Well… no.
I really wanted to have wireless headphones for running and gym visits, so I got myself a pair of Skull Candy SMOKIN’ BUDS 2 WIRELESS. Those headphones sound good enough for exercise – on par with in-ear headphones I used so far (Sony from Xperia Z and Z3 and Skull Candy buds).
But I’m not happy with the purchase. Here’s why:
- The wireless headphones need charging. I’ve already run out of power once in the gym. And even if you have power the headphones tell you they need charging soon by… beeping. Beep… beep… beep… every few seconds. Try to concentrate with that in your ears.
- The headphones are not wireless. There’s no wire to connect to the phone, but there’s quite a lot of wire connecting the in-ear buds. And this wire is more annoying that a standard cable, because it’s not attached to a fixed point, so it bounces around neck. And it has a sizeable bit of plastic in the middle. Skull Candy tried to patch this by adding a quite heavy rubbery neck bundle. Which stills bounces a bit and is no less irritating.
- Android 6 cannot reliable handle BT audio. I’m using BT audio in my car, with Sony SRS-X55 speaker and with those headphones. Switching between Sony speaker, car and SB2 sometimes confuses Android. I had to go to BT settings to remove the connection and reconnect the phone again to all those devices several times. It doesn’t always help – I had to restart my phone three times as well. Which is not what I want to be doing in gym’s changing room!
- BT range is good in theory, but seems to have gaps. Maybe my phone (Xperia z3) has a directional antenna or maybe it’s the headphones. I can leave the phone 3 to 5 meters from me and the sound is working well, but as soon as I slip the phone into my pocket the sounds starts to break. Not much, but I’m getting very short breaks every few steps – just like my body is blocking the signal.
Would I buy different headphones instead of SB2? No. The whole approach is broken and the whole ecosystem needs updating. I’ll try again in 3 years.
