Skullcandy Push Active Skull-iQ Review EarHook Earbuds Support Spotify Tap & Voice Control

 

Fashion trends come and go, although some fashion trends are so good that they ever fade like ear hook wireless earbuds! Sure, they are bulky. But, they offer unriveled secure fit and long battery life. Take for instance, Skullcandy's Push Active - a pair of ear hook true wireless earbuds with a 10 hour battery life per earbud!



The Skullcandy Push Active earbuds support 10-minute quick charge, which provides 2 hours of playtime. The Push Active earbuds take 1 hour to recharge from 0-100%. You will hear a low battery voice promot when there is 50 minutes left of battery and another low battery voice promopt when there is 15 minutes left of battery life.


A few other exciting features bundled to the Skullcandy Push Active earbuds are voice control, Spotify Tap support, bluetooth tracking, equalizer and button remapping. Voice control works via Skullcandy's Skull-iQ integration, which enables hands-free control so, you can control all the functions via voice commands. This means, you can play/pause music using your voice, as well as via the orange physical button located below the earbuds. The physical button is responsive but, it's hard to press. You literary have to clutch the earbud with two fingers in order to press the button as it requires a forceful press to activate, which is typical with most on-ear hook earbuds.


The overall construction looks and feels premium. Push Active is made with plastic and rubber. The body is made of matte plastic, while the ear hook and orange button are made of rubber.The Skullcandy Push Active nozzle body has an angled pear shaped design with a round square thick faceplate. The faceplate isn't touch control and features a status led, as well as the embossed logo of Skullcandy.


The orange button is very grippy and controls four functions via a series of presses, including power on/off, play/pause, calls (answer/end), volume up (right earbud), volume down (left earbud), reset paired devices, launch Spotify app, share audio and pairing. The audio sharing feature lets you share the audio you're listening to with another Skullcandy audio device that supports the Skull-IQ feature. As well as sharing, you can also join the audio of another Skullcandy Skull-IQ user.


Voice control commands include all the functions (e.g. play/pause, calls, etc), except share/join audio feature. Another feature you can control via voice command that you can't control via the orange button is "stay aware" mode, which works like the transparency mode ofANC (active noise cancellation) earbuds/headphones. Stay aware mode uses the external microphone for calls to leak external sounds into the music you're listening too. The microphone sensitivity is very high so, background sounds get picked up loud and clear. This also includes wind, which is noticeable when it's very windy. As well as providing situation awarenes, Stay aware is also convinient when working out while talking to people without having to remove the earbuds off your ears.

Push Active are equipped with 6mm dynamic drivers (22 ohm impedance) and high sensitivity (112dB). The bass sound is balanced across the midrange and treble range, making the stock signature flat sounding. That said, you can tweak it via the built-in EQ in the Skullcandy app. As far as mic quality for calls, there omnidirectinal microphone (one per earbud) sounds loud and clear but doesn't have noise supression; hence it picks up wherever noise is around you. 

 

The Push Active charging case has a non-fingerprint coat finish, as well as an embossed Skullcandy logo on top of the lid.The underside of the lid has a striking orange finish, which nicely compliments the stealth matte black finish. The Push Active charging case is heavy (78 grams) and bulky (9cm long, 6cm wide and 3cm high), which isn't surprising given the fact that the Push Active are on ear hook earbuds. 



Despite the bulk and weight of the charging case, the Push Active earbuds aren't that much heavier than a regular pair of true wireless earbuds. They naturally stick out but, at 8 grams per earbud, the Push Active are very comfortable and they anchor to the ears, thanks to the pre-formed ear hook silicone stem, which tucks snugly behind the ear. The ear hook is flexible but doesn't bend into place; hence you can't re-shape the ear hook. The ear hook is made of soft, grippy silicone throughout without any jagged edges.


The Push Active charging case has a magnetized charging area and closing lid, which opens upright and firmly like a clamshell. The USB-C charging port is protected by a hinged rubber cover, making the charging case water/dust resistant (IP55), just like the earbuds. The Push Active charging case can hold 34 hours of additional charge and takes 2 hours to charge from 0-100%. The case has quick charge support too, storing 4 hours from a 10-minute charge. Given the large size of the case, it would have been advantageous if wireless charging was integrated, as well as "power-out" so, you could use the charging case like a powerbank for topping up a phone in an emergency.


The Skullcandy Push Active ear hook true wireless earbuds have mobile app support via the Skullcandy app, which is free to download and does not require an account registration (other han the usual phone permissions). The Skullcandy app has a sleak interface, it is uncluttered and clear to navigate. From the Skullcandy app, you can view the percentage battery level for each earbud, disable/enable voice control mode/stay aware mode, adjust volume and access sound mode, which has three preset listening modes (music, podcast, movie) and a custom mode with a 5-band equalizer to manually tweak the stock sound signature.


The Skullcandy app also features a shutter button for taking pictures remotely from your phone and a button remapping function for swapping all functions, except play/pause and share/join audio functions, which cannot be remapped. The Push Active earbuds also support Spotify Tap and bluetooth tracking via the Tile mobile app so, you can use the Push Active earbuds in the same way you use a Tile bluetooth tracker (e.g. find the location of the earbuds on a map). Find/ring isn't supported; hence you cannot ring/find your phone, using the Push active earbuds.


As far as Spotify Tap. It is an audio playback feature designed for the Spotify app that streamlines the connection and playback process. The Push Active earbuds are equipped with Spotify Tap support right out of the box; hence you don't have to configure anything. Simply hold the left earbud button for 1 second and, it will automatically turn on your phone's Bluetooth connection, open the Spotify app and resume playback from where you left off.

The Skullcandy Push Active ear hook earbuds can be paired while inside the charging case. During audio playback, the earbuds status leds flash every few seconds.You can switch between earbuds for stereo and mono listening. The bluetooth 5.2 chip supports absolute bluetooth volume. SBC and AAC codec. There is no aptX and no multipoint connection support. Accessories include soft silicone rubber eartips, as well as a short Skullcandy-branded charging cable with a low proile USB-A connector. You can buy the Skullcandy Push Active from amazon.

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