Skullcandy Indy Evo Review: Excellently-priced Earbuds That Hold Their Own

I must admit, I had quite a bit of nostalgia coming into this review. My first ever pair of wired earphones were from Skullcandy, and plenty of my friends back in the day were all using Skullcandy products too, from earphones to headphones. I haven’t touched a Skullcandy product in almost 10 years though, so I was definitely surprised when I tried the Skullcandy Indy Evo.

Priced at just S$139, it’s definitely one of the more affordable true wireless earbuds released this year, but it still packs in a whole bunch of features like IP55 water resistance, touch controls and even Tile tracking integration, for people who are prone to losing their earbuds.

There have been concessions made to keep the price low though, so you’ll immediately notice that the charging case is made of plastic throughout. That makes it lightweight, but I can’t say it feels sturdy in the hand at all. It does feel cheap, but as I said, that’s the tradeoff made for a more affordable product.

The earbuds are also made out of plastic, and there are a few colours to choose from. I got the 92 Blue colour option, which is predominantly blue with red accents and it actually looks quite nice. It’s definitely more striking than the full black, and it makes it easier to notice the earbuds should you accidentally leave them somewhere.

The earbuds come with rubber stabiliser fins which do a good job at keeping the earbuds secure in the ear, but it might be a bit big for people with smaller ears. Isolation is great with or without the fins though, so feel free to take them off if you don’t feel you need them.

One thing I noticed was that the fins actually prevented the charging case lid from closing fully, with a small gap at the seam. It’s nothing too problematic, but it’s visible and definitely is a little annoying once you notice it.

Thankfully, Skullcandy has opted to go with a USB-C charging port, which is definitely a huge plus in my book.

Sound-wise, it wasn’t too bad. As expected of a sub-S$150 product, the soundstage is limited, the mids and treble aren’t as clear or detailed as they should be, but the bass is the good point here.

If you listen to pop or EDM, these will do fine for casual listening. Listening to Lana Del Rey’s Blue Jeans, you’ll notice that there’s still some airiness in her voice, which helps to lift the song, but the earbuds just lack the spaciousness, balance and impact in the mids and highs that more expensive earbuds provide.

Switching to something with a heavier bassline though, like The Hills by The Weeknd, definitely brings out the bass. You get a nice rumble, although I do think that the bass can get a bit muddy at times and the decay is a bit too long.

There are three EQ settings, Music, Podcast and Movie. Personally, I felt that Podcast mode stripped too much of the bass. The bassline was almost non-existent when listening to The Hills on Podcast mode. It definitely lifted the vocals a bit, but I don’t think it’s worth the cost to the bass.

Putting the earbuds in Movie mode was supposed to result in a boost to the bass, and it definitely delivered. The bass was slightly more emphasised, with more of a presence than the standard Music mode. I would recommend leaving the earbuds in Movie mode if you enjoy bass.

There’s only the SBC codec here, but at this price point, I can’t fault Skullcandy for not putting in aptX support. There’s pretty much no audio lag though, when watching videos or playing games.

The Indy Evo run on Bluetooth 5.0 and I didn’t encounter any connection issues, although there’s no multipoint connectivity so you’ll have to reset the earbuds whenever you want to pair them to a new device.

The Skullcandy app that you can download is pretty limited in what it can do. You can connect the earbuds to it, and toggle Ambient mode, but EQs have to be switched via the on-board touch controls.

Credit: Skullcandy

Speaking of touch controls, I do applaud Skullcandy for implementing controls for everything on their earbuds, but it does get a bit difficult to remember which taps and long-presses correlate to which commands. Here’s a handy chart from Skullcandy.

Skullcandy claims a total of 30 hours with the case, and the earbuds themselves have 6 hours. It’s not too bad, all things considered. I haven’t had a single listening session where I managed to run out the battery.

So is it worth getting the Indy Evo? If you’re looking for an affordable pair of true wireless earbuds that sound pretty decent, I’d say go for it. Skullcandy has definitely sweetened the proposition by adding features like Tile tracking, which I’m a big fan of. Earbuds are definitely easily lost, and having a feature that can pinpoint where they were dropped or left is excellent.

If you’re looking for better sound quality though, you’ll have to pony up the cash for something that costs more.

More information about the Skullcandy Indy Evo (S$139) or to support us, get it on Amazon here.