Available from Skullcandy for £69.99
Skullcandy is a brand we have covered a number of different products and the latest is the is Skullcandy Indy which are a pair of true wireless earbuds that very similar in design to the Apple Airpods.
Costing £69.99 these are earbuds in the budget part of the market. The packaging looks really professional. Once you open the packaging you get the following:
Earbuds, Ear Gels (S,M,L), Stability gels (L), charging case, Micro-USB charging cable, user guide and warranty guide.
The earbuds come in 4 different colours:
In this review, we got given the black pair. As with all true wireless earbuds, they come with a case and this case fit perfectly in your pocket which is great when you’re on the move. The case is however made of plastic which looks a little cheap. On the front of the case you have the Skullcandy logo and you also get 3 small LED lights on the front that indicate how much battery is left. Inside the case, the buds are held by magnets and I have tested they don’t fall out.
The earbuds are a very similar design to the Apple Airpods but the Skullcandy Indy are made of a cheap-looking plastic and the controls are all via the buds and when using these I did have a few issues with volume and playback but will discuss that later in the review. The earbuds also come with 2 lots of eartips the fist that goes inside your ear and the second is more like a sleeve as it keeps the buds in your ear which is a good design idea and even something the like of Apple could do with taking on board.
Features wise these are IP55 rated meaning they are sweatproof meaning they will be fine at the gym but don’t go dropping them in water. Then buds are also Bluetooth 5.0 which is great considering the price range and using these on my iPhone X that available from Mobile Phones Direct.
The Bluetooth did perform very well I never noticed any loss of sound. The controls are activated via touch-sensitive pads which I found a little tricky at first to use as I felt they were a little over-sensitive but once you’re used to them they can be quite intuitive. Skullcandy has done this by allowing you to make a single tap to control the volume. You can also control the play/pause by tap twice on the right bud but this sometimes does not work as it should instead the volume controls kick which takes time to master.
If you want to change tracks simply hold your finger on the left or right bud for if you want to go forward or backwards.
The battery life you get just over 4 hours in one session but with the charging case, it gives you 3 additional charges meaning you get 16 hours in total. The charging case can be recharged using the micro-USB I can see a lot of users wishing this was a USB-C instead as you could use your phone charger cable.
The Sound performance of the Skullcandy Indy are very good considering the cost. The bass level is perfect for everyday use but if you are buying these for intense bass I would look elsewhere but as mentioned for everyday use the bass is acceptable. You can notice this when listening to “Alice Merton No Roots” the bass is enough to really enjoy this track and the lows have been toned down which helps with clarity. Skullcandy Indy use the mids and highs to really give this listening experience some extra punch which I love.
When listening to something like “Adele Someone like you” the vocals come out so clear and that a real bonus when listening to music with the Indy earbuds I found the extra ear tips really do help with the sound as it creates that extra isolation and for earbuds under the £100 mark it’s hard to complain about these.
The only issue I have with the audio quality is when taking calls the microphone is poor sound wise and people I called found it hard to hear me clearly.
Overall Skullcandy has done a decent job yes the controls take time to master and the fact you don’t have the chance to use your smartphone assistant which is not a dealbreaker for me. Something to consider is these done have auto-pause so you have to do that yourself or they might drain the battery if you forget.
As mentioned I like the fact you get a slimline charger case even if it looks a bit cheap but only 16 hours in total compared to the Jabra Elite 65T that give you nearly double that might put some people off but if you are looking for a pair of budget earbuds these are well worth considering.
The sound quality for the price is very good and you will be impressed I just wish Skullcandy would improve little things and get rid of the cheap plastic and you could very easily increase the price.
The fact you get Bluetooth 5.0 and they are IP55 rated they are nice touches by Skullcandy and for under £100 these are well worth considering for those looking for a budget alternative to the airpods.
Available from Skullcandy for £69.99
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