Leaf&Core

Skullcandy Dime Review

Danielle from Leaf and Core
Reading Time: 13 minutes.

Closeup view of the SkullCandy Dime headphones on a keyboard. The logo is in the center, where the button underneath is, for a tactile feel. The AirPods Pro are great. They don’t sound too bad, have fantastic integration with the Apple ecosystem, and their noise cancellation is surprisingly good. Plus, transparency mode makes them versatile. However, they’re also incredibly boring. The plain white appearance just isn’t my style, and I’ve always held that against them. I’d much rather a splash of color, or, at the very least, some nice matte black. Instead, they’re glossy white plastic, a design and color scheme I’ve come to associate with lower quality products, like Apple’s free EarPods that came with iPods and iPhones for years. I wanted something vibrant, colorful, fun. I also wanted to play around with different headphones, to get something for comparisons. Finally, I wanted another set of in-ear buds for work, travel, or use with other devices so I don’t have to go through the difficult AirPods pairing process for non-Apple products.

There’s just one problem: truly wireless earbuds are expensive. Or… are they?

Enter the $25 Skullcandy Dime truly wireless earbuds. They come in a convenient, small package, have a lanyard, come in a few color options, and look great. For $25, it was worth the risk of checking them out.

I’m glad I did. These may be the best value in truly wireless earbuds.

Tech Specs

How I Tested

I tested these mostly by doing my usual activities. The truth is, with me being home for work and rest, I’m still using my headphones as often as I did when I was out and about. However, I did make sure to go through some of my high fidelity tracks. I listened to music, watched movies, chatted with friends on Discord and coworkers on Zoom. I listened to plenty of good background music and even ASMR while I worked. You know what I mean, stuff like lofi hip hop, chillwave, ambient tracks. You know, background music. I even tested with just one headphone in for meetings and getting directions on a longer trip. Basically? I ran them through their paces over the last few weeks, doing everything with headphones that you’d expect to do with headphones.

Now, I’m not an audiophile. Sure, I have some nice over ear planar magnetic headphones. I have amplifiers, external DAC amps, and vinyl. I also have plenty of high fidelity tracks. But, I never went out of my way to obsess over the hobby. The truth is, AirPods Pro usually are fine for me (though I do prefer the full bodied and dynamic sound of my HiFiMan HE-4xx from Drop). The truth is, I don’t sit down and try to analyze my music. Usually it’s just background music. However, sometimes I do sit down just to listen to music. When I do, I am delighted by the additional detail you can pick up when you’re looking for it, the highs, the thump of a bass drum before its resonance, the little details in a vocalist’s performance, it’s all fantastic. But it’s not all I focus on when I’m listening.

I’m not the best to give advice to audiophiles, but I think for most people, my experience will reflect yours.

Sound Quality

Audiophiles likely saw the diameter of the coil and were already put off. 6mm? That’s a very small driver. Apple won’t say how large the AirPods Pro drivers are, but they’re likely around the 10mm mark. Most in-ear headphones have drivers around 10mm. At just 6mm, the Skullcandy Dime headphones have speaker drivers that are half the size of most speakers.

And yet…

Wow.

Surprisingly, these can generate a lot of sound. It’s not entirely awful either. If you like a lot of bass, you may find these downright addictive. The sub-bass, that is the deep, rumbling bass, is surprisingly present. In fact, you can almost feel the rumble of the bass in these. It’s an area that’s completely absent on the AirPods Pro. Deep, rumbling bass.

But what the Skullcandy Dime headphones have in bass, they lose on the higher end. Mids, that is, vocals and instruments, come through with enough volume, but lose detail. Highs also don’t sound as loud or crisp. To be honest, the vocals aren’t too bad, it’s just a loss of detail. Not quite what I’d call “muddled,” but there’s an obvious lack of detail if you’re used to hearing it. You can tell Skullcandy focused on providing a deep sound, sacrificing detail and volume on the highs.

Discount Rumbles

Overall, the sound is far superior than what you’d expect for $25. I’ll admit, I actually really liked the bass for some ambient tracks, lofi hip hop, and ASMR. Those kind of deep rumbles. Thunder and rain sound excellent, if you’re looking for some earbuds for sleep.

