Skullcandy Eco Buds S2EOW

The Skullcandy Eco Buds are a sustainability experiment that mostly works as a concept but falls flat on sound quality. You get 8 hours of battery from the buds, but the case has no battery at all, so you'll need to plug into your phone to recharge. At 21 USD they're a decent backup pair, but the 5th percentile sound score means music lovers should steer clear.

The 6mm dynamic drivers do their best, but the results are underwhelming. Sound lands in the 5th percentile, which means most earbuds at this price or above will outclass them. Bass is thin, mids are muddy, and there's no ANC to speak of, just passive noise isolation from the fit. Battery life is also a weak spot at the 14th percentile. You get 8 hours from the buds themselves, which is fine, but the case has no battery at all. That means no top-ups on the go unless you're willing to sacrifice your phone's charge. The 10-minute rapid charge giving you 2 hours is nice, but it only works when plugged into something. Connectivity is solid with Bluetooth 5.3, and the IPX4 rating means sweat and light rain won't kill them.

Stacked against the competition, the Eco Buds struggle. The Nothing Buds 2 and Anker Space A40 both offer far better sound and ANC, though they cost more. The Soundcore P31i and JLab Jbuds Pods are closer in price and still beat the Eco Buds on audio quality and battery convenience. The EarFun Air Pro TW230B adds ANC and a proper charging case for not much more money. The Eco Buds' only real differentiator is the sustainability angle and the battery-free case, which is a trade-off most people won't want to make.

At 21 USD, these are cheap enough that you could almost treat them as disposable. But the value proposition gets murkier when you look at the CAD pricing, which swings from CAD 25 to CAD 61 depending on the vendor. That's a huge spread for the same product. If you're in Canada, shop around and grab the CAD 25 listing if you can find it. At the low end, the Eco Buds make sense as a backup pair or a gift for someone who mostly listens to podcasts. At the high end, you're paying too much for what you get.

The Skullcandy Eco Buds are a weird little experiment. The pitch is simple: cut the battery out of the charging case, use recycled plastic, and sell a pair of true wireless earbuds for around 21 bucks. That's a bold move, and honestly, the sustainability angle is the most interesting thing here. The case has a built-in USB-C cable that plugs straight into your phone to charge the buds, which is either clever or annoying depending on how you feel about draining your phone's battery to power your earbuds.

Sound quality is where things get rough. Our database puts these in the 5th percentile for sound, which is about as close to the bottom as it gets. If you're buying these for music, you'll probably be disappointed. But if you want a cheap, sweat-resistant pair of buds for podcasts or calls and you care about the eco-friendly design, there's a niche here.

Skip these if you listen to music as your primary use case. The sound quality is genuinely bad, landing in the 5th percentile of our database. Also skip if you travel or commute long hours, since the battery-free case means you can't top up on the go without draining your phone. And if you need reliable call quality, the mediocre mic will frustrate you.

Buy these if you want the most eco-friendly earbuds you can find for pocket change and you don't care much about music quality. They're fine for podcasts, audiobooks, and casual calls. If you're an audio enthusiast or you need earbuds that can survive a full day away from a charger, look elsewhere.