Amazon had a jam-packed event today in Seattle, and one of the products that was unveiled during it were the new Echo Buds. Priced at $129.99, it’s clear the Echo Buds will be going after the same market currently swamped by Apple’s AirPods by including some fresh features.
For starters, the earbuds come with two armature drivers to deliver clearer sound and dynamic bass. They use Bose Active Noise Reduction Technology to minimize surrounding noise levels, and there’s a passthrough mode you can turn on if you wanna hear the outside world while you’re listening to music.
The buds ship with a charging case that, for whatever reason, uses a microUSB cable to juice up. They’ll last up to five hours on a single charge, while the case holds up to an additional three full charges.
In addition, the Echo Buds come with extra wingtips for an optimal fit, while IPX4 certification will help guard your buds from damage due to rain or sweat.
What’s most interesting to me is the voice assistant support. Obviously, the Echo Buds come with Amazon’s Alexa out of the box with support for checking the weather, your calendar, your commute, and more. The whole thing connects to your phone’s Alexa app and syncs all of your data.
But what’s even cooler is the fact that the buds also support Siri and Google Assistant, depending on whether you connect them to iPhone or Android. So if you wanna switch your default assistant on Android to Google’s and avoid using Amazon’s, you have that option. Alternatively, if you have the inclination to use Siri, you can use that, too.
Obviously, this is nothing new. AirPods have worked with Google Assistant for years at this point thanks to a third-party app on the Play Store, while the Google Pixel Buds work with Siri simply by connecting them to an iphone. But to have a set of earbuds that work with all three assistants out of the box is something that not many major earbud manufacturers have done, and it could give Amazon an interesting edge against competitors.
The Echo Buds will go on sale October 30th for $129.99. They’re available for pre-order starting today.
