Skullcandy turned to Bose to tune its latest earbuds, the Method 360 ANC ($129.99). The partnership gives the Method 360s the excellent sound we've come to expect from Bose, but everything else about the buds is uneven. We like the extensive battery life, simple app, and customizable EQ, but find them uncomfortable to wear for too long and ineffective at cancelling noise. For the same price, we recommend the $129.99 Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro buds instead, which have equally good sound with better noise cancellation, a more comfortable fit, and are our Editors' Choice for low-cost noise-cancelling earphones.

Design: A Unique Look That Doesn't Quite Fit

The Skullcandy Method 360 ANC earphones take on a slightly different design than most other true wireless buds from the company. The earbuds' shape is similar to that of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds ($299). They have a somewhat bulky design with preinstalled wings to help them stay in your ears and a short stem that helps with weight distribution and balance. The Method 360s come in various colors, including a cool-looking red hue Skullcandy calls Plasma. Other options include Bone, Leopard, Primer, and True Black. I received the True Black color, perhaps the most boring of the lot. The earbuds have an IPX4 water-resistance rating, which means they can handle light rain and sweat.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

The bulky earbud shape makes for a relatively uncomfortable fit. The wings help them stay in my ears perfectly fine, but they grew uncomfortable over longer listening periods. Some earbud shapes are more comfortable than others; I didn't enjoy the Method 360's fit.

Each earbud has an external touch sensor for controls, which you can customize via the app. By default, both earbuds have the same controls. A single press plays and pauses the music, a double press skips to the next track, a triple press cycles between ANC, Stay Aware, and Off modes, and a one-second hold activates Spotify Tap. I like that you can set different controls for the left and right earbuds.

Internally, the earbuds have 12mm drivers, producing a typical frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz. The earbuds connect to your phone via Bluetooth 5.3 and support Google Fast Pair for quick and easy pairing and Bluetooth multipoint for connecting to two sources at once. They only support the basic AAC and SBC audio codecs, which means no high-resolution audio support.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

The charging case is bulky and hard to carry around. Rather than a round puck, it is shaped like a tube, and you pull the earbuds out from the top. Strangely, the sides are flipped: The right bud is on the left and vice versa. Pulling them out of the case and inserting them into the proper ear—as well as doing the reverse—takes some getting used to. It's not the most intuitive design.

One of the best things about the Method 360 earbuds is their battery life. Skullcandy claims they will get you nine hours of continuous use with ANC turned on or 11 hours with ANC off. The charging case includes 32 hours of battery life with ANC on or 40 hours with it off, which is longer than many competing buds. When it comes time to charge, 10 minutes produces two hours of playtime. The case doesn't support wireless charging.

In addition to the earbuds, you get a short charging cable and three extra pairs of eartips and wings, for a total of four pairs of each (including those already on the earbuds).

App Experience: Just the Bare Bones

The Skullcandy Method 360 ANC earbuds work with the Skull-IQ app (available for Android and iOS), not the standard Skullcandy app. The Skill-IQ app seems to be a kind of Skullcandy-skinned version of the Bose QCE app. It is well-designed and provides access to a range of helpful controls.

The main screen lets you toggle between hearing modes, access the EQ, change button settings, and more. However, all of these require tapping into a different menu, and it might have been nice to have controls accessible straight from the main screen.

(Credit: Skullcandy/PCMag)

The user-adjustable EQ is only average. You can choose from several presets, including Music, Bass Boost, and Podcast. The custom option lets you adjust five bands, but they're not clearly labeled. Instead, the bands include Low, Low Mid, Mid, High Mid, and High. Skullcandy could have done a better job designing this.

Noise Cancellation: Uncompetitive for the Price

The Skullcandy Method 360 ANC earbuds have active noise cancellation (ANC), but after testing, we'd label it subpar. With the "intensity level" control turned all the way up, the ANC eliminates some of the low-end rumble of a plane engine and some of the high-end hiss, but the noise is still clearly audible. This is true of a city bus, too, where the earbuds reduce some of the grinding of the engine, but let through most of the high-frequency squeaking from the suspension and the doors. In a busy café, the earbuds can dial down some background chatter, but it is still easy to hear voices from nearby conversations.

In this price range, the Nothing Ear and the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro earbuds do a much better job at controlling noise.

The Stay Aware mode is fine and lets you converse with someone without removing the earphones. However, it introduces an unnatural hiss to your audio, so much so that you may want to use the Stay Aware mode sparingly. It also makes my voice sound boomy via the side tone, which is unpleasant.

Sound: The Bose Effect Pays Off

The Method 360 ANC earbuds feature audio tuned by Bose, which, in theory, means they should sound better than other earbuds at this price point. The Method 360s are not the most natural-sounding buds out there, but ultimately, they produce deep bass and crisp highs while sounding better than the majority of similarly priced alternatives.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

The earbuds are particularly good at delivering deep and powerful bass, which helps on a track like The Knife's "Silent Shout. " The song has a fair amount of sub-bass content that's often lost when listening through cheaper earbuds, but the Method 360s easily produce these low frequencies without making the track sound muddy or overbearing.

Kendrick Lamar's "Loyalty" also showcases the 360's ability to deliver a good bass response via the sub-bass line that flows through much of the track. The earbuds can produce all but the lowest bass notes in this line, and even then, there is some rumble that ensures the track doesn't suddenly feel empty. That bass is coupled with a good high-mid response for Lamar and Rihanna's vocals.

On Bill Callahan's "Drover," Callahan's vocal is the star of the show, and it sounds as rich and deep as it should. Some of the sparkle from the acoustic guitar strings gets lost a little, but the guitar still sounds natural and present.

The earbuds are surprisingly good for an orchestral track, like the opening scene to John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary. On this track, the brass sounds nice and bright, while instruments like the strings have plenty of depth. The track doesn't sound overly cluttered or busy, either, despite the high number of instruments playing at the same time.

(Credit: Christian de Looper)

The microphone sounds pretty good in a recording I made with the Voice Memos app on an iPhone. The earbuds pick up every word, and while my voice isn't at its most natural, it is still easy to hear me speak.