations are happening in 2021. This review article is divided into sections to make your doubts clear starting with inside the box.
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that will eventually help you to make thoughtful decisions. Thanks for your time.
Please support the website by purchasing the product from amazon.com using the above Buy Now link
Inside the box
Motion+ came with some additional accessories and those are very important and necessary. There is one pretty decent quality ANKER branded type-c charging cable which I really like. It is capable of 5 volts 2 amps charging, also point to mention that this cable can transfer data if you use it with your phone sometimes if needed. A decent quality AUX cable was also included in the box. The speaker wasn't very safe inside because of the very minimal package. A manual and happy not happy card was there inside the box.
Design and build
Motion plus has an excellent design that can really help with the sound dispersion and nice stereo separation. The in hand feel of the device is quite okay but the problem is, it is a fingerprint magnet and can get dirty easily. The material has a rubbery texture to it which doesn’t feel cheap at all. The speaker is quite heavy for its size but portable enough that you can easily pick it up in one hand also feels like quality product and material.
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There is a pretty thick metal grille to protect the drivers in the front side. Overall pretty damn solid build. Back side has soundcore engraving which looks fancy as well as unique and I love that touch there. It’s actually an enclosure for the rear passive radiator which moves a lot and even if sometimes at higher volume when the rads are moving like crazy, the nice solid build can keep the speaker in place without sliding around - about 1050 grams.
On the right side, there you can see the power button and below the power button there is a
flap which acts as a protection from water. Under the flap there is a usb type-c port for 5 volts 2 amps charging and an AUX port which is very useful for high-res audio. I am not a fan of the top portion design but the buttons are nice and clicky. In my opinion it's a very well engineered and designed audio device which has ipx7 (waterproof only) rating in the features.
Configuration
It is very impressive that motion+ has 4 active drivers and 2 passive radiators. We are talking
like 6 drivers in that small package. It means that soundcore did put a lot of effort while designing this speaker. The drivers are angled upwards to create nice dispersion of sound. The front two woofers cover 20 watts of power and other 2 tweeters cover 10 watts of power which make it a 30 watts monster - believe me it's really a true monster in its size.
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Tweeters are angled outwards to give the highs open and airyness. Front passive radiator looks really cool with the nice soundcore logo in the middle and there is a second passive radiator in the rear side. The design and configuration of this speaker is really well done. It looks like a gorgeous device and I haven't seen any portable speaker that looks this unique on its own. The big boys like JBL, SONY speakers are covered up with fabric mesh but motion+'s open design reveals the drivers in action which is a joy to watch as an enthusiast.
The firmware part is handled by the AKM DSP that supports 24 bit high-res output. This is a big deal about this speaker. The real time dynamic digital signal processing makes the sound pretty natural by delivering a close reproduction of sound which is how the sound should be meant to be heard. This is really an advanced audio device with stunning design.
Sound Quality
I will write about features in later section because I can't wait to tell you about how the motion+ sounds. The sound quality and features are two main factors that make this speaker a game changer among the big names. Motion+ is beating the hell out of other speakers in this size category and competing with other portable speakers that offer more power and look much bigger in size. It still surprise me with its sound after like 2 years.
Now talking about the absolute sound quality the soundcore motion+ is a monster in every stage of the sound in its category. What do I mean about this is motion+ is kind of a full small package. It has 2 passive radiators to handle lows along with two neodymium woofers to handle lows and mids and two amazing natural silk dome tweeters to handle highs which is fantastic and a soundcore app to make the sound like the way you want it to be which is the best deal you can get at this price tag.
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Okay, so first what you are gonna notice if you use default bass up mode is, it gets pretty loud and handles lows, mids and highs just fine. In most of the cases I figured out it will give you sweet smooth soft feelings with the sound if you just play under 60% volume. The lows and highs have a slight advantage here to deliver soft sound while playing custom settings with mid frequencies not pushed above low and high frequencies in the custom eq. So if you go after 70% on the volume scale it gets sharper and very well defined in the upper midrange. The highs are also trying to be balanced here but at higher volumes mids have a bit more advantage than highs and bass does not increase after 75%. So because of very robust mids and amazing highs it will sound bass light in most scenarios.
