Soundcore Infini Pro review: Great budget soundbar with one caveat

Anker has made a name for itself thanks to its high-quality accessories, but in recent years it's branched out into the audio segment with the Soundcore sub-brand. The Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro is one of the best-sounding true wireless earbuds you can buy today, and the brand has consistently introduced other great audio products under $150.

The Infini Pro is Soundcore's most ambitious product yet, with the soundbar offering Dolby Atmos for under $250. There's no shortage of soundbars at this price point, but Atmos integration makes the Infini Pro the most affordable soundbar to feature Dolby's surround sound tech. Let's see how it holds up in everyday use.

Soundcore Infini Pro What I like

The Infini Pro is like most soundbars you see today: it's a great rectangular slab that's covered in black fabric, with the design allowing it to be unobtrusive in front of your TV. The low-profile design with dimensions of 36.6-by-4.7-by-2.4 inches means it should slot under most 55- to 65-inch TVs without any issues. There's a control board at the top that houses the power and volume buttons, and you can also easily switch input modes from here. You can change these settings via the bundled remote control, or use the Soundcore app instead.

You get three modes to choose from — movie, music, and voice — with each mode offering subtle tweaks to the sound signature. Movie mode boosts the low-end frequencies and adds more clarity to dialogues, and in music mode, the soundbar increases the treble and creates a more immersive soundstage. In voice mode, you'll notice an increase in volume and dialogue clarity, with this particular option suited best for TV shows.

In terms of connectivity, the Infini Pro has HDMI in, HDMI ARC out, USB 3.0, optical input, 3.5mm in, and Bluetooth 5.0. The soundbar supports 4K HDR and Dolby Vision passthrough to your TV, so if you have a compatible Dolby Vision source device, you can just plug it into the soundbar. Like most Soundcore products, the Infini Pro is outfitted with BassUp technology, which relies on a DSP to boost low-frequency notes.

The Infini Pro has a bass reflex port on either end to channel sound, and underneath the fabric housing, there are two 2.5-inch mid-range drivers, two 1-inch tweeters, and dual 3-inch woofers that face upward to provide a more immersive sound. The audio quality is particularly great, with the soundbar able to produce booming bass, rich mids, and warm highs. The fact that the woofers are integrated into the design makes the Infini Pro an attractive option for smaller rooms. With 60 watts for the subwoofer and 60 for the drivers, the soundbar gets plenty loud. The Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity makes it a great option for pairing with your phone as well.

Soundcore Infini Pro Let's talk about Atmos

The marquee feature on the Infini Pro is Dolby Atmos functionality, but the soundbar doesn't quite hit the mark in this area. Before we get into it, a primer on Dolby Atmos: it's a surround sound format that's designed to deliver enveloping sound. It's used for watching movies but also listening to music.

Atmos differs from previous surround sound implementations in that it treats sound as objects. Before Atmos came along, sound design was limited to channels. For instance, a 7.1 surround sound speaker has three front channels (center, left, and right), two surround channels (left, right), two rear channels (left rear, right rear), and a subwoofer. So all sound effects were essentially sent to either the left or right channels.

With Atmos, you get the same left and right channel combination, but there's also upward-facing speakers that bounce sound off the ceiling. That's what gives Atmos the all-encompassing soundstage. The Atmos format also gives sound engineers more flexibility when mixing sound effects, because it lets them place sounds at specific points instead of a channel. So effects like falling rain could be sent directly to the overhead speakers as well as the surround units, leading to a much more immersive sound. Each speaker in an Atmos configuration has its own feed, so it plays sound independently of other speakers.

Because Atmos relies heavily on height to deliver 360-degree sound, a soundbar isn't the ideal conduit for the format. There's limited room for upward-facing speakers, so you lose out on some of that enveloping sound. That's the case with the Infini Pro as well — you don't get the same Atmos experience as you would from a dedicated 5.1.4 speaker configuration.

This is an issue with most Atmos soundbars, as the physical limitations of the design prevent them from delivering the same spatial audio that you would get from individual speakers. What you get with the Infini Pro is more akin to Atmos Lite — there is decent surround sound and some effects come through fine, but you miss out on the nuances like overhead rain effects and so on.

Soundcore Infini Pro Should you buy it?

If you're looking to get fully immersive Dolby Atmos sound, this is not the product for you. There are Atmos-enabled soundbars that deliver 360-degree sound, but they cost over $750. You ideally need a set of speakers in a 5.1.4 configuration to achieve the full Atmos experience, and that's just not possible in an integrated package like the Infini Pro.

That said, you do get a decent amount of surround sound even if the height element of Atmos is lacking, and that makes watching movies that much more enjoyable. Overall, the Infini Pro is a great option for what it costs. The soundbar has a wide soundstage that's great for streaming movies and TV shows, and it has all the connectivity options you'll need.

4 out of 5

If you're more interested in streaming music, the Yamaha YAS-109 is a better option that costs $30 less. But when it comes to movies and TV shows, the Infini Pro has a distinct edge.