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Meet the world's first 'Made for Meta' wireless earbuds

The new Soundcore VR P10 aims to fix all of the issues that have, so far, kept most VR gamers tied down using wired earbuds or headphones.
Written by Michael Gariffo, Staff Writer
Anker's VR P10 earbuds and included USB-C dongle
Image: Anker

Anker's newly introduced Soundcore VR P10 truly wireless earbuds, available now, aim to be the answer millions of VR gamers have been looking for. Until now, the options for using true wireless earbuds with VR consoles (like the PSVR) and headsets (like Meta's Quest family) have been almost nonexistent.

While some VR hardware does support the Bluetooth connectivity that most true wireless earbuds rely on, the latency that Bluetooth connection adds to the gaming experience would create out-of-sync sound. 

You might not hear a nearby explosion until after it had already killed your in-game character, for example.

To prevent this, the VR P10 earbuds support both Bluetooth and a low-latency, 2.4GHz connection via their included dongle. While this hybrid option is rare in earbuds, it has been done before in a few models, like the EPOS GTW 270 earbuds I recently gave very high marks in a review

As great as those earbuds were, they didn't include one thing that the Anker VR P10 earbuds do that might be the most "Why didn't they think of that?" feature I've seen: a compartment for the dongle in the charging case. This will make it far less likely you'll lose the dongle, and you'll have it to hand when you're plugging in a new headset.  

Two sets of Anker's VR P10 earbuds

You can see a tiny compartment for storing the included dongle there inside the case lids.

June Wan/ZDNET

The new earbuds also support the LC3 (Low Complexity Communication Codec) protocol, a wireless communications protocol that can significantly reduce Bluetooth latency across connections that support it, at the cost of some audio fidelity.

Also: Have trouble sleeping? Soundcore's Sleep A10 earbuds will block out distractions

Anker's demonstration of a Meta Quest 2 being charged through its VR P10 dongle
Image: Anker

Now, for the most important part of the VR P10's toolkit, Anker has confirmed that the included USB-C dongle will indeed work with the Meta Quest 2 headset's USB-C port. While the company was initially cagey about this fact, it has since confirmed that the truly wireless earbuds have been granted the "Made for Meta" designation by the Quest 2 maker, meaning the audio solution is certified to work with Quest 2 headsets to provide lag-free wireless audio. 

Anker clearly hopes you'll be leaving the USB-C dongle in full time. It's added a pass-through USB-C port to let you charge the Quest 2 while it's still in place. 

The company also hopes you'll do the same with other VR and non-VR audio sources, and is planning to offer additional wireless dongles for $15 each in late November. 

The Soundcore VR P10 earbuds are available now at Amazon, and are expected to come to Best Buy later this year. 

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