Amazon Echo Buds True Wireless 2021 (2nd generation) Headphones Review

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen are small, roundish truly wireless earbuds with small silicone tips. They look fairly nondescript and don't protrude much from your ears. They have an all-black, all-matte design without the glossy accents from the previous generation. There's a faint Amazon smile logo on the outside of each earbud, and the headphones come in 'Black' or 'Glacier White'.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen are comfortable headphones. They're lightweight and come with tips and stability fins in a few different sizes. The tips are color-coded with a different color for each size, so it's easy to see which is which. The earbuds enter pretty far into your ear canal, which some people may find uncomfortable, but they don't go as deep into your ear as the previous generation Amazon Echo Buds True Wireless 2019 (1st generation).

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have mediocre controls. The touch-sensitive surfaces on each earbud are very responsive, which makes registering commands easy. However, it can also be a little inconvenient because you can accidentally activate a command. However, you can turn off the touch controls in the app if you wish.

You can tap either earbud once to play and pause music, tap twice to skip forward a track, and three times to skip backward. By default, pressing and holding either earbud for two seconds cycles between the ANC and 'Pass-through' modes. However, if you want to turn off ANC and 'Pass-through', you need to do it in the app. There are no onboard volume controls by default, but you can remap the press-and-hold command for volume, voice assistant, or Spotify. You hear different beeps for different commands, but there are no spoken audio cues.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen are extremely breathable, like most in-ear headphones. They're small and trap almost no heat against your ears, so you won't sweat more when you're wearing them.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen are very small earbuds. They're slightly more compact than the first generation of Amazon Echo Buds True Wireless 2019 (1st generation) and will easily fit into most pockets and bags. Their hard plastic case is also compact enough to slip into most purses and pockets.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen come with a good hard plastic case. It's small and light and feels of good quality. However, the lid seems a bit flimsy.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen are well-built headphones. Like the previous generation, Amazon Echo Buds True Wireless 2019 (1st generation), they're made of dense plastic and feel like they can withstand some accidental drops and bumps without breaking. The silicone tips may be a weak point, though, since they feel like they could rip fairly easily. The lid of the case feels flimsy too. They have an IPX4 rating for water resistance, although we don't currently test for it.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have great stability. They come with several differently-sized tips and stability fins so you can find the best fit for you. Once you achieve a good fit, they're very stable and will stay in place during workouts, even if you move your head around a lot. They're quite stable without any stability fins as well.

• Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen headphones
• 4x earbud tips
• 3x stability fins
• USB-C to USB-A charging cable
• Manual

After firmware update 603267242, the Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have a bright sound profile. They lack thump, rumble, and punch, so bass-heavy genres like EDM and hip-hop sound hollow and lacking. That said, vocals and lead instruments are present and clear. Fortunately, you can customize it with a graphic EQ in the companion app. There's also an 'Audio Personalization' feature, which allows you to adjust the headphones' sound based on your hearing capabilities. It generates one EQ, and you can't add more.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have outstanding frequency response consistency. Once you achieve a good fit with the included tips, you'll experience consistent audio delivery every time you use them.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have okay bass accuracy. The entire range is underemphasized, so mixes lack significant thump, punch, and warmth.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have excellent mid accuracy. Overall, the range is fairly flat and neutral, resulting in present and clear vocals and lead instruments.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have great treble accuracy. Although the low and mid-treble ranges are both underemphasized, it's very minor. Vocals and instruments are still adequately bright, but sibilants like cymbals are slightly dulled.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have a decent peaks and dips performance. There are a couple of large peaks and dips, which indicates that the headphones struggle to follow their sound profile at particular frequencies. A peak in the low-bass range adds thump and rumble, followed by a dip from the high-bass that makes mixes sound cold and lack body. A peak in the low-mid makes vocals and instruments Peaks in the mid-mid and high-mid can make vocals and lead instruments sound muddy, while the low-treble is a little uneven, so vocals and instruments are harsh or veiled, depending on the frequency band. A peak in the mid-treble also makes sibilants like cymbals piercing.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have excellent imaging. The group delay falls slightly above the audibility threshold in the low-bass range, but it may not be noticeable for most people, resulting in a mostly tight bass response and transparent treble reproduction. Our unit's L/R drivers are also extremely well-matched in amplitude, frequency, and phase response, so objects like voices and footsteps are accurately placed in the stereo image. Imaging varies across units, though.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have a bad passive soundstage, typical of closed-back, in-ear headphones. Because they don't interact with your outer ear, their soundstage is perceived as small, and sound seems to come from inside your head rather than from speakers set in the room around you. Also, because of their closed-back design, the soundstage seems less open and spacious compared to most open-back headphones.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have a very good weighted harmonic distortion performance. All frequencies fall within good limits, resulting in clear and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test the Amazon Echo 2nd Gen. Our results are only valid when using these settings.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have a mediocre noise isolation performance. Unlike the original Amazon Echo Buds True Wireless 2019 (1st generation), they use Amazon's active noise cancelling (ANC) technology rather than Bose's active noise reduction (ANR) system. Unfortunately, they block out much less noise compared to the previous generation.

