Anker Soundcore Wakey review: Wireless charging and more in one bedside device

Not only is the Anker Soundcore Wakey an alarm clock, speaker, wireless charger, white noise machine, and FM radio, but it also has one of the best names in the industry, the Wakey.

Anker Soundcore Wakey

It wasn’t that long ago that some of us would have dismissed Anker as just another Amazon brand selling cheap consumer electronics. But the company has come a long way in just a few short years. They’ve upped their game when it comes to quality and design, and the Anker Soundcore Wakey is proof of that.

Not only is the Anker Soundcore Wakey an alarm clock, speaker, wireless charger, white noise machine, and FM radio, but it also has one of the best names in the industry, the Wakey. If you don’t love that name then you have no sense of humor or whimsy. And if that’s the case…you need to get yourself an Anker Soundcore Wakey now. Read on for the full review!

Specifications

The Anker Soundcore Wakey has the following features and specifications:

Drivers: 2 1.75″ full-range drivers
Output: 10W
Bluetooth: Version 5 supports A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, SBC
I/O:
- Aux
- Power
- FM Antenna
- 2x USB Ports 5V/2A
Wireless charging:
- Max Output: 10W
- iPhone Output: 7.5W
- Android Output: 10W
Integrated Microphone
FM Frequency Range: 87 MHz to 108 MHz
Dimensions: 7.87″/3.62″/3.23″
Weight: 1.19lbs

What’s In The Box

Anker Soundcore Wakey
Power cable
FM antenna cable
Quick start guide
Documentation and warranty

Design

The design of the Anker Soundcore Wakey is one of its best attributes. It combines the classic looks of an alarm clock with the minimal design of many new Bluetooth speakers. Its size is just about right for an old-style alarm clock and perfect for your nightstand.

It’s also super lightweight, weighing in at under 1.5 lbs. Old-style alarm clocks weighed more than that. At the top of the Anker Soundcore Wakey is the wireless charging pad. The Soundcore branding is subtly shown at the top as is “Powered by Anker.”

At the front of the Wakey is a cloth covering, just like you would see on a speaker. The front face sort of recesses in supplying some nice curves which are aesthetically pleasing. The digital display is under the cloth cover and looks really nice with a large, easy to read font. The bottom and sides of the Wakey have nothing much going on, just some solid rubber feet to hold the device in place.

Around the back of the Anker Soundcore Wakey you’ll find a small sub-woofer port, the FM antenna port, AUX-in port, a barrel-style port for power, and two 5V/2A USB-A ports for charging other devices.

Anker Soundcore Wakey wireless charging — Easy overnight wireless charging

Jumping back around to the front, you will find your touch controls. These are spread out across the bottom front lip and marked with gray. The center touch button is for play/pause, there is a volume down button, volume up button, Bluetooth pairing button, FM Radio button, and alarm clock button. It’s important to clarify, these “buttons” are not tactile, they’re all touch-sensitive, so a simple soft tap will manipulate them.

The build quality of the Anker Soundcore Wakey is nice. Even though it is very light it doesn’t feel cheap. The actual feel of the plastic material they used is pleasing as well, sort of a soft-touch vibe going on that is nice to hold.

Overall, the Anker Soundcore Wakey is a great looking device that combines an old-style alarm clock and minimal style very well. The build quality is great and everything just looks good and feels solid.

Display

The display on the Anker Soundcore Wakey is simple. Just your basic LED display which gives you the time and alarm status. It’s nice and bright and you can adjust that brightness through the Soundcore app on your phone. The one downside here is that the brightness of the display seems to be controllable only by the app. There is no button for brightness and I would have liked to have seen that.

The saving grace for the display is that the app does allow you to choose an Auto Mode which adjusts the brightness depending on the light in the room. It also has Night Mode which turns the display off completely for a selected time frame.

Overall, this is a nice display that is lacking brightness control on the alarm clock itself.

Ease of Use/Setup

Before we jump into this section, it is important to note that the Anker Soundcore Wakey was designed to be used with your smartphone. This means setting time and alarms will all be done with your smartphone. This is not a stand-alone alarm clock usable on its own.

Setting up the Wakey is simple. Download the Anker Soundcore app, plug the Wakey in, connect to Bluetooth, open the app and set up the Wakey. The app will walk you through setup, which is basically just a few taps. The Anker Soundcore Wakey will sync with your smartphone and display the correct time almost as soon as it connects.

Once you’ve connected the Wakey and your smartphone you can do everything else from the app. The Anker Soundcore app works with a variety of Anker products so you just pick the Wakey and you’re in.

The app is basic, with just a few sections to worry about. There’s one section where you can control the brightness of the display, we talked about that in the display section. The second section controls your alarms. This section is very much like your phone’s built-in alarm app. Just set the alarm and the wake-up sound and you’re ready to go. You can even set an FM station, since this has a built-in radio, as your wake-up sound.

The last section is the sleep section. You can use the Anker Soundcore Wakey as a sound machine. Like the alarm section, the sleep section looks like most other sleep apps. You can choose from a bunch of sounds and even combine them. It’s probably the best feature for me on this unit.

Overall, the Anker Soundcore Wakey is dead simple to use and setup. There really is no learning curve here and most people should be able to get through this in 5-minutes.

Performance

As far as performance goes, this alarm clock does everything it says it does and it does it well. The app is simple and elegant, keeping things very easy to use for the customer. There is nothing extra or unnecessary added to the Wakey itself or the app it comes with.

The wireless charging works perfectly but older iPhone’s are limited to 7.5W charging and not the full 10W charging the Wakey is capable of. I reached out to Anker to see if they could tell me if the iPhone X and iPhone 11 series of phones will work with the 10W charging on the Wakey. I will update the review once I hear back.

Sound Quality

Before I address sound quality, I want you to remember that this is an alarm clock, not a Sonos speaker. That being said, the Anker Soundcore Wakey actually has a decent sound signature. It’s well balanced with some tweaking in the mids and lows.

To its credit, it doesn’t rattle or break up at max volume but it does distort a bit, most speakers will do this. The sweet spot for this speaker is just above halfway in volume. You can push it to three-quarters and be okay but really, it’s a freaking alarm clock and I do not want to wake up to blaring sounds.

Overall, the sound quality is excellent here for what this device is.

Price/Value

The Anker Soundcore Wakey is priced at US$99.99 which I think is a perfect price point. You’re getting a bunch of devices in one here and the Wakey does all of them really well.

Wrap Up

If you’re looking for a new alarm clock with versatility then the Anker Soundcore Wakey is for you. Not only is it an alarm clock but it can charge two other devices at your bedside. It’s also a sound machine, Bluetooth speaker, has wireless charging, FM radio and it looks nice. The Anker Soundcore Wakey is pretty dang nice.

*We received a sample of the Anker Souncore Wakey for the purposes of this review.