Description
The Soundcore P30i, model number A3959, is a true wireless in-ear set from Anker with active noise cancellation, Bluetooth 5.4, and a charging case that folds open into a phone stand. Anker lists first availability as May 2024. Of the earbud listings in this catalog, it is one of the few that publishes its battery figures properly, and that alone makes it easier to judge than most.
Who these earbuds suit
These are aimed at a commuter or a traveler who wants cancellation, a long total runtime, and a case that does something more than store the buds. The phone stand is the differentiating feature: the back panel of the case opens so the case props a phone up for hands-free viewing. Whether that matters is personal, but it is a real mechanical feature rather than a software claim, and no other set in this catalog offers it.
The included components are the buds, the charging case, a USB-C charging cable, and ear tips in small and large with medium pre-installed. That is three tip sizes, which is the standard provision and enough for most ears. Tip fit is not a minor detail on any in-ear set, because a poor seal thins the bass out and also cripples active cancellation, which depends on a sealed cavity to work against.
How they connect
Bluetooth 5.4 is listed. As with every version number, this describes connection behavior, power efficiency and which feature sets the chip can support, and it does not by itself improve sound. A 5.4 earbud is not audibly better than a 5.2 one on that basis.
No codec is published
This listing names no audio codec at all. There is no AAC entry, no aptX and no LDAC anywhere in the description, the bullets or the attribute data. Where nothing is named, SBC is the only codec that can be assumed, because SBC is the baseline every Bluetooth device supports. Nothing on this record supports a high resolution or lossless claim, and any codec that did appear would still require your phone to support the same one for it to be used.
Multipoint is not mentioned either, and neither is wear detection or a low latency gaming mode. The Soundcore app is referenced through the touch control and sound profile customization, but the specific features it exposes are not listed here. Compatible devices are given as cellphones, desktops, laptops and tablets.
The battery picture, stated properly
This is the part the listing gets right, and it is worth quoting in full because most earbud listings do not. Anker rates the buds at up to 10 hours of playtime on a single charge, dropping to 6 hours with cancellation running. With the case included, the figures are up to 45 hours total, dropping to 25 hours with cancellation running. A 10 minute charge is quoted at 2 hours of use.
Read those four numbers rather than the one on the box. The 45 hour figure in the product title is the combined bud-plus-case number with cancellation off. The number that governs a single sitting is 6 hours, because most people who buy noise cancelling earbuds run the cancellation. Six hours is still a full working day of intermittent use and a comfortable long-haul flight, but it is less than half of what the headline suggests. Many competing listings publish only the combined figure, which is why the TOZO NC2 and similar sets are harder to assess.
One attribute field is nonsense and should be ignored: “Batteries = CR5 batteries required. (included).” A CR5 is a non-rechargeable lithium photographic cell. These are rechargeable lithium buds in a rechargeable case, and no camera batteries are involved.
Fit, cancellation, and the water rating
The drivers are 10 millimeter dynamic units with Anker’s BassUp processing, which is a low frequency boost applied by the earbud rather than a physical property of the driver. The published frequency range is 20 Hz to 20 kHz, which is the nominal figure printed on nearly every consumer earbud and distinguishes nothing.
Anker claims noise reduction of up to 42 dB from an adaptive cancellation system that measures external sound and selects a level automatically. That figure is Anker’s, and no test standard is named alongside it, which is the normal state of affairs for cancellation claims and the reason they should be treated as directional rather than absolute. What is reliably true of any active cancellation is that it works well against constant low frequency sound such as engine and cabin drone, and poorly against speech. No earbud makes an office silent. A transparency mode is included for the times you need to hear your surroundings.
The water rating is where this listing contradicts itself, and it matters. The product title states IP54. The attribute block states “Water Resistance Level = Waterproof.” Those are not the same claim. IP54 means limited dust protection and protection against water splashing from any direction. It is a sweat and light rain rating. It is not an immersion rating, these should not be submerged, and describing them as waterproof is wrong. No IP rating covers seawater or pressurized water, and ingress protection degrades as seals age and as the mesh fills with debris. Take IP54 as the real figure and disregard the attribute field.
What the listing does not publish
Missing from this record: individual bud weight, case weight, case dimensions, whether the case charges wirelessly, microphone count per bud, call noise reduction specification, multipoint support, wear detection, and the app feature list. The item weight of 4.2 ounces and the dimensions of 4.25 by 4.25 by 1.42 inches are shipping figures rather than product figures, since a pair of earbuds does not weigh a quarter of a pound.
Two absences deserve naming rather than passing over. Wear detection, which pauses playback when a bud leaves the ear, is the feature people most often assume is present on a cancelling earbud and most often is not. Multipoint, which holds two live connections at once, is the other. Neither appears in Anker’s description, the bullet points or the attribute data on this record, so both should be treated as unconfirmed rather than implied by the price bracket or the Bluetooth version.
Inside our own listings, the Soundcore A3949 and the Soundcore P40i are the nearest siblings, with the P40i sitting a step above. For cancellation at a different tier entirely, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are the comparison, and the broader wireless earbud listings we track are where to compare battery splits side by side.
Who should buy them, who should not
Buy the P30i if you want cancellation with a properly published battery split, three tip sizes, and a case that doubles as a stand. Skip them if you need a named high bandwidth codec, if you need confirmed multipoint, if you were expecting the 45 hour headline to describe a single charge, or if you want a set you can swim or shower with. IP54 does not cover that.
