Skullcandy Dime True Wireless   Headphones Review

The Skullcandy Dime are small truly wireless headphones with a simple style. They're fairly non-descript and have a brand logo on both stems. They come in four color variants: 'Black', 'Light Grey/Blue', 'Blue', and 'Green'.

The Skullcandy Dime Earbuds are fairly comfortable. They come with three differently-sized ear tips and don't put too much pressure on the inside of your ear. However, they're a bit bulky and have a deep in-ear fit. To use the controls without putting pressure on your ear, you need to hold the bud in place while making the command.

The Skullcandy Dime have okay controls. Most controls can be done on either earbud. You can press either earbud once to play/pause audio or answer/end calls. To turn the volume down, you tap the left earbud twice while the same input on the right earbud raises the volume. You can also track skip backward with a one-second hold on the left earbud. A one-second hold on the right earbud skips the track forward. You can also activate your phone's voice assistant by pressing three times on either bud. While there are chimes to let you know when you've reached the min/max volume, and there's audible feedback for connecting, pairing, and disconnecting devices, the buttons aren't very clicky.

These headphones have an incredible breathability performance. Thanks to their truly wireless design, they don't trap much heat in your ears. You shouldn't feel too much of a temperature difference while wearing them, and you shouldn't sweat more than usual.

The Skullcandy Dime are very portable. Like most truly wireless in-ears, they have a small and lightweight design that should easily fit into most pockets. They also come with a very small carrying case that can fit into most pockets.

The Skullcandy Dime have a good case. It's very small and can be used to charge the headphones. There are two openings on the lid to see the buds, but you won't be able to see the battery light on the buds when the lid is closed. There's also one small LED on the case near the charging port, which lights up when the micro-USB cable is charging the case. This light turns from red to green to indicate when the case is done charging.

The Skullcandy Dime have a good build quality. They're mostly made of solid plastic, which makes them feel durable. They're also rated IPX4 for water resistance, although we don't currently test for it. That said, the earbud tips are a potential weak point as they may be prone to ripping over time.

The Skullcandy Dime have good stability. Although they stick out of your ears a bit, they should stay in place while you're casually listening to audio or if you're working out.

• Skullcandy Dime earbuds
• Charging case
• Micro-USB to USB-A charging cable
• 3x tip size options
• Manuals

The Skullcandy Dime have a slightly bass-heavy sound profile that adds a bit of thump, rumble, and punch to your audio, which fans of EDM and hip-hop can enjoy. It shouldn't be too overwhelming, though, and you can use these headphones while listening to a variety of audio content. However, they lack sound enhancement features to help tweak their sound to your liking. If you're looking for truly wireless earbuds with sound customization features, try the JLab Audio GO Air POP True Wireless.

The Skullcandy Dime have outstanding frequency response consistency. Once you get a proper seal with the included ear tips, you should get consistent audio delivery each time you use them.

These headphones have excellent bass accuracy. It's slightly overemphasized across the range, which adds a touch of extra thump, punch, and boom. While it shouldn't be too overwhelming, some users may find it to be a little too boomy.

The Skullcandy Dime have excellent mid accuracy. The range is fairly neutral, although the dip in the mid-mids can nudge vocals and lead instruments to the back of the mix. That said, vocals and lead instruments are still clear and accurate.

The treble accuracy of the Skullcandy Dime is great. The range is fairly even, although the left and right drivers are slightly mismatched. As a result, the left driver is more underemphasized in the low-treble range, which slightly veils vocals and lead instruments. That said, sibilants like S and T sounds are bright but not piercing.

The Skullcandy Dime have great peaks and dips performance. There's a small peak across the high-bass and low-mids, which adds boom to your mixes. The dip in the mid-mids nudges vocals and lead instruments to the back of the mix. There's also some mismatch between the left and right drivers in the low-treble, so the left driver's dip in this range veils vocals and lead instruments. The peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals piercing.

The Skullcandy Dime have sub-par imaging. The weighted group delay falls below the audibility threshold, resulting in a tight bass and transparent treble. Also, the L/R drivers of our unit are well-matched in frequency response. However, there is some mismatch in amplitude present. There's also a lot of phase mismatch, and we had a hard time matching the right driver to the left one. As a result, objects like voice and footsteps in the stereo image aren't accurately placed and localized. However, these results are only valid for our unit, so your experience may vary.

