A good set of earbuds is almost a necessity for a mobile phone nowadays, and the latest Skullcandy offering delivers great sound quality and plenty of features for a reasonable price.
The Skullcandy Rail earbuds are wireless earbuds designed to work with any Bluetooth capable smart device – so pretty much any modern mobile phone, tablet, or computer.
They feature earbud controls, voice control, Tile connectivity (to help you find them if you misplace them), and multi-point connection capability (meaning you can connect them to two devices simultaneously, such as a phone and a computer).
I found the sound quality to be excellent, especially when the “Personal Sound By Mimi” feature activated – this basically conducts a hearing test for you and automatically adjusts the various sound levels for you.
The bass was solid, which I like, and the listening experience across a range of content, from dance music to classical music to podcasts, was uniformly very good.
The earbuds were well made and stayed comfortably in my ears, regardless of whether I was lying in bed, going for a walk, or doing the housework.
The battery life particularly impressed me – Skullcandy reckons it’s about 42 hours total (eight hours in the buds and further 34 from charging in the case) and my own testing seemed to back that up.
Other features
While the reviewed model of Skullcandy rail does not have Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), I honestly didn’t have any issues with outside sound interfering with my listening, and they also come with an audio pass-through option so you can still hear what’s going on around you even more clearly if you want.
The earbuds have an IPX5 rating, meaning they will handle sweat and dust along with some water exposure – they can handle getting rained on, but don’t take them swimming or drop them in the sink.
Pretty much the only feature missing from the reviewed Skullcandy Rail earbuds was wireless charging – they charge via USB-C, which is ubiquitous now, but given the price I don’t think wireless charging would have been an unreasonable addition.
With an RRP of $169.95 these are well positioned at the upper-mid range of earbuds, offering quality audio and features but without the much larger price tag associated with the premium offerings.
– Royce Wilson, Consulting Editor for Local News Publications
See also: In-tents entertainment
