When choosing branded portable speakers in the Philippine market particularly, we have the usual suspects which are JBL, Bose and small productions from smartphone brands and accessories. It seems that portable bluetooth speakers are quite limited in options, especially if your goal is that you want quality audio on the go.
Right now as you go up the price bracket, the expectation is that you will have a speaker that produces higher wattage to amp up louder audio production. Those are definitely loud but already muffles a lot of mid and high frequencies due to the bass it produces, making it very unfavorable to audio fanatics like me.
Recently Anker is expanding more in the country, particularly their audio lifestyle subsidiary Soundcore just launched their lineup and taking up the route of High Fidelity Audio on the go.
I went ahead and bought this new speaker as it tickled my curiosity last September 2023. Hence, meet the Soundcore Motion X600 by Anker which is a 50W portable speaker with Spacial Audio plus Hi-Res Audio.
Design wise the Soundcore Motion X600 doesn’t want to be another “Speaker” and it’s clear that they took the route of being more contemporary against the mainsteam brands. Here on the Motion X600 we see a more lunch-box type form factor at first glance, but with a lot of curved edges, matte finished coating and even on the handle that takes reference from those elegant centerpieces in modern houses.
Trust me that a few people already asked me if I’m carrying a lunch box when seen from afar (LOL!).
An aluminium bar handle that over arches the whole speaker is the one you will first notice, by first touch you know that this speaker means serious business due to it’s durable construction. This goes further to the front panel as the 3D grill is made of metal for added rigidity. While the back, top and bottom of the body is made of plastic that is still solid in overall feel.
The top panel is made of plastic with a rubberized layer, making it more distinguished from the rest of the body and a nice soft feel to make you also more tactile and familiarized that you are touching the soft press buttons.
A unqie circular centerpiece is found at the top panel which serves as a driver with the soundcore logo also placed. We’ll explain more of this on our audio experience segment.
At the side you can see special hints of features in the speakers that says “High Fidelity Audio” and “Spacial Harmony” at the right side. While we think this is kinda unnecessary, this is still welcomed as the brand is still fairly new and still introducing themselves through these innovations.
The color I got is their matte green finish with a subtle hint of shimmer, adding the curved design approach you can see every angle reflects a different shade regardless from what angle you look at the device.
At the back are larger formed grills for dedicated air vents for the bass chamber, also a small rubber flap that lets you access the USB Type-C port for charging and 3.5mm audio jack.
Rated to be IPX7 the brand says that the speaker can be even submerged underwater, but no speaker technically can play underwater cause it needs air to produce sounds. But still its a nice feature to know should you want to bring this outdoors with some careless explorations in mind.
Weight wise the speaker is around 2 kilograms, something that you won’t mind as this is still portable to bring around to places you need to.
The Motion X600 has a total of 5 drivers and 5 amplifiers that delivers a total of 50W of power packed in a portable package. Compared to other brands with just two but larger drivers, Soundcore’s approach is more of a refined experience on the go. Think of this concept as like a theater soundbar which has multiple front speakers plus upward firing speakers to produce the surround sound experience.
The use of 5 drivers is a wise choice to expound on clarity, thanks to this approach plus a dedicated DSP (Digital Signal Processor) the Motion X600 can produce a wider range of frequencies from 50hz to 40kHz as compared to conventional speakers that is limited to 60hz to 80kHz. Putting that into simple terms, you can hear more details through this speakers giving you a fuller audio experience.
As I mentioned earlier the circular placement on top is a driver that is responsible for subtle hints of audio. To expound further details like chimes, minor strokes of violins, vocals and even backup vocals are more prominent thanks to this one. Plus it bounces the audio upwards and makes it surround sound as the direction is upwards and spreads into an area.
Volume management wise we are impressed with no distortion experienced even when you crank the volume to the highest. Noticing from 30% to 50% here you can still appreciate the bass it produces, meaning you don’t have to always crank the volume to the highest settings to get the “umph” you need. Now I appreciate the aluminium handle and steel panel even more cause of its added rigidity to the speaker itself. It overall minimizes shaking and trembling on the speaker, plus given the weight it anchors itself to the ground and creates a added subwoofer effect especially when placed on top of wood materials.
Note: Placing the X600 in smooth surfaces tends to create vibrations that will make the speaker move, so be sure to place it on a good textured surface. This is despite having good silicone pads for its legs.
In terms of loudness the Soundcore Motion X600 is powerful enough to fill a small room or condo for a pleasurable listening experience, but it will be a bit challenging already if you are outdoors as the spacial audio effect isn’t strong enough for everyone’s appreciation.
Based on my music listening experience these this a simple ranking of the best songs experience I got using the Soundcore Motion X600.
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Best listening experience Clear vocals and instruments |
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| Above average quality |
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Least Impressive due to muddy lower frequencies |
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If you notice based on my list, I’m more of a House, EDM and KPOP listener whereas R&B musics with punchier bass tends to be my least bias as these are either distorted in the studio production itself. Overall, this speaker will satisfy most of genres of music but you may need to tweak the equalizer when needed.
Oh control wise there isn’t next or previous track buttons at the device itself, this is really meant to be a put in place speaker and listen. Most of the time you will really have to go to your smartphone to choose or control the audio anyways.
While the Soundcore Motion X600 promoted Hi-Res / Hi-Res Wireless audio, our overall listening scenario is via the bluetooth and playing via Spotify at the best audio quality possible. So we weren’t able to test the LDAC feature as this requires a wired connection and your own .flac or high bitrate music file, simply put this kind of audio lifestyle isn’t for us.
Initially I used the speakers at plain vanilla most of the time, but apparently there is a SoundCore app that can give a little bit more of management for the device. While it’s nothing spectacular in management, it’s still a nice way to be updated through software updates which I encountered once.
The default equalizer is pre-set to the Soundcore Signature which focuses on the lowest end of the bass and usual average level on the mid and treble. Of course you can customize this using the preset equalizer modes or even customize to your liking, but in our case the Soundcore Signature is more than enough to all of our needs.
Aside from these, thoughtful settings like automatic off timer and LED brightness levels can be modified for preference. But that’s pretty much it, so far you’re not missing a lot if you aren’t connected using the soundcore app.
The Motion X600 is rated for 12 hours of use, but as we said we use the speaker at 100% volume most of the time which results to around 5 hours of solid use. Charging is via USB Type-C which you can charge even using PD compatible chargers but it will take around 3 hours to fully charge the device.
No fancy features here like using the speakers as a portable powerbank, we think this is a good decision from Soundcore as they purely focused on the audio experience rather than making the speaker a utility device.
Hands down the Soundcore Motion X600 can satisfy the audio expectations of anyone who clamours more of clarity rather than loudness. From the choice of materials, audio implementation, portability and software aspect, Soundcore definitely created a serious portable speaker to challenge the big ones.
Priced at Php13,995 the Soundcore Motion X600 is a no affordable portable speaker, but it’s not also expensive when considering based on my experience that this can already combat nearing premium speaker brands.
By far the Soundcore Motion X600 offers a very unique audio experience given the price point, so we think this is still a worthy choice if you are serious in audio quality on-the-go. So you should get this speaker if you need a speaker that can be both portable in small format gatherings or a solid audio in-home for your mobile devices.
Disclaimer: This speaker was personally bought through the Soundcore Global Lazada Store last 9.9, though we have connections with Anker Philippines this review is purely based on the editor’s experience.
