With its new AnkerWork products, Anker is attempting to break into the home and hybrid working market. Webcams, headsets, and speakerphones are among the brand’s products, which are the three most common accessories required by most home workers.
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The Anker PowerConf S500 is a sophisticated model with some clever tricks up its sleeve, and it’s one of the company’s flagship speakerphones.
WATCH FULL REVIEW: Anker PowerConf S500 Unboxing and Review | Great Conference Meeting Mic/Speaker?
Key specs
- Users: Up to 12 people
- Output: 10W
- Certification: Zoom Rooms
- Microphone: VoiceRadar Technology
- Connections: USB, Bluetooth, Bluetooth dongle
- Mic sampling rate: 32kHz Ultra HD Voice
- Battery: 6,700mAh
- Playtime: 16 hours
Design
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The PowerConf S500 is a stylish and well-built piece of equipment. This conference system is well-constructed. The speaker and microphone arrays are located around the top. Four microphones with a sampling rate of 32KHz ensure that voices are never distorted. The 1.55-inch speaker is also found on either side of the lid.
An LED-lit capacitive panel sits just below the Anker logo, with basic controls for audio levels and mic. Around the entire casing is a metal rim with another set of tactile buttons.
Calls, controls
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All calls made with the speaker have gone smoothly. All three methods of connection have proven to be successful. The PowerConf S500 supports USB-C and Bluetooth wireless connections.
The third option is Bluetooth, but only if the included hardware on your other devices supports it. A Bluetooth adapter sits beneath the PowerConf S500.
Call and audio controls are similarly thoughtfully laid out. As previously stated, the top contains capacitive buttons for completing tasks. From this panel, you can adjust the volume, mute the microphone, and take an incoming call.
In practice, all of these worked exactly as described. All label features in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet are customizable. When wirelessly paired to your device, the same was true for standard phone calls.
It employs adaptive VoiceRadar to identify the current speaker and zero in on that individual. This focuses on noise cancellation to drown out the surroundings while amplifying the speaker’s voice to add clarity on the other end.
What about the front-facing hardware buttons? The first three are self-explanatory. There’s a power button, a play/pause button, and a Bluetooth pairing button. The speaker is turned on and off with long presses of the power button. Playback is started or stopped with a single press of the play button. Finally, pressing the Bluetooth button activates pairing mode on the PowerConf S500.
A link mode switch is the second from right button. For larger audiences, two or more PowerConf S500 speakers can be linked together. In most situations, according to Anker, each speaker can handle around 10 people’s chatter. If you know you’ll be supporting calls with 15-20 people in the room on a regular basis, another PowerConf might be worthwhile.
Battery
The Anker PowerConf S500 Speakerphone should last up to 16 hours on a single charge, thanks to its 6700 mAh battery. There’s plenty to get you through a long day of work calls. If you have a big conference room to handle, you can have two of these working in concert to pick up everyone’s voices once you’re back in the office.
The verdict
The AnkerWork PowerConf S500 is a fantastic speakerphone that is Zoom Rooms certified. It costs a little more than the average speakerphone, but the higher power output means it’s also suitable for listening to music or watching movies.
Another benefit that will appeal to many people is the ability to participate in video meetings without wearing a headset. The AnkerWork PowerConf S500 is well worth getting if you want a portable speaker phone that’s loaded with features, sounds clear, and picks up voices with the same quality as a headset.
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