This is surprisingly fantastic sound for $25. For any price, they don’t sound too bad. Would I be upset if I paid $100 for these and they sounded like this? Yes, but only because I really like details in mids, especially for vocals, and highs. However, for $50, I’d be happy, and for $25, I’m a little blown away. I don’t know how they did this with such small drivers. It’s a laughable amount of bass, to be sure, but it can be enjoyable and even addictive. You may find you miss that deep rumble when going to headphones that have a more flat sound curve.

Mic Quality

Mic quality isn’t too bad. The headphones certainly don’t have any fancy background noise cancellation. They only use one microphone at a time, and it’s a small one tuned for voices. If you leave both headphones in, it’ll use the microphone on the left side. However, if you put the left one in the case, or turn it off manually, the right one will activate seamlessly. I actually noticed that the right earbud will have more battery life when they’re both in use as a result of this.

While there isn’t any extreme hardware based voice cancellation, they don’t sound too bad, even with background noise. You mostly just sound a little more “hollow,” or distant. It’s not a problem though. I used the Dimes during meetings, calls with friends, and phone calls. I even pointed a fan directly at my face during these times. No one ever struggled to hear me or ask me to repeat myself. Even on recordings, my voice comes through clearly. They don’t sound as good as the AirPods Pro, and the noise cancellation isn’t as good, but they still sound good enough. It’ll be far better than using the microphone on your laptop, that’s for sure.

It’s a common theme in this review, but they sound better than they have any right to for $25.

Comfort

You’ll never guess my favorite color. Yellow! Nah, just kidding.

This review isn’t all praise. There’s one place where these have a rather serious fault, and it’s important. Comfort. This is subjective. Highly subjective, as it turns out. In my right ear, these headphones are perfectly comfortable. However, in my left ear, they are not. My ears are differently shaped, and it gets me in trouble with headphones and piercings all the time. In this case, it works out well for one ear, not as well for the other ear.

Initially, my left ear (my more “normal” ear) would get too uncomfortable to keep these in for more than about 45 minutes. I could listen to an album, but that would be stretching it. However, as time went on, I sort of just got used to it. I forced myself to wear them for longer periods of time, and the next thing I knew, I could wear them for over an hour without too much discomfort. That isn’t to say I don’t want to take them out on occasion, but that you can get used to them.

I also found that I could turn the stem upwards on my left side and relieve pain. This wouldn’t hurt sound quality too much either, though it does look a little silly. Not that I care about that too much these days. I also found that I could remove the silicone ear tip to relieve some pressure against the back of my ear, but this does ruin sound quality, as does using the smallest tip size. For me, anyway.

Every ear is different. However, the AirPods and AirPods Pro are leagues more comfortable than these. When I put them in my ears, I’m a little astounded at just how comfortable the AirPods Pro are. I feel like I’ve been taking them for granted. While you don’t have to make many sacrifices for the Skullcandy Dime earbuds, this is one area where you will.

Napping

I do have to mention napping. I love listening to relaxing sounds to sleep to. One thing I found was that these don’t stick out very far from my ear. It’s surprisingly comfortable enough to sleep, even with both earbuds in. I found they lay flat enough that I can support my head with my hand on my side and not feel them pressing into my ear too much. Everyone will be different, but these are surprisingly comfortable for naps, even for a side sleeper like me. That is, of course, if you can get over the discomfort in your ear.

Battery Life and Charging

It’s a shame the other side is micro USB, otherwise it would have been fully reversible.

One note I made about these is that I never came to them drained. That is, I never opened up the case, put them on, and realized they were completely drained. However, this happens to me quite frequently with my AirPods Pro, even with regular contact cleaning. I’ll open the case and they’re completely drained. This can happen with the case itself is drained, and I’m not counting that for either set of headphones. All I’m saying is, when I reach for the Skullcandy Dimes, I know they’re charged.

Still, in optimal conditions, they have only about half the battery life of the AirPods Pro. 12 hours with the case and 3.5 hours of listening time. The most I got for total on time was 14.5 hours. If you’re using them for your commute, all day at work, and perhaps the gym, you’ll have to charge every day. I don’t use my headphones all the time, so I had to charge them about once every two days. The case gives you a little more than three full charges, so if you charge up your buds with it three times, you’re going to need to charge the case.

This isn’t great, but even if you’re a heavy user, it can get you through a full day of using them constantly.

