Skullcandy Riff Wireless review: Stylish, comfortable, easy on the pocket

The Riff Wireless is winter-ready. I sometimes don’t mind keeping them on even when I am not listening to anything. Its soft cushioning is almost as comfortable as it gets for on-ear headphones. The pair rivals the Sennheiser HD 2.30i in that, and edges past it for being lighter at 152 grams.

Design

Its plastic headband felt flimsy at first but has lasted the test of time, and my rough use. I also thought the cushioning would tear but even after a month of consistent use, the pair is good as new. My grey review unit has turquoise speckles at the ear cups and is quite stylish. The other colour options, such as the black pair with orange and the all-black and all-white look even better. Call it greed, but I would have liked a few more, brighter colour options.

Performance

The Bluetooth 4.1 makes the device easily discoverable. It would take you less than a minute to pair it with any compatible device. I tried it with at least three phones – both Apple and Android – and a laptop. The headphones quickly connects to anything in its vicinity.

The pair is light on the ears and so a lot more rides on its Active Noise Cancellation than its ergonomics. It's not a pair that completely isolates you in a very noisy environment, like the metro, but it does the job at home and in office. I even wore it on a run once. I adjusted the headband for a snug fit and it stayed put for the course. The results were, understandably, not the same during a more functional workout.

The sound quality is great for watching movies or playing games. The pair emulates a surround sound effect which is quite pleasing. Low-frequency sounds are transmitted well – so you get a deep bass. The distortion is low and the lyrics are heard as clearly as intended. You would love listening to the likes of Post Malone and Drake. The pair suffers, however, when the treble shoots up. The sound at high treble can get screechy at the maximum volume. But it’s not unbearable as is the case with many sub-10k wireless pairs.

The Riff gets grace marks for charging so quickly -- 0 to 100 in less than an hour -- and giving a competitive 9-10 hours of playback (though, a bit less than the claimed 12 hours).

Verdict

The Riff Wireless is not an expensive pair and can’t be perfect at every pitch. The only major drawback is that there’s no provision for wired listening when the battery runs out. Even so, at Rs 5,399 (on Amazon), it's a value buy for being stylish and comfortable, and delivering a balanced sound output.