The Anker Soundcore V40i earbuds ($79.99) join the ranks of ear-hook-style earbuds for workouts that provide an unobstructed ear canal for situational awareness, akin to what you’d get from more expensive buds like the excellent Sony LinkBuds Open ($199.99), the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 ($249.99), or the Edifier LolliClip ($129.99), our current Editors' Choice for open-style earbuds. Although the Soundcore V40i earbuds don’t offer the most impressive audio, extreme battery life, or any killer features, they're more affordable than many competitors, making them a good choice if you want comfortable, stylish buds ideal for outdoor exercise.

Design: Is That a Yo-Yo?

The Soundcore V40i earbuds dare to be different in their design. Rather than setting the earbuds into a case, the V40i latch magnetically into either side of a carrier without a lid. With the buds in place, the whole kit looks rather like a yo-yo, even in size, especially with its clear plastic aesthetic that strongly suggests the ’90s, much like the Nothing Ear (3). The buds themselves are shaped like a large pill to house all of the electronics and the 16x13mm drivers.

(Credit: Mark Knapp)

The magnets on the carrier are surprisingly firm, so they feel secure and even prove a little tricky to remove, but they’re not actually enclosed. Unfortunately, even with the strong magnets, the buds are prone to popping out if you drop the carrier on the ground.

(Credit: Mark Knapp)

The buds themselves take a slightly different approach to the earhook design that’s common for sport earbuds. They have flexible, thin rubbery hooks that wrap around your ear, and they attach to the speaker housing with an adjustable hinge to better line up the speaker grille with your ear canal. The thin earhooks help the buds sit better behind the ear than something like the Soundcore AeroFit Pro or Nothing Ear (Open), which have a chunky battery on the hook.

(Credit: Mark Knapp)

The buds weigh a modest 0.35 ounces (10.1 grams) apiece, and though they’d be heavy for normal earbuds, they don’t feel like much with that weight hooked around my ears. That hook is secure, too. I can easily bounce about and have them remain stable on my head. Since these are intended at least in part for athletic activities, the buds offer IP55 protection, which can stand up to some splashing, sweat, and getting caught in the rain.

The outside of the buds has a touch-sensitive surface, and the buds will respond to different taps and long-presses. Occasionally, I’d miss the mark when trying to control the buds, but generally, these are easy to manage. Since the hook holds the earbuds in place, I don’t usually accidentally skip a track or pause playback when I need to adjust the buds.

You won’t find too many high-end Bluetooth perks here, sadly. While the Soundcore V40i earbuds support AAC and Bluetooth Multipoint, that’s about where the bonus features end. You won’t find any ANC, like the sort I was surprised to find actually worked well on the open-ear Edifier LolliClip. You won’t get LDAC or Snapdragon Sound — not that the audio quality of these buds really demands either. Nor will you find extras like wear sensors, spatial audio, or the like.

Battery Life: Just OK

The charging carrier is rated to add 15 hours of playtime to the 6 hours available from the buds’ own batteries. That’s not terribly impressive battery life. But in my tests, after over three hours of use at over 50% volume, the buds still indicated more than 60% charge remaining, so it’s possible that you can stretch that battery life a bit.

The carrier stands on a little flat section, but this is also where Soundcore has placed the USB-C port. So the whole thing has to sit on a side, wobbling about when it’s charging. The carrier doesn't support wireless charging, either. An indicator light wraps around the spine, but it doesn’t convey much.

App Experience: Some Basic Customization

The Soundcore V40i earbuds work with the Soundcore app, which provides a quick overview of the battery life of the buds and access to an extensive list of preset sound effects, including a custom eight-band equalizer. You can customize the controls on the earbuds, setting different options for single-, double-, and triple-taps as well as long presses.

(Credit: Anker/PCMag)

The app also provides a special gaming mode that isn’t just a low-latency setting but also claims to increase the sound of footsteps and voices. One final setting enables multipoint audio and lets you connect to a second device.

In a deeper settings menu, you can update the device's firmware, use a device-finding tool, customize auto-shutoff timing, enable or disable voice prompts, and shift the audio balance between the left and right channels. An account is not required to use the app, but you will be prompted to make one.

Sound: Pleasant, If Bass-Light

The Soundcore V40i earbuds live up to their intended purpose. Although the earbuds can pump audio into my ears just fine, they also don't obstruct my ears much, so I can clearly hear everything around me when wearing them—even faint sounds like the chatter of my keyboard as I type up this review. Fortunately, the buds can still play loudly enough to be heard even in a noisier space. You just won’t want to listen to subtle music in such a location, as whenever the music dips into hushed tones, external sounds are liable to wash over it.

The audio experience isn’t perfect, but it is still enjoyable. Bass is light but tight. On a track like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the powerful bass triplets and sub-bass quarter notes are somewhat subdued. They’re still audible and clean, but just don’t have the weight that they should have. The upper registers are a touch thin as well, with the presentation leaning heavily on the mids, which makes for an engaging synth melody.

Because the speaker drivers are essentially floating over the ear canal, position plays a part in the audio quality. Shifting the buds around can significantly change the sound. This is why the adjustable position of the earhook and buds is critical, and it does give them an edge that not all open earbud designs have.

(Credit: Mark Knapp)

Although plenty of earbuds can hit deep sub-bass notes surprisingly well, the Soundcore V40i earbuds struggle to do so. They largely present Kendrick Lamar’s “Loyalty” well, but they fail to produce the sub-bass line that comes in around the 35-second mark. Most of the notes are close to inaudible in the mix. Sometimes one of the higher notes will come through far more powerfully than the rest and overtake the presentation.

Bill Callahan’s baritone vocals in “Drover” come through nicely, fitting into that safe midrange that the Soundcore V40i earbuds emphasize. The electric guitar, acoustic rhythm guitar, and fiddle all also fall within this frequency range, making for a lively track that suits the buds well. The cymbals don’t quite come to life due to the lacking brilliance of the high end, and the bass can sit a little too far in the background. By similar dint, the drums don’t quite reach booming levels in the song’s climax. But the overall presentation is still decent, especially with the roomier soundstage this open-ear setup provides.

The Soundcore V40i earbuds are a bad match for orchestra music like John Adams’ "The Gospel According to the Other Mary." The limited bass and sub-bass leave the sound feeling much too thin and dominated by the string instruments and horns—which, in turn, lack some of the presence that brings them to life. Beyond that, the subtlety of this music is too readily overcome by external sound. You’d have to find a very quiet environment to even begin trying to enjoy it.

The microphones on the Soundcore V40i earbuds are OK. They can suppress some background droning to focus on my voice, and I don’t sound as horribly distant as is common for many earbuds, nor do I sound completely unintelligible. With the more chaotic background noise of a busy cafe, they struggle more to cancel out the noise, which ends up mixed in with my voice and makes it harder to discern what I’m saying from time to time.