Skullcandy is a renowned name in Audio products, and one would expect high-quality commodities from it. The brand has worked on a new TWS product called Skullcandy Dime. As the name suggests, it comes in a small package with earbuds tucked inside the case. These small TWS earbuds from Skullcandy cost Rs 2,299. So do they stand a chance against other competitors in the market? Let’s have a look.
Design & Comfort
The design of the case and earbuds themselves is unique. The small cuboidal case has two cutouts on the top through which the buttons of the earbuds can be accessed. However, I couldn’t find an exact use case scenario, so I would take it as a design effort. The case has a plastic make and shuts off with a click. Therefore, you will have to make an effort to open it once you click it shut.
Interestingly, you can leave it without completely shutting it off because it has magnets that keep the lid closed even if you don’t lock it. There’s a Micro-USB port at the back for charging, which is a shocker considering most big brands are switching to Type-C, even in the same price segment. Next to the port is a small LED that lights up to let you know the case is charging. Finally, the case has a lanyard so that you can attach the case as a keychain to your belongings. Yes, the case is that small.
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Coming to the earbuds, they have a super small structure. There’s a button on each earbud with the Skullcandy logo. It can be used to cycle through tracks, control volume and even trigger the assistant using a triple-click gesture on either of the earbuds. Skullcandy also provides the ability to use either of the buds in solo mode. Meaning you can put one of the buds in the case and use just a single one. These earbuds are also IPX4 rated, so sweating while wearing them or water splashes shouldn’t be an issue.
The earbuds have a normal fit inside the ear. As the Skullcandy Dime comes with two ear tips of different sizes inside the package, you can switch it according to your preference. I had to equip a smaller ear tip to better fit because the ones that came with the buds weren’t exactly of the right size for me. Using those, I could still hear outside sounds, and sometimes the buds fell off my ear even while walking. When switched to the smaller ones, the fit was much more snug.
Audio, Call Quality & Battery Life
The Skullcandy Dime is equipped with 6mm drivers and has Bluetooth 5.0 for connectivity. The audio quality is average, if not the best, for the price. The lows (bass) are very mild, and there’s no thumping bass with this. Bass lovers can skip these as you would be disappointed with the bass response. However, the TWS earbuds focus more on the mids and highs. The vocals were crisp, with mids being clearly audible throughout the song.
There’s a single microphone on each earbud that is used for calls. And the microphone fails to achieve good call quality. While I could hear the other person fine, they could barely hear me without the background noise. Especially in the outdoor scenario, reci[iant of my calls complained about traffic sounds muffled voice. Talking about WhatsApp calls, my voice got a bit clear, but the rest of the issues remained the same.
As far as the battery is concerned, each earbud has a 20mAh battery, with the case packing a 150mAh battery. The earbud claims to offer 3.5 hours of listening time on a single charge, and I got close to this with about 60-70% volume. The case can easily charge the earbuds twice, which is fine, considering both the earbuds and the case are of such small size.