Key Takeaways
- The Soundcore Sleep A20 earbuds are designed for comfortable sleep with sound-dampening tracks for up to 14 hours on a single charge.
- Earbuds come with multiple customization options through the Soundcore app, including Smart Switch for automatic Sleep Mode activation.
- Although pricey at $149.99, these earbuds provide a well-designed solution for better sleep, but may not be ideal for outside use.
Sleep is something we all need but probably don’t get enough. The world is a busy, and loud, place. If you want a better night’s rest, the Soundcore Sleep A20 Earbuds are a pair of sleep-focused earbuds. The earbuds are extremely comfortable to wear while sleeping and provide dedicated sleep sounds to drown out distractions. But they don’t work well outside the bedroom and are expensive.
Soundcore Sleep A20 Earbuds
$120 $150 Save $30
The Soundcore Sleep A20 Earbuds are designed to help you sleep better during the night. You can choose to play your own music from a smartphone via a Bluetooth connection. Or for a longer battery life, you can download custom sleep sounds, like a rainstorm, to play through the earbuds during the night. Made with soft material, the earbuds are designed to not be uncomfortable while asleep, even if you sleep on your side.
- Long battery life, especially when using case
- Automatically tracks sleep
- Wide variety of sleep sounds to choose from
- Very comfortable in the ears, even while on your side
- Expensive for what it offers
- Touch controls don’t work well
Pricing and Specifications
You can purchase the Soundcore Sleep A20 for $149.99 from Amazon, Soundcore, and many other retailers. It’s only available in a single light tan color.
What Are the Soundcore Sleep A20 Earbuds?
Instead of traditional wireless headphones like Apple’s AirPods, the Soundcore option is made to be worn during sleep. Because of that focus, there are many advantages and tradeoffs to be aware of.
Instead of a protruding stem, the entire earbud fits in your ear. With an eye on providing the most comfortable fit, Soundcore provides three different sizes of ear wings and four sizes of ear tips. I tried a few sizes and found the best combination for me in just a few minutes. When you’re ready to use the earbuds, you’ll insert them in your ear canal and give a slight twist up for the wing to lock into place.
When not using the earbuds, you’ll place them back in the well-designed and sturdy charging case. The lid slides open and closed. Three LEDs on the front of the case will tell you when the earbuds are pairing and provide charging status. You’ll connect the provided USB-C cable to the back of the case when needing to charge.
But there’s no need to worry about the earbuds running out of power during the night. With the special Sleep Mode that plays masking sounds, the earbuds last for up to 14 hours on a single charge and this extends up to 80 hours with the case. When using traditional Bluetooth, it will provide up to 10 hours of playtime and an additional 55 hours with the case.
In my testing, I was able to use the earbuds in Sleep Mode for a little more than 15 hours over two nights before needing to recharge them.
Every part of the Sleep A20 Earbuds is made of soft material and felt light and airy in my ear. I’d never wear traditional headphones to sleep, but I had no problem dozing off with these. While I could feel something in my ear, it was never enough to bother me. Soundcore has nailed the comfort level.
If you’re a side sleeper, Soundcore says you shouldn’t notice any pressure with your ear on the pillow. I’m mostly a stomach sleeper, but occasionally end up on my side at night and wasn’t bothered at all.
The Soundcore App Features Customization Options
The process to pair the earbuds is just like with other Bluetooth headphones and takes just a few minutes. You’ll want to download the Soundcore app for iPhone or Android to help get started.
There are two major modes you can select from. The first is traditional Bluetooth. With that, you can listen to anything you’d like from your smartphone. I tried a variety of playlists and videos and had no problems with connections or anything else.
You can select to keep playing the music you’ve selected the entire night. The earbuds can also automatically detect when you’ve fallen asleep and play music for a custom time frame. I used that option and turned off my meditation playlist after around 2 hours.
Using the Smart Switch option, the earbuds can automatically switch over to Sleep Mode when you’re out for the night.
Instead of Bluetooth connection to your smartphone, this was by far my preferred way to use the earbuds, so I didn’t have to battle notifications from my iPhone bothering me during the night.
In Sleep Mode, the earbuds will automatically play a sound-dampening track you’ve selected from the app that is downloaded to the memory of the headphones. There’s pretty much a sound for everyone. There are presets to choose from, like Summer Night or High-Frequency Masking. You can also choose from a wreath of other options like rain, winds, train, or even a cat drinking.
You can combine up to three sounds for a unique soundtrack. Want to fall asleep to a campfire and piano on an airplane? No problem. I usually stuck to a single sound, brown noise.
An Enveloping Soundtrack for Sleep
I tried out the earbuds for around a week, and felt like I slept better each morning. My wife and I usually turn on a white noise machine at night, but the earbuds provided an even better way for me to fall asleep.
When in the Sleep Mode, there is a Smart Volume option that will adjust the volume from the earbuds depending on outside noise. In general, the earbuds did an OK job of blocking out noise, but I live in a very quiet neighborhood at night.
In the morning, you can choose to wake up with an alarm sound played from the earbuds. You can stop the alarm sound by putting the earbuds back in the case or tapping an earbud twice.
The touch controls were one of the least impressive features of the earbuds. For a tap to register, I had to tap very hard, almost to the point of hurting my ear because the earbuds are so small. That’s likely to prevent accidental activation at night.
If the earbuds ever happen to slip out of your ear, you can always use the Find Device function in the app. You can play a sound in each earbud. Just be prepared to listen carefully as the sound was painfully quiet, but it can be useful to help locate an earbud.
An extra-added bonus is that the earbuds can automatically start collecting data about your sleep habits when you fall asleep. In the morning, you can see a detailed look at how long you were asleep, sleep cycles, your sleep position, and how many times you rolled over. It’s nice to be able to compare different nights of sleep and see which, if any, external factors helped you sleep better or worse.
Should You Buy the Soundcore Sleep A20 Earbuds?
If you’re looking for a better night’s sleep, the Soundcore Sleep A20 Earbuds provide an expensive, but well-designed solution. The earbuds are very comfortable to wear while sleeping, especially when on your side. And the sleep sounds are great to help you drown out the outside world and drift off to sleep.
But unfortunately, since the earbuds are tailor-made for sleep, there are much better options to use outside the bedroom with higher-quality sound. That makes the $149.99 price tag a steep climb for most people, as you can buy a standard sound machine or use a sound-masking app for much less.
Soundcore Sleep A20 Earbuds
$120 $150 Save $30
The Soundcore Sleep A20 Earbuds are designed to help you sleep better during the night. You can choose to play your own music from a smartphone via a Bluetooth connection. Or for a longer battery life, you can download custom sleep sounds, like a rainstorm, to play through the earbuds during the night. Made with soft material, the earbuds are designed to not be uncomfortable while asleep, even if you sleep on your side.