Soundcore Motion 300 Review
Anker's more affordable outdoor speaker performs well against the competition
Verdict
Anker’s Soundcore Motion 300 represents a great choice for those after a capable Bluetooth speaker with fun audio with a fair bit of presence while retaining a solid build, good looks and excellent battery life.
Pros
- Clear audio with a lot of presence
- Excellent battery life
- App is simple to use
Cons
- Lacks some mid-range punch
- Quite heavy
Key Features
- 13 hours of battery life:Anker rates the Soundcore Motion 300 to last for 13 hours on a single charge, giving you plenty of runtime.
- Waterproof rating:Its IPX7 rating means it can be submerged in water at a depth of a metre for 30 minutes.
Introduction
In its price category, the Anker Soundcore Motion 300 seems like an enticing deal – a convenient Bluetooth speaker that’s rugged and fully waterproof that on paper, competes nicely against other options.
Around the same price category is the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 and Cleer Scene, two sub-£100 options that have punched above their weight class in terms of performance.
Anker’s latest has a lot to do to come out on top and earn a place on the list of the best Bluetooth speakers. I’ve been testing it to find out if it’s any good.
Design
- Hefty chassis
- Tactile buttons
- Waterproof design
As opposed to offering anything wacky or left-field in its shape, the Soundcore Motion 300 instead opts for an oblong, like other Bluetooth speakers. This makes it easy to position in multiple orientations, whether upright or laying flat.
At 830g it’s got some heft to it, and includes some nice touches such as a metal grille with the Soundcore logo. The Soundcore Motion 300 also comes with a strap to hang it off a branch or strap it to anything when out.
The speckled black and blue pattern across the sides of the chassis looks excellent. You can also get it in a green or sky blue colour if you’re feeling bolder. There is also an array of large and readable illuminated buttons across the top side for power, Bluetooth pairing, play/pause, volume, and for enabling the Bass Up mode. The buttons feel tactile and not mushy.
Being a more rugged, outdoor speaker means its IPX7 waterproof rating is welcome, with the Soundcore Motion 300 able to be submerged in water up to a metre deep for 30 minutes. It matches up well against the competition and means the speaker will be protected if you accidentally knock it into shallow water.
While that IPX7 rating is good against the likes of the Tronsmart T7, the Soundcore Motion 300 loses out against rivals such as the IP67-rated Wonderboom 3, and lacks sure-fire protection against dust. The USB-C port for charging is concealed behind a rubberised tab to prevent ingress of dirt or water.
Features
- Convenient app control
- Easy pairing
- Solid battery life
The Soundcore Motion 300 offers solid features for the asking price, including an app that displays the speaker’s battery life, and gives access to some basic EQ settings and presets, depending on the way the speaker is positioned so to get the best performance from it.
It’s an intuitive app to use, and only takes a handful of taps to execute the functions you’re likely to use. Updating the firmware takes a reasonable amount of time, restarting the Soundcore Motion 300 in the process. At least that gives you the chance to hear its fun little start-up jingle again.
Battery life sits at a reasonable 13 hours, which puts it in the mix against the competition and gives you enough endurance for a few evenings’ worth of listening. My testing put it a tad higher, with the Soundcore Motion 300 lasting for between 14 and 15 hours on a charge with the volume between 50 and 55 percent. The presence of USB-C charging is a welcome inclusion, especially with the likes of UE still clinging to the outdated micro-USB standard.
Pairing the Soundcore Motion 300 is easy, with a simple press of the Bluetooth button on the top of the speaker. It runs off Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity, providing support for LDAC and AAC codecs. Like Anker’s Soundcore X600 its LDAC support allows for higher bitrates than standard SBC Bluetooth, useful for those who subscribe to higher quality music streaming services.
With the multi-function capabilities of the top buttons, the Soundcore Motion 300 is also able to operate as a speakerphone, and you can take calls on it quite happily as long as you’re close to the microphone.
Sound Quality
- Generally clean sound, with a reassuring low-end heft
- Detailed top-end, but compromising mid-range
- Lots of volume
As for its audio, the Soundcore Motion 300 features 30W of power, which is not bad for a speaker of its size. Its audio performance is generally clean and when placed upright offers decent separation during a listen to September by Earth, Wind And Fire, a go-to testing track for me.
Given the size of the unit here, however, it inherently isn’t the widest soundstage but is decent enough. If you want a wider sound, you can join two in a stereo pair.
Its out-of-the-box low end is plentiful with Donald Fagen’s I.G.Y. with its rolling low end groove and the opening moments of Chic’s Good Times. The latter also revealed the crispness of the track’s snare drums. Enabling the speaker’s Bass-Up mode and utilising Anker’s signature EQ preset provides a little more extension and presence.
Once turned on, it gives music a bit more impact and enhances the overall experience. Peter Gabriel’s Sky Blue and Growing Up felt punchy with Bass-Up enabled, while it carried Rush’s YYZ signature bass drive rather well. Turning Bass-Up off meant recordings sounded a little hollow, so it can provide more body to songs.
That was the case when I moved over to James Taylor’s Caroline I See You, where it provided some reassuring depth, while also retaining a certain warmth on JT’s vocal and the accompanying strings. The mid-range presentation of the Soundcore Motion 300 is decent enough, although vocals can feel a little recessed listening to the crisp hi-hats and pounding bassline in Chic’s Good Times. It handled the song’s vocals well, and though they were clear, they lacked the strength I’ve experienced in speakers higher up the price ladder.
The Soundcore Motion 300’s top end is surprisingly good, with solid detail when listening closely to Ian Mosley’s hi-hat hits, cymbal rides and use of percussion in the opening of Marillion’s The Invisible Man; while the competing percussion elements on the introduction to Steely Dan’s Do It Again is precise and bright.
For a speaker of its size, the 30W of amplification allows the Soundcore Motion 300 to get quite loud, and it will easily fill a small-to-medium-sized room. Keeping it at halfway up seemed to be the best compromise, as going too loud added some distortion into the mix.
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Should you buy it?
You want an affordable, rugged speaker
Where the Soundcore Motion 300 wins is its affordability against similar speakers with good all-round audio, as well as excellent battery life and convenient connectivity.
You want a rich mid-range
It falls flat particularly with its mid-range presentation, which feels a bit lacklustre by comparison to the rest of the frequency range.
Final Thoughts
Anker’s Soundcore Motion 300 impresses with solid audio that carries a lot of presence, an insightful top end, as well as some excellent endurance that sits well against speakers both in the sub-£100 price category and those that cost a little more.
It’s one of the more complete packages available, with support for multipoint connectivity and LDAC amongst other things. With its funky look alongside a sturdy finish, those aspects push the Motion 300 up a fair bit in my estimations. The Soundcore app is decent enough too, and provides welcome control over EQ and placement options.
For the price, the Soundcore Motion 300 offers one of the more complete packages and marks itself out as a handy all-rounder for those on the go. For more options though, feel free to check out our best Bluetooth speaker rankings.
How we test
We test every wireless speaker we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Tested across two weeks
Tested with real world use
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FAQs
The Soundcore Motion 300 weighs 830 grams, making it quite a hefty unit for one of its size.
Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
