Echo Buds | Wireless earbuds with immersive sound, active noise reduction and Alexa

I'm not an Audiophile or anything so my review will hopefully reflect that. For what I paid (I got mine in an Amazon Sale) these are downright amazing quality for the price (I paid around £50).Sound: The sound quality is actually really good. They are good clear sounding Earphones which do a great job letting me enjoy Audiobooks, Music and Podcasts privately so I'm not creating noise if I'm staying at relatives. I'm putting noise reduction here too because I bought them with the sole intention of letting me blur out the noise from my neighbour and it works a charm, helping me go around my everyday business in a carefree manner.Comfort: I'll address the elephant in the room; I normally prefer over-ear headphones and it was always a big no-no for me to use in-earphones because I have smaller ear canals and I've had a lot of issues with my ears which usually causes pain. My previous experience varies from old Bose Headphones from the 90s, cheaper AKGs and my personal favourite the incredible premium Sony WH1000XM series (of which I own a pair of WH1000XM2's which whilst are an older model are still incredible to this day in comfort and function. However, using over-ear headphones are not low profile and really rely on you staying still. The Echo Buds were really bought as a low-price point experiment to see if I could use them in a challenging situation like I spoke of above and for the most part they do deliver. They are uncomfortable to begin with and they are (by default) fitted with the Medium tips which I immediately had to swap out for the Small tips to avoid earache. They are still pretty "chonky" compared to the In-earphone giants like Apple Airpods (normal and pro) but they are comfortable enough that it's not a bother and actually I have found that I prefer them to my WH1000XM2's in most scenarios. I think the improvements could be form-factor for when the Echo Buds 2 inevitably release and the Wingtips (grips?) which are okay in function but feel rather cheap and more like an after thought than a premium feature compared to something like the how the Google Pixel Buds do things.Alexa: I don't use her, and I actually think this is what let's the Echo Buds down. It doesn't really feel like she's integrated with the Buds as well as other Echo products, and setting her up feels like a chore compared to the Amazon Echo Smartspeakers and other Virtual Assistant systems. I also feel like the hands-free integration doesn't really work as well as it should (maybe I'm missing something) however to my knowledge I need to use the Alexa App on my phone in order to hands-free communicate to Alexa when I want to listen to music, podcasts and audiobooks. Fortunately, the minute I open my Echo Buds capsule my phone connects to my Echo Buds via Bluetooth and I just have to pop them in my ears to listen to whatever I want.Value: You get a lot of good bang for your buck and in a sale these are an absolute steal. In the box you get a charging Capsule which contains your Echo Buds, and you get 4 different pairs of tips (S, M, L and XL) and you get 3 different Wingtips/grips (S, M and L). The capsule which feels slick (and it's Matte) meaning it doesn't get clarted in fingerprints is pocket sized, the Buds do have glossy accents however. The earphones feel premium, which is a nice surprise considering that I bought them as an experiment and entry point to the in-earphone market. The gripes I have is that they use Micro-USB for charging which in an age of USB-C being the standard is quite substantially outdated. The other gripe I have is the lack of visual feedback, which according to Amazon you get 4 charges in the capsule of which the Pods roughly give 5 hours battery life each charge, the capsule could have put more Micro-LED's (one for each charge) rather than the one to communicate how many charges are left which works as a traffic light system. The Wingtips/grips are cheap feeling and the Buds are pretty chunky which can be pretty uncomfortable after prolonged use.Conclusion: These are really good, and if you can get them on an Amazon sale they are even better. A lot of people resort to the premium powerhouse names of the tech industry and even I was contemplating it because it's just easy to choose the default. However, I decided to take a smaller gamble with the Echo Buds because I don't see the point paying big bucks for something that may be of no use to me due to the problems I have especially when I'm on a tighter budget from the impact of COVID-19. Are they perfect? No, but nothing truly is and taste is subjective. I look forward to seeing how Amazon improves the design of the inevitable Echo Buds 2 and I would say they succeeded in their purpose of getting me to switch over.

These are my first truly wireless earbuds and I love them, I was waiting patiently for the UK release.Pros:- Great sound quality- Amazing battery life (3 days of mid to heavy use)- Noise reduction works wonders on the train and bus and the pass through feels like there’s nothing in your ears when you need to hear what’s around you- Alexa works wonders and is always a joy to use on the move- Light weight and really comfortable once you find the right ear tip- Very discreet, sit in your ear without getting in the way- Once paired to your device they will instantly connect with out issues or delays and even make a pleasant beep once one is placed in the earCons:- Compared to other earphones they’re quite quiet, having to put the volume up to 80%+ with noise reduction on in noisy environments- The touch controls work well but in order to use them you need to tap quite hard to get them to work, which is off putting when it’s amplified in your ear- The case isn’t the largest nor the smallest, if you don’t have that many pockets you might struggle to put it somewhere where it won’t get in the way of other things- The play/pause sensors on each ear phone is quite sensitive, anything put in front of it will set it off. Off putting when you need to remove one with out putting in back in the caseMisc:- There’s a bizarre quirk, when walking through a shops security gates sometimes one earbud will shut off for a second them come back on like nothing happened- When setting them up, the Alexa app didn’t communicate correctly with the earbuds until I restarted the set up process- The case uses a mini USB lead which isn’t a problem for myself as I still have older devices such as battery banks and headphones they use them but others might not have them laying around any moreOverall, I’m rather happy with them! They’re a joy to use and help with my daily commutes and with Alexa all my reminders get carried over to my Echos at home without having to set them in the app. I don’t think they’ll sway people away from replacing their AirPod Pros or others earbuds that they’re happy with but they’re worth the price I feel.