Back in 2022, Anker released its Sleep A10 noise-blocking sleep earbuds under its Soundcore brand. At the time, they were a value alternative to Bose’s now discontinued Sleepbuds II, and they had a lot to like about them, though they were far from perfect.
Now Anker is gearing up to release its next-gen Sleep A20 buds, which it says feature a more comfortable fit with better passive noise isolation and improved battery life. You can preorder the A20s on April 16 for $90, or $60 off their list price of $150, as part of a Kickstarter campaign that offers early-bird pricing. They’re due to ship in mid-May and will also be available on Amazon and Soundcore at that time.
Like the previous model, these tiny buds passively block out some ambient noise and then you can choose to play one of a wide selection of sleep noises, including white and brown noise, plus the typical soothing sounds of nature (rain, chirping birds, fire crackling, waves crashing) that help to mask external sounds like your partner’s snoring. There’s also a personal alarm clock, sleep monitoring via the Soundcore app (for iOS and Android users) and a new feature that lets you find the earbuds using an audible alert through the app should one bud or both buds fall out during the night. But to be clear, there’s no active noise canceling.
The two biggest changes are to the ear-tip design and battery life. Anker says the Sleep A20 will offer users three times better noise rejection using the “twin-seal” ear tips versus single layer ear tips. And battery life in sleep mode has been elevated from 10 hours to 14 hours, with the charging case storing an additional 80 hours of battery life.
Read more: Best Sleep Headphones of 2024
The buds have a new ear-tip design.
Like their predecessor, the Sleep A20 buds have one big feature that was missing from the Bose Sleepbuds II: the ability to play music and other audio via Bluetooth from your phone or another device. Battery life has been improved for Bluetooth streaming and is now up to 10 hours at 50% volume, with an additional 55 hours in the charging case.
I haven’t listened to the Sleep A20’s sound yet, but it’s presumably very similar to that of the Sleep A10, which wasn’t half bad considering the tiny size of the buds. They were a little bass shy but they sounded better than I thought they would and did a good job with podcasts and audiobooks. Unfortunately, there’s no built-in microphone with either the Sleep A10s or A20s, so you can’t make calls with them.
I’ll be most interested to evaluate the new ear-tip design to see how the comfort and seal compares with that of the previous model’s ear tips. The buds are designed to fit completely inside your ear (or at least most ears), which makes them suitable for people who sleep on their side with an ear resting against the pillow. The Sleep A10s were quite comfortable for in-ear earbuds, but not everybody found them comfortable enough to wear all night.
Note that Anker is an established brand and has used Kickstarter as a preorder mechanism with a handful of other products, all of which have shipped. However, before you contribute to the campaign, read Kickstarter’s policies to find out your rights (and refund policies, or lack thereof) before and after a campaign ends.
We’ll have a full review of the Sleep A20 buds as soon as final production samples are available.
