REASONS TO BUY
Good ANC
Long battery
Comfy
REASONS TO AVOID
Not our favorite sound
Small earcups
Confusing controls
Soundcore Q20i Review
The best noise canceling for budget shoppers who love boomy bass
Credit: Matt Lighthart
By Genaveve Bradshaw ⋅ Senior Review Analyst ⋅ September 3, 2025
Contributions From: Rachael Lamore & Lissette Velasquez
Our Verdict
If you're looking for a decent pair of headphones primarily to block out life's daily distractions, the Q20i is worth a peek. The ANC is among the best for the price point, removing 25 decibels of sound across the frequency spectrum. Plus, it makes a great travel companion with a verified 49-hour battery life and a convenient fold-down design. However, typically, you buy headphones for an audio experience, and unfortunately, the Q20i's sound profile is bass-heavy, unbalanced, and muddy. Most budget competitors offer better sound quality. Still, if you don't need clean detailing and primarily listen to boomy hip-hop or dance genres, the Q20i may suit your needs.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Soundcore Q20i was released in 2023 for budget shoppers seeking quality ANC.
We tested this headset in our state-of-the-art audio studio and in real-life home, office, and urban settings to give you a rigorous review backed by science.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Sound Quality
Unfortunately, the sound quality of the Q20i is its biggest letdown. We liken it to swimming in a murky bayou rather than pristine, crystal-clear glacial waters. It's not horrifically terrible for casual listeners, but there is better.
The sound mix is bass-heavy, becoming unbalanced, and lacks a sense of detail and depth. The classic rock song “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin is a prime example. “It's almost fatiguing to hear how separate each voice is,” complained one tester. All the integral pieces - vocals, guitar, percussion, bass - are separate dials adjusted in the studio, rather than listening to a collective, cohesive musical work. And forget about cranking the volume, we could only listen at high volumes for less than a few seconds because of uncomfortable, ultra-boomy lows, piercingly sharp highs, and muddier overall quality.
The lows love to party with soul and rap artists like Etta James, Chika, G-Unit, and Jay Z, but they sometimes veer into boomy terrain and don't always sound clean or clear. We were disappointed to hear the bass as the lead part in the mix of some of our beloved favorite folk and soft rock tracks. For most users, it's just too much. Still, some may find the lows perfectly acceptable.
The mids have a surprisingly pleasing warmth in singer-songwriter mixes like “Apple Juice” by Jessie Reyez and “Alter” by Kehlani. However, they are set up for failure because they have to fight off Soundcore's big bass.
The highs are a bit overemphasized but more accurate than the bass. The emphasis adds heightened emotion to high-hitting vocalists like Maggie Rogers, Adele, and Olivia Rodrigo, but it isn't consistent in its delivery. The wonderful instrumental cover of “abcdefu” by Vitula from Bridgerton has bright violin strings that swing from sounding beautifully pleasant to somewhat keening or sharp.
A bit more natural balance to the highs and lows would go a long way to improve the sound quality of the Q20i, but balance alone won't improve the lack of clarity and dimension.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Soundstage
While each instrumental voice has a good separation, the spacing feels inaccurate. The overall sound is flat, and our audio specialists felt it was “missing a satisfying depth that allows colors and textures to fully expand and be explored.”
Some casual listeners may not mind the unimpressive sound quality, but for the same price point, you can do better with nearly any other model in our lineup.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Frequency Response
The Q20i frequency response has a U-shaped appearance, pushing the lows and highs above our Preference Curve.
This indicates that the bass and treble have the potential to come off too strongly. The bass takes center stage, overpowering nearly any genre of music. The treble fights for the limelight, too, but the sharp and erratic frequency response in this range leaves it sounding “a bit jumpy,” with some high-hitting instruments and vocals sounding great while others are too piercing and uncomfortable.
Comfort and Fit
Most Soundcores excel at comfort. Our panel of testers agreed that its 243-gram (0.5-pound) weight felt light on top of the head. The headband and earcups are fashioned with soft memory foam and wrapped in smooth protein leather.
While the cushion doesn't extend the entire length of the headband, it's still sufficiently cozy.
We wore the Q20i for eight hours straight without developing any pressure points or heat buildup. The low clamping force is great for comfort, but makes the headphones less stable. They don't immediately fall off with deep back stretches or head bobbing, but they can slide around from time to time with swift motions.
The Q20i also feels just fine to wear with thick glasses.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
The earcups measure 57 x 38 millimeters, which is on the smaller side, and did feel small for one of our testers with 2.1 x 1.5-inch ears. However, another tester with 2.5 x 2-inch ears said the sizing was just right.
Aside from EQ customizations, the app also lets you swap between noise-canceling modes, manage connected devices, and update the firmware. It's fairly straightforward to use but somewhat limited in its available features.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Noise Cancellation
While the noise cancellation isn't quite on par with premium models, the Q20i has one of the best ANC performances for the price point.
External and internal microphones work together to detect and eliminate low to mid-frequency sounds in your environment. According to Soundcore, the Q20i removes as much as 90% of monotonous vehicle engine roars, machine hums, and fan whirs. We measured an average of 25 decibels of noise cancellation across frequencies, with the Soundcores removing voices and keyboard clacks.
