Product test

Skullcandy Push Active: The true-wireless headphones that want to listen to you

13/4/2022

Translation: machine translated

"Hey Skullcandy, play" - with these and nine other commands you can control these headphones. This is strange when you take the train to work, but very practical in other situations. Find out when the voice assistant is useful and what else the headphones can do here.

I still know Skullcandy from my time in the freestyle parks in the ski resorts and from videos. Back then, which must have been about ten years ago, all the cool ones in the freestyle scene wore these inexpensive headphones with earpieces. The Push Active still has a headband and is still aimed at sportsmen and women. In the meantime, however, the headphones have gotten smarter and smaller. And they come without annoying cables.

Headphones

EUR90,30

Skullcandy Push Active

44 h, Cable

How the Skullcandy voice control works

Skull-iQ listens to a total of ten different voice inputs.

Play
Pause
Volume Up
Volume Down
Assistant
Next
Previous
Stay-Aware On
Stay-Aware Off
Spotify

In a quiet environment, the headphones understand my commands reliably. On the bike, with a bit of wind, the feature doesn't work as it used to at home. Slowly going uphill works better than going straight - or quickly down the hill. It often takes me three or four attempts before the devices understand my "Hey Skullcandy,...".

Voice control is useful for bike rides, jogging, or any other sporting activity you do alone. In addition, I can well imagine that in activities where you work with both hands, the earphones will do a good service. Gardening, screwing on the bike or housework are possible scenarios.

In everyday life, as soon as I am surrounded by people, my assistant is out of a job. I want to avoid weird looks from my fellow human beings who overhear my self-talk. Moreover, the voice control only works if the Skullcandy app has been started beforehand. With a spontaneous "Hey Skullcandy, next" in a supposedly empty train, that's not going to work.

If you want to listen to music without voice control, the music can also be controlled classically thanks to the buttons on the left and right headphones. However, the amount of pressure that has to be applied to the buttons is too high for me. I would have liked a touch-sensitive surface or less necessary pressure. My ears would thank me.

Voice assistant in headphones - there was something there

Headphones with voice assistants are not new. There is a large selection, which are equipped with the Google Assistant. These earphones can be controlled just as much by voice. Then not only with ten different commands, but a huge selection. From back to the beginning, to fast forward 30 seconds or repeat the song - there is almost nothing that the Google Assistant can not do. So you don't have to reach for these headphones because of the voice control called Skull-iQ. Rather, they are good sports headphones. With or without voice assistant.

Push Active: Dank Bügel und langer Akkulaufzeit für sportliche Aktivitäten prädestiniert

Comfortable and with a long battery life

The Skullcandy fits well: Even after long wear, the headphones connected via Bluetooth 5.2 do not hurt. There are no problems with the connection. Even in the urban concrete jungle, where I constantly have problems with my Huawei Freebuds 3i, the earphones work flawlessly. On the bumpy trail, I wasn't afraid of losing the small buttons from my ear. The battery life is remarkable. According to the manufacturer, ten hours of uninterrupted music listening is possible. There are an additional 34 hours in the charging box. If I add it up, I come to 44 hours. Remarkable! The disadvantage of this extremely long battery life: The charging box, which is charged via USB-C, is unusually large. It is about as big as a thick cigarette pack.

Good sound but without noise cancelling

Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) is not recommended for sports activities. Because the wind noise is amplified and the sound is therefore no longer worth listening to - and you would simply hear too little of your surroundings. Therefore, I can well do without noise reduction on the Push Active. The song "Patience" by Nas & Damian Marley had to serve as a song for comparison. My music ear, which is not very strong, likes it when the bass can be heard clearly. The basses sound solid, but do not take over. Compared to my Huawei Freebuds 3i with ANC, I like the sound of the Skullcandys a bit better. Trebles and lows are more nicely tuned and the basses are a bit more pronounced.

Recommendation even without voice control

Der urbane Bruder (links) des Grind Push Active (rechts) - beide im Grössenvergleich mit der grössten Schweizer Münze

The tested Push Actives are good. I can recommend them to those who are looking for reliable sports headphones with a long battery life. The voice control feature advertised as a "killer argument" is not one for me. It is practical and sometimes works better, sometimes less well. However, it is certainly not a novelty in the headphone game. I can overlook the lack of ANC. Overall, good gizmos for a slim budget and long days thanks to good battery life.

The Push Active has a little brother: the Grind Fuel. Equipped with similar battery life but smaller case, which can also be charged wirelessly. I miss noise suppression in the Grind Fuels. That would be very useful in everyday life, for example on train journeys. There are devices like the Nothing Ear (1), which are in the same price range and come with noise cancellation. The Fuels also have a function called "Personal Sound". During a five-minute listening test via the app, the ear is measured and the sound is adjusted. However, I did not notice a noticeable difference to the preset profile.

Headphones

Skullcandy Grind Fuel

ANC, 9 h, Wireless

13 people like this article

Manuel Wenk

Communications Manager

Manuel.Wenk@digitecgalaxus.ch

As a Multimedia Producer, preparing multimedia content and knowing about cutting-edge technology is my business. My main focus at digitec is producing videos. I can’t wait to try out new products such as cameras, drones or smartphones as soon as they’re launched. This is where being at the source comes in rather handy. When I’m not working, I’m probably skiing, biking or hiking – the mountains are my place to be.

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