Like most truly wireless in-ears, the Skullcandy Dime have a terrible passive soundstage performance. They don't interact with the outer ear, which is one of the key components in creating a large and speaker-like soundstage. Audio also sounds like it's coming from inside your head, rather than from speakers placed all around you.

These headphones have a very good weighted harmonic distortion performance. There are a couple of small peaks in the treble range at normal volume levels, but it shouldn't be very noticeable. All frequencies otherwise fall within good limits, which results in clear and pure audio reproduction.

Update 03/02/2022: We originally reported the Codec to be 'SBC, 16-bit, 48kHz'. However, it's 'SBC, 16-bit, 44.1kHz'. We have corrected our results and updated our review.

These are the settings used to test the Skullcandy Dime. Our results are only valid when using this configuration.

These headphones have satisfactory noise isolation. They struggle to cut down bass-heavy noise like the rumble of bus or plane engines. They do a better job of reducing ambient chatter, though, and they can block out the high-pitched hum of an AC unit.

The Skullcandy Dime have a fantastic leakage performance. They don't leak a lot of sound, and the sound that escapes sounds thin. If you're listening to audio at a high volume, people around you shouldn't be able to hear it unless you're in a quiet setting like a library.

The integrated mic's recording quality is alright. It can capture your voice clearly, so you're understood by whoever's on the other end of the line. However, it doesn't sound very full-bodied or natural.

Update 03/02/2022: We originally scored the 'Speech + Subway Noise Handling' recording too harshly. After further evaluation, we're raising the score from '4.5' to '5.0' to better reflect its performance in these conditions.

The microphone has a sub-par noise handling performance. It struggles to separate your voice from moderate background noise, so those on the other end of the line may have trouble understanding you if you take a call in a loud environment like a train station.

Update 03/02/2022: While testing the second generation of these headphones, the Skullcandy Dime 2 True Wireless, we noticed that the earbuds would disconnect from the device, even if there was music playing. If the headphones weren't moved after some time, they would also turn off. However, when we tried the same thing with this generation, we couldn't replicate these results. As a result, 'Power-Saving Feature' remains as 'No'.

The Skullcandy Dime Earbuds have a sub-par battery performance. They're advertised to have a 12-hour total battery life, although we measured slightly more than that. They deliver under four hours of continuous playback time, which is less than the JBL Vibe 100TWS True Wireless' five hours. Luckily, the case holds around 2.5 additional charges, and it can fully recharge the headphones in just under an hour. You can also use one bud while the other one charges, but they don't have a power-saving feature to help conserve battery life. That said, battery life can vary depending on usage.

Update 03/02/2022: Although Skullcandy advertises that these headphones don't support the Skullcandy app, we could connect them to the app. However, it recognizes the buds as the Skullcandy Dime 2 True Wireless, even though the firmware version and serial numbers are different depending on if the first-gen or second-gen is connected to the app. It's also not possible to rename the first-gen in the app. As a result, we have updated our review.

The Skullcandy Dime are compatible with the Skullcandy app, although it's advertised to not support these buds. The app is fairly limited, and there aren't any customization features to help you tweak their sound to your liking. That said, you can see the battery and volume levels, check the firmware version, access the product FAQ, and register the buds. You can also find the buds via Tile, but you need to download this app separately.

The Skullcandy Dime have an okay Bluetooth performance. They don't support multi-device pairing, which is disappointing if you like to keep your headphones connected to your phone and laptop at the same time. They also have high latency on PC, so they may not be suitable for streaming videos. While they have somewhat high latency on iOS devices, their latency on Android devices is much lower, so you shouldn't notice too many issues with your audio or visuals being out of sync when connected to this kind of device. However, some apps and devices compensate for latency, so your real-world experience may vary.

These headphones are wireless-only. They come with a micro-USB to USB-A cable to charge their carrying case.

These Bluetooth-only headphones aren't compatible with Xbox One or Xbox Series X consoles.

The Skullcandy Dime's charging case offers around 2.5 additional charges. It has a micro-USB input so you can charge the case, but it doesn't have any additional inputs.