So the new Echo Buds 2 are a big upgrade from the originals… specifically they have much
better build quality and design. And for $120 the Echo Buds 2’s feature set revivals that of
premium ANC earbuds like the AirPods Pro, Galaxy Buds Pro, Jabra Elite 85T’s and others. Now even
though the Echo Buds 2 get the job done at a price that you can’t be mad at… if you want something
more refined than you’ll still might want to go for these more premium options.
So like I just said the Echo buds 2 retail for $120, but if you want wireless charging then
you’re going to have to put up an extra $20. But nonetheless the Echo Buds 2’s are priced as a pair
of entry level earbuds. Where as for comparison the Galaxy Buds Pro retail for $200, the Jabra’s
retail for $230, and the AirPods Pro retail for $250. So you can definitely see that the Echo Buds
2 undercut all of these other earbuds by a good amount. Now if you’re looking for a bargain the
Echo Buds are fine… but if you want to pick any of these other earbuds they’ll be linked down below.
Now first lets address the carrying case. Like I said in the full review this is a major upgrade
for the Echo Buds 2’s cause the original echo bud’s case was huge and still charged via a
micro USB port. But this time around this case is much more manageable and its inline with what
you’d expect from your earbuds in 2021. However this case is still a little larger than your
AirPods Pro’s case, Galaxy Buds Pro case and Jabra Elite 85T’s case. But nonetheless the Echo Buds
2’s case isn’t super noticeable when you’ve got it in your pocket. But technically speaking all
of these other cases are even less noticeable when they’re in your pocket especially the AirPods Pro.
Now when it comes to battery life, the Echo buds 2’s have a decent combined battery life but
over all it is a little shorter than all of these other earbuds and it really depends on how
you use these earbuds. If you use these earbuds with their active noise cancellation turned on
and Alexa turned on then they have a combined battery life of 15 hours. The Earbuds themselves
can go for 5 straight hours and the case can supply an additional 2 full charges.
But if you were to use these earbuds with their Active noise cancelation turned off and Alexa
turned off then they have a combined battery life of 19 and a half hours.
But when compared to these other earbuds with their ANC turned on
the Galaxy Buds Pro have a combined battery life 18 hours, the AirPods Pro have a combined
battery life of 24 hours and the Jabra’s have a combined battery life of 25 hours.
And with their ANC turned off the Galaxy Buds Pro have a combined battery life of
28 hours and the Jabra’s have a combined battery life of 31 hours.
So even though the Echo Buds 2 have a decent combined battery life… all of these more
premium options have longer lasting battery lives which over all is just more convenient.
But now lets talk about the earbuds themselves. Regarding fit, the Echo buds 2 fit like your
standard pair of in ear earbuds like either the Galaxy Buds Plus or sennheiser CX 400BT’s.
They fit well, but they do go into your ear canal a decent amount which means they can get a little
itchy after awhile. So some people will might not be fans of standard fitting in ear earbuds.
Where as even though all of these other earbuds are in ear earbuds… they don’t fit like standard
in