Skullcandy launches its first premium ANC headphones to truly challenge Sony and Bose, and their cool cross-body travel bag is a great start

Skullcandy Aviator 900 ANC cost £249 / $299 (about AU$520)
Adaptive noise cancellation and THX Spatial Audio with head tracking
Up to 60 hours listening time; Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio

If you’re going to compete with the likes of Sony and Bose for the title of best ANC headphones, you need to bring your A game, and ideally a bag with a skull on it. And Skullcandy has done exactly that with its new Aviator 900 ANC headphones.

Where rivals tend to offer a case, Skullcandy has gone for the more fashionable cross-body bag pictured below. And where rivals offer some form of spatial audio, Skullcandy’s gone for THX Spatial Audio with head tracking.

The bag feels like a genuinely useful and practical addition, while also being a more fashionable option, so it’s maybe a win all round.

These aren’t the first Skullcandy Aviator headphones: the previous model, relreased in 2010, was something of a hit among celebrities and influencers. This new model takes the same retro aesthetic but brings it bang up to date.

A close-up of the crossbody bag that comes with Skullcandy Aviator 900 ANC headphones. It's black with an embossed skull on it.

Where rivals offer a carrying case, Skullcandy has a bag with a skull on it (Image credit: Skullcandy)

Skullcandy Aviator 900 ANC: key features and pricing

The noise cancellation here is adaptive, with six microphones analyzing the audio around you, and with ANC on you can get a very respectable 50 hours of listening; with ANC off that rises to 60-plus hours. Rapid charging will give you four extra hours from a 10-minute charge.

Bluetooth is 5.3 with LE Audio and multi-point pairing, and there’s a low latency mode for gaming and watching video. Google Fast Pair and Google Finder are both supported.

The Aviator 900 ANC headphones include personalized audio via Mimi, and they also come with three EQ presets and a customizable 5-band EQ. You can customize the button functions via the companion app, and there’s Spotify Tap support for instant access to your Spotify tunes.

These are Skullcandy’s most premium headphones yet, we’re told, but they’re not priced too expensive: the list price is $299 / £249 / €299 / about AU$520.

That puts them in competition with the Sony WH-1000XM5 and the Bose QuietComfort Headphones – though they’re still less premium-priced than the $399 / £349 of the new Sony WH-1000XM6.

We look forward to seeing if they can stand up to those headphones when it comes to performance – but when it comes to features and design, they’re off to a good start.

Product shot of Skullcandy Aviator 900 ANC on a white background