Get Them Here
So these are the new Echo Buds gen 2 and im just going to tell you straight up these are leaps and bounds better than the original echo buds which personally I was never a fan of. Specially the echo buds gen 2’s overall build is in line with what you’d expect from a pair of wireless earbuds today. The earbuds themselves are smaller and their case is especially smaller. And when it comes to their feature set the echo buds 2 really give you an amazing bang for your buck, which is what you’d expect from amazon.
Regarding pricing, the Echo Buds 2 start at $120 with the base case… but if you want wireless charging you’re going to have to spend and additional $20. But nonetheless the echos 2 do manage to under cut other entry level competitors from big names like the Galaxy Buds Plus which retail for $150, and AirPods which start at $160. Now yeah both the Galaxy Buds Plus and AirPods routinely like to go on sale… but nonetheless the Echo buds do have more premium features than either of these two options. Now the echo buds 2 do have their trade offs like sound quality and battery life… but nonetheless these do get the job done very well at a price you really can’t be mad at.
Now first lets talk about the most notable upgrade on the echo buds 2 and thats their case. Cause for reference the original echo buds’s case was just huge and unacceptable in my opinion. But thats not the case this time around, this time the echo buds 2 case is in line with what you’d expect from a pair of earbuds in 2021. Now this case is a little larger than lets say the AirPods case, Galaxy buds plus case, galaxy buds live case, and it is a little larger than the Sennheiser CX 400BT’s case which has gained a good amount of popularity recently… but nonetheless this isn’t a case that you’re going to notice too much when its in your pocket. Now from a usability standpoint there’s really no issues with this case… this case has a matte finish to is similar to the galaxy buds pro which makes getting a grip on this case a little wiser than with glossy cases, this lid is very easy to open and close although this lid does to like to close itself very often… but this case does have decently strong magnets in it which makes taking your earbuds out and putting them back in very easy. Over all im really glad to see that Amazon addressed the case on their earbuds.
But now lets talk about battery life cause it is a bit of a mix bag. For starters the Gen 2’s have a shorter combined battery life than the original echo buds by five hours and thats partly due to their smaller case. But in general, battery life on these earbuds really depends on how you use them. If you use these earbuds with their Active noise cancelation turned on and with Alexa always listening then we’re looking at a combined battery life of 15 hours. The earbuds themselves can go for 5 straight hours and the case can supply an additional 2 full charges.
Now a combined battery life of 15 hours is okay and its definitely usable… but it is a little below average cause earbuds these days do try to shoot for a combined battery life of 24 hours. However if you were to use these earbuds with their active noise cancelation turned off and with Alexa turned off then they have a combined battery life 19 and a half hours. Now a combined battery life of 19 and a half hours is better… but its still a little below average for earbuds in 2021. But due to the Echo bud’s pricing… im not mad at it.
Now when it comes to actually charging these earbuds… another notable upgrade on this case from the original echo buds is that it now charges via a USB C port as it should… but if you want to you can always upgrade to a case that also has wireless charging which could be a big deal for someone who either has a phone that supports power sharing or if you’ve already invested in multiple wireless charging mats.
But now lets talk about the earbuds themselves. Regarding fit the echo buds fit like your standard pair of in ear ear buds. As in they go into your ear canal a decent amount like lets say either the Galaxy Buds Plus or Sennheiser CX 400BT. Now they fit well and since they are in ear earbuds they do block out a decent amount of noise passively… but if I am looking for a pair of earbuds to wear for hours and hours on end personally I would prefer to wear something thats a little more shallow fitting like either the Galaxy Buds Pro or Jabra Elite 85T’s… or ill even go for the AirPods or Galaxy Buds live which don’t even go into your ear canal making them super comfortable for extended periods of time. However the tradeoff here is that both the AirPods and Galaxy Buds Live let in a lot of ambient noise. Now with the echo buds you can wear them one of two ways… you can either wear them like this or you can throw on a pair of ear fins thats going to help with lock down. So if you are planning on working out with these earbuds then these ear fins can come in handy.
Regarding connectivity each earbud establishes a connection with your phone so if you just want to use one earbud at a time you can use either one it doesn’t matter. And when it comes to watching movies or videos on your phone these earbuds have zero latency across the board whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device which is what we would expect from our earbuds these days.
However if you’re a power user that might want to use these earbuds with multiple devices… these are fine. You can switch from one device to another fairly easily… but you do gotta manually establish a new connection through your bluetooth menu. But at least you don’t gotta put these earbuds into pairing mode every single time you're going to go from one device to another. But just keep in mind these earbuds don’t let you hot swap between multiple devices like other earbuds out there.
