Amazon’s new Echo Buds offer improved ANC and a smaller design

Back in September of 2019, Amazon officially unveiled its truly wireless headphones to take on Apple’s AirPods. Now, more than a year later, the company is back with the second-generation model.

Amazon has officially unveiled the new Echo Buds, featuring a similar design to the first-generation model. However, the new effort actually features a 21 percent smaller design. They retain their lightweight footprint, though, and are still sweat and water resistant (with an IPX4 rating). Amazon’s leaning more into competition with the AirPods Pro, though, as the company is boosting Active Noise Cancellation capabilities.

The new Echo Buds also welcome a brand new white color option, joining the original black color Amazon launched the Echo Buds with. The truly wireless in-ear headphones come with a wireless charging case as well (which looks very similar to Apple’s wireless charging case for the AirPods Pro).

Amazon says owners will get around five hours of listening time on a single charge with the new Echo Buds. That’s with ANC enabled. Customers will get two additional full charges from the wireless charging case, so Echo Buds owners can expect to get around 15 hours of listening time. Amazon’s obviously built its digital assistant, Alexa, into the headphones as well.

The Echo Buds themselves feature an air-vented design to reduce pressure while wearing them. They feature an ambient sound mode, too, and Amazon says with extended dynamic range improvements the overall sound quality has been bumped up, too. Amazon notes that the built in microphones have been improved as well, so call quality should be better overall.

Finally, there are four sizes of in-ear tips.

The all-new Echo Buds are priced at $99.99 for a limited time. After that introductory period, though, they will climb to $119.99. The second-generation Echo Buds will be available starting May 13, 2021.