Amazon Echo Buds (2nd-Gen) Review: Here’s What You Can Do With These Alexa-Powered Earbuds

If you’ve used Amazon Alexa-powered Echo speakers or Fire TV, you already know the benefits of this virtual assistant. However, most of these devices require power to function, meaning you don’t get the full advantage of portability. Amazon Echo TWS earbuds technically aim to solve the problem by offering the best of both worlds – the benefits of Alexa AI and TWS earbuds. These earbuds aren’t exactly new to the Indian audio market, but they are now available at an attractive price. At launch, the Amazon Echo Buds (2nd-Gen) were priced at Rs 11,999; however, customers can currently get them for just Rs 6,100 (probably a limited offer).

Aside from Alexa capabilities, these earbuds also offer ANC (active noise cancellation) and transparency audio modes – common features among most premium earbuds these days. Each earbud also includes three mics for clear voice commands input and calls. Another advantage is that existing Alexa customers can manage the earbuds with the Amazon Alexa app for Android and iOS, therefore, removing the hassle of downloading a separate app. The Amazon Echo Buds (2nd-Gen) may seem like ideal TWS earbuds for Amazon Alexa-enabled speakers and TV users, but there’s a catch.

Fit: Let’s start with the basic and the most important aspect of any earbuds – fitting. The Amazon Echo Buds come with an in-canal design and are available in Black colour. The earbuds fit snugly, and the package even includes ear wings or fins for a more stable fit. Of course, we get different sized ear tips that most earphones’ packages include.

The earbuds are fairly light, but the body is slightly thick. As a result, these earbuds protrude out of your ears, which could annoy some users. Overall, the earbuds are comfortable to wear, even while running. As always, I’d like the readers to know that I am not blessed with big ears, so wearing in-canal style earbuds aren’t always ideal after prolonged usage.

I faced a similar problem after wearing the Amazon Echo Buds (2nd-Gen) for roughly 45 minutes.

Alexa Experience: Similar to Amazon Echo speakers, the Amazon Echo Buds can perform a host of tasks with simple voice commands. I used the earbuds indoors and outdoors, and the three-mic system works pretty decently. Despite that, Alexa, like any other commercial AI in the market, still needs more improvements to understand Indian accents and various forms of Hindi and English pronunciations for the best user experience.

Users can play music on the earbuds from their favourite streaming app manually. Or they can use Google Assistant or Siri to search for music. There’s another way to play music with Amazon Alexa. Simply say, “Alexa, play this song or artist”, and AI will find music on compatible music platforms like Hungama or Amazon Music.

The Amazon Echo Buds can even provide weather updates or give you the top news of the day. If you have smart home products connected to Alexa, the Echo Buds can manage multiple devices, even when you’re away from home. You can create routines in the Alexa app and give commands like, “Alexa, switch on all smart lights” when you are moments away from home.

Since Alexa supports Hindi, users can give commands in either Hindi or English. Some of the productivity-focused commands include:

• Alexa, wake me up at 7 AM tomorrow
• Alexa, remind me to go on a walk at 7 PM
• Alexa, फ़ोन बि ल भरनेका रि माइंडर लगाओ
• Alexa, add ‘wash car’ to my to-do list
• Alexa, मेरी शॉपि गं लि स्ट मेंक्या है?

Data is shared between Amazon Alexa-powered products and apps, thus, offering users a mini Amazon ecosystem. Users can choose to mute microphone via the Alexa app for privacy. Readers must note that the Alexa experience only works via a stable internet connection, and both connected smartphones and smart home products should receive stable internet connectivity at all times.

Audio quality: When it comes to the audio output, most regular customers won’t have complaints with Echo Buds (2nd-Gen). The earbuds offer punchy bass, with good emphasis on the mid-frequency and treble. The latter, at times, is inconsistent, which I noticed while listening to The Staves discography (highly recommended if you haven’t). Otherwise, I enjoyed listening to the low beats in Kendric Lamar’s Mr Morale & the Big Steppers and Doja Cat’s Essential albums on Apple Music.

Thankfully, the Alexa app will let users tweak the equaliser and touch controls. It is equally odd that the earbuds do not let users control volume.

Speaking of ANC, I was impressed by the noise cancellation levels these earbuds offered. I generally don’t test ANC outdoors for safety reasons; however, the earbuds could filter out subtle background noises. Users can turn on the transparency mode or the ambient mode outdoors, which also works fine.

Battery: There’s no doubt the Amazon Echo Buds (2nd-Gen) are feature-packed, but all this comes with a price. The battery backup is quite poor, and you get roughly four hours of battery with ANC on. Of course, this can extend with power-saving mode and mics off, but the change is insignificant.

Amazon also provides a long USB-C cable for charging in the box.

Verdict: Amazon Echo Buds (2nd-Gen) offer a variety of controls, but the lacklustre battery performance could impact customer’s buying decisions. The battery backup could be improved with an OTA update, and we’re still waiting for that to happen.

However, for a price of roughly Rs 6,000 (or slightly above), these earbuds offer way more than what rivals like Nothing Ear 1 or Sony WF-C500 promise. If you already own smart devices like Echo speakers or smart lights, the Amazon Echo Buds (2nd-Gen) earbuds will definitely make your lifestyle smarter.

If you’re getting these buds for over Rs 10K, I’d suggest you look for other options with better battery backup.

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