I am always on the lookout for some new headphones and in the latest McDonald’s Monopoly promotion I had enough properties entered into their app that it gave me a good percentage off of Skullcandy products if bought through Skullcandy’s website. So I took a look at their stuff.
I have never really had any interest in Skullcandy gear to be completely honest. Partly because of the name itself and secondly their ear stuff is usually a bit more in your face than I typically prefer.
So to make this more interesting for me I decided I would pick up some Bluetooth earbuds. That at least is something I’ve never had a chance to really check out and review before.
If you are new to the wireless earbud world this became a craze when Apple launched their Air Pods. Even before their actual launch there were tons of clones out on the market of what I thought were the ugliest pieces of white junk I had ever seen. Still think that.
Typically I pride myself on my knowledge of technology but that fades past computers, tablets and phones. As such I went in to this purchase without thinking of some really important things. And we will talk about those things shortly.
I found the Skullcandy Push earbuds on the Skullcandy website and decided to go with them. Reviews were mixed online but they looked like the ones that would stay most secure on my head at night. You see, I like to listen to music or ASMR content when I go to sleep as it helps me relax.
They arrived and I charged them. And I had a thought.
The silliest thing I find about “true wireless” (which means the earbuds are not connected via a wire and there are no wires connecting to their audio source) earbuds is they have their own batteries and charge in a bigger battery that carries another charge or two or four that in turn has to be plugged in a charged. While this makes sense in a way I also find it the most ridiculous use for batteries when regular wired earbuds work just as fine. But this review is not about that. Besides, the battery case does provide a good place to put the earbuds.
After charged I hooked them up to the Bluetooth on my computer to test them out with some music from Spotify, iTunes and some video game music. Some reviews of the Push earbuds said the bass was way to hot on these. I disagree. It’s certainly emphasised but it’s not overbearing and certainly nothing one cannot fix by working with an equaliser. The highs and mediums are actually nice and clear. The sound is not particularly warm like my regular Sony earbuds (MDR-XB50AP/B) but the Push earbuds can be very useful for audio with spoken word in it. They’re actually quite a treat for ASMR.
The fit and finish is decent and they fit quite nice in the ear. The Push comes with three other sizes of ear seats but the default ones worked great for me.
The controls are decent as well. They are tactile which I appreciate. Both earbuds have tactile controls. The left earbud easily controls play/pause and volume down with a single and double tap respectively. The right earbud does the play/pause and volume up controls with the same taps. Very logical to me and works well.
They were simple enough to sync up with my PC and with my phone. The first time this is achieved by powering on your right earbud first by tapping the button then power on the left earbud which will sync with the right and they begin the Bluetooth syncing. It’s that easy. And after that when you pull them out of your charge case they will automatically power on and connect to your audio device.
Battery life however, I’m not particularly impressed. And I should have realised this when I purchased the Push earbuds but I didn’t. The earbuds are good at best for five hours (advertised rating is for six) and the charge pack is good for almost another 75% charge after that. For sleep I’d like at least eight hours. It turns out there are not many options that have an eight hour life except for some sketchy chinesium ones on Amazon and a few brand name ones (of which I have an example on the way to compare). These also wont fast charge. Not the earbuds or the charge case despite having a USB C connection. That said the charge time is not terrible. Just inconvenient.
Am I disappointed in the Skullcandy Push earbuds? No. Not for the price I paid. However, if I had paid full retail, absolutely. The extended battery life leaves a lot to be desired and without the ability to fast charge really makes these of limited use to myself.
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