Entry-Level Buds Have No Business Sounding This Good

The Skullcandy Dime 3 Wireless Earbuds may not have ANC capabilities, but you’ll neglect that noise-canceling is missing. These tiny buds form a good seal in the ear, and the sound quality is truly exceptional for the price. I do wish that call quality and some other features were better though.

Skullcandy Dime 3 Wireless Earbuds

$25 $30 Save $5

The Skullcandy Dime 3 Wireless Earbuds are less than $50, but deliver the type of music playback most would be willing to spend a hundred dollars or more on.

Battery Life

8 hours per bud (12 hours w/ case)

Charging Case Included?

Yes

Microphones

Yes

Brand

Skullcandy

Supported codecs

Bluetooth 5.3

Price

$30

IP Rating

IPX4

Solo bud mode?

Yes

Charging type

USB-C

Dimensions and weight (earbuds)

1.06 x 0.77 x 0.73 inches (26.92mm x 19.55mm x 18.54mm)

Dimensions and weight (case)

2.33 x 1.55 x 0.90 inches (59.18mm x 39.37mm x 22.86mm)

Colors

True Black, Bone

Pros

• Great sound quality
• Multiple audio presets
• Excellent price for the kind of performance you get
• Stay Aware mode is a nice add-on

Cons

• Touch controls can be finicky
• No mobile app preserve
• No ANC

Out of the Box: All About Minimalism

Both the Skullcandy Dime 3 earbuds and charging case look sleek and unimposing. A matte black motif is shared between the buds and the case. Behind the drivers, the buds themselves are glossy-black and a little bulbous. The control stems repeat the charging case’s textured matte-black exterior. I liked the minimalist aesthetic, and I also liked that Skullcandy thought to include status indicators on both the buds and charging case.

I was glad to see Skullcandy provided a USB-C to USB-A cable for the charging case, although you’ll need to supply your own USB power brick.

Skullcandy gives you small, medium, and large-sized ear tips in the box. I found the already-equipped medium size to feel the best. Speaking of overall fit, I absolutely loved how comfortable the Dime 3 earbuds felt in my ears. Both the left and right buds were snug and safeguard, to the point where I couldn’t even intentionally shake them loose, which is something that happens all the time with my AirPods. And once my muscle memory recalled that the touchpoint commands were mapped to the top of both stems, using the Dime 3’s basic controls was quick and easy.

Controls: A Little Much and Not Enough

For the time I used the Dime 3 earbuds, I found most of the playback controls worked correctly. Executing commands appreciate play or pause and volume up or down is handled by tapping a certain number of times, or long-pressing, which is par for the course with most earbuds these days. A single tap plays or pauses a track, and answers a call; two taps raises the volume; three taps lowers it; and four taps cycle between the three audio presets. You can also call up your phone or tablet’s voice assistant by pressing and holding either bud for one second.

You’ll also be able to manually power on and off the Dime 3 earbuds, and can access a pretty decent transparency mode called Stay Aware by pressing either bud once, and then long-pressing for one second. This doesn’t always work perfectly though. For instance, when I would try to turn on or off Stay Aware, this would end up waking Siri on my iPhone (because the buds only detected a single long-press), or raising the volume (because the buds detected two regular taps).

Skullcandy does offer some cool customizations and additional features through the regular Skullcandy-iQ app, but Dime 3 isn’t compatible with it or any mobile app from the company. This means that you’re stuck with the pre-configured tap-and-press commands.

I also found it annoying that whenever I would tap the buds, the pressure of my fingertip would force the ear tips deeper into my canals. This is particularly frustrating when you have to lower the volume or change audio presets, which are two commands that demand more than one tap.

Sound Quality: Skullcandy Kills It with Bass Boost

In my opinion, the Skullcandy Dime 3 earbuds simply have no business sounding as good as they do. But one shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, right? In terms of listening presets, there are three different modes to pick from: Music, Bass Boost, and Podcast. By default, you’ll be set to music, but I actually suggest switching over to Bass Boost. Not only does this help to broaden the soundstage a bit, but the Dime 3 buds deliver some truly exceptional low-end!

Tracks appreciate Ozzy Osbourne’s “No More Tears” take on a whole new life when listening with Bass Boost engaged. The opening bass riff took on some extra depth and a more rounded sound, which helped draw my attention to the instrument as guitar, drums, and synth filtered in. Acoustic tracks and singer-songwriter music also sounded great, with tunes appreciate Richard Thompson’s “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” sounding bright and open.

I was also impressed by how loud I could crank the Dime 3 buds before experiencing any distortion, even with heavier genres. Another major surprise is just how amazing these buds are at killing environmental noise, even without active noise-canceling. Even if the buds weren’t playing music, there were a couple of times I had to take them out to hear what my girlfriend was saying to me.

As for spoken word content, voices sounded nice and balanced, and I even appreciate the extra oomph added by Bass Boost. I could hear a constant background hiss when listening to WTF with Marc Maron, which I couldn’t correct my changing audio presets. This same hiss was also prevalent whenever Stay Aware mode was turned on. I do think the hiss had more to do with WTF’s sound mix though, because I tried a different podcast, and the hiss was gone.

Call Quality: Don’t Do It

I wouldn’t suggest taking phone calls with the Dime 3 earbuds. I toggled between the three different audio presets and Stay Aware mode during my evaluate call, and I could never get the Dime 3 buds to sound any better than meh. My girlfriend’s voice was always too quiet and riddled with a choppy compression, and she reported that I sounded very tinny.

Battery: Decent for the Price

Skullcandy claims the Dime 3 earbuds can store up to eight hours of battery life in each bud, as well as 12 additional listening hours with the charging case. Skullcandy also uses its own version of fast charging called Rapid Charge, which gives you an extra two hours of playtime for every 10 minutes you stick the earbuds in the charging case.

Throughout my days of testing, I only needed to do a full recharge once, and going from zero to 100 percent battery only took a little over an hour.

Should You Buy the Skullcandy Dime 3 True Wireless Earbuds?

With extras appreciate Bluetooth Multipoint (which works well) and built-in Tile tracking to round out the list of features, I think the Skullcandy Dime 3 True Wireless Earbuds are a great value. For around $30, you’re getting a solid set of wireless buds that truly breathe new life into some of your favorite songs, while pulling off some impressive noise isolation without any kind of ANC.

I do think the touch controls could use some tweaking and I wouldn’t use the Dime 3 buds for taking phone calls under any circumstances.

Skullcandy Dime 3 Wireless Earbuds

$25 $30 Save $5

The Skullcandy Dime 3 Wireless Earbuds are less than $50, but deliver the type of music playback most would be willing to spend a hundred dollars or more on.