We are going to take a look at Skullcandy’s recently released Dime True Wireless Earphones today, and these offer a very compact form factor and an interesting design at a price of around 2,300 Rs. in India which is around 30 US dollars.
UNBOXING
We have quite a simple unboxing of the colorful box you get these earphones in, and along with some papers inside it, you get a reversible USB A charging cable which is nice to see, you get some extra ear tips with a Skullcandy logo, and you of course get the earphones themselves. You also get a small lanyard that you can use to attach these to a keychain or something.
DESIGN
The Skullcandy Dime offers quite unique of a design, as the case actually has openings at the top to make space for the earbuds when you close the lid. It really makes these earphones very easy to carry around as these are more compact than other TWS earbuds I have, and the size difference might not seem that big, but these also have a flat top and bottom, and these are significantly lighter than other earphones, which does help with the portability.
There are available in a variety of vibrant colors, which is the typical case with Skullcandy products, and I went with this red color which I think looks really nice.
The quality of plastic used is also good, and these do feel very solidly built, so these should easily survive your everyday drops.
The earbuds are also a little unconventional, as we have a little stem sticking out of them. The stems have a multifunction button, and you can single press it to play and pause, hold to change tracks, double press it to control volume, and triple press for smart assistant.
CONTROLS
You do have to apply some force to these buttons, and you have to press them at a very specific spot, so you may have to use your nails to do this, and while it works well enough, I really think that these buttons should’ve been easier to press, because some of the actions like volume control, and calling smart assistant requires you to press them two or three times.
COMFORT
Coming to comfort, I would say that these offer a decent level of comfort, but it’s not the best that I’ve used. Even though the overall package is quite small, the earbuds do have a big flat circular design for the part that goes into your ears, and while that is fine for me as a person who has big ears, if you have small ears, then this might feel a little too big.
The great thing that it does do is that it really seals off your ears to the outside world, and I think these are the most noise isolating earphones that I have used.
BATTERY LIFE
The battery life on these is around 3.5 hours for the earbuds, and they lasted close to 4 hours in my tests. You can get around 12 hours of playback in total with the case, which is considerably shorter than some other TWS earbuds, but these also have a significantly smaller and lighter casing, so that is understandable, and 3.5 hours per session is also going to be good enough for most people.
These do charge via micro USB instead of USB C, which is something that we are seeing in budget TWS earphones nowadays, USB C takes more space on the casing, so maybe that is why they went with this, but this is definitely a negative in the present times as I rarely have to look for a micro USB cable these days.
(Watch video for microphone test)
We also have an IPX4 water resistance rating on these, so you won’t have to worry about the splashes of water around you while wearing them.
SOUND QUALITY
Finally coming to their sound quality, these kind of surprised me, because I wasn’t expecting Skullcandy to deliver such a great and maturely tuned sound in the budget segment.
The bass on these is really perfectly executed, it sounds punchy without being muddy or overpowering, so it doesn’t bleed into the mids, which is an issue I noticed on the Oppo Enco W11 when comparing their sound quality. The speed of the bass is also really good in this price range, and I think their excellent noise isolation also improves their overall sound.
The mids are also totally on point and have plenty of detail, so listening to vocals also feels great, and the treble on these is also very good for their price.
In the budget TWS segment, you do face the issue of the treble sounding a bit muffled, and sometimes manufacturers do tune their products to add some treble boost to counter that, but boosting low quality treble just results in a harsh sound that doesn’t feel great, and that is not the case with these.
Even though the treble on the Skullcandy dime is boosted by an extra 2 or 3 decibels, it is mostly tolerable, and the quality of treble really adds details to instruments. The Skullcandy Dime sound very resolving for their price, and overall these are really fun sounding earphones with great instrument separation that I generally don’t notice in this price range.
If you are listening to a treble heavy track, you can reduce the treble by around 2 or 3 dB with an equalizer for a smoother sound, but I didn’t find the need to do that in most cases.
Their soundstage is towards the narrower side, especially compared to something like the Oppo Enco W11, but they still do a great job with their imaging, so in the limited range they have for their soundstage, you do hear the instruments being well separated at different places. These also have a really nice center image, so if you’re looking for something intimate sounding, these are very good.
CONCLUSION
So overall, these are great but not perfect. I really like how these sound, and the overall aesthetics and the form factor of the Skullcandy dime is also great, but the buttons on these are a little difficult to press, and the comfort may not be great for people with small ears.
But these are not deal breaking things, and I do like the sound of these enough to give them a recommendation. These are definitely one of the most fun sounding earphones in this range that still deliver a high quality sound without messing too much with the sound signature, and if sound quality is your main priority, then these are easily one of the best options, if not the best option.
⭐ Buy Skullcandy Dime:
India: https://amzn.to/3sU3h7a
US: https://amzn.to/3sV35EC
⭐ Skullcandy Website
IN: https://bit.ly/3jrqBpF
US: https://bit.ly/3kvc0ZE