Headphones that just play audio? Not in 2025.
Soundcore by Anker’s AeroFit 2 does much more, offering access to an AI assistant who can answer questions big (why is the sky blue?) and small (which London tube lines are down right now?).
Its neatest trick will come in handy for holidaymakers and business travellers hoping to engage with locals: AI Translation.
soundcore AeroFit 2 AI Assistant key specs
- Colours available: black, white or mint green
- Style: Open ear
- Connectivity: Bluetooth
- Special features: AI assistant, AI translation
- Compatibility: iOs and Android
The feature, which requires the companion app to work, comes in three flavours.
You can engage in real-time translation, handy for meetings or lectures. For pre-planners, there’s contextual learning, which equips you with common phrases to learn and remember.
And there’s face-to-face translation, where you each take turns to record speech into the phone for soundcore’s assistant, named Anka, to translate through text and audio.
I’ll admit that it is a slightly awkward, jilted way to converse, but it sure beats trying to mime what you’re after — and there are over 100 languages to choose from.
The headphones came in useful on a recent trip to a Christmas market in Salzburg, with the Austrian stallholders amused yet appreciative of my efforts to learn (at least some of) their national tongue, aided by soundcore’s AI assistant. You can also find additional support for different dialects across regions like the Middle East and China.
The open ear style headphones take a little getting used to wearing if, like me, you haven’t tried them before. They dangle over the top and around your ear like an elaborate earring, instead of being plugged directly into the canal. Before long, you barely notice them at all. If you struggle to find headphones that fit or have sinus issues that make wearing earbuds painful, switching to open ears might be a better fit.
Sound quality is fantastic, despite the style being unable to facilitate ANC (active noise cancellation), so ambient noise is always detectable in the background. It’s a great safety feature for joggers, runners, or anyone who often finds themselves lost in their playlist when walking to work beside busy roads.
As for battery life, well, that’s nothing short of heroic. You can expect up to 10 hours of playtime per charge, boosted up to 42 hours if you factor in the wireless charging case.
In all, tres bien.
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soundcore AeroFit 2 AI Assistant
With excellent sound quality for calls and music, soundcore’s AeroFit 2 headphones are an open-ear design that will suit anyone who needs to hear ambient noise — think runners, joggers and walking commuters. But that’s not all these cans can do: partnered with the companion app, they come with an AI assistant who can not only answer ruminations big and small, but can translate up to 100 languages too, making them perfect for travel if your local lingo isn’t quite up to scratch.
Buy now £89.99, Amazon
