earphones – Tech Raman

Skullcandy Push Truly Wireless Earbuds Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 23:42:26 +0000

Truly Wireless Earbuds” are the talk of the music town. Now, they come in various hues, styles and price points making it really a difficult job to narrow down the right pair for you. Skullcandy has joined the bandwagon with the Push priced at Rs 9,999 in India. So are these the buds you should lay your hands at? For that, keep reading our Skullcandy Push review where I unravel the pros and cons of the new buds in town. Out of the box, you get the:

Paid of buds
Charging case
Type C cable
Extra pair of ear tips
and user manual

The best part of the truly wireless earbuds are most of them come with a charging case – you can toss your earbuds in them and they not just rest but also gets charged up. The Skullcandy charging case is slightly bulky compared to a few other I have come across but still pocketable. It is made of plastic and frankly, I expected a bit of more premiums in terms of finish and make. The charging case and earbuds come in what the company states as Psychotropical Teal colour a sort of metallic green. Though I personally liked the Tangerine colour variant they have but it is available only on a limited number. So probably you might settle for this green colour. The case has the funky Skullcandy logo on it. There is no spring mechanism for the lid and you will have to manually pry them open. There are blue LED light indicators to give you the estimate of the charge remaining on the case. The USB Type C for charging is a good addition, but if you are still stuck with microUSB type C on your Smartphone, you might have to carry the type C cable that comes with the box while travelling. But I would suppose if you are spending 10 grands on this earbuds, you probably do have a Smartphone that uses type C port. The earbuds snuggle into the charging case and they don’t fall if you turn the case upside down with lid open. They don’t fall because of the magnetic pogo pins which held them to the case and pass on the charging juice too. While the earbuds look a bit big, they are quite flat too and lightweight. The company calls them FinFit wings, and they do keep the buds steady during exercise. There is one single large button on both the pairs. They offer good haptic feedback and are pleasant to use. About the controls? well, there are few bag full of tricks which you might have to learn to use them. The Skullcandy Push are decently well-made headphones. They are made of plastic and don’t feel like premium headphones but should still be solid enough to survive a few accidental drops. They are rated IPX3 for sweat and splashing water resistance. The fit is good and is stable enough for running and much of physical activity and in gyms. They sit upright on your ears and the fins keep it stable. In my use for the last 10 days, I didn’t face an instance of it popping out during my general use and workouts.

Skullcandy Push controls

There is one button control for all the needs. You make single or multiple tap or press for a set duration for activating different functions as listed below.

Pairing first time: Press the left button for 7 seconds
Power on/off: Press for 5 seconds
Play/Pause: Single Tap
Volume Up: Quick double tap on right button
Volume down: Quick double tap on left button
Next track: Long press for 3 sec on right bud
Previous track: Long press for 3 sec on left bud

It is quite easy once you get used to the combinations but the voice assistant failed to activate on my use for whatsoever reason.

Performance of Skullcandy Push

TECH SPECS

Connection Type: Bluetooth® 4.2
Impedance: 16 Ohms
Driver Diameter: 9.2mm
THD: <3% at 1KHz
Sound Pressure Level: 100 +/-3dB (1mW/500Hz)
Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20KHz
Weight: 54.2g

If you are a bass lover, the Push should impress you. It is slightly bass heavy and in my experience, I find many people prefer this than a pure audiophile would love. They have a powerful, thumpy and consistent bass, a decently well-balanced mid-range, and a good treble. Since they emphasise more on the bass, you might feel the mids and vocals slightly taking a back seat but overall the earphones are great for bass-heavy music and general populace might like this. The passive noise activation is not very effective though it’s not bad either. You might have to find the right ear tips and figure the best match for your ears. The audio leakage is minimal which means you might not be disturbing the person sitting next to you even when listening on high volume. Call quality is decent enough to manage your calls. Though it was disappointing to note that the microphone and call audio are only available on the left earbud. If you want to know if you can use only one earbud for listening to music, yes you can but only on the left bud while the right can rest on the case. I tried resting the left bud on the case and listen on the right one and it doesn’t work that way. It is not water resistant and I guess it might be IPX3 which means a slight splash should be ok but not beyond that.

Battery life of Skullcandy Push

Skullcandy states a battery life of 6 hours and another backup of 6 hours the charging case offers. 6 hours is good for a truly wireless earphone and most of you would not be draining the charge in one stretch. The case though has only one additional charge so totalling 12 hours. The additional capacity/cycle is a bit less than many of the earphones I have tried. Still, you should not be worrying much of the battery life and 12 hours is still a decent duration even if you are travelling.

