Skullcandy Aviator Review

Headphones are all about quality and comfort and that’s something all major headphone manufacturers focus on, too, while designing and building their products. There are some others who give importance to style and design and Skullcandy is one of those companies who have carved a niche for themselves in the category for stylish products. The Aviator is just another one of their wacky designs and it’s priced quite high in the price chart, as compared to their basic canal earphones. 

**
Design**

The design, a slightly sophisticated one is unlike all the other mainstream headphones in the market. It shows as the headphones come packaged in a hard plastic enclosure. The cans are supported by two metal rods and there’s also a soft faux leather headband lined with cloth that sits comfortably on your head. The drivers are covered by a dark transparent plastic cover that gives the headphones a very stylish look. The cans themselves are fairly small and just about cover my ears. Ears do curl up a little bit, so this can get a little uncomfortable, if you wear them for long hours.

More from Reviews

Best phones under Rs 75,000 (March 2025): Apple iPhone 16, OnePlus 13 to Google Pixel 9 Apple iPhone 16e First Impressions: The budget gateway into Apple Intelligence

The volume control module

There’s one cable that runs along from the left can to the audio source. The cable has a synthetic sheathing covering it, making it flexible and sturdy at the same time. The cable is quite thin, though, as compared to cables found on most high-end headphones.

Fancy branding along the headband

There’s a fair amount of attention to detail - for example, the volume control module has a tiny Skullcandy logo etched on it and the 3.5mm audio jack too has a metal base with more branding splattered on its side. The size and compact design also means you could wear them outdoors - there’s very little movement, while walking around.

Features

The Aviator uses 40mm neodymium drivers and these are rated to support a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz. They’re said to have an impedance of 65 Ohms, higher than the 32 Ohms that most entry-level headphones have. The headphones have a small volume control module that hangs off the cable - there are controls for the volume as well as a pause-start function for the music. The Skullcandy Aviator can be used with anything from desktops to PMPs to mobile phones or practically any source with a 3.5mm jack.

Available in multiple colours

There’s no microphone built into the volume control module, though. The length of the cable is sufficient for use with a phone or PMP in your pocket, but those who use rear ports on a PC kept on the table or under it, might find the cable length falling short by quite a bit. Those users might have to buy a 3.5mm extension cable.

Performance

The Skullcandy Aviator, unlike some of the other stylish headphones around performs reasonably well. There’s a reasonably high level of detail on these headphones. It’s certainly powerful to be an everyday movie or music listening headphone. The headphones have some sound colouration to them in the sense that the bass is slightly below our personal likings. The mids are also present, but it sounds like there’s a spike in the highs. While this isn’t annoying, it’s not the natural sound. There’s very little distortion at really high volumes, which means the Aviators score another point in our books.

Classic design but also, decent performance

The soundstaging on the Aviators is pretty narrow. There’s also a good amount of noise isolation when you wear the headphones. It won’t cut out all of the background noise, but it does reduce surrounding noise by a good bit, even without playing any music. Play some music and you’re isolated from the surroundings completely. 

Large transparent cans on the Skullcandy Aviator

Comfort level is average, like we mentioned earlier - users with rather small ears won’t find it annoying. There’s not much fatigue from the tone of the headphones like you get with certain headphones. The amount by which the headphones extend downwards could be a problem - there’s very little of it.

Verdict

The Skullcandy Aviators were expected to be fancy, and they are. However, like other headphones that ride on large brands and associations with stars, the Skullcandy Aviators offer a fair amount of performance.

Pretty comfortable to wear

Sure, it’s still pretty expensive at Rs. 9,990. Of course, there are more affordable headphones that offer superior quality and we’d recommend those, if you’re only out for performance. But if you’re looking for something sleek, portable and stylish with a decent punch, you won’t regret this purchase.