We are presenting you a brand new Amazon echo buds review. There’s a lot of buzz going around about these buds. We’re going to address all of that in this article. So let’s dive right in here. Let’s start talking about these echo buds.
Design of Amazon Echo Buds
So probably one of the first things you’ll notice is how the echo buds only come in one color; black. With that color, black being kind of a mix between glossy black and matte black throughout the case and the earbuds themselves. Not really an issue for me cause I’m kind of all about that matte black lifestyle anyway.
But Echo earbuds probably would have been cool to see another color option, at least white with these things. But black is the only color option right now. And in addition to the earbuds themselves, you actually get several different size air tips to use with them. The Echo earbuds are in-ear tip style earbuds.
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So you do have small, medium, or large ear tips that actually choose from when using your Amazon earbuds. And in addition to the different size ear tips, you actually get these pretty cool rather unique wings, I think they’re called to use with the ear buds as well. Now, these are completely optional.
You don’t have to use these, but they could actually be used in conjunction with your Echo earbuds to help them fit into your particular ear size and ear shape a little bit better.
Personally, I haven’t found a need for them, so I don’t use them. But you do have different sizes available for these as well. The wings come in small, medium, or large, and you could either choose to use them or not totally up to you, but nice that those are included in case you want them.
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Comfortability of Echo Earbuds
I haven’t found the echo buds to be super comfortable, but they’re also not super uncomfortable either. They take a little getting used to, cause you’ll see the way you put buds in, if you put Echo buds in your ear, the actually kind of go up, enter your, the body of the earbud itself, kind of rest in the upper part of your ear as opposed to going down or pointing out like some other earbuds do.
Echo buds are pretty securely fit into there as long as you have the right ear tips picked out and all that. Custom fit Echo buds are not going to fall out. They’re going to be fine for working out or any kind of physical activity.
Not too bad in terms of comfortability, just maybe a little bit of a learning curve or adjustment period that you’re going to have to have when using Echo buds.
Personally, I like using ear buds which you can’t really even tell in your ears in terms of comfortability. Not really the case with the echo buds, but again, maybe over a couple of weeks time or even a couple of days time, you’ll just get used to it and it will feel more like there’s not actually earbuds in your ears.
Echo buds have pretty decent build quality. They don’t feel cheap, they don’t feel fragile, but at the same time, they don’t feel like super premium quality.
And like I mentioned earlier, you do have a mixture between matte black and glossy black on the earbuds and on the case itself. Not really a fan of the glossy black. I would have preferred the entire case in the entire Airbuds to be just straight up matte black.
You can already see the glossy black parts of the echo bud scratching pretty easily. In the buds themselves, they aren’t super small or minimalistic. They do feel a little bulky.
Again, when they’re in your ear, going back to what I said earlier, especially if you started using the wings with the echo buds, things could get a little bit bulkier than you might be used to, which might be good for a secure fit, but not really good for that minimalistic kind of low key kind of vibe you might be going for.
A little bit of bulkiness actually carries over to the case as well. The case itself isn’t overly large. It’s pretty decently sized considering the size of other earbuds cases these days.
The echo buds case feels kind of fragile, like it would probably break pretty easily if I were to accidentally sit on this or drop it. Not cheap, but not necessarily super high quality either so kind of in between.
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And then also just the simple opening and closing of the case. Not always used to solve right. They’re not always easy either. Sometimes the echo buds charging case closes on itself and sometimes it’s hard to open, so it’s a little slippery too.
I feel like there could be a couple of improvements made to the actual Amazon Echo buds case design itself in addition to the earbuds design.
After having said all that in terms of build quality, the echo buds and the echo buds case do not have not bad good build quality. But there is definitely room for improvement.
Probably not something you would think is premium quality or a premium feel, but they kind of do what they’re supposed to do in terms of design. I’ll give them a pass. They’re good, not great, but good.
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Hands-free Alexa Voice Technology Connectivity
But one of the most important features of these echo buds is probably one of its most important selling points, and that is the hands free Alexa Voice Technology connectivity. These buds actually allow you to talk and connect to Alexa through the echo buds, completely hands-free, using nothing more than just the sound of your voice.
And I gotta be honest. This is pretty cool. I’m a huge fan of Alexa and its artificial intelligence, Alexa as a virtual assistant, and to get that belt in hands-free into a pair of earbuds.
Amazon Echo buds make things a heck of a lot easier when you’re trying to connect with the Alexa voice service on the go, because now all of a sudden. It’s at the ready at any given time. Personally is pretty rare for me to actually have to have hands-free Alexa at any given moment throughout my day. I have an echo device in every single room in my apartment, so I could always connect to Alexa that way.
And then you can program other headphones or earbuds to work with Alexa. They just probably aren’t going to be hands free. So it’s not like the echo buds are exclusive to giving the Alexa voice technology connectivity. You do have other options available, but I think it’s that hands-free option that makes Amazon echo buds pretty unique.
