While the true wireless gaming earbuds market is pretty small, it just got bigger with the addition of the Anker Soundcore VR P10. These earbuds have a lot in common with the typical Bluetooth options you’ll find on the market, but they’re priced more affordable than Anker’s other Soundcore offerings ($100 MSRP, but $80 at the time of writing), And they offer a hallmark feature of wireless gaming audio gear: dedicated wireless transmitters. While they may not be perfect products, they offer so much for such a low price that their goodness easily makes them the ideal choice for those who want reliable audio on the go and can’t always carry a pair of over-ear headphones. A product worth owning for anyone with headphones.
A unique pair of earbuds with a familiar look
Anker’s Soundcore brand has a ton of Bluetooth earbud options, and they’re always going to compete in features with much pricier earbuds. So it should come as no surprise that the VR P10 headsets come at a low price for any pair of wireless gaming headsets, let alone ones that offer two different ways to connect. While the styling of the VR P10 earbuds sets it apart from some of Anker’s other offerings, the earbuds themselves are similar in shape to some of the other Soundcore Liberty earbuds, only slightly shorter and sturdier, with more light — these earbuds are good for gaming, after all.
Simple shape and ingenious design
Like most earbuds, the Soundcore VR P10 earbuds come in a compact carrying case.The case looks interesting, like a robot Web portals Game series, with a small round eye on the front that lights up when the box is opened. That little eye also serves as a low battery indicator. The case is easy to open, but also easy to open when dropped. USB-C charging is pretty much a given now, and the case has it, though it doesn’t offer wireless charging like some of the fancier options.
G/O Media may earn a commission
The inside of the case is where Anker scores high. So many wireless gaming devices make the mistake of not having a place to put the wireless transmitter with the device. This is a recipe for lost transmitters. Despite the very limited space in the VR P10 case, Anker found room for the dongle. It is held inside the top cover with strong magnets. That said, the magnets are too strong and the dongle is too tight, making it difficult to get the dongle out at times. Anker even had to include instructions on how to remove the dongle in its app, though even that didn’t prove to be the easiest way to pull the dongle out.
The earbuds are rated for 6 hours of battery life, while the charging case can be charged for an additional 18 hours, providing 24 hours of battery life.
The earbuds feature an in-ear design that inserts directly into the ear canal with a silicone tip. Anker includes 3 different tip sizes in the box. The buds combine white and silver for a subtle yet elegant look. Three strips on the bars (sort of resembling the Adidas logo) provide a bit of illumination, though only in orange, pink, blue, or two shades of purple. Like Soundcore’s headsets, the VR P10 offers touch controls on each headset’s stem. Despite the snug fit, they didn’t hold in my ears as well as other earphones, and they often fell out during workouts.
ready, ready, start
The VR P10 works like a typical Bluetooth earbud. You can put them in pairing mode using the button on the back of the case, then search for them in your phone’s Bluetooth settings. But the key feature is the buds’ support for their dedicated wireless transmitters.
The transmitter is a compact USB-C dongle with another USB-C port on it. This extra port is to allow for pass-through charging. While the Soundcore VR P10, as the name suggests, is designed to be used with the Meta Quest 2, the dongle supports connection to PC, PS5, PS4 (with USB adapter), Nintendo Switch, and more. The potential for pass-through charging is limited, though. While it was enough to keep the Quest 2 headset charged, it only let enough power flow to my laptop (using a 65W charger) to trickle charge it under light loads, and it actually saw The battery slowly dipped while running the display at higher brightness levels and making video calls. The connection also doesn’t support data transfer, though VR Link users can simply plug the dongle into their computer and then connect their VR headset to their computer separately.
Anyone who hates moving dongles between devices can buy multiple dongles for the VR P10. Connections to different dongles can be exchanged via the Soundcore app.
a new connection
The VR P10 is the first on the market to offer Bluetooth LE with new LC3 codec. Oddly, the LC3 only works with dongles, whereas a standard bluetooth connection will use SBC or AAC codecs. The dongle connection provides crystal-clear audio with barely noticeable degradation and low latency, perfect for gaming. Bluetooth connectivity suffers from a weak codec, which isn’t ideal for anything other than podcasts, audiobooks, and some casual music.