The charging cable is a short one, and it’s micro USB. The cable itself is pretty cool, it’s completely reversible on the USB-A side. There’s no wrong way to plug it in. It’s short, but this is likely so you can plug it into a laptop or desktop and just let it hang there. The entire setup is light. The small cable makes it easy to charge whenever you need to. That way, you can charge at work and not worry about needing to recharge the case.

You won’t find fast charging here though. Expect the case to take about two and a half hours to charge up earbuds and itself from empty. There’s no wireless charging either. That’s not something you’re going to get for $25.

Then there’s the battery life reporting. When the battery is low, you’ll receive a verbal indication of that in the headphones. They go low at different times, due to one using the microphone. On iOS you can also see a battery life percentage. It only goes in 10% intervals, but it’s useful and sits in both your batteries widget or your notification center tray. On macOS, interestingly, there’s no way to see this information. On Android, you can also find the battery life in the Bluetooth section.

Controls


The controls are a little less than intuitive, but they’re not too bad. When you initially look at the directions, they look downright overwhelming. Here are the basics:

Did you memorize all of that yet?

No?

Yeah, I don’t blame you. Some of it makes a little sense. Right and left for forward and back, respectively. Right is up, left is down, that’s not too hard to internalize. I did need to check the instructions a few times, and I didn’t immediately realize that I could turn one off and put it into pairing mode to move them both to a new device.

The controls are, admittedly, a little unintuitive. Still, you’ll get used to the basics quickly. Furthermore, it’s not like AirPods have volume controls. You have the choice to only use the basics or, if you want, learn the extended controls. You can also ask Siri to perform actions for you.

There’s one final note I want to add about the controls. The buttons take a bit of force. These already aren’t the most comfortable headphones I’ve used, at least, not until I got used to them, but the controls make it a little worse. You have to push surprisingly hard on that center part. I’ve come to kind of hold the stem with my thumb and middle finger as I press the button, just to avoid pressing it into my ear.

Appearance and Design

Photos of these earbuds sold me as much as the price tag. I’m just so tired of my boring AirPods. These looked fun. They had a pop of color available with the blue and green sets. The little Skullcandy logo is cool. I just throught, “those look cute.” And they do. They’re simple, with a clean look. They have a nice matte texture, as does the case itself. I love the two-toned look on the outside. Green and blue isn’t my first color choice, but it works, and the green looks good with my teal-colored hair.

The charging case has a little loop on it for easy attachment to your keys. That’s good because, really, it’s about the size of a key fob. You can easily throw this in a bag and not worry about it, both because it’s cheap and also because it’s durable. Unlike my AirPods, when I drop this case, the earbuds stay firmly in place. They don’t scatter everywhere. Hell, the case doesn’t even open. Not only is it held in place with magnets, but it also clicks into place, so you can trust it on a key chain. A single AirPod Pro costs three times what the Skullcandy Dime earbuds cost, and the Dime headphones are better protected in their case.

Speaking of the AirPods Pro case, this is smaller in every way. It has half the overall battery life and no wireless charging, so being smaller isn’t too difficult. If battery life is a sacrifice you’re willing to make and space is not, that’s something to keep in mind.

As far as improvements, I’d love to see more color choices. Red, pink, lavender, yellow, all would look great here. Many of the other colors Skullcandy uses would fit very well on the Dime. I wouldn’t be surprised if they release new colorways down the line (update: they have! Red and orange). Secondly, the lid could open further. It sits at about 90º, which is far too easy to accidentally close when you’re trying to put your headphones back in the case. Other than that? This is a simple design, and it’s well done. It’s functional, easy to use, it looks cool, and it feels good in the hand. They did an excellent job here.

Connection

These inexpensive little earbuds are using the latest Bluetooth 5.0. This allows for a low latency connection, eliminating almost all lag in video. I only really noticed a little while typing on my iPhone, the tiniest of delays between typing a letter and hearing the click in my ear. Watching video, you can easily read lips and hear the audio without delay. This is about as good as Bluetooth gets.

But one thing I really want to call out is just the consistency. I can jump between devices so quickly with this. To swap devices, you turn one of the earbuds off, then turn it back on and hold the button for 4 seconds. Both of your headphones will enter pairing mode. Just select them on a device and you’re good to go. I made a one tap shortcut for my iPhone, and I can connect quickly from control center. I used an AirFly Bluetooth bridge to use these with my Switch Lite, I hooked it up to my Android phone, both my work and personal computer, my iPad, and my iPhone. Every single time I switched devices, it was immediate, super quick, and didn’t require a retry. This just works.

