Amazon isn’t reinventing the wireless earbud with its latest Echo Buds, but it is undercutting some rivals on price while tacking on more features.
The new Echo Buds officially cost $120 with a USB-C charging case or $140 with a case that supports wireless charging, and Amazon’s discounting both by $20 at launch. Compared to the first-gen Echo Buds, which sold for $130, the new buds are 20% smaller, have better sound quality, and include vents to make them a bit comfier. Amazon has also improved the buds’ active noise cancellation, claiming that it eliminates twice as much outside sound, and there’s a new option to get them in white instead of black.
None of which adds up to anything revolutionary in the field of wireless earbuds, but if Alexa is your preferred voice assistant, maybe those incremental changes are enough. And if not, maybe the low price will steer you away from Apple’s AirPods (which list for $159, or $249 for AirPods Pro with noise cancellation), Google’s Pixel Buds (which cost $179), or wireless buds from other brands.
Why the low price? For Amazon, lowering the cost of entry is often a way to get consumers into its ecosystem: “We’ve always been about passing on as much value as possible to our customers,” says Miriam Daniel, the company’s VP for Alexa devices. And with earbuds in particular, the alternative might be consumers just leaving Alexa behind.