Anker Soundcore Motion X600 Portable Speaker

design
There’s a wonderful retroism to the Soundcore Motion X600. The sweeping lines and unapologetically large grille would have looked just as at home in my living room in the 50s as they do today, it’s really rather pleasant. It doesn’t look old fashioned of course, it’s still a perfectly modern looking speaker but there’s a charming style about it that suggests it’s happy being the centre of attention.
There’s nothing toyline or cheap about this speaker, even if the back and top panels are plastic. The aluminium handle and front panel bring a pretty substantial weight, a surprising amount in fact. It speaks not only to how much Soundcore has packed inside the X600 but also brings an air of premium quality to it. While it’s not heavy heavy, it’s heavier than I’d want to carry for extended periods so think of ‘portable’ here to mean more ‘wireless’.
The series of buttons across the top are embossed from a single rubberised plastic panel, helping the Soundcore Motion X600 achieve an IPX7 rating (which in normal speak means you can dunk it up to 1m underway for up to 30 minutes). They’re LED backlit but are white and not particularly punchy so I struggled to see them in daylight without cupping my hand around them. It’s only a minor annoyance, but for a speaker designed for taking on the move it’s a bit of an oversight, I shouldn’t need to guess whether the speaker is on or not.

Around the back is a 3.5mm aux in port, always a welcome addition even in the age of streaming and a USB-C port for charging. In perfect testing conditions, Soundcore says you’ll get 12 hours of tunes out of the Motion X600 but none of my parties or garden working sessions last that long. In testing I didn’t notice any dramatic drain to worry me about getting at least 8 hours of constant playback though and let’s be honest, do you ever need more than that in one go without access to a powerbank or plug? Probably not.
performance
I’m not going to waste time here, I was blown away by how good the Soundcore Motion X600 sounds.
For a portable speaker with a reasonably compact (though not tiny) footprint, the X600 packs an incredibly full punch. 50W of power will do that of course, but it’s capable of genuine room filling sound without batting an eyelid. In the game of volume chicken, I backed out before the Motion X600 did and never managed to go beyond 80% before becoming worried the neighbours would be banging on my door.
It’s not just loud either, the sound it’s pumping out at that level is a joy to listen to. Rich, deep but full of clarity – no matter which track I tried over Bluetooth I was noticeably impressed with how it sounded. There’s a few things at play that work together to achieve this and they’re all impressive to find at this upper-middle price point.
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Five drivers and five amplifiers help send music flying around you in all directions, including a dedicated upward-firing driver. This can be toggled on and off with a button on the top and when you first use it I’d recommend having a play around here. It’s not until you turn the spatial audio feature off you realise just how good it is and how much of a difference it makes to the immersive nature of the sound. Just make sure you leave it on once you’re done playing.
The bass boost button next door is another you’ll want to toggle to hear the impact it has before leaving it firmly switched on. Even for songs that don’t feature a heavy bassline, I found it filled out the soundstage as a whole without coming across artificial or forced. Even slow acoustic tracks benefited from this lift, adding a richness to guitar and a soul to vocals.

If you’re looking for a little more manual input to really tailor your sound the matching Soundcore app offers a handful of customisation options to dial in your Motion X600. I don’t claim to be any sort of audio expert so usually stick to presets or defaults in this area but sliding through the out of the box options the changes were noticeable. Ultimately I ended up back where I started, which is a pat on the back for Soundcore’s tuning – a speaker like this shouldn’t need fiddling with to get the best out of it and the Motion X600 certainly doesn’t.
I have one gripe about the Soundcore Motion X600 and it’s an admittedly tedious one. I’d love a little welcome sound when you turn it on. This is commonplace across Bluetooth devices like this for a reason and those less than impactful LED backlights earlier make it a little tricky to be sure you’ve actually got the thing turned on. I don’t need that robot voice telling me it’s on, just a pleasant couple of notes will do me perfectly.
summed up
Soundcore is on to a winner with the Motion X600, it’s as simple as that. This is a brilliant wireless speaker that delivers spatial audio with more power than you’ll need. Even now, sat outside, the Motion X600 is filling the space around me with immersive lofi beats – that’s some going from a portable speaker under £200.
It’s not the cheapest portable speaker you’ll find but there’s real value here, up to 12 hours of battery life gets you near enough a full day of companionship that can follow you around the house, into the garden and delight your ears the entire time. Soundcore might not be one of the powerhouse names of speakers, yet, but the Motion X600 is a powerhouse speaker, now.