Skullcandy Indy Evo True Wireless Headphones Review

The Skullcandy Indy Evo are aesthetically similar to the Skullcandy Indy Fuel Truly Wireless. They’re conventional-looking truly wireless earbuds with a stalk design that doesn’t poke too far out of your ears. They’re made of dense, matte plastic available in a fairly wide range of colors ranging from subtle to eye-catching, like mint green. If you aren't a fan of their stem-like design, you could also consider the Skullcandy Sesh Evo True Wireless, which have a more traditional in-ear appearance.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo are decently comfortable truly wireless earbuds. While their outer buds are a little large and can cause a little bit of soreness during extended periods of use, they’re very lightweight and shouldn’t exert too much pressure on the inside of your ear canal. They also come with a couple of differently-sized ear tips and stability sleeves to help you find a tight, secure fit.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo have an adequate control scheme. It’s identical to that of the very similar Skullcandy Indy Fuel Truly Wireless, with a touch-sensitive surface that isn't especially intuitive but does provide a fair bit of functionality. Voice prompts are provided for Bluetooth pairing, power on/off, and EQ mode cycling.

On the left earbud:

• One tap: Lowers the volume.
• Touch and hold for two seconds: Skips to the previous track.

On the right earbud:

• One tap: Raises the volume.
• Touch and hold for two seconds: Skips to the next track.

On either earbud:

• Double tap: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and ends calls.
• Triple tap: Activates voice assistant.
• Tap once and hold for two seconds: Activates ambient mode, which allows you to better hear your surroundings without turning off your audio.
• Tap twice and hold for two seconds: Cycles through the following EQ presets: 'Music', which is the default mode, 'Movie', and 'Podcast'.
• Touch and hold for four seconds: Turns the buds on.
• Touch and hold for six seconds: Turns the buds off.
• Touch and hold for 10 seconds when off: Resets the buds.

These headphones have fantastic breathability. Thanks to their in-ear design, they don't trap in much heat. You shouldn't notice a difference in temperature or sweat more than normal, even if you're wearing them during an intense workout.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo are exceptionally portable. Just like the Skullcandy Dime True Wireless, they’re small enough to put into your pocket without much of a hassle, while their charging case can easily be thrown into a bag.

These truly wireless in-ears have a good case. It features a dense plastic construction that should prevent the headphones from being damaged by drops and minor water exposure.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo have good build quality. They employ a dense matte plastic construction that shouldn’t attract fingerprints or be damaged by small bumps. They're also rated IP55 for dust and water resistance. The case feels similarly sturdy, though the lid doesn't shut if the buds aren't precisely positioned in their charging cradles.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo are stable. As long as you find the correctly-sized ear tips and stability sleeves, they form a pretty tight seal that shouldn’t fall out of ears, even during moderately intense exercise.

• Skullcandy Indy Evo truly wireless headphones
• Charging case
• 3x ear tips
• 2x stability sleeves
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Manuals

When using the default and most neutral EQ 'Music' mode, the Skullcandy Indy Evo's sound profile is somewhat dark. They have an accurate bass response, but fans of EDM and hip-hop might want a little more thump and rumble. Unfortunately, their heavily underemphasized treble mutes a lot of finer detail and makes them ill-suited for more delicate genres like jazz or classical. They have three built-in EQ modes to better suit different content, though: 'Music', which is the default mode, 'Movie', and 'Podcast'.

Note: There is some mismatch in the left and right drivers, which may be noticeable with some audio content. However, this issue may be limited to our unit. If you experience similar issues, please let us know in the discussion section below.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo deliver superb frequency response consistency. Once you find the right-sized ear tips and stability sleeves, sound reproduction should be consistent across separate reseats and listening sessions.

These headphones have fantastic bass accuracy. It’s flat across the range and very well-reproduced, meaning that music should have plenty of punch and body without overwhelming delicate vocals or instrumentals.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo provide impressively accurate mids. Vocals and lead instruments should be mostly absent from clutter. That said, an extended dip across the mid-mid and high-mid ranges nudges them toward the back of the mix and slightly dulls their finer edges.

