Skullcandy Push Active Sports earphones review – smart features and quality audio

80%

• VERDICT

Skullcandy has delivered yet another product that follows its own style yet delivers quality audio and useful features for everyday users.

Skullcandy has always been a brand that tries to stand out from the crowd, and it has done just that with the new Push Active Sport true wireless earbuds.

They have a unique design and cool features to set them apart from other earphones on the market.

One of these features is hands-free voice commands so you can play and pause what you’re listening to and even adjust the volume just by asking.

First up, on the design side, they have over-ear loops to ensure the Push Active Sport earbuds aren’t going anywhere no matter what you are doing or how vigorously you’re exercising.

Naturally, the earphones have an IP55 sweat and water resistance rating.

For us, the Skullcandy earphones fit just fine and the loops were just an added protection.

The actual earbud itself is about the same size as other earphones you’d find on the market.

We found them to be comfortable with the over the ear loops.

Some users will find this takes a little bit of the pressure off their ear canals and adds to their level of comfort.

Skullcandy made an interesting choice with the button placement on the back edge of the bud rather than on the outside face.

We can see the benefits of this including no having an accidental activation if the outside of the bud was touch sensitive. That’s been a frustration with other earphones we’ve reviewed.

As it is, the button is easy to locate and it’s also programmable within the Skullcandy app so it can be adapted to whatever function you set for it including controlling your music and answering calls.

You can even program the button to activate the camera on your smartphone – the camera needs to already be open on your phone – but your selfie will show you with your hand behind your ear, unless you have the camera set to a timer.

But the most interesting feature is the call IQ Smart Feature technology which allows users to issue hands free voice commands to answer calls, navigate their music, adjust the volume and much more.

This feature needs to be activated through the Skullcandy companion app and is a handy way of taking control without the need to touch the earphones or your device.

If you want to order a coffee, for example, you can just say “Hey Skullcandy – pause” and your content is instantly paused so you can talk to the person at the counter and pay before then saying “Hey Skullcandy – play” so you can be listening to your music or podcast again.

There was no need to touch the earphones or fish your phone out of your pocket.

And it goes even further so you can turn on Stay Aware mode with your voice as well so you can hear the outside world a lot more clearly.

And if you’re a Spotify user you can also use your voice to launch Spotify Tap through the earphones as well.

Audio-wise, Skullcandy Push Active Sport earphones deliver a robust sound that’s loud and clear and with a generous helping of bass.

What we also liked was the ability to adjust the equaliser from the Skullcandy app to match what we were listening to.

You can make adjustments if you’re listening to a podcast or music or watching a movie. It’s also possible to customise your own equaliser.

We definitely heard an improvement when listening to a podcast and the music seemed a little punchier as well.

What adds to the quality is the fact it is running true wireless via Bluetooth 5.2.

Call quality was also excellent when we were wearing the Skullcandy Push Active earphones – the audio was crisp and clear on both ends.

The Skullcandy Push Active Sport are larger than your regular earphones and therefore has a larger charging case.

The case has four LED indicator lights on the front that illuminate every time you open it to let you know how much charge is remaining.

One of the strengths of the earphones is the long 10-hour battery life with a total of 34 hours in the charging case as well.

The case also has a rapid charging feature which gives you two hours of battery life after just 10 minutes of charging in the case.

And there are no worries if you misplace the earphones because they have built-in Tile technology so you can just call it from the Tile.

The Skullcandy Push Active Sport True Wireless earbuds are priced at $179.95 and available now from skullcandy.com.au and JB Hi-Fi.

VERDICT

Skullcandy has delivered yet another product that follows its own style yet delivers quality audio and useful features for everyday users.