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Amazon said that their new echo buds are going to be going directly up against the AirPods… and at their slightly cheaper price point and fairly impressive Active noise cancelation you’ll might be tempted to go with the Echo buds. I mean if you want active noise cancelation on your AirPods you gotta shell out $250 for the AirPods Pro. But unfortunately, I can’t recommend the Echo buds cause they fail pretty hard when it comes to the basics for Everyday Carry truly wireless earbuds.
Now at $130 the echo buds seem pretty attractive. They’re $30 less than the Entry level AirPods which I personally recommend cause I think the $200 AirPods with wireless charging case are pointless until there’s an iPhone that supports power sharing. And the AirPods Pro which have active noise cancelation and a transparency mode like the Echo Buds retail for $120 more. But still like I said, I can’t recommend the Echo buds if you’re looking for a pair of everyday carry truly wireless earbuds. If you’re an iPhone user your best bet are still AirPods, and if you’re an android user I’ll leave some good options down below that I highly recommend.
Whenever im looking for at a pair of truly wireless earbuds im looking for maximum comfort and maximum connivance. And the carrying case plays a really big role in that. And unfortunately, the Echo buds carrying case is something that I would expect to see in 2018. This carrying case has a pretty large footprint and its pretty thick compared to AirPods and some third party earbuds that I commonly recommend to android users. So the echo buds’s large carrying case is very noticeable when you have it stored in your pocket. But one of the biggest problems with this carrying case is that it charges via a Micro USB port instead of a USB C port like on most other recently released truly wireless earbuds. Now obviously if you’re an iPhone user AirPods are great cause you can charge them with the same cable you charge your phone with. So even if this case used a USB C port you would still have to use a separate cable. But the reason Usb C is still a big deal is cause I allows for faster charging, its reversible, and if you’re an android user you would be able to charge your phone and earbuds with the same cable like iPhone users can with AirPods.
Now the Echo buds larger case could be excusable if they offered you an above average combined battery life. But thats not the case. The Echo Buds have a combined battery life of 20 hours which is average for truly wireless earbuds in late 2019. The earbuds themselves can go for 5 straight hours like AirPods and the case can supply an additional 3 charges. Over all battery life on these earbuds is good… but in relation to the size of their case its not that impressive.
Now when it comes to the earbuds themselves these are in ear earbuds. And regarding comfort these earbuds fit very well but I do recommend that you use the included ear fins. Since these ear buds are so dense I did notice that like to wiggle out a lot without the ear fins. Now something to keep in mind is that these in ear ear buds go in a little deeper into your ear canal like the AirPods Pro do. They don’t go in as deep are the Powerbeats Pro or definitely the Sony WF-1000XM3… but these are a pair of earbuds that you don’t forget that they’re there. So again, this plays into what I say about maximum comfort and maximum connivance. But this is just my bias talking cause personally im not the biggest fan of in ear ear buds for extended use. Thats why I still really like AirPods, to me they’re the most comfortable earbuds out there to use for hours and hours on end.
Now when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, these earbuds are using bluetooth 5.0 but more importantly each earbud establishes a connection with your phone which means 2 things. The first thing is that if you want you can use one earbud at a time you can do that and not worry about choosing the correct earbud. But this also means that these earbuds have zero latency across the board when watching videos or movies on both iPhone or android devices which is a very good thing.
But when it comes to the actual sound quality of these earbuds… thats another story. These earbuds sound bad… These are probably some of the worst sounding earbuds I've heard in awhile. The mid on these earbuds are basically non existent and they have a lot of bass to cover it up. Even after going into these earbuds adjustable EQ and raising the mids all the way up they’re still super hard to hear. So another reason why I just can’t recommend these earbuds is cause of their super bad sound quality.
Now something that I will admit is that the active noise cancellation on these earbuds actually give the active noise cancelation on the AirPods Pro a run for their money. Just like the AirPods Pro, the echo buds do a really good job of blocking out constant low frequency sounds. But unfortunately the microphone array on these earbuds really likes to pick up a lot wind noise. So if you use these earbuds out doors you're going to hear a lot of interference. Which is a big deal cause the AirPods Pro Pick up basically Zero wind noise when used out doors… which is what you want.
But also, the transparency mode on these earbuds isn’t all that great either. Even though you can actually adjust the amount of ambient sound these earbuds let in… which is something you can’t do with the AirPods Pro. The ambient mode on these earbuds have a constant hissing in the background which is very noticeable when watching videos or movies with these earbuds and again they pick up a lot of wind when used out doors as well. But more importantly the ambient mode on these earbuds sounds very artificial.
And when it comes to the microphones on these earbuds for phone calls they sound pretty bad as well. They have a lot of amplification going and the highs really like to peak. So I don’t recommend taking phone calls with these earbuds.
Honestly, the microphone on the Echo buds just can’t compete with the microphones found on the AirPods and AirPods Pro.
So over all, I just can’t recommend that you go out and get the Echo Buds. Between their large carrying case, their use of micro USB, their very poor sound quality, their basic active noise cancellation microphone array that really like to pick up a lot of wind noise, and very poor sounding microphone for phone calls… these ear buds feel out dated already. If you’re an iPhone user you’re better off just getting the $160 AirPods 2 and if you really want active noise cancelation then go with the AirPods Pro. And if you’re an android user there are some many other better wireless earbuds out there to choose from.