This thing connects more reliably to my devices than my AirPods. Sure, the AirPods Pro may be able to jump between Apple devices without syncing, but sometimes there’s an issue, and going to a non-Apple device is often difficult. With these, it’s just a quick connection. Admittedly, the 4 second press does take a bit longer than switching devices with AirPods on an Apple device, but it’s reliable 100% of the time. It’s a little remarkable. I don’t even like using my AirPods with my AirFly because getting them to connect is often a time consuming process. With the Skullcandy Dime headphones, it’s actually faster.

Odds & Ends

One of the few things that has kept me sane(ish) during quarantine has been movie and TV show night with my friends. One of the things we’ll do is find a movie or TV show, do a countdown, and start it at the same time. Then we’ll just chat, joke, and you know, do human things. These sessions will often go past the battery life of my headphones. I can turn off the in-ear detection on my AirPods, so it doesn’t pause my media when I take them out or when they die, but I usually forget to. One thing I will say of the Skullcandy Dimes is that they go from stereo sound to mono with ease. You can charge one while listening with the other without it causing your video to pause. It’s completely seamless. Of course, there’s no in-ear detection, so, you may not like that, but I did find it’s sometimes useful.

Another interesting thing I noticed was the sound isolation. These actually do a good job as ear plugs, blocking outside sound. That means you will mostly hear yourself in your own head. When you’re talking, it can feel weird. I found it’s less weird if I pull one headphone out just enough to break the seal so I can hear myself. You can also just put in one earbud, but I do love stereo sound. I find it makes it easier to hear and understand people. You could also use smaller silicone ear tips. There’s definitely no transparency mode with these, which is why I put them in only one ear when I’m in traffic and why I have to be extra careful while doing that as well.

Finally, there’s the first thing you notice about these. There packaging. The Skullcandy Dime come in fully recyclable packaging. It’s all cardboard, no plastic. Furthermore, it’s really densely packed, so it’s not wasting space or requiring extra transport space. Really, A+ on trying to minimize impact. Headphones like these will only last a few years before the batteries can’t store a charge and they need to be replaced. They’re hard to recycle, if anyone can recycle them at all. Therefore, it’s really important to make a difference where you can, and the packaging is a good start.

Replacing the plastic would be a nice next step, but, we’re getting there.

Overall 7.5/10

Honestly, someone could make some entirely valid points about buying these over the AirPods without mentioning price. But then you drop in that these are just $25. $25! Now you have no excuse for not using headphones during a meeting this long into the pandemic!

Seriously, how do people not have headphones for video calls yet?

These certainly have comfort issues. While I can wear them for hours, I’ll admit they’re not perfectly comfortable. That’s the biggest mark against them. Sure, the sound isn’t great, but it’s mind blowing that it’s this good for just $25. They don’t have stellar battery life, but $25. The controls for some features like volume and track skipping are unintuitive, but $25!

Seriously, it’s hard to say anything too bad about them. For $25, they’re reliable, cute, sound alright, work as microphones for calls, stay in your ears during your workout, and they’re compact and portable. Plus I’ve never used a non-AirPods device that switches between other Bluetooth transmitters so quickly. For $25, they’re a steal.

Who’s This For?

If you’re thinking about AirPods, or perhaps some other $50-$100 truly wireless headphones, there’s a new option. The Skullcandy Dime headphones offer up the quality and features you’d expect from headphones that cost twice as much as this, if not more. These can absolutely go toe-to-toe with even Apple’s ecosystem, due to the fast and reliable device switching.

The Skullcandy Dime headphones are for people who may be willing to take the risk on potential comfort issues for some really deep bass in some inexpensive yet high quality truly wireless earbuds. Theses are here for people to get surprising quality with a low price tag. I’m thoroughly impressed by the value here, and have been recommending them to my friends who may want some cheap headphones to try out this truly wireless thing, listen to music on the train, or, more relevant to these trying times, attend a Zoom meeting and unmute for the duration of our group watches. If you’ve somehow made it this far into the pandemic without a decent set of headphones, the Skullcandy Dime truly wireless headphones will have you covered for just $25. At that price, no one has an excuse not to use headphones during meetings and you’ll definitely find other uses for them too.

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