If you think you need to dig deep into your bank account to get good bass from a pair of truly wireless earbuds, the Anker Soundcore Spirit Dot 2<\/a> will rock your world\u2014while also rocking your favorite tunes. These fitness-leaning buds also fit well and can handle as much sweat and raindrops as you can throw at them, all while costing considerably less than a hundred bucks. Such a pleasant price doesn\u2019t come without sacrifices, but they\u2019re relatively minor. The Spirit Dot 2 usually deliver when it counts.<\/p>\n Note: This review is part of our\u00a0<\/em>roundup of wireless and true wireless earbuds<\/em>.\u00a0Go there for details on competing products and our testing methods.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The case is a compact thing that easily slips in a pocket (although Anker could have made it smaller), and there is a admirable novelty to how its lid slides back rather than flipping open. This design may be a little too nifty for its own good, though, as a mere week of continual use found the lid threatening to slide open without prompting. Fortunately, the magnetic strips that charge the buds in the case cling to the earpieces like a vice, so there\u2019s a good chance the buds will stay put.<\/p>\n A sliding lid is interesting, but has its own shortcomings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The case also allows for around 15 extra hours of playtime, which makes up for the disappointing five hours of playtime from the buds themselves. The case doesn\u2019t support wireless charging, but it does come with a cable for plugging into the sealed USB-C port on the back; three lights across the front let you know how much juice is left. Pairing is simple if a tad unintuitive: Once you\u2019ve opened your phone or computer\u2019s Bluetooth menu, you need to pull both buds out of the case before the pairing prompt pops up.<\/p>\n The slim and subtly stylish buds themselves fit almost as comfortably in my ears as they fit in their case. They\u2019re relatively small, too. If you look at a person who\u2019s wearing them head-on, you\u2019ll barely notice them at all, and I like that I can pull off my shirt without the fabric getting caught on them. The Spirit Dot 2 might not have active noise canceling, but they seal the ears and muffle exterior sounds so well that it would be nice if they had the increasingly common \u201cambient\u201d mode that uses the mic to pull in sounds from your environs.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t get such a great fit right out of the box, there\u2019s an excellent chance you can remedy that with the five different ear tips and three hollow fins that come with the Spirit Dot 2. These are made with what Anker calls \u201cSweatGuard\u201d technology, which help improve the seal and prevents your personal grime from corroding the tech.<\/p>\n The array of ear tips and fins that come with the Spirit Dot 2.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The SweatGuard tech is nice, but fortunately the Spirit Dot 2 boast an iPX7 rating, which means they\u2019re not in much danger from your perspiration in the first place. While it\u2019s not advisable, you should be able to dunk these in a meter of water for half an hour and they\u2019ll come out fine. This makes them ideal companions for the gym, especially since that excellent fit kept them from popping out of my ears even on a lengthy jog.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s the limitations of the touch controls that leave me hesitant to bring them along as companions for much else. There aren\u2019t any one-tap gestures: Instead, you tap twice on the right earbud to play or pause the music and you also use two taps to answer or end calls. Unfortunately, there\u2019s no way to hope back to the previous song on a playlist, but you can skip forward by tapping twice on the left bud. Activating Siri or Google Assistant is easy enough, as you just need to hold down your finger on either bud for roughly two seconds\u2014but this is also what you do to reject a call or transfer between calls. It\u2019s not very intuitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n And that\u2019s about it, really, aside from one potential annoyance: Unlike many other buds, the Spirit Dot 2 don\u2019t turn off automatically when you take them out of your ears. In theory, at least, they\u2019ll disconnect when you lay them back on the charging strips in the case. In practice, one of the SweatGuard fins would often slip a little and cover the charging surface when I pulled the buds out of my ear. That meant that, unknown to me, the stowed bud kept playing music and draining its battery inside the case for hours, and I\u2019d only find out when trying to figure out why sound wasn\u2019t coming from my phone (because the buds were still connected). Switching to one of the other fins seems to have fixed the problem\u2014and I also learned to look out for the white lights on the buds that signify that they\u2019re charging\u2014but it\u2019s something to keep in mind. Alternatively, you can turn off each bud by pressing down on the sides for eight seconds\u2014which also means you can easily listen to one bud at a time\u2014but they still won\u2019t charge if you don\u2019t line them up properly.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"anker](\"https:\/\/images.idgesg.net\/images\/article\/2020\/07\/anker-soundcore-spirit-dot-2-case-100853017-large.jpg\")
<\/a> Leif Johnson \/ IDG<\/small>![\"anker](\"https:\/\/images.idgesg.net\/images\/article\/2020\/07\/anker-soundcore-spirit-dot-2-tips-100852942-large.jpg\")
<\/a> Leif Johnson \/ IDG<\/small>