But then again, you do have to think when you’ll actually utilize that. If you already have other echo devices throughout your home, chances are you don’t really need that built into your earbuds, but that likely will be helpful on the go or outside of the home where you don’t have an echo device at the ready.
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Just remember to connect to the Alexa voice service; you will have to have the Alexa app running in the background of the connected device that’s your echo buds are connected to. That is how the hands free Alexa voice service works on the echo buds. Amazon Echo buds go through the app on your connected smartphone or other device.
So just keep that in mind. You will have to have the connected device that has the Alexa app downloaded and paired to these echo buds nearby at all times in order to actually utilize the hands-free Alexa voice technology connectivity.
Are echo buds something you’re going to use every single waking moment of the day?
Maybe yes, if you’re constantly on the go and you have your phone right in your pocket.
Like I said, there are other earbuds or headphones on the market that give you similar functionality.
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How is the active noise reduction on the echo buds?
Well, let’s kind of distinguish there for a second here because I know it’s kind of confusing. Is Amazon Echo earbuds active noise canceling? Is Amazon headphones noise reducing? What’s the difference? Why are they called that?
Let’s try to explain. The easiest way to explain the difference based on what I’ve researched, what I’ve read is that Bose actually worked with Amazon to create the echo buds and to incorporate noise cancellation technology into them, but likely because of licensing issues Bose wasn’t allowing Amazon to actually call these echo buds active noise canceling.
So they’re just calling them active noise reducing. Echo buds are basically active noise canceling. They’re active noise reducing, that’s what they’re actually called. But in my experience, they’re pretty much ANC earbuds for most intents and purposes.
So how is the active noise reduction on the echo buds?
The active noise reduction is really impressive on Amazon Echo buds. Actually, the echo buds do a really good job of reducing out the ambient noise around you, almost all ambient noise.
It seemed to be reduced or to be honest, canceled out when using these Amazon headphones, and that’s probably in part because of the phenomenal passive noise reduction that you get with the echo buds design.
There’s a well-executed seal that has made in your ear canal that helps the echo buds to really keep out ambient noise before even turning on the active noise reduction. The only thing I will say about the active noise reduction built into these though, that Bose ANR, is that there does seem to be a rather noticeable hiss in the earbuds themselves.
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It’s not an annoying hiss, but it’s a very clear kind of present white noise hiss, that’s probably part of the noise reduction technology. It’s kind of somewhat of a pleasant kind of hiss, if you wanted white noise. It’s kind of like built in if you want to look at it that way.
Honesty, you can’t even hear that white noise when obviously you’re playing audio or music. You do have sort of a very noticeable hiss when you’re wearing echo headphones in your ears.
I’m very pleasantly surprised. The active noise reduction seems a lot more like active noise cancellation, even though it’s just called active noise reduction, so a huge pass when it comes to active noise reduction on the echo buds.
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Pass Through Mode on the Echo Buds
The pass through mode is very similar to the other kind of transparency modes you’re probably used to hearing about or reading about on other earbuds. And basically how pass through mode works is instead of canceling out or reducing ambient noises, the earbuds will actually amplify those ambient noises in your ear so you can actually hear them.
It’s supposed to be like what you would hear without earbuds actually in your ear. And why would you want that? Well, sometimes it’s actually important to hear and ambient noises around you, or maybe you’re about to have a quick conversation and don’t want to have to actually take the echo buds out of your ear to have one.
So the pass through mode actually allows you to toggle into pass through mode. So, you could hear ambient noises, have conversations or hear announcements if you’re on a train or something like that, without having to take the echo buds out.
Amazon Echo buds will enable you to hear those noises through the echo buds, even with echo buds still in your ear. This is a very helpful mode. A mode to probably actually find yourself using more often than you might think.
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And on the echo buds, that pass through mode could actually even be further customized within the Alexa app on your companion device that you paired them up to change the level of ambient noise amplification volume in your ear.
You actually have control over how loud ambient noises are in your ear when you have pass through mode on and then toggling in between active noise reduction mode and pass through mode.
It is super easy to do if you have a setup with one of the gestures. You will just double tap and you’re toggling between different modes. Pass through mode is kind of a must have in any pair of earbuds these days. It allows you to actually be able to toggle and hear the ambient noises around you without having to take the echo buds out.
Once they’re in, you don’t have to worry about it. So pass through mode on Amazon echo buds definitely works well.
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Gesture Controls of Amazon Echo Buds
You do get gesture controls on the echo buds when they’re actually in your ear. They are tap based gesture controls and you are pretty darn limited in terms of the different number of taps you have available to you.
That’s probably the most upsetting thing out of all this is the fact that they’re tap based and even with tap based, you only get two different tap functions on each echo bud for a total of four gestures. It would have been nice to have single double or triple tap tap functionality built into these things.
But you don’t, you simply have just a double tap or a tap and hold option on each. And I think if we had additional tap functionality that might’ve paved the way for maybe down the line on earbud volume control to kind of an option. But with the way these things are set up with just that double tap or tap and hold option.
You’re gonna have to pick and choose wisely which ones you want to actually use on these echo buds. So I definitely would like to have seen more gesture controls on the echo buds.
