Soundcore (by Anker) Model Zero+ Wireless Smart Speaker with Google Assistant

Note (2020): The results of this product have been updated. Please skip to the final notes/conclusion below. 

Our search for the ultimate speaker in general will never end because technology and sound is always evolving. There will always be something better. However, when you dive into more detailed product groups, it can be a lot easier to find a champ.

We might have found a modern day champ with Soundcore and their Model Zero+ Wireless Smart Speaker. It traverses a number of categories including wireless, bluetooth and visually appealing. But the group it is killing it at, is being a Google Assistant speaker.

When you think Alexa (not supported this scenario) or Google Speaker, you typically think of a small cylinder or puck shaped speaker that has a digital assistant on board. What you don’t think about, is a larger speaker that visually compliments the room that you are standing in while providing a wider range of sound–unless you hook your Alexa/Google speaker to a larger speaker (which, they can of course do).

This is where Soundcore (a brand/line by Anker) comes into play with it’s unique design and full presence. The design of the speaker alone is enough to call exquisite or intriguing. It featuring an extremely durable feeling/looking build to it with a mixture of fabric and brushed metal. It also has a whole lot of weight to it as well, and a nice rubberize button to keep it from sliding around for any reason (in case you live in Anchorage right now—which we all offer our best wishes for).

The unique crescent design of the speaker is absolutely tasteful and looks good in almost any room. I say almost since it might bring out the worst in some rooms if the rest of said room doesn’t compliment the speaker back (clean, tidy, ultra modern).

It features a few inputs in the backside where the power comes in, as well as a wired 3.5mm (aux) connection for older non-Bluetooth devices. There is also a small reset button in case you need to wipe it back to factory settings.

All of the controls are location on the top, beneath the handle (harder to see in images), as well as down the side. The controls beneath the handle are quite interesting as they feature a volume up and a volume down option, with a band of dots that run in between. All of these controls are touch-sensitive (no buttons), and the band that runs between the volume controls is also a volume control in itself, while also providing as a mute/play option. When you tap anywhere within the dotted section, it will pause/play music (if whatever is playing supports such options), However, if you slide your finger back and forth across the dots, it will smoothly bring the volume up or do like a volume wheel.

The controls on the right side are actually buttons, starting with a “bass up/enhance” button, in case you want to reduce the base or bring it back for any reason. Under that is a Bluetooth button to trigger Bluetooth pairing with a device like a phone or tablet. Beneath that is a mute button which most digital assistant speakers have, so that you can gain some added privacy without Google Assistant listening in on you all the time. Finally you have a power button which powers the speaker on or off when you hold it down.

The ultimate Google speaker? Possibly!

First before anything, it functions as a Bluetooth speaker, just like the model before it (Model Zero) that doesn’t have the “+” next to the name. The original speaker is simply that, a Bluetooth speaker. The Model Zero+ offers all of that but brings Google Assistant into the mix, making it a smart speaker and a valuable addition to your home.

Basically they dropped the original speaker and a Google Home speaker into a bowl and mixed them together to create this (Julia Child would be so proud).

What makes it an ultimate pick however, is the range of the speaker vs your typical Google branded speaker, it’s design and it’s sheer amount of volume you can get out of it. That, and it can also be taken with you as you walk out the door thanks to it packing a built-in battery.

So the options keep piling up. It offers everything a normal Google-branded speaker has to offer, plus a list of benefits that make buying a normal speaker boring.

It gets extremely loud without any distortion for the most part. We of course were eventually able to get it to distort a tad using some really harsh music, but the average listener most likely wouldn’t experience this. The range of sound is fantastic, outside of the bass level not always performing the same. It is definitely there, but could benefit from a 20% boost to the bass enhance feature. Thankfully, the bass enhance button does do its job and the difference of it being on or off is quite noticeable. In the end, it really comes down to where the speaker is. The acoustics of the room controls it all. Is the room small, is it large, is it padded (carpet and heavy cloth covered furniture) or is it reflective (tile/wood). In certain rooms we got deep rich bass (smaller and reflective rooms seem to perform well with the lows/bass for example).

