This is the Soundcore Motion x600. 3 amps, 2 woofers, two tweeters and one upward-firing sky driver. And it is Hi-Res audio certified. This all sounds good. But here's a question.

Have you heard of Soundcore before? Is it better value for money than the brands you're more familiar with? Well, you're about to find out.

Design & build quality

So let me give you a guided tour of Anker's design choices with the soundscore motion x600. There are three colours. Polar Gray, Aurora Green, and Lunar Blue.Most of the body is constructed of stainless steel because this is the way. And the grill on the front resembles Apple's Mac Pro vents.

The carry handle is aluminium which is strong and lightweight. Anker has done an excellent job matching these two metals' finishes.And the top surface is covered in durable rubber. And this wraps over the buttons and around this circular mesh, which is an upward-firing spatial audio driver.

And Anker has made this speaker British weather resistant. The X600 has achieved an official IPX7 water resistance rating with this design.

Not only can it resist water, it actually floats too. So if you drop it into shark-infested waters, you could retrieve it from the surface….but yeah, good luck with that.

However, it is essential to remember that the X in IPX ratings refers to the fact that it's not resistant to tiny particles such as dust and sand.

And I really like the rounded corners that the soundscore motion x600 has. It helps soften the look, and I appreciate the aesthetics and how the light rolls off it.

Another excellent design choice is the addition of rubber feet at its bass. This will help reduce unwanted vibrations that could introduce noise into the audio & it will also prevent it from sliding around on more polished surfaces.

And its centre of gravity is good because it has a pretty hefty battery. Which will allow the Motion X600 to run for up to 12 hrs or a course. Some variables affect power consumption. For example, maxing out the volume and utilising bass up and spatial sound mode.

Overall the motion x600 weighs in at around 1.9KG. It makes it a heavyweight amongst portable speakers…but is it a heavy hitter regarding sound quality?

User Controls

Before we get into that, let me show you what you'll be working with regarding controls if you decide to buy the Motion X600.

The buttons are nicely tilted towards you, making them visible when looking at the X600 from the front. And they are backlit too, which means if you're partying into the late hours of the night, you'll have no problem finding the right buttons to push.

Unless you've had a few too many. In this case, if you can still string a sentence together, you could use the voice assistant on your phone to change the track or change volume levels at a distance.

The buttons on the left of the upwards sky driver consist of power, Bluetooth pairing, spatial audio & bass up. On the right, there's volume up, down and play pause.

And the play pause also doubles up as a skip forward and back with double and triple taps, respectively.

And there's some excellent attention to detail here from Soundcore. If the speaker is off and the buttons are not backlit… you're feeling around in the dark for the power button, unlike the other controls that are flush with the surface. The power button has a rounded dip, making it easier to find.

And if buttons are too old school for you, there's an official Soundcore app.

App Controls

Now, the App is fantastic in its simplicity. The Home Screen gives you play/pause. A way to power down. And the great equaliser gives you four nicely tuned presets and the bass up switch at the top.

But here's where it gets interesting. In the custom EQ section, you have a 9-band EQ to play with, and you can save your custom EQ's.

But if you want to go real pro. The full equaliser is one of the best implementations of this. You've got the 9 adjustment points, but when you click one, it expands and lets you get those fine-tuning tweaks in. Honestly, this is brilliant. Love it.

And I love how they've added a way to share custom EQ's with a QR code. This is truly a well-orchestrated effort from Soundcore on the App.

And here's my own personal custom EQ for you. Test them out if and when you buy one of these. I'm proud of my LIVE & HipHop ones. Watch the video above for the custom EQ’s

Connectivity

Ok, let's run through connectivity options. At the back of the Motion X600 is a waterproof rubber cover for the USB C charging input. And the analogue audio jack input. So if you want to hardwire in a record deck, audio DAC, CD player, or something. You're good to go.

When it comes to codecs. Android fans can rejoice because the X600 speaker supports LDAC, which allows you to stream 24bit 96Khz audio to the X600 thanks to a bitrate around three times faster than your typical SBC or AAC codec.

This requires your phone or tablet to be close to the speaker, though. If it's not, it will default back to the default codec.

If you're an iPhone owner, the X600 will still impress with the AAC codec, which is still the go-to for Apple. It's more than capable of delivering high-quality sound to the speakers.

Sound Quality

Now let's talk about that. What makes the Soundcore unique is its speaker's configuration. Two tweeters and two woofers face the front, and then there's the upward driver.

It isn't an actual Dolby Atmos speaker. But it is a 3-channel setup, a one-up on the traditional stereo. Up is the keyword here. This speaker setup does take the sound output up a level.

When you toggle the spatial audio feature, you can hear the new heights the sound can reach. And this is fantastic if you place this on the ground when listening at the park, at the poolside, or anywhere.

In terms of the sound signature. The apparent strength is the higher frequencies, so vocals and instrumental clarity are detailed and precise. In fact, you have to be careful with this when playing with the custom EQs, as if you go too high on the high ends, it can get a little too sharp.

And if you dive into the full equaliser and balance it correctly, the mids are nice too. I like bass-heavy tracks…and the Soundcore does not disappoint here. Especially when the bass up button is toggled on.

And what really surprised me about the Soundcore Motion X600 is how much headroom Soundcore has left you to play with in the bass department.

In the full equaliser, you can expand the low ends to the 48Hz frequency, which is impressive. Because most speakers like this range between 20Hz to 20Khz so they cannot deliver such a broad frequency range as this.

And when you turn the bass up to 11 like I have done on my EQs, this speaker over-delivers in the bass department.

You could say the boom shake shakes the room, and that Motion X600 speaker slaps harder than Will Smith at the Oscars. So it is easy to recommend, and you want the latest prices and deals on this and anything else Soundcore. here's an affiliate link below this