Earphones
Product 2019
Femme, Homme, Enfant
The American brand who are based in Utah, specializes in headphones and earbuds; they have a culture that is inspired by mountain and other sports, skiing, snowboarding, and surfing.
We were able to test the new Skullcandy VertTM, these are not noise reducing earbuds: you don’t cut out the outside world, a very important aspect when it comes to mountain safety or outdoor practices.
The Skullcandy VertTM connects to your Smartphone or Mp4 player via Bluetooth. Connecting them is a breeze, press down for a long time on the Skullcandy’s dial and it’s set. First charge the battery using a USB socket. The earbuds recharge quickly in only 10 minutes giving two hours autonomy. If you leave the earbuds charging longer, you can reach 12 hours of listening time.
We tested the Skullcandy VertTM biking and trail running. But skiing is when they are the most effective. You attach the remote control onto the goggles’ headband. The latter consists of a dial that can increase or lower the sound, switch or return to a song, trigger the voice assistant, stop or go. What’s great about the Skullcandy is that it can be handled easily with ski gloves on or out trail running.
The remote control is water resistant and also copes with projections (IPX4 standard), you would need to test over time if this waterproofness lasts. Out running (we didn’t test them skiing) in the snow the kit seemed perfectly waterproof.
The practicality and ergonomics of this remote control shouldn’t cloud over the fact that the sound is surprisingly good too. There is bass without it being overpowering, which is the case with some earbuds designed (wrongly) for a young audience who apparently are supposed to prefer a lot of bass. The treble is fine, but a little less powerful than the bass. Let’s say that overall, the sound curve is fine for a versatile range of music that goes from rock to rap through reggae (classical music lovers will be less enthralled). In the end they give good sound quality for doing sports, to prevent you from being bored on a plane or general everyday use. At less than 80 euros, the Skullcandy is easy to recommend. In the event you lose them, or if they get stolen or broken, it is not the end of the world.
The last question is how well do they fit your ears? Some testers were irritated because the earbuds didn’t stay put. For them, even the additional tips didn’t provide a correct solution. In fact it was Skullcandy’s mistake, in the box we had two identical “left” tips … However, music lovers with different ear morphology didn’t have any problems with the earbuds or discomfort, even out running. You should therefore be able to try the earbuds before buying.
If the remote control dial is smart and practical for managing the sound (and very pleasant to handle), you do need to fix it close to your head as it has a short cable. Fixed to ski goggles’ strap it’s perfect. If you go mountain biking, you fix it to your backpack strap. Road cycling or running with a pack it’s more complicated to find a solution. Practically impossible to fix it onto your helmet. We clipped it on the collar of our shirt. To increase or lower the sound then becomes a little less practical since it is necessary to turn the dial and your shirt fabric also twists (logical, the base isn’t rigid).
Still talking about the clip, it must be fixed when the remote control is switched completely off (and not on stop) because when you are handling you will press start all the time: the clip is quite stiff, it isn’t very easy to handle you need to use both hands.
What about the battery life? How many charging cycles can it take? Can it be changed?
We weighed the Skullcandy VertTM, despite its size (the remote control), it only weighs 35g.
We really liked the slight delay and the sound that increases (or decreases) gradually when you press the start/stop button.
These Skullcandy earbuds offer excellent value for money and the remote control has very practical ergonomics. The sound for outdoor use is more than adequate and you can listen to a good range of musical genres. However, you must check them beofre purchasing that the earbuds fit your ear morphology.
We used this equipment over a long period of time
These are our thoughts after intensive use:
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