Last year Skullcandy finally made a headphone I liked: the Grind, an on-ear model that's comfortable and sounds really good for its relatively modest price (it costs less than $50 online). Now the company has introduced a Bluetooth version -- The Grind Wireless -- that carries a list price of $90. No word yet on UK or Australia pricing, but that price converts to about £65 and AU$125.
Skullcandy Grind Wireless
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
From a design standpoint the Grind Wireless is very similar to the Grind and comes in six different colors at launch. The Grind is lightweight but seems sturdily constructed, with a metal headband and plastic earcups that don't look or feel cheap. It's comfortable to wear, particularly for an on-ear model, and seals out some ambient noise, though over-ear headphones will offer better noise isolation. Although it's a wireless model, you can listen to it in "wired" mode with an included cable.
The Grind Wireless comes in multiple color options but simple black has its appeal.
A microphone is built into the right earcup along with volume controls and a pause/play button that also answers and ends calls. You hold the volume up/down buttons to advance tracks forward or back. Battery life is rated at 12 hours.
Alas, it doesn't fold up or come with a carrying case. I also thought it only performed OK as a headset for making calls (I could hear callers clearly but they said sometimes made me repeat what I was saying).
Those small gripes aside, this is a very good-sounding Bluetooth headphone for the price, with well balanced sound, pretty tight bass and decent clarity for a Bluetooth headphone. There's only a little bit of treble and bass push.
Close-up of the buttons on the right earcup.
I compared it to another to on-ear wireless headphone I reviewed recently, the Urbanears Hellas, which cost about $30 more and have touch controls and add water resistance. They have somewhat similar sound profiles. This Skullcandy is arguably slightly more comfortable, but the Urbanears has washable earpads.
Not to raise performance expectations too much, I should point out that this is still a Bluetooth headphone, so you'll get that touch of Bluetooth dullness when you listen to it, and it's not incredibly open or rich sounding. But it does compete well with some Bluetooth headphone I've tested that cost $150 or even $200. However, the Plantronics BackBeat Sense is a superior performing headphone, as is the Bose SoundLink Bluetooth On-Ear. But both of those models cost more than this one (in the case of the Bose, much more).
Other on-ear wireless headphones in this price range (or a little less) include the Jabra Move and Sol Republic Tracks Air Wireless, which have come way down in price. The Tracks Air isn't as comfortable as this Skullcandy, but if you're a fan of the Tracks style, its worth checking out at around $70 online.
It's also worth mentioning that the wired Grind has come down in price and now can be had for around $40 online. Over time we expect the Grind Wireless model will get discounted, which would make it an even better bargain than it already is.