The battery will give you around 5 hours of play time when you take it mobile and when you’re at home, it can stay plugged into the wall and play all day long on wall power.

When using Google Assistant, you are taking advantage of WiFi connectivity and the rest is Bluetooth from your mobile device or a mix between the two since Google Assistant does some things a bit different from Alexa (where Alexa streams everything from the internet vs casting certain things from a connected device).

It offers a number of specs that help contribute to the quality you get with buying a speaker like this. You have Dolby Audio, Bluetooth 5.0, and WiFi up to wireless AC support, as well as both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks.

You also have the option of grouping it with other Google-supported speakers so that you can play music across your home with multi-room streaming. This is something Alexa-enabled speakers can do as well, however 3rd party devices generally cannot be grouped with Amazon-branded speakers for whatever reason. So that is a win for Google enabled devices.

We couldn’t really find anything to complain about really outside of it needing the option to crank the bass a tad more for certain genres of music like rock. We do find that for some reason, when you pick the speaker up and into the air, it sounds as though it gets a slight bump in bass delivery vs sitting down. Don’t know why, but it could be due to the position of the drivers inside and maybe a flat surfaces dampens the effect just a tad. Just something worth noting for whatever creative reasons.

Also, the original/previous model promised IPX5 water-resistance, where the new model here doesn’t mention it anywhere in the documentation or their website. Because of this, I can only deduce this feature has been removed with the assumption that they bank on the gamble that you won’t be putting such a nice speaker in a scenario where it could get wet.

Pricey is the final point I will mention. It is quite pricey for what it is when you compare it to other smart speakers with digital assistants built in. You could get an Echo Show for just a tad less than this price, and gain the ability to also make video calls. Given, the Show might not sound nearly as good as this speaker. There are a few speakers within the $180-$229 range though where features and quality challenge this one a tad. Also something worth noting.

For now, it isn’t available just yet. You can only get your hands on the original model ($199) until this hits the market. There is no release date that has been set into stone by Soundcore as of yet, but you can learn more about it here on their website.

2018 Update: After further testing, some information has been adjusted to reflect our current results and opinion. The score remains the same, and this speaker has received our 2018 Editors’ Choice award.

12/2019 Update: It appears there have been issues with this speaker that prevent it from connecting to Google Home (Android devices may through an authentication error during the pairing and Apple devices may result in a “cannot connect to cloud” error. If this continue, we may be forced to adjust the score for this since this function is the highlight of this model.

2020 Update: We have made the rare decision to pull the Editors’ Choice Award from this product and reduce the score from 9.0 down to 0.5. Although it is still a beuatiful product, with a solid weight and build to it, it is not as solid when it comes to the firmware inside. The For over a year, consumers have had difficulties with the Model Zero+ not being able to connect to Google’s service upon powering it up. Without this, it loses it’s Google Assistant and Bluetooth functionality, turning it into an expensive piece of decor. Since the company has not presented an answer or resolution to its customers (per Google), the fact that the product is still relatively new, and given the over-all price of the product, we had to strip this one of its glory and recommendations. This is the final update for this story/product. 

Our Conclusion

This wound up being a fantastic speaker that has been quite enjoyed by everyone here. Its design is superb, and adds a lot to a room. It isn’t just a speaker. It’s decor, and nice looking decor at that. It has a heavy build to it and comes packed with a lot of valuable options, with Google Assistant obviously being one of the biggest highlights. The ability to take it both mobile with you or keep it at home plugged into the wall is a big plus, and the range of sound it puts out is great. It could use just a tad more bass depending on the acoustics of the room you have it in (or the ability to adjust it to this point), but beyond that it has a great range. It can also get quite loud when you need it to. The controls across the top are nice touch (literally) and we see this becoming a big seller for the Soundcore line of products. It wound up taking one of the few Editors’ Choice awards we handed out this year, so that says something.

*Average price is based on the time this article was published

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