But now let talk about actually listening to music with these earbuds… overall these earbuds perform just as you’d expect a pair of entry-level wireless earbuds to perform. As in these earbuds sound very narrow, the vocals are very pronounced, and they have a lot of bass to hide the lack of their instrument separation. But the main issue here is that the bass on these earbuds can get a little over powering and can get muddy at times. But at least the mids and highs on these earbuds don’t get tinny. Overall these earbuds get the job done especially if you’re someone that likes a warmer, bass heavy sound signature… but if you’re someone that like a more neutral or vocals focused EQ then you’ll still want to go with the Galaxy Buds Plus. And im just putting it out there… if you’re looking for great sound quality on a budget then the sennheiser CX 400BT’s are an option. But over all sound quality wise the EQ buds are very much in line with what you’d get on either the AirPods or Galaxy Buds Live. You’ve got a narrow soundstage with lots of vocals and lots of bass. However you can always play around with the EQ settings on these earbuds through the Alexa app. And personally for me ive found that lowering the bass two clicks and lowering the mids one click gets you a more balanced sound that isn’t washed out by over powering bass.
Now when it comes to the media controls… we’ve got touch pads on both earbuds. You can single tap to play or pause, double tap to skip a track, and you can triple tap to go back a track. And over all these touchpads are very accurate and they do a really good job of ignoring false inputs when you’re just readjusting these earbuds. But then there’s also pressing and holding on either of these touch pads which you can customize. If you want to can either have it so that pressing and holding allows you to adjust your volume from the earbuds themselves or you can do what I do and have one earbud cycle between your active noise cancelation and have the other earbud active your native voice assistant. As in if you’re an iPhone user it’ll activate Siri and if you’re an android user it’ll activate google assistant.
Now one of the main things about the echo buds is that it has Alexa, so you can use Alexa like you normally would around the house to control your smart appliances or to order stuff if you’re an Alexa power user. You can also use Alexa to place a phone call with just your voice and I even found that you can tell Alexa to turn pass through on or off on these with just your voice as well. “Alexa Turn On Passthrough”, “Alexa Turn Off Pass Through”
But for some reason I can’t get it to turn on active noise cancelation. “Alexa Turn On Active Noise cancelation” So hopefully they’ll sort that out in a software update.
But one of the important things to point here is that you don’t actually need to have the Alexa app constantly open in the back ground. So like I said if you’re an Alexa power user then the echo buds might be up your ally… but just keep in mind if you do decide to have always listening Alexa on these earbuds it is going to take its toll on the battery life.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these earbuds. Now first I want to tapper expectations here. These ear buds are not going to block out nearly as much noise as a proper pair of over ear headphones like either the Sony 1000XM4’s, Bose NC 700’s or AirPods Max…
Now with that being said, the ANC on these earbuds mostly focuses on blocking out constant lower frequency sounds like road noise. And this is to be expected for ANC on earbuds. And the ANC on these earbuds doesn’t have any noticeable cabin pressure which is good for comfort and the microphone array does a good job of blocking out wind noise when walking out doors.
But over all the ANC on these ear buds is not going to block out a ton of noise… And when it comes to ranking the ANC on the Echo Buds block out much less noise than the Jabra Elite 85T’s which block out a ton of noise with not a lot of cabs pressure. And they block out less noise than the AirPods Pro and Sennheiser Momentum 2’s which I feel are neck and neck.
However even though the Galaxy Buds Pro still block out more noise than the Echo Buds… its not a lot more and I can comfortably say that the Echo Buds block out way more noise than the Galaxy Buds Live cause the Galaxy Buds Live don’t passively block out any noise like all of these other In ear ear buds… but they do technically have active noise cancelation. But over all, if active noise cancellation is a very big deal to you then the echo buds will leave you wanting more… but the ANC on these earbuds can help if lets say you’re on a bus and you want to block out some tire noise.
But like ive mentioned in the past, I only use the active noise cancellation on my earbuds when I have to and what’s really important to me is the quality of their ambient mode. Now the ambient mode or passthrough mode on these earbuds is okay, its sounds fairly natural and again the microphone array does a decent job of blocking out wind noise when walking out doors… but there is a slight hissing in the background which does become more noticeable if you’re using passthrough on these earbuds at a higher level.
But finally here’s the microphone test, the microphone on the Echo buds actually sounds really when in a quiet environment. My voice I slightly amplified so my voice is front and center… but my voice doesn’t sound robotic which is good.
However you do wanna try to take phone calls with these earbuds in a quieter environment cause these earbuds do let in a decent amount of noise pollution. And if I were to stay completely quiet for a second… you’re going to hear a good amount of road noise in the back ground.
But I also found that if there is a lot of ambient noise in the background, not only are you going to get noise pollution in, your voice will start to develop a slight reverb or even a slight echo.
So over all if you plan on taking lots and lots of phone calls with your earbuds then the echo buds are good, but you do wanna try to take phone calls with them in a quieter environment cause they do let in a decent amount of noise pollution, and if there’s a lot of noise pollution then they do start to change the sound of your voice.
So with all that being said, the Echo Buds 2 have some very important upgrades from the original. Mainly they now have a much smaller acceptable case and the earbuds themselves are much smaller which is great. And even if you were to spend the extra cash and get the upgraded version of these that come with a carrying case that has wireless charging… the echo buds still manage to under cut the competition and provide more features. Specially these earbuds have active noise cancelation, an ambient mode, they have always listening Alexa if you want it and they have a decent sounding microphone for video call. But over all the echo buds are a great value play and they definitely get the job done. But they don’t have the best sound, they don’t have the best active noise cancelation, they don’t have the best ambient mode, and their over all battery life is a little below average but still more than usable.