- Amazon’s new $130 Echo Buds with Bose noise-canceling technology are direct competitors to Apple’s $160 AirPods wireless earphones.
- The Echo Buds advertise a five-hour battery life and a charging case that can hold up to 20 hours of charge.
- They’re also designed to support the three most common voice assistants, including Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri.
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Amazon announced its new Echo Buds wireless earphones on Wednesday, and they are direct competitors to Apple’s AirPods and other wireless earbuds.
Amazon’s Echo Buds have audio drivers inspired by those used by professional artists, and they’ll include active noise-canceling technology from Bose, the company said Wednesday during a product launch event. You’ll be able to double-tap the buds to turn the noise cancellation on and off.
The Echo Buds advertise a five-hour battery life with a charging case that can hold up to 20 hours of charge.
As you'd expect, the Echo Buds are compatible with Amazon's smart voice assistant, Alexa, but they're also meant to be compatible with whichever voice assistant you have set up on your smartphone, whether Google Assistant or Apple's Siri.
An interesting possibility Amazon announced was using Alexa with the Echo Buds in stores. One example given was asking Alexa with Echo Buds whether Whole Foods had canned tomatoes in stock and where to find them in the store.
The Echo Buds cost $129 compared with Apple's minimum of $160 for its AirPods, and they're up for preorder starting Wednesday for a shipping time expected in October.