Skullcandy Indy ANC True Wireless Headphones Review

The Skullcandy Indy ANC are truly wireless in-ears with a similar design to the Skullcandy Indy Evo True Wireless. They have a unicolor design with stems that protrude from the earbuds like the Apple AirPods Pro Truly Wireless. They're available in 'Black' and 'Chill Grey' color variants.

The Skullcandy Indy ANC are decently comfortable. They come with several different sizes of earbud tips and stability fins to help you get the best possible fit. When you use their controls, they don't hurt your ear, which is nice. However, the buds protrude from your ears a bit, and they can feel fatiguing after long listening sessions.

The controls are decent. They aren't very intuitive at first, but once you familiarize yourself with them, they should be easy to use. You can tap the left earbud to turn the volume down, or the right earbud to turn the volume up. You can tap either bud twice to play/pause audio or three times to answer/end a call or activate the voice assistant. Tap once and hold to turn the ANC on/off, and tap twice and hold to activate EQ mode. You can also hold the left earbud to skip to the previous track or hold the right bud to skip to the next track. The light on each bud changes colors to indicate different inputs. There's a chime when you reach max/min volume and a chime when you turn the buds on/off. However, the commands can be tricky, and sometimes you can accidentally make the wrong input, especially when adjusting the volume.

The Skullcandy Indy ANC are incredibly portable. Like most truly wireless in-ears, they're small and lightweight. You can even put them in their portable charging case when you're on-the-go, and they should fit into your pocket.

The case is good. Like the Skullcandy Indy Evo True Wireless' case, it's made of plastic, which feels dense and solid. There are four LED lights to indicate the battery level. However, if the stability fins aren't placed properly, the case can't fully close.

The Skullcandy Indy ANC have a good build quality. Though they're mostly made of plastic, they feel pretty solid and durable. They even have an IPX4 rating for water resistance, though we don't currently test for this. The plastic case feels pretty dense and durable, too, although you may have some trouble shutting the lid if the stability fins aren't positioned properly.

The Skullcandy Indy ANC are stable. Once you get a proper fit with the included ear tips and stability fins, they shouldn't fall out of your ears, even during more intense workouts.

• Skullcandy Indy ANC headphones
• Charging case
• 3x Ear tips
• 2x Stability sleeves
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Manuals

The Skullcandy Indy ANC have a bass-heavy sound profile. They offer extra boom, thump, and punch that can please fans of bass-heavy music genres, but may sound boomy and overwhelming for fans of a more neutral sound. Vocals and lead instruments are clear and present, but higher-frequency noises may be dull and veiled. There are a few EQ presets available to help you adjust their sound to your liking.

The Skullcandy Indy ANC have outstanding frequency response accuracy. Once you get a good fit and seal with the provided ear tips, you should get a consistent sound each time you use these headphones.

The Skullcandy Indy ANC have decent bass accuracy. The entire range is overemphasized, resulting in a thumpy, punchy sound. However, some listeners may find that their mixes sound muddy or boomy.

These headphones have amazing mid accuracy. There's a slight overemphasis in the low-mids that extends from the bass range, and the slight dip in the mid-mids can nudge vocals and lead instruments towards the back of the mix. However, the range is mostly flat and balanced, resulting in clear as well as present vocals and lead instruments within your mixes.

These headphones have middling treble accuracy. The range is underemphasized, so vocals, lead instruments, and sibilants like cymbals are dull, dark, and lacking detail.

The Skullcandy Indy ANC have impressive peaks and dips performance. There are slight peaks in the low-bass and high-bass, which add extra thump and boom to audio, while the dip in the mid-mids nudges vocals and lead instruments towards the back of the mix. The peak in the high-mids can make some vocals and lead instruments honky and harsh. The dip and peak in the mid-treble make sibilants like cymbals alternately weak and piercing.

The imaging is amazing. Weighted group delay falls below the audibility threshold, resulting in a tight bass and transparent treble. Also, the L/R drivers of our test unit are well-matched in phase, amplitude, and frequency response, so objects like footsteps and voices are accurately placed and localized within the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our test unit, so your experience may vary.

These headphones have a terrible passive soundstage. Due to their in-ear design, they don't interact with the outer ear, which is one of the key factors in creating a large and spacious soundstage. Also, because of their closed-back design, their passive soundstage doesn't seem as open as that of open-back headphones.

The Skullcandy Indy ANC don't have any virtual soundstage features.

The Skullcandy Indy ANC have a good weighted harmonic distortion performance. There's a peak in the treble range at normal listening volumes, but this may be hard to hear with real-life content. At max volume, the frequency range falls within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings we used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when using these settings.

The Skullcandy Indy ANC have good noise isolation. Thanks to their ANC feature, they do a decent job blocking out bass-heavy background noise like bus and plane engines. They perform even better against higher-frequency ambient noise, so you don't hear the sounds of coworkers chatting nearby or the hum of an AC unit. However, their ANC feature performs similarly to their passive isolation abilities in the treble range.

The Skullcandy Indy ANC have a remarkable leakage performance. They don't leak a lot of noise, and escaping audio sounds thin. If you listen to audio at high volumes, it shouldn't bother those around you if you're in a typical office setting.

These headphones have an integrated microphone.

The microphone has a decent recording quality. Your voice sounds thin, but it should still be understandable to whoever's on the other end of the line.

The microphone has mediocre noise handling. It struggles to separate your voice from background noise, so you may be drowned out if you're calling from a noisy setting.

The Skullcandy Indy ANC have an acceptable battery performance. They last for over five hours off of a single charge with the ANC turned on, though battery life can vary depending on usage. The company claims that they can last for nine hours with the ANC turned off. While they may not last you through your workday, their portable charging case offers around three extra charges so you can power up while on-the-go. You can also listen to audio with one earbud while the other charges, which is nice. If you're looking for ANC earbuds with a longer continuous battery life, consider the Skullcandy Sesh ANC True Wireless.

The Skullcandy app is good. You can use it to change the EQ preset and turn the ANC feature on/off. Also, you can turn Ambient Mode on/off, which can help you stay aware of your surroundings, like when you're running outdoors. There's also a feature that optimizes the sound based on the shape of your ear. However, it lacks a full graphic EQ for sound customization based on your preferences. If you're looking for earbuds with more robust customization features, try the Skullcandy Push Active True Wireless or the Amazon Echo Buds True Wireless 2023 (3rd generation).

The Skullcandy Indy ANC have satisfactory Bluetooth connectivity. They don't support multi-device or NFC pairing, and their latency with PCs is likely too high to be suitable for gaming. However, you should be able to watch movies and videos with iOS and Android devices thanks to their low latency. Note that some apps compensate for latency differently, so your experience may vary.

These headphones are Bluetooth-only.

These headphones are wireless-only. The USB-C to USB-A cable is for charging only.

These headphones aren't compatible with Xbox One consoles.

The Skullcandy Indy ANC come with a portable charging case that offers around three extra charges. It charges via the included USB-C cable.