While the ANC offers an improvement over the passive noise isolation performance when it comes to blocking out bass-range noises like rumbling bus and plane engines, it's still not very good for this purpose. However, whether or not you have ANC turned on, these headphones are decently effective at blocking out sounds like background conversations. They also reduce higher-pitched noises like the hum of an A/C unit.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have a great leakage performance. The audio that escapes sounds thin and tinny, but they leak much more sound than the previous generation. If you listen to your music at high volumes at the office, it may be audible to people nearby.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have a good recording quality. Their integrated mic offers a big improvement over the original Amazon Echo Buds True Wireless 2019 (1st generation)' microphone, and it captures your voice clearly, although it lacks a bit of fullness and openness.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen's mic has a mediocre noise handling performance. It has difficulty separating your voice from loud background noise, so these headphones aren't ideal for making phone calls from noisy environments, like a busy street or subway station.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have an okay battery performance. Like the Amazon Echo Buds True Wireless 2019 (1st generation), they're advertised to provide five hours of continuous playback time, and we measured a similar result. The manufacturer has reduced the number of additional charges in the case from five to two. On the plus side, they completely recharge in less than an hour, and Amazon advertises that you can get two hours of continuous playback from five minutes of charging, although we haven't tested it. Also, battery performance depends on real-life usage, and your experience may vary.

These headphones also have a standby feature that auto-pauses your audio when you take the earbuds out of your ears, but there's no option to turn it off, which is a bit annoying.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have a good app. It's easy to navigate and has quite a few functions. There's a graphic EQ, an 'Audio Personalization' feature that adjusts the headphones' sound to your hearing capabilities, and a battery indicator for the earbuds and case. You can toggle sidetone on and off, which allows you to hear your voice during calls. You can also choose between ANC and 'Pass-through' mode, which allows you to hear your surroundings while listening to audio. You can also choose to disable both modes. Like the previous generation, the app has a fit tip test to help you pick the best silicone tip size. Unfortunately, Amazon says you need to register your earbuds in the Alexa app before they can be paired with a device, which may be inconvenient for some.

Note: There are some reports from users who say they hear a hissing sound when using pass-through mode. Amazon recommends turning down the pass-through volume in the app or switching it off completely if you experience buzzing or feedback noise.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen have fair Bluetooth connectivity. They don't support NFC pairing, but thanks to firmware 603267242, you can connect these buds with up to two devices at a time via the companion app. Their latency with PCs is likely too high to be suitable for watching videos on your computer, though. Their latency on iOS and Android devices is quite high, so you may experience slight delays between your audio and visuals. Note that some devices and apps seem to compensate differently for latency.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen Bluetooth-only and can't be used wired. They come with a USB-C to USB-A charging cable for their case.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen are Bluetooth-only, so they aren't compatible with Xbox One or Xbox Series X consoles.

The Amazon Echo Buds 2nd Gen come with a charging case that stores two additional charges. It charges via USB-C cable.

Note: You can choose to purchase these headphones with a case that supports wireless charging. However, we haven't tested the wireless case.