Soundcore Sport X20 review

My LG tones (HBS-730) had several different issues:

• I had to glue one of the earbuds back together
• It would randomly power cycle itself while I was listening to music
• Battery indicator only had High, Medium, and Charge Soon and most of the time it was on medium so it was hard to tell when it needed charged
• Earbuds would work themselves out while doing yard work

I found a good replacement in the Soundcore Sport X20 (by Anker) for $55.99 (plus tax)

Review

I overall like the earbuds and the negatives are largely nitpicks, but they could be deal breakers for others

Pros

• Comfortable fit
• Ear hooks keep them in place while mowing
• Noise Cancelling/Isolation works well
• Next door neighbor's electric mower could not be heard
• Cut the noise of my electric mower in about half
• Battery life seems good so far with 2 hours of yard work leaving the earbuds with 80% remaining
• Battery life indicator is in 10% increments (but is software only)
• Case LED turns red when it needs charged
• IP68 water/sweat resistance

Cons

• Earbuds lost Bluetooth connection once while mowing
• No way to turn off the earbuds without placing in case
• Only one button per earbud
• Default controls work well enough for me
• Single press to play/pause
• While music is off long press to toggle pass-through/noise cancelling
• Lack of AptX Support (likely causes higher latency)

Other Thoughts

• Had to add a -100ms Bluetooth delay for audio in VLC for audio/video to sync

Appendix

Sources

• https://www.newegg.com/soundcore-sport-x20-earbud-black/p/0TH-033Y-000M8
• https://www.soundcore.com/products/a3968-sport-x20-earbuds?variant=43988210385086
• https://www.reddit.com/r/soundcore/comments/1j7fj9n/soundcore_sport_x20_reviewcomparison/