Photos and Features

Like most earbuds, the soundcore Sleep A10’s come with a carrying case that also doubles as its charging case and the case design is a big departure from other earbuds I’ve tested in the past. The case has a pearl white finish with the soundcore logo in the center and a round shape. The case is 70 mm wide and around 28 mm thick. The sides are all rounded and there isn’t too much going on. You have one USB Type-C connection on the top edge along with a small button for resetting things when needed. Then on the front edge, three small pinhole LEDs show the battery status. I expected to see all of the certification logos and all of that information on the bottom of the case but surprisingly the bottom is completely blank with nothing going on. Overall the case size is almost exactly like an Ice Breakers Mint container which is easy to pocket, but I do still think this case is a lot larger than it needed to be with past earbud cases like the Space A40 being a lot smaller.

The main reason for the larger size is because of the case's unique lid design that doesn’t flip open but slides open. Doing that reveals the product information and certification logos I was looking for previously which are hidden on the underside of the lid. The inside of the case has small labels for left and right next to the formed indents that hold each earbud. These have a small magnet with two charging pins on each side for charging the earbuds and a small grove on each to fit the ear wings that are optional but come preinstalled. You can’t see it but there are two status LEDs near the front as well that light up white through the plastic to show that each earbud is connected. The case does have some built-in battery capacity as well which according to the soundcore website can recharge them 7 times. The case doesn’t have wireless charging, not that it should be needed if you can get that many charges from the case's batteries but it would make keeping things charged easier.

Here is a look at the pinhole status LEDs, they light up as soon as you open the case.

The first thing I noticed about the Sleep A10s is just how small they are compared to other earbuds that I’ve tested in the past. They are 19mm wide without including the silicone ear wing that the silicon cover has on it, 13 mm tall, and then 9 mm thick. That is without the ear tip installed but for comparison, the same measurements from the soundcore Space A40s are 20mm wide, 17 mm tall, and 22 mm thick. That is smaller in every dimension and with the total thickness being more than twice as thick. That is important however, with these being designed for sleep you don’t want them to stick out. If they do and you sleep on the side it will push the earbud in and press on your ear which would be uncomfortable overnight. Like with the case, the Sleep A10s are bright white including the silicon covers which are also white. There is the aluminum part where the ear tip is attached which isn’t white but the white ear tip will cover that. The underside of the A10 has an R or L to let you know which side it is and there are also the two contacts and the center magnet which is used to get good contact when in the charging case. They have a 5mm dynamic driver and because of the compact size they don’t have a microphone built in so while they are Bluetooth you can only receive audio not make calls. The battery is rated for 6 hours of music, 10 hours in sleep mode, and they estimate 8 hours when using those in combination. They also do not have active noise canceling but they use passive cancelation with the dual ear caps and the silicone cover on the case itself helping to get a good seal. Anker says that this can block up to 35 dB of noise and then the sleep mode plays white noise to add to that. They connect via BlueTooth 5.2. They are IPX4 rated so they are water resistant to splashes of water which should be good enough to handle sweat.

Here is a look at the A10s with the recommended ear tip. You can see the dual-layer design that helps cut down additional noise.

To get a better idea of the smaller size of the Sleep A10. I put the Jaybird Vista 2 next to them and it makes the Vista 2’s look huge. I also have a comparison shot of the cases as well, like I said before the round case design is surprisingly large for how small the earbuds are. Even with the Vista 2’s being larger the carrying case is more compact. Thankfully the Sleep A10s aren’t going to be carried around in your pocket often.