I’ve noticed some weird connection behavior with buds. One is intentional but unfortunate behavior: Any sound from the Bluetooth connection overwrites the dongle connection, even if it’s just the phone’s unlocking noise, and it takes a few seconds to switch back to the wireless dongle’s signal, interrupting any gaming experience from the dongle. If the Bluetooth source is a voice call (including Discord), the headphones support simultaneous audio streaming, but the balance of the volume can be a bit off, and the audio quality drops in the process.
Another problem occurs on several different occasions. If I change the computer’s volume while the dongle is connected to it, it can interfere with playback of any kind – cutting off audio in Winamp and/or completely freezing playback in YouTube, requiring a tab refresh. It’s a weird effect that I can’t necessarily attribute to the earbuds, but it’s something I’ve only experienced with this pair of earbuds.
Good, but not dazzling audio
The Anker Soundcore VR P10 earbuds do something pretty special, but nothing magical. The reality of earbuds is that their audio quality just falls within the acceptable safe range. They put a lot of emphasis on the bass, and the mids and highs mix fairly flat.
listen to montreal false pastor, the earbuds struggle to keep up with the album’s prodigious vibrancy. Throughout the opening track, the bass line ebbs and flows, and whenever it does, the rest of the track loses some of its vibrancy. The bass felt heavy, but even some of the character of the bass line was lost as the high frequencies were drained. Even with the bass cut out, the mids and highs aren’t affected much.
On the plus side, the dongle connection avoids any noticeable compression issues I’m used to with basic Bluetooth connections. Even during the chaotic moments of Of Montreal or Wakusei Abnormal songs, I didn’t detect any audio degradation.
The lack of balance in the EQ makes the headset less suitable for competitive gaming, where split-second decision-making and the ability to pick up every audio cue around you is crucial.i played for hours Overwatch 2 With headphones on, I wasn’t paying as much attention to everything that was going on as I usually do with over-ear headphones.But I found them good enough to get a feel for my surroundings during gameplay Assassin’s Creed Valhallathey work seamlessly with Quest 2 and enjoy the captivating puzzles and soundtrack last wind up.
The earbuds lack enough sound isolation to let ambient sounds slip in. That’s not enough to distract from most experiences, especially since the earbuds can get quite loud, but it makes them less suitable for listening to content on the go. Of course, this does make them a bit safer to wear while playing VR games.
Earbud microphones can only go so far
The mics on the VR P10 Buds performed well in a small, quiet room. They effectively picked up my voice with enough clarity to hear what I was saying clearly. Beyond that, however, they don’t offer much to get excited about. In a large room, mics won’t pick up as much volume because they’re more likely to pick up echoes.
They lack any fullness, and they have almost as much clarity as a well-placed boom mic can deliver. They also don’t help reduce the clacking noise from my keyboard or mouse clicks when I’m gaming. While they do remove some background noise, like the fan I’m constantly running, when I talk, the noise gets mixed into my voice.
While these shortcomings are fairly common among earbuds, they’re still worth considering if you plan to use the earbuds for anything other than casual gaming.
A Simple and Effective App
The Soundcore app manages the headset, including controls for changing lighting effects and colors, toggling dongle connections, applying custom EQ, changing touch controls, updating firmware, and toggling Super Hearing, Game and Talk, and the microphone. Super Hearing is designed to enhance gunshots and footsteps in FPS games, while the Game and Talk feature allows for simultaneous playback of game audio and voice calls. The app is simple but intuitive, and luckily doesn’t require a user account to use.
Should I buy Anker Soundcore VR P10?
The VR P10 earbuds don’t offer killer audio, but they offer killer value. For that price, you can actually get a pair of Bluetooth earbuds and a low-latency wireless gaming headset in one. Over-ear headphones easily have the edge when it comes to mic and audio quality, but the VR P10 headset offers extensive support and more convenience than I expected for the price. And when they’re discounted to $80, they’re a real deal. I wouldn’t recommend them if audio quality is your top priority. But if you know you want gaming earbuds, these are the ones for you.
