We've looked at the bigger brother to the Anker SoundCore Nano before and found that its overall quality far exceeds what you'd expect from affordable price tag. While compact enough on its own, even the SoundCore can't compare to the SoundCore Nano when it comes to ultimate Bluetooth speaker portability. This tiny little speaker will sit in the palm of a hand, remains extremely affordable and is a perfect travel companion.
Unlike the larger speakers from Anker, the Nano has a metal finish on its exterior everywhere aside from the back. Here you'll find a rubber coating and the solitary physical control; the power button. Practically all of your music playback control has to be handled from your phone, excepting pause and resume, for which that power button plays double duty with a tap (holding turns it on and off).
There's a more discrete logo on the front of the Nano than on some of Anker's other speakers, which is great, because it's one fine-looking little speaker. Color wise you get a choice of four hues — Gold, Rose Gold, Silver and Space Gray — and the eagle eyed among you will see that they're matching colors to the current iPhone range. But don't hold that against it.
Sound wise, here's the hardware you're looking at inside:
- 3W driver
- Bluetooth 4.0
- 33 feet wireless range
- 4 hours continuous playback
From something this size you'll always have to temper your expectations, but equally the SoundCore Nano is surprisingly good. Bass is light as you'd expect from something this size and there's a definite a hit to the quality of the overall tone over something like the larger SoundCore. But given the size, Anker has done a pretty good job. It's capable of going pretty loud without much distortion, too. There are only so many miracles of audio physics you can pull out of a tiny speaker.
While throwing the Nano into any bag requires no effort at all, there is a wrist strap included in the box if you want to wear it or clip to a bag, and despite having a solitary Micro-USB port you can still plug in non-Bluetooth audio devices. Anker also throws in a Micro-USB to 3.5mm adapter to cover all your bases.
Battery life is claimed at 4 hours and that's fairly accurate in my experience. It's only a small battery, but equally it charges up pretty quickly if you run out.
So, the verdict. The Anker SoundCore Nano is as much of a surprise as its bigger brother, the SoundCore. It's absolutely perfect to throw in a bag to travel with or to give to kids —my almost 2 year old loves it — and at just $23 it's great value, too. If you're after a super compact speaker, definitely give it a go.