The headphones also support Passive (or Normal) mode, where ANC is off, and Transparent mode, where external sounds are amplified to make it feel like you are not wearing headphones. Transparency mode isn't uncomfortably loud, but the sound quality is strange and unnatural.
The earcups don't have the most roomy dimensions out there, so users with larger ears may need to look elsewhere.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Ease of Use
The user experience of the Q20i is average. It forms a reliable Bluetooth connection, and the EQ is customizable. None of the EQ adjustments seem to fix our problems with the sound profile, the button controls aren't the easiest to use, and the headphones randomly disconnect when using Multipoint.
Controls
The Q20i has manual button controls on the earcups' back. While we typically like buttons for their reliability, these controls are too small and packed too closely together to tell them apart.
When blindly reaching back behind your head, it's easy to mix up the buttons.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
A centrally located “Multifunction” button controls power, pairing mode, track play/pause, and phone calls, while “+” and “-” buttons on either side let you adjust the volume or skip tracks. An “NC” button also switches between noise-canceling modes and gives you quick access to the BassUp feature.
We hit the centrally located pause button accidentally on several occasions when trying to turn up the volume.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Connectivity
The Q20i easily pairs with your Android or Apple device and holds that connection for up to 127 feet outdoors. The Bluetooth 5.0 support is outdated but still sufficiently functional to meet most casual users' needs. Pairing to a second device with Multipoint was also super easy, but the connection eventually became unreliable. The headphones would randomly disconnect from the second device or power off without warning.
Amazon one-star review users report 0.14% of negative complaints about connection problems. This percentage is much less than the average and suggests that the Q20i holds a reliable connection for most users. An incredibly small number of reviews even mention Multipoint, and those that do praise this feature's functionality.
Customization
The Soundcore app lets you adjust the sound profile with a customizable slider or presets, but neither seemed to fix our problems with the mix. With 22 preset options, there are almost too many choices to find what you're looking for, and while the manual slider is responsive, creating a sound profile that doesn't feel unbalanced is hard.
=Battery=The Q20i has a measured battery life of 49 hours with the ANC on, slightly less than Soundcore's claim of 60. Most ANC-supporting headphones fall in the 20-30-hour range, so the Q20i does great.
According to Soundcore, five minutes of charge time will get you four hours of playback time, and two hours of charging gets a full battery. The Q20i warns you when the battery is running below 10% with a flashing red indicator light and an announcement. If you don't have access to a charger, the headphones support passive playback when the battery is dead.
Listen in to the Q20i's noise-blocking capabilities in a simulated vibrant cafe. With ANC on, the low background hum is removed, and nearby male and female voices are eliminated, though some louder, sporadic, and high-pitched sounds still quietly pass through.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Call Quality
Overall, the Q20i call quality is decent, but when we break down its performance into our different settings, we see that the environment you call from makes a big difference in clarity.
It excels in quiet environments yet suffers severely in noisy conditions. If you're only making phone calls from a private home or office, the Q20i can handle that, but calls from rowdy public spaces are less than ideal.
When tested with subway sounds, the Q20i fails to remove loudspeaker announcements and whirring train sounds from the background.
The caller's voice is loud, but so is the announcer, requiring a bit more focus to understand the TechGearLab riddle. The female's voice also has a distorted quality, dropping syllables from time to time.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
An office setting isn't quite as challenging, but it requires headphones to isolate one's voice from the voices around one.
In this simulated stress test, the Q20i does a decent job at removing background sounds, but voices and keyboard clacks still softly come through. The high-pitch clacks are more apparent with the female caller than the male caller, but our caller's voice remains easily understandable.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
We also place a phone call from our quiet, sound-insulated audio studio. While the voices have a slight buzzing quality, they are loud and clear and sound mostly natural.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
In our real-life demo phone call test from a private office room, the Q20i excels. Its crystal-clear voice quality sounds like you are making a call from an actual phone microphone positioned at your mouth.
We simulate phone calls from a variety of scenarios but also test call quality first-hand to validate our laboratory findings.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
In a pinch, the Q20i's passive playback feature lets you continue using the headphones with the power off. Just note that any time you connect the wire, whether powered on or off, the noise-blocking technology will not work.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
Should You Buy the Soundcore Q20i?
The Q20i is best for someone seeking a highly effective ANC at a budget price point. It's sufficiently cozy for all-day wear if your ears fit in the smaller earcups. However, we think your money may be better spent on a budget elsewhere.
Take it or leave it. The Q20i delivers great noise-canceling but at the cost of sound quality. You'll have to decide which you value more.
Credit: Matt Lighthart
What Other Wireless Headphones Should You Consider?
The 1More SonoFlow also provides great ANC for budget shoppers. The SonoFlow offers the best bang for your buck, performing well in all of our tests, though it struggles with Multipoint connectivity. You'll have to splurge on premium models like the Bose Quiet Comfort for better noise cancellation. If you want better sound quality and are ok with foregoing standout ANC, you might consider the Tozo HT2.
—Genaveve Bradshaw, Rachael Lamore, and Lissette Velasquez
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