I have played with the eq bands quite a lot and they are real eq bands. Plenty of headroom there in the custom eq. It's not a relative eq so excellent job there. This eq is like a dream in this budget range of speakers and soundcore found the right way. Left above eq is a clear version and right one is a more balanced smooth version.
It is very loud at maximum volume. At around 70-75% I love the sound most because I like the detailed sharp defined aggressive sound at that volume. I can't say now it's soft smooth sound but it's very sharp, crisp, well defined and the sensitive sound edges are smooth in an aggressive way. Sometimes I feel like it's a bit louder at 75 for a medium sized room. But when you play at max volume outdoors it just sounds right and fantastic, only the bass will not increase as you expect it to produce more bass. I tried so many heavy tracks and if you have a good source it will not struggle to deliver very high quality sound at average listening volume. There is no weird thing going on like boomy bass, distortion, noise, something missing like this. I just mean it is capable of handling everything very cleanly and smoothly.
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At very high volume with heavy complex tracks maybe you can get slight dirtiness there but the speaker sounds amazing just lack of bass at higher volume. If you add a subwoofer when you play at over 70% it will sound like a very high end sound system with amazing clean clear very well defined sharp crisp detailed sound. Motion+ is the most detailed speaker I have ever listened to within a budget. But you will not get amazing clean background details until you customise the sound with the stock 9 band eq. I can clearly hear those vocals from co-singers and those ecos considered as very little details with reverbs.
Motion+ sounds like a decent headphone with plenty of details and nice soundstage. The angled tweeters are helping to produce a nice airy open sound which is very rare to get in budget range of speakers. I really love the sound and this speaker sets a new record about how good a speaker can sound in the budget range of portable wireless speakers.
Features
Motion+ is packed with high-end features like app support with real 9 band custom eq and
aptX support for higher quality audio transmission over bluetooth. It is high-res certified but only over wired connection via the 3.5 mm AUX port. You get full control over the sound using a custom eq. Charging is done through type-c port which is rated for 5 volt 2 amp charging. It is also offering neodymium woofers with two natural silk dome tweeters. They are saying the bass can extend to the sub bass territory as low as 50 hz. It is right but the impact is not quite there. I would say it's a 60 hz speaker which is pretty impressive. Tweeters are like extended up to 40 khz into the highs. It can be true technically but not gonna work in real life. True wireless stereo pairing is supported for widely dispersed stereo sound.
There are some cool advanced tech in here like using a DSP and active crossover for the tweeters. There are separate power supply units built-in for active drivers. On top of these high-end features motion+ is also ipx7 rated. So it can be submerged in water without anything to worry. Bluetooth version is 5.0 with multipoint connection support for connecting two devices at the same time and you can update the firmware using soundcore app. Only useful feature missing here is power bank support to charge your phone.
Battery backup
Soundcore is claiming upto 12 hours on a single charge at about average 60% volume. Their claim is okay. It has very good battery life. I get more than 16 hours backup at or below 50% volume. I do not need more than 80% volume even when I am outdoors on the roof enjoying the detailed sound of motion plus. The bass is punchy in outdoor situations. It takes about 3 hours 20 minutes to do a full charge. Battery is rated at 6700 mah in total combining 2 (18650) cells. So overall very powerful speaker with solid battery backup.
Conclusion
If this small speaker could produce some deep rumbly sub bass, then it would certainly replace some big desktop speakers with external subwoofer. But there is limitation for everything. Motion+ can sound bass heavy with deep bass like 60 hz punch but at higher volume the bass punch frequency shifts towards upper bass while still sounding decent. So you only miss out on deep rumble, which is feel it in your body type low lows. Most people will be happy with the bass and should praise motion+ for exceptional clarity and details in the mids and highs. Without any doubt this is the budget champion in its size category.
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If you want to buy a speaker and you have the money for more expensive speaker like JBL flips or charges, then I will still say buy the budget motion+ and maybe buy 2 motion+ speakers to pair them in TWS mode which is even more fun to listen to. Motion+ is one of my top picks. If you want to take a look at the official specs, then you can easily do that by clicking next link that is colored to visit the official web page of soundcore motion plus.
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