Skullcandy Method 360 ANC Review: Bose-Tuned Sound at Half the Price?

Skullcandy isn't a brand that's known for producing headphones or earbuds with audiophile-grade sound. The brand (at least in India) is more popular among the youth for its cool designs and signature bass-heavy sound, paired with affordable pricing. That's not to say Skullcandy doesn't design premium products. The brand's Uproar and MOD series offer that. With the new Method 360 ANC, Skullcandy aims to cater to the needs of the mid-range buyer. These will be a hard bunch to please, so Skullcandy has teamed up with audio specialists at Bose to deliver a slightly more mature sound profile while sticking to its radical roots.

Skullcandy Method 360 ANC Design: You Are Holding It Wrong

• Weight - 22g (both buds), 99g (with case)
• Durability - IPX4 (sweat and water resistant)
• Colours - True Black, Leopard, Future, Cement, Crazy Pink, Plasma, Bone, Primer

As much as I wanted to try out the wild-looking Leopard option for review, we were sent the stealthy True Black unit. Skullcandy's Method 360 ANC has a familiar-looking frosted case with a cool gradient that transitions from black to translucent from the bottom to the top. The earbuds are placed into a slide-out drawer. And yes, this mechanism is very similar to Skullcandy's Dime Evo earbuds, complete with a loop and clip. However, there is one major difference, and this gets quite obvious when you pull out the drawer to access the buds.

The Skullcandy Method ANC 360's charging case appears very similar to its Dime Evo series

As odd-looking and ridiculous as this design is, using the clip to pull the tray out of the case kind of feels like pulling the pin off a grenade. And once you open the case, you will be shocked, surprised, and instinctively curious why the two buds are placed on either side of the drawer instead of the Dime Evo's orientation (side-by-side).

Once I started using these earbuds daily, I kind of understood why. Unlike the Dime Evo's buds, which are smaller in size, Skullcandy had to adopt Bose' earbud mould and design, which is a bit bigger and thicker. Yes, these earbuds appear very similar to Bose's QuietComfort Ultra earbuds, with some additional Skullcandy embellishments like the LED lamp and the rebellious skull logo. A larger version of this logo also appears on the bottom end of the translucent case shell. And there is an LED (alongside the USB Type-C charging port) to indicate the charge status of the case battery on the bottom as well.

The Method ANCs have a very odd and unusual placement for their earbuds on either side of the case drawer

Back to the buds, they do make ideal use of the capsule-shaped form factor, but placing them back into the case mould is a task I still cannot figure out even after weeks of use. The reason for this is the shape of the mould itself.

From the time we were toddlers, we instinctively tried to fit blocks into place by observing the shape of the given cavity or mould. Skullcandy's inverted design for the placement of the buds is pretty much the opposite of what a majority of people assume it will be positioned to fit into. And that's the reason why, every single time, I've inserted the buds in the opposite orientation because of the shape of these moulds!

And once you have figured out the orientation of the buds, you then have to figure out which bud goes into which side of the case drawer! Skullcandy has pointed out on its site that the best way to tackle this issue is to hold the case in a manner where the "Skullcandy" branding is facing you. This automatically aligns the case so you can conveniently place the right bud on the right side.

Left: How we expect the buds to fit. Right: How the buds actually fit into the case

The case is large and blocky in a trouser pocket, so it's best clipped onto a loop to keep it accessible. If you are worried about the buds falling off, the case has some strong magnets to hold them in place even when opened.

How chunky is the case? Here is the Method 360 ANC case (right) next to a regular-sized OnePlus Buds 3 case (left)

One additional pain point about the case design that I frequently encountered is that the buds did not disconnect from the source despite placing them in the case and closing the case. Turns out the gel fins on the buds may at times result in a bad placement in the case mould, which means they don't connect to the pins inside, keeping the buds connected to the source.

Skullcandy Method 360 ANC Software and Features: Packed the Brim!

• App - Skull-iQ (Android and iOS)
• Bluetooth - v5.3
• Microphones - 4

The manual in the box will recommend downloading the Skull-iQ app for customising your TWS experience. While I was able to download and update the firmware of the buds using the Skull-iQ app around the launch date, the app is no longer available in the Play Store nor in the App Store in India at the time of writing this review. As recommended by Skullcandy's India team, users can download and use the Skullcandy app instead.

The Skullcandy app is easy to understand and operate

Keeping their mid-range price in mind, Skullcandy's Method 360 ANC buds come packed to the brim with features. The gesture controls are easy to understand and are also customisable through the Skullcandy app. Since there is no slide gesture to adjust volume, I wish that the touchpad to register gestures wasn't as sensitive. I have accidentally triggered ANC mode, pairing mode, and whatnot just by removing one bud to pause content. There were times when the bud I left in (my ear) would switch to Stay-aware mode, while the one I pulled out would stay in ANC mode. The only way to sync both buds was to change the hearing mode in the app or cycle through the hearing modes on the buds themselves using my custom button preference.