We kind of have a severe lack in terms of customization there, but it is what it is. At least we get some.
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Sound Quality of Echo Buds
Arguably, the most important thing to consider when using any pair of headphones or earbuds on the market today obviously has to be sound quality. And on the echo buds, this is where things kind of go downhill.
Echo buds are Bluetooth 5.0 so they’ve got that working for them for lower power consumption and a solid range. But even with dual balance, amateur drivers built into these things. You’re limited on codec support, limiting your high res audio, but without getting too confusing, let’s just talk about the sound quality in general.
Let me start off by saying on the echo buds, the sound quality isn’t bad. I want to make that clear. The sound quality isn’t horrible. You do have some bass that you’re working with. You do have the mids in the highs. But it’s not great. This is the weird thing is that depending on the volume level, you’re actually listening to these echo buds at.
The EQ isn’t really balanced. There’s this weird kind of sweet spot on the echo buds and I found that to be right around like 85% maybe 90% volume when you’re listening on your connected device. At that sweet spot there seemed to be a pretty good, decently balanced soundstage where the bass is balanced with the mids and the highs.
But as soon as you start listening at a volume below that sweet spot volume, the bass kind of takes over, and if you listen above that sweet spot volume, the bass kind of falls off. So below that sweet spot, the bass is kind of muddying out the mids and the highs and above this sweet spot, you kind of just hear only mids and highs.
So that’s pretty frustrating. And you do have options to actually adjust the EQ in the Alexa app. I didn’t find that to help at all. The EQ balance just doesn’t seem to be balanced throughout the volume spectrum, and that’s frustrating because you will want to hear that quality at the 85 to 90% volume at probably close to a hundred percent volume.
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And that’s another issue here because I constantly wish these echo buds actually got even louder than they do in my ear.
I’m listening at a hundred percent sometimes, and I wish they weren’t even louder than that. You do have some things that you’re working with here in terms of the sound stage, but mostly just when you’re listening at that sweet spot volume level, because below that, you’ll be hearing a lot of bass, mostly just bass and above that you’ll be hearing a lot less bass in mostly just mids and highs.
Not a whole lot going on for you there. Again, not terrible sound quality, but I do think at the price range, you probably could do a little bit better in terms of sound quality on the echo buds.
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Additional Features
First of all, keep in mind the echo buds are sweat resistant. So if you’re gonna use Echo headphones for any kind of physical activity, if you’re working out, if you’re jogging, if you’re running. You should be good to go.
Amazon Echo buds are not gonna fall out of your ears and then you don’t have to worry about sweating or giving them a little bit wet cause they are water resistant with an IPX4 rating.
You also do get built in proximity centers for auto pause of audio when removing the echo buds from your ears and three different microphones per ear bud for enhanced microphone quality.
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Battery Life of Amazon Echo Buds
And then in terms of battery life, battery is actually pretty impressive on par for what is the typical average that you’re getting with these earbuds these days. You get five hours of playback on the echo buds on a full charge with the case itself, holding 20 hours of playback juice.
You do get a quick charge feature, thank goodness, because that’s important. Quick charge, rapid charge, fast charge or whatever you want to call it. Kind of a must have in my book these days when it comes to our electronics, we are constantly on the go.
Sometimes you’re in a pinch of time, just want to be able to use echo buds for an hour or two at a time with just a quick charge. So in case you’re wondering, 15 minute charge on the echo buds, two hours of playback, pretty good ratio there.
Your echo buds are dead. You just pop them into your case and so long as your echo buds case has juice, there’s a 15 minute charge in the case, two hours of playback on the echo buds themselves.
These are not truly wireless earbuds because in order to charge up the case is micro USB based.
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It is not cheap wireless compatible. So you won’t be able to put this on a wireless charger of any kind.
I’m all about wireless charge lifestyle these days, pretty much everything I own is wireless charge capable. And it’s kind of surprising that Amazon Echo buds are micro USB based as opposed to USB-C. However, this is kind of personal preference.
But I would like to have seen at least USB-C, they’re not cheap wireless compatible. So in terms of the charging, the battery life is pretty good. But the actual charging itself and the charging of the case, I don’t have a womp womp situation there.
So at the end of the day, the Amazon echo buds are pretty cool products have some cool ideas and some cool features.
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Are Amazon Echo Buds Worth It?
Amazon echo buds kind of fall short in terms of value, especially when you start comparing them to other earbuds on the market available in the same price range, but they do have some things going for them.
Very impressive active noise reduction because Amazon worked with Bose to make that happen. Hands-free Alexa is pretty cool to have. Amazon Echo buds are pretty good in terms of battery, so we’ve got some things working for it.
But also on the other end of things, definitely some room for improvement when it comes to the design.
Maybe things could feel a little bit more premium. When it comes to the sound quality, things could sound a little bit better. Things could get better most certainly when it comes to charging, hopefully a few more additional options for charging.
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So, this is our Amazon Echo buds review, kindly comment below and let me know what you think about these earbuds.
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