Known primarily for making great smart speakers, smart displays, e-book readers, and tablets, as well as for selling all kinds of stuff manufactured by all kinds of companies, Amazon is probably not the first brand that comes to mind when looking for the best wireless earbuds for your budget and preferences.
But the company’s aptly named Alexa-powered Echo Buds can be a pretty smart buy in lieu of an extravagant pair of AirPods… at the right price. What you need to keep in mind is that there are two main variants on the market right now, and the older edition actually provides objectively better features than the newer model.
Both models are currently on sale at substantial discounts for Prime subscribers, and if you’re expecting a firm recommendation from us, you’re not going to get one, as the 2021 and 2023 releases seem to target vastly different audiences.
The 2021 Echo Buds, aka the Echo Buds (2nd Gen), come with active noise cancellation, a decidedly elegant but not extremely practical design, and your choice of a wired or wireless charging case at list prices of $119.99 and $139.99 respectively. You can save a very cool $55 on these old but still highly respectable AirPods Pro 2 alternatives no matter which of those two options feels more attractive to you or you can go for a 2023 edition sans ANC technology or wireless charging support.
These puppies obviously can’t take on the AirPods Pro 2, Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, or even the AirPods 3 and non-Pro Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 in terms of audio performance, nonetheless sounding perfectly acceptable for their crazy low price point at the time of this writing while also providing solid battery life and a seemingly more secure design than the second-gen Echo Buds.
Unlike some of Amazon’s most popular smart speakers, smart displays, and tablets right now, the Echo Buds (2021) and Echo Buds (2023) are only discounted with a valid Prime membership, which almost certainly means that next week’s aforementioned event will not bring any better deals to the table.