Wear Detection works as intended and instantly pauses content (music or video) on the source device when you pull the earbuds out of your ears. While the feature works fine, there is no way to turn it off (or deactivate it) via the app. Also missing are any spatial sound or head-tracking features you can find on buds available at this price point.

The Skullcandy app has a basic 5-band equaliser with only one custom profile

You get a customisable equaliser with three presets (Music, Podcast and Bass Boost) and one customisable preset. The customisable preset is pretty basic with 5 adjustable frequency bands. Also available is a low-latency mode for those who game on their mobile devices.

Skullcandy Method 360 ANC Performance and Battery Life: Typical

• Driver - 12mm (20Hz - 20KHz)
• Supported Audio Formats - AAC, SBC
• Sensitivity - 97.1 ± 4dB
• Bluetooth Multipoint support - Yes (2 sources)

It's hard to tell if Bose has had any influence (if at all) on the typical sound we have come to expect from Skullcandy's products. There's a lot more detail and punch, with a slight focus on the mids and a heavier focus on the bass (because Skullcandy). These buds surprisingly produce a wide soundstage, but it's hard to deny or ignore the bassy influence with the default Music preset. The Podcast preset sounded quite lifeless, and the Bass Boost can hurt your ears. And so, I stuck to the default Music preset for this review.

While I enjoyed listening to a variety of music genres on Methods 360 ANCs, one should absolutely avoid classical music with these. These earbuds are better suited for bass-heavy tracks when you are heading to the gym, on your run or when you simply want to enjoy some thumping beats. You can customise the sound using the equaliser in the app, but it's hard to get rid of the bass to the point where it does not negatively influence (or take away from) the listening experience. The average listener will find the sound profile “entertaining”, but anyone looking for a mature/refined sound will not.

You will have to try out the various gels and fins provided in the box for a perfect fit

When it comes to active noise cancellation (ANC), fit plays an important role. You will need to experiment and try out every single fin and ear gel option (S-M-L sizes of each in the box) to make sure you get a comfortable fit that also does a fine job at blocking out sound (or air leaks) even before the ANC is switched on. After trying out the default medium ear gels and medium fit fins, I settled for the large ear gel and fit fins a week later. You can even choose a mix of medium gels and large fins for the perfect fit depending on the shape of your ears.

Given the shape of the earbuds (heavily influenced by Bose' QuietComfort Ultra), I did not feel the need to use ANC at home, even with a table fan blowing at my face.

The chunky design, along with the fit fins, do a fine job with passive noise isolation

The active noise-cancelling system (ANC) is pretty impressive all by itself (partly thanks to Bose' inputs). While it's quite possible to effectively keep out a majority of ambient sounds by just using the right combination of ear gels and fit fins, the adjustable ANC can effectively drown out a majority of sounds, except for high-pitched ambulances passing by on the street and the occasional honk. It can even suppress (not cancel) a table fan's sound (emanating from its blades) along with noisy kids in the neighbouring room. There isn't absolute silence, and the Method 360 ANCs cannot compete with full-sized headphones in terms of ANC. But it's a good attempt by Skullcandy, given the price.

Phone calls sound loud and clear, and the AI-based noise suppression does a fine job of suppressing horns and other traffic sounds on the street while prioritising and boosting the caller's voice. Also impressive is Stay Aware mode, which is customisable and lets in outside ambient sounds into the earbuds (while jogging or walking) in a very natural way.

The charging case may be bulky, but it offers good battery backup for charging the earbuds

Connectivity isn't a problem with the Methods 360 ANC earbuds. Calls and music sound loud and clear even after a sufficient distance (7 metres) and a solid brick wall in between.

Skullcandy promises up to 32 hours of battery life with the charging case. I was able to match these figures with ANC on. With casual use, these buds easily last me nearly two weeks when used with the case, before they need to be charged. By themselves, the earbuds can last an entire workday of continuous music listening, which is about 7-9 hours. Charging the buds takes 45 minutes, with one of the buds reaching 100 percent in just 30 minutes.

Skullcandy Method 360 ANC Verdict

Yes, Bose has managed to influence Skullcandy's Method 360 ANC earbuds. But this is mainly in active noise cancellation (ANC), not so much in sound. As they stand now, the Skullcandy Method 360 ANC sounds very much like a typical Skullcandy product. At its current asking price of Rs. 11,999, the ANC is definitely up to the mark, but the sound quality may leave mid-range buyers asking for more unless they are fine with the bass-heavy sound profile. What may be another problem with the mid-range buyer is the radical but odd case, which is quite large, bulky and fidgety when it comes to removing and placing the earbuds.

Since we have not reviewed Bose's QuietComfort Ultra TWS, we cannot comment on how the two TWS compare when it comes to sound quality. But the Ultras offer a wireless charging case, support for lossless codecs (Snapdragon Sound) and the ability to swipe the earbuds for volume adjustment. And these three features, missing on the Method 360 ANC, may justify the QuietComfort Ultra's price tag, which is much higher at Rs. 26,900 in India.