Κάτι διαφορετικό και πολύ χρήσιμο από την Skullcandy, ασύρματα ακουστικά που μπορείς να χειριστείς εύκολα με γάντια στη μηχανή, στο σκι ή οπουδήποτε, ακόμα κι σε μέρη που κινδυνεύει να βραχεί. Διαβάστε μια κριτική από εδώ:
One of the most irritating bits with neckband style earphones is that they always keep on dangling around your neck. That sounds practical on paper but when it comes to the real world conditions, they tend to become extremely uncomfortable. Especially during the summer season when you are all sweaty and out in the sun, these neckband earphones cause irritation. Wireless earbuds are a solution but you have to worry about them falling away every time you take one of them out of your ear for talking to someone.
Hence, the idea of the Skullcandy Vert appealed to me a lot. The Vert is Skullcandy’s idea of doing neckband style wireless earphones without doing anything with the neck. The Vert has been designed for use in outdoors and that shows right from the moment you pick it up. It costs Rs 4,999, which is within reach for most people and aims to solve all listening problems while being outdoors.
I am not exactly an outdoor person going trekking or hiking but for an urban dweller, I happen to commute a lot (that’s being a journalist) and I picked up the Vert for a few days to see whether I can finally live with a neckband style earphone on a daily basis.
Design: Living wired is now comfortable
The Skullcandy Vert solves one of the biggest issues with the neckband style earphones- it doesn’t bother you while you wear it. The credit goes to the design for this convenience.
The Vert at first glance looks like any other pair of wired earphones. However, look closely and you will see a weird circular dial instead of a thick neckband. The dial is what controls the Vert and it’s the genius bit of the design. The dial features a massive button that you press once to either play, pause and receive a call while on the move. You can even long-press it to switch on or off the Vert. There’s a partially rotating crown that you can twist either way to adjust the volume or twist and hold to change tracks.
Wondering what’s so genius about this? Skullcandy says this design can help with controlling the earphones while wearing riding gloves. More than that, there’s a clip behind the dial and that you can use to mount the Vert on yourself anywhere. Technically, you can only attach it only on your torso as the earbud cables are just long enough to let you stretch it to the torso section. It may not sound exciting but when you can attach the bulk of the device anywhere on your apparel, it makes for very comfortable wear.
Even though the weather’s now cold, I was always attaching the Vert on my shirt collar or my chest pocket and walking under the sun without any worry. In fact, throughout a busy office day, the Vert was sitting on my collar the whole day and never did it result in accidental pullouts of the earbuds. You can even wear the Vert while riding your bike but I would ask you to refrain from doing that as it’s dangerous on the road. Just park by the road and talk or reach your destination and then switch on your music.
When it comes to earbuds, they are quite slim and fit easily in the ear. They don’t have much of passive noise isolation but Skullcandy says that has been done intentionally to keep the user aware of the surroundings. The matte ear tips are comfortable as well and they hold up quite well in the ear. The shape is quite clever as it pumps in all the audio into the ear without building up the pressure that’s an issue with affordable earbuds.
Since the Vert is meant to stay outdoors most of the time, it comes with an IPX4 rating which means you can be at peace if you are too sweaty or going around in dusty areas. There’s a flap to cover the charging port that you have to ensure stays shut for the water rating to work.
Performance: it makes for enjoyable sessions
The Vert is one of the most balanced sounding earphones I have used this year. Unlike a OnePlus Bullets Wireless 2, the Vert doesn’t do bass very well. However, the audio always has clarity and there’s no distortion at higher volume levels. The mids are strong but they can sound muddy at times to give you the feeling of bass. The highs are clear and crisp while the lows are decent. I quite liked what the Vert had in store for me. Whether I was on the move or writing stories, the Vert’s audio was never heavy on my ear, I could wear the Vert for all day and still won’t feel tired.
The Vert’s audio profile is such that you will like listening to Hollywood tracks, where the bass isn’t that much of a priority. For example, with Ed Sheeran’s Perfect, you get clear vocals and guitar tones but the bass is absent, which is fine for a song of this genre. With Bollywood tracks, the lack of bass is slightly worrisome but if you can do without thumping bass, the audio quality is always light and clear.
Given that you are going to stay away from sockets the whole day when you are outdoors, the Vert offers an impressive battery life. Skullcandy claims up to 10 hours on a single charge and for most of the time, I was able to keep it going for almost that long. With heavy usage of at max four hours per day, I had to plug it in for a refill after five days on an average. There’s some sort of fast charging that gives you two hours of juice with 10 minutes of charging. The micro USB port is a bummer as I had to carry an additional cable with me all the time for charging it up.
Conclusion
The Skullcandy Vert is one of the few brilliant earphones I have used in 2019. The Vert shines, especially where it matters the most for a pair of earphones meant to be used outdoors. The unique design of the Vert, especially the dial, makes it easy to use outdoors and unlike other neckband earphones, it doesn’t cause any kind of irritation as you can wear it in any way you prefer. And that’s a big plus point for me. The battery life is also great.
The Skullcandy Vert is a great pair of earphones for use on the go and even while you are indoors. The balanced audio, ease-of-use and great battery life make it must-have accessory if you spend most of your day with songs.