The treble accuracy of these in-ears is poor. It's very underemphasized, meaning that vocals and lead instruments are veiled, which hurts their comprehensibility. Sibilants like cymbals are also dull and lispy.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo's peaks and dips performance is great. However, the left and right drivers are mismatched in a few places. A bump in the right driver adds extra boom to your mixes, which can also clutter vocals and lead instruments, while a dip in the left driver in the mid-mid nudges these sounds to the back of your mix. Another peak in the right driver's high-mid can make the upper harmonics of these sounds harsh while a dip in the low-treble veils them. Both drivers have an uneven mid-treble, though, so sibilants like S and T sounds are alternatingly dull and piercing.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo provide a great stereo imaging performance. Their weighted group delay falls entirely beneath the audibility threshold, ensuring tight bass and transparent treble. There's some minor amplitude mismatch present in the L/R drivers, and a peak in the phase response's high-mid may be noticeable in specific content like vocals. This can result in the right driver sounding louder than the left. The L/R drivers are well-matched in regards to frequency and phase response, so they should be able to accurately localize objects like voices and footsteps in the stereo image. That said, these results are only valid for our test unit, and yours may perform differently.

Unsurprisingly for a pair of in-ear headphones, the Skullcandy Indy Evo’s passive soundstage is awful. Since they don’t interact with the outer ear and employ a closed-back design, music sounds like it’s coming from the inside of your head rather than from speakers placed around you. The soundstage also seems more closed-off than headphones with an open-back design.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo's weighted harmonic distribution performance is good. Aside from some spikes in the low and high-treble ranges, the rest of the frequency range falls within good limits, ensuring a fairly clean and pure listening experience.

These are the settings we used to test the Skullcandy Indy Evo, with the EQ in its default ‘Music’ mode and the small ear tips fitted. Our results are only valid when using this configuration.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo’s passive noise isolation performance is alright. While they struggle to reduce ambient noise in the bass range, like bus or plane engines, they’re substantially more effective at blocking out sound in the mid-range, so you shouldn’t hear much in the way of background chatter. They also do an excellent job of blocking out higher-pitched noises, like the hum of an AC unit.

The audio leakage performance is superb. You can listen to your music at very high volumes without worrying about disrupting people nearby, even if you’re in a very quiet environment.

The integrated mic has satisfactory recording quality. People on the other end of the line shouldn’t have trouble understanding you, but your voice may sound somewhat thin and muffled.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo’s integrated microphone has inadequate noise handling capabilities. Your voice may be drowned out by background noise in loud or crowded areas, so they’re not the best option if you frequently make calls in those sorts of environments.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo have poor battery life. The battery lasts under three hours of continuous use, less than half the six hours Skullcandy advertises. That said, the case does yield an additional four charges, which should be enough to get you through the daily grind. They also have a 15-minute charge that's advertised to provide roughly 2.5 hours of playback. You can listen to one bud while the other recharges in the case too. However, battery life can vary depending on usage, so your real-life experience may vary. If their short battery life is a deal-breaker, take a look at the Skullcandy Jib True Wireless or the OnePlus Buds Truly Wireless.

Like many other truly wireless headphones in Skullcandy’s lineup, these in-ears have a poor companion app. The Skullcandy app isn’t especially helpful, as it only offers an ambient mode toggle switch and an option to update the headphones’ firmware. It also features a user guide as well as a display of their current EQ mode, though it doesn’t allow you to change it. If you want similar headphones with EQ presets in their app so you can customize their sound, check out the Skullcandy Indy ANC True Wireless.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo have adequate Bluetooth connectivity. They’re Bluetooth 5.0-compatible but don’t support multi-device or NFC pairing. Their audio latency is too high on PC to make them suitable for gaming or watching movies, but it’s much lower on iOS and Android devices, so you can watch YouTube videos on your phone without experiencing too much audio lag. That said, apps compensate for this latency differently, so your experience may vary.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo are Bluetooth-only, and you can't use them with a wired connection. They come with a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging their case.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo can connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full audio and mic compatibility. However, you can't connect them in any other way.

The Skullcandy Indy Evo come with a case that provides four additional charges. Unlike the similar Skullcandy Indy Fuel Truly Wireless’ case, it can’t be recharged wirelessly. It has a USB-C port so that you can recharge it using the included cable.