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Quick Summary

Skullcandy's Method 360 ANC launched as their best wireless earbuds… on paper. However, they’re incredibly buggy with lots of quality control issues.

What it Does Well

Clear 12 mm drivers with great detail and decent bass
Incredible ANC
Secure fit even during workouts

Where it Fails

No quality control: ghost presses, ANC bugs, case connectivity issues
Lacks visceral bass thump
Uncomfortable over long periods
Bulky case

Connectivity, Battery Life, and Case

The Method 360 ANC uses Bluetooth 5.3 with multi-point. So it connects to two devices at once, but only plays audio from one at a time.

With ANC on, these get up to 9 hours of battery life for the earbuds themselves and 23 additional with the case for a total of 32.

With ANC off, they get up to 11 hours for the buds and 29 added by the case for a total of 40.

Case Issues

This case is an unmitigated disaster. It looks cool, and the idea is you can clip it onto a bag or belt buckle.

Unfortunately, this is extremely bulky and uncomfortable to keep in a pocket. The case is prone to sliding open which can lose you your earbuds. Apparently, the Method 540 fixes this issue with a better locking mechanism.

Aside from these just being a pain to manage physically, they have a lingering bug that the Rail ANC also has. Often when you put these in the case they simply do not disconnect from your device and turn off. This happens with or without a charge on the case.

Other times, these won't activate when taking them out of the case. In other instances they'll spontaneously turn on and connect to a device when they previously were off in the case.

The case dying also forces them on. This is all a massive battery drainer, and one of the many reasons I don't use the Method 360 much.

Controls

There controls are where we run into our primary issue. The Method 360 uses capacitive touch controls. I’ve shown the default controls below.

I've adjusted mine to have one touch on both do nothing. If you do end up getting and keeping these, I highly recommend that as it mitigates the ghost taps and when you adjust these in your ears, it stops a single press from actually doing anything.

Ghost Taps

The Method 360's touch controls are extremely sensitive. So much, that they will actually activate on their own and you'll hear the little chirp. This will play or pause audio or even end calls without your input.

These are ghost taps. And my unit isn't just a "lemon". This is actually my second pair, because I sent in my previous one for the same problem and a completely different one. This issue does not seem to be universal, but you can look on Reddit and scattered in written reviews from regular people complaining about this or trying to figure out what is.

I did a bunch of trial and error testing: it's not the wind. It's not the light, it's not loud sounds. It is specifically the sun.

The electromagnetism from direct sunlight will cause these to automatically activate. It might not happen with yours, but it happened with both of mine and to other people’s as well.

If you get one like this, the only real workaround is setting a single press to do nothing. You'll still get the chirping sound as if the earbud detects a press. and It's still quite annoying when listening to music or pretty much anything, but nothing will actually happen.

Audio Quality

Audio measurements taken with my miniDSP EARS (not industry standard).

The sound quality is the strongest aspect of the Method 360 ANC.

These use 12 mm dynamic drivers with a frequency response range of 20 Hz - 20 KHz. They were tuned by Bose as opposed to Skullcandy themselves.

The Method 360 ANC is way clearer than anything else from Skullcandy. The sound separation is excellent. There are slightly elevated upper mids and treble, but not too piercing like the Crusher Evo.

The midrange is scooped out so we're leaning towards a v-shaped approach. Expect forward, but not exceptionally natural vocals.

The bass has a bit of a punch to it, meaning it has a fast impact that can be felt. The sub-bass is gets deep as well. Most people will probably love these.

But this is The Bass Arena. If you want deep, booming, thunderous bass like the Rail ANC, these are not it. You can try with EQ, but the drivers are just not tuned for that. If you're looking for rich detail without the auditory masking of the bass muffling vocals, the Method 360 ANC is a great pick. These might be the best overall sounding earbuds I've used so far.

But they do not get the Bass Arena approval for massive sub-bass and bass.

Active Noise Cancellation

The ANC on these might even be better than the earbud audio quality.

It's incredibly effective at shutting out loud recurring sounds like cars, AC units and fans. Intermittent sounds get toned down as well.

The ANC hiss isn't too loud and my ears tune it out quickly. The stay-aware mode leans on the tinny side, but it's good for hearing if people or cars are nearby or approaching.

Quality control is an issue here too. With my first pair, I had a loud propeller-like sound in the left earbud - only when ANC was on.

Wear Detection

Sadly, the wear detection feature cannot be turned off. If one earbud is out, your media will pause, and the ANC will switch to transparency mode.

This can happen when you're readjusting them or just want one in. Why is there no toggle for this??

Microphone Audio Quality

The Method 360 ANC mic is very similar to the Rail ANC and sounds a bit robotic and compressed. However, it eliminates a lot of background noise. In the above audio clip, it minimizes traffic noise and birds chirping.

This is clearer than most earbud mics, but still not actually “good”.

Skullcandy App

When I first bought the Method 360, it was using the Skull IQ app. They switched back to the Skullcandy app. There's really not a lot in this app. A lot of these tiles are just info blurbs.

What you do get are multiple EQ presets, (only one custom preset), controls customization, and ANC strength tuning.

There's no way to change the volume of the voice prompts that tell you the battery life, connection status, or ANC status. You have to hear them every single time you power the Method 360 on.

Comfort and Build

Aside from the magnetic charging points, these are all plastic. They come with three different ear tip and wing sizes.

At first, these are very comfortable to put in. They stay snugly in place due to the wing tip. But after about 30 minutes, you realize a few shortcomings. These ear tips don't really have the squishy-ness needed to create a good buffer between your ear and the hard plastic underneath.

The wing actually falls off pretty easily when you're taking the earbuds off or putting them in the case. Aside from that, the top of the wing starts to get irritating as it digs into the folds of the ear.

This is a trade off; they're honestly very uncomfortable over long periods, but they stay in place. So if you do a lot of working out or running, they do their job.

Ultimately, they get a C on comfort, but an A in build because they actually do what they're intended to.

Verdict

So for my verdict. Hard pass. The Skullcandy Method 360 ANC has some great ideas, and the sound quality and ANC are actually impressive. However, there are just too many issues that could have been solved with a bit of testing.

The ghost taps, bulky case, connectivity problems with taking them out or putting them in the case, no toggle on the voice announcements or the wear detection… it's just a bad user experience overall.

Not Bass Arena approved. I recommend the Rail ANC instead even though the ANC is much weaker.

Skullcandy Method 360 | Where’s the Quality Control?