Connectivity

It is strange to know Skullcandy have opted for Bluetooth 4.2 when we have Bluetooth 5 around which offers a better range and power efficiency. These Bluetooth headphones can only connect to one device at a time, and they also don’t support NFC. In spite of the BT 4.2, I was happy with the range these pairs offered. While watching movies on Netflix or Youtube, I didn’t notice any significant latency worth mentioning.

Verdict

If you are a bass lover and you want a truly wireless experience, Skullcandy Push would please you. A lack of proper IP certification for water resistance, the absence of Bluetooth 5 and microphone and calling ability restricted to left earbud leave a sour note but on a positive side, it offers a great fit, a decent battery life and bass-heavy audio which most of you might prefer. Skullcandy Push is no pushover.

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1MORE Stylish Dual-Dynamic Driver Bluetooth Earphone Review

Lakshmi Rajan — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 14:32:29 +0000

1MORE Stylish Box Contents Once you open the box, you are treated to a cool sketch on the inside cover that elevates the brand premium quotient. Everything is perfectly packed inside with utmost care.

1MORE Stylish in-ear headphone
A carry case
3 pair extra ear-tips
microUSB cable
documents

1MORE Stylish in-ear headphone design

Personally, I don’t like neckband designs. I find them either thick, stiff, heavy or weighing on the neck like a leash. But they also happen to be good design for running and workouts. But it came as a pleasant surprise that the 1MORE stylish had a thin design that doesn’t feel heavy. At 23 grams its barely there around your neck. Even the band is thin and is flexible. It comes in two colors – a midnight black and Rose pink color that I have here. There are two modules at either side, with the left housing all the controls. There is a power button that is also used for first time pairing with your phone. The button also combines as play/pause and to attend calls. Next to that is the volume controls but there is no track change option. 1MORE has used ABS material. The earbuds are slightly angled and are comfortable. You could choose your own fitting ear-tips for perfect comfort. The wires connecting both the earbuts are not braided but looks like it would last longer.

1MORE Stylish in-ear headphone performance

They have used dual-dynamic drivers in the headphone. The audio is clear. The instrument separation is fairly good and the vocals are very clear. The mids are above average and does a good job, the highs are good too. The bass is not overpowering but well balanced. So this is not for the bass heads but for those who love a well rounded audio. Call quality is good too. The bluetooth range is good.

1MORE Stylish battery life

One of the highlight of the headphone is the quick charge feature. It takes 50 minutes for full charge but gives 6 hours battery life but if you are in a hurry a mere 10 minutes gives you 3 hours of playback time, which is a life saver in our face paced life. I did get close to 6 hours in my tests.

Verdict

1MORE Stylish dual-driver BT in-ear headphone is available at a pre-order price of Rs 4,500. If you are looking at a balanced audio, a light weight, thin and flexible neckband design this should satisfy you. The quick charge feature is a big bonus. ]]>

Transsion Holdings launches Oraimo Bluetooth earphones Necklace OEB-E54D in India

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 10 May 2018 18:29:08 +0000

Looks like an influx of neckband style earphones of late, few weeks back we reviewed Mivi Collar Neckband , and now we have news that Transsion Holdings whose Smartphone brands include iTel, Tecno, Infinix have launched Oraimo Necklace OEB-E54D in India priced at Rs 2,799. Oraimo is their Smart accessory brand.

Like many other neckband earphones, the OED-E54D also has magnetic buds to attach when not in use and to be secured around. There is not much technical details provided by the brand but digging out their website shows the earphone has 200mAh battery with claims of 200 hours of standby time, 8 hours talk time and 8 hours music playing time. It works on Bluetooth version 4.1

Mr. Guoli Liu, General Manager of oraimo, TRANSSION Holdings said, “It gives us immense pleasure to present our consumer with trendy pair of earphones that offers HD voice quality. It will allow the consumers to enjoy undisturbed music sessions, especially for all discerning listeners. Given today’s generation is always-on-the-move, the idea is to keep the neckband on at all times and also, avoid hassle to untangle the wired earphones. We are sure our product will be loved by the Indian youth and provide them with the comfort & convenience to listen to their favorite music”.

Warranty on the Oraimo products

Oraimo is offering one-year replacement warranty on its power banks, Bluetooth-enabled devices (earphones and speakers), batteries, flash drives, chargers, and wearable devices, as well as a six-month replacement warranty for its data cables and earphones and life time replacement for its Micro SD cards.

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