Amazon Echo Earbuds – Will They Be Your Best Buds?

I recently received an email from Amazon that focused on several new and upcoming “Alexa-Enabled” products. Several items caught my eye, but the one I pre-ordered immediately were the Amazon Echo Earbuds at a price-point of $129.99 USD.

In this review I will discuss my experience with these earbuds after a full week of use and let you know how I feel about them and if they are right for me and perhaps if they are right for you too? Will the new Amazon Echo Earbuds be my new best buds? Or will they be just another Bluetooth earbud with decent sound?

What’s In The Box

The Amazon Echo Earbuds arrived on the same day as release in a slick little box with all the usual specifications and functions. Inside the box you’ll find:

• 1 pair of the Echo Buds
• Charging case
• Micro USB cable
• 3 sizes of ear tips and wing tips
• Quick start guide
• “Things To Try” sheet
• Additional information sheet with warnings and warranty info.

Design and Comfort

The design of the earbuds are a little bulky, but they pack a lot of technology inside. The buds themselves are black and nicely rounded with smooth corners. They are not too heavy with their size, and still fit comfortably in my ears. I can wear them all day and have not felt any discomfort at all.

Connectivity and Bluetooth

Connecting the earbuds to my iPhone 7+ was very easy and pretty much idiot proof. If you do not already have the Amazon Alexa app on your phone, you’ll need to download it first. Assuming you already have an account with Amazon, you simply have to sign in to the app. If you do not have an Amazon account, you’ll need to sign up for one.

Once signed in, open the charging case, with the earbuds inside, open the Alexa app on your phone, after a bit, you’ll see the Echo Buds appear on your screen in the app, select them on screen, place them in ear and you are all set. After the initial setup, it’s as simple as having your phone nearby and placing at least 1 earbud in your ear.

Once connected and using the earbuds in conjunction with my phone, the Bluetooth connection was stable. Only on the first day, with my phone in my pocket, while doing strenuous work, did I notice a slight hiccup in the stream a couple of times. After the first day of use it hadn’t happened again. Previous Bluetooth earbuds I’ve owned haven’t worked as well as these new earbuds do.

Battery Life

Using the earbuds for a week now has been nice. I’ve used them throughout my workdays. When I have some stretches where I can’t listen, I simply place them back in the charging case and let them quickly recharge until I can use them again. I work a labor intensive job, and keep long days, usually 12 hours or so. The battery life has lasted just fine.

While not in use, the case will hold the earbuds and recharge them, as the case holds enough power to recharge the earbuds for up to 20 hours of use. The box and ads state you can get up to 5 hours of use, and with the charging case you can get up to 20 hours. The battery life has not been an issue for me.

Sound Quality and Noise Reduction

For me, the sound quality has been very good. I catch sounds in the music that I’ve missed while listening through other earphones and buds. I get clear voices listening to audiobooks and talk/podcasts. The bass has been excellent for my uses. I could use a little higher volume level, but with the noise reduction I hear everything great.

The active noise reduction, by Bose, itself works wonderfully. While driving in my extremely noisy work vehicle, I put the noise reduction on and don’t hear many of the noises and sounds that usually overpower the sound of my older earbuds, even using a louder volume. I can still hear some noise, but as I mentioned, my work vehicle is VERY loud.

With the noise reduction on, the volume of the headphones seems to be at a set volume, even on the loudest setting. It still sounds great and plenty loud enough, though I’ve always preferred my music louder. The set volume is probably saving me some hearing loss.

The “pass-through” function of the earbuds, think of it as the opposite of the noise reduction, seems to amplify what is being heard outside of the earbuds themselves and letting the sound travel to your ears. It works well enough, but with it brings a little static sound. I prefer the earbuds using noise reduction. Naturally, when you hear more outside noise, the sound quality suffers, but the volume does seem to increase with the “pass-through” function enabled.

Uses and Functions

While using these earbuds I listen to Amazon music, my iTunes library, podcasts, audible, livestream my favorite radio sportstalk, and ask Alexa all sorts of questions throughout my day. Essentially, pretty much anything you can do with your home Echo, you can do with these earbuds.

When I need directions, Alexa gives them to me. When I need to know the time, or the temperature outside, Alexa is right there to let me know. Of course, most of these things you can do with your phone, but it is nice to be able to do so in a hands-free manner, just using your voice. I’m not going to go through all the uses here, but the ones I’ve listed are the ones I use the most.

The earbuds also allow for tap gestures. For instance, a double tap toggles the earbuds between noise reduction and pass-through. Other tap gestures include:

• Receiving /ending calls
• Muting the microphone
• Activating your phones default assistant
• Pausing and playing your media
• Skipping/returning to tracks, and more.

These are all customizable within the Alexa app as well.

Amazon Echo Earbuds, Are They For You?

Will these Amazon Echo Earbuds be your best buds? That will all be up to you. I personally enjoy them very much. I use them every day and they have replaced my older set. I have Amazon Prime, so I get full use out of my earbuds. If you do not have Amazon Prime, your enjoyment of these earbuds may lessen.

With the purchase of these earbuds I also received 3 free months of both Audible and Prime Music. I do not know if this will be a limited time extra, but it was a nice surprise that I was not aware of when I pre-ordered the earbuds. As of this writing the earbuds sell for $129.99 USD on Amazon’s website. Amazon’s standard return policy will apply to this product.

I highly recommend these earbuds to anyone and everyone. However, if you do not have Amazon Prime, I’d say join when you order these buds!