Skullcandy Indy ANC review: Great sound and ANC for a low price

Powered by MediaTek Airoha, these true wireless earbuds sound incredible yet they have a low price tag ?

Skullcandy Indy ANC review
Bottom Line
Skullcandy's Indy true wireless buds with MediaTek technology offer an impressive value. These wireless earbuds are priced affordably, yet their features and audio quality compete nicely with products that cost twice its price.
Pros
Very lively sound with great bass
Personalized tuning specific for your ears
Wireless and USB-C charging
Active Noise Cancelling is clean and makes music sound even better
Comfortable
Find your headphones with Tile
Ambient mode
Cons
No customizable EQ settings
Case is plasticky
Earbud touch controls aren’t intuitive or customizable
4.1

Don’t be so quick to chalk off Skullcandy’s Indy headphones as simply budget headphones. Their latest noise-canceling true wireless buds are powered by an all-new chipset, the MediaTek Airoha. Color us impressed with this new partnership. The new Skullcandy Indy headphones pack a serious punch and value for the price. They’re loaded up with technology including active noise cancelation, personalized sound, built-in Tile, long battery, wireless charging, Bluetooth 5, different listening modes, and serious audio quality with plenty of bass.

The design is your classic true wireless “stem” earbuds, much like Apple’s original AirPods but with silicon ear tips. There’s also silicon ear stabilizers for a more secure fit. The only thing that looks or feels cheap about these headphones is the battery case which is light and plasticky, but not terribly so. The buds are also light and plastic, but feel tough and durable.

We’re happy with the battery life and charging options. The battery case charges with USB-C or wirelessly. It delivers a total of 19 hours of battery with noise-canceling or 32 without ANC. The actual buds will last 5 hours on a single charge, or 9 hours without ANC. Rapid charging gets you 2 hours from a 10-minute charge.

The audio quality brings your music to life. There’s a lot of oomph. For affordable in-ear buds with this much tech you wouldn’t expect such lively and impressive audio quality. It’s very possibly due to the new MediaTek chipset. They’re enjoyably vibrant and really let you feel your music — we were not expecting this. Out of the box they’re warm with punchy bass and clear mids. The bass is well balanced and not overwhelming. The personalized sound feature will test your hearing and tweak the EQ for each specific ear. It made a noticeable difference, so I keep on all the time. That said, I was plenty happy without it too. The only missing feature is custom EQ settings, however, you can toggle between music mode, podcast mode, and movie mode.

The active noise canceling really contributes to the enjoyable audio experience. It doesn’t eliminate all background noise, and isn’t as strong as some more premium buds, but it’s clean and cuts out enough for you to hear your music more clearly. Indy is also capable of cutting out some background noise from phone calls. We found call quality to be maybe a little better than average, but voice is not as clear or defined as Apple headphones.

Skullcandy Indy ANC review verdict

The Skullcandy Indy true wireless buds with MediaTek technology really impressed us. Skullcandy has always been a budget brand and usually with budget quality products, but Indy stands out. They retail for $119, but the features and audio quality compete nicely with products twice this price.