A few days ago, Skullcandy announced more than just new wireless Push Active headphones for a market increasingly saturated with devices that hardly differ. The company debuted with a product that included its own voice control platform. We’ve been testing them for the last week, and they are the beginning of something very interesting.
It is often said that the best technology is the one that improves our lives without hardly being seen, the one that does tasks so easily that it goes unnoticed. There are the shots of the activation by voice commands in True Wireless headphones, a technology that Skullcandy has called Skull-IQ and that has included them in the new Push Active.
On paper, the idea looked great. Voice command activation lets you perform tasks without touching a single button, from answering or ending a call, to playing music or podcasts, all without the use of your hands.
Push Active: good, pretty (and cheap)
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The new headphones come in a matte black plastic charging case that is imprinted with the brand’s logo on the top of the lid. At the bottom it indicates the battery status through four LEDs. The carcass too It has a USB-C charging port, the only way we will have to charge, since the device does not have wireless charging.
For its part, the design of the headphones is marked by the use that the company expects of them. It is a model prepared for the practice of high intensity activities, so they are perfect for exercise, with those arches adaptable to the ear for better support and resistance to sweat and IP55 water.
The truth is that in my experience I have not had any complaints regarding their ergonomics, they fit the ear without problems, they are comfortable, they do not have loud colors and I have not had any kind of strange sensation. That being said, the Push Active don’t have different ear cushion sizes, so I guess those with a very small or very large ear should take that into account.
Before you wonder, the headphones do not offer active noise cancellation, but in return they provide good passive isolation from outside noise and the Stay-Aware mode is included, which comes to be the ambient sound option where we let something in. outside sound so as not to isolate ourselves completely. The mode works very well, I would even say too much, since sometimes more “noise” penetrates than I would like.
I would define the sound as clean, without distortions or stridencies listening to all kinds of musical genres, although, and here I suppose no one is going to be surprised, neither does it get big bass or “fat” sounds. In return, from the Skullcandy app on the phone you can choose from some preset equalizer settings or make adjustments with a custom equalizer. The company has explained that more features may be added via updates in the future.
In terms of calls, the inside of the headphones has two noise-reducing microphones that guarantee they are clear and, here is the grace of the equipment, with Skull-iQ we have hands-free control when you are on the move.
Skullcandy promises 10 hours of battery life stored in each earbud, along with 34 hours in the charging case for a total of 44 hours of playtime. Reality? They nail it, it’s my tests have stayed on even a little longer. If you’re in a hurry, the headphones also include fast charging for two hours of listening on a 10-minute charge.
Like most of the latest products they have released, the Push Active also integrates with the Tile tracking platform. To do this, we must install the company’s app, create an account and add the headphones to the application. Then if you ever lose one or both earbuds, you can open the app and “call” them to find them. You can also use the map to see their last known location if you think you might have dropped them somewhere outdoors, or enlist the help of the Tile Network to find them.
The price of Push Active? Here I think there is another of the great strengths of the headphones (along with the implementation of Skull-IQ technology that we will explain below), since the model has a sale price of 79.99 euros, a cost more than adjusted for a fairly complete sports team that also innovates.
Skull-iQ, the beginning of something very interesting
As we said at the beginning, Skull-iQ is the new voice control platform that Skullcandy integrates in the Push Active. The beauty of this technology is how ridiculously easy they work, controlling the headphones through voice commands in a tremendously intuitive way.
To activate the wizard we simply have to say “Hey skullcandy”. The best? That works fine. After that phrase, the company shows us a series of commands that, accompanying the initial greeting, will allow us to skip tracks, change the volume and play or pause audio. In addition, it can be used to enable or disable Stay-Aware mode, access your personal assistant, take photos if we have the camera activated or, and this is exclusive to Push Active, activate Spotify through Spotify Tap.
As the company has told us, it is a pioneering collaboration with the popular music service for which Skullcandy becomes the first brand of audio with voice access to Spotify Tap. Little more to say, if you have Spotify on your computer, with Push Active you just have to activate it by voice command (in this case, “Hey Skullcandy, Spotify”) and start listening to audios.
As for my feelings with the voice control system, I can only speak highly of it. After pairing the Push Active with the Skullcandy application, a voice will confirm the activation of the function. Voice control will remain atctive while the application is running in the background. From then on, through the commands we will be able to order the actions to follow.
Yes, they are limited to audio tracks (with the Spotify option) or incoming calls, but it is frankly well implemented to be the beginning of the platform. At home I had no problems getting the commands to respond the first time, and outdoors, where I had my doubts, both running and taking a walk, the system continued to respond without getting hung up at any time.
Of course, all these functions too can be carried out using the physical button included in the Push Active, you can even customize to set a different action for each ear.
In summary
The Push Active are the beginning of something more than interesting with the implementation of Skull-IQ technology, but they are far from perfect. They do not have ANC and the Stay-Aware mode, although it works well, is sometimes too “sensitive” to what is heard outside. On the other hand, being headphones focused on physical activity, I understand the point that the environmental mode is more opened.
With Skull-IQ the headphones will receive frequent software updates, which, according to Skullcady, means that the Push Active will receive interesting improvements in the near future, mainly in the area of personalized sound and equalization.
That said, we are talking about sports headphones that more than fulfill the main functions required of such a device, with very good sound, plenty of hours of autonomy without having to charge them and that add a voice assistant for your daily use that works perfectly.
If to all this we add a groundbreaking price, in a range below 100 euros, we have headphones with a value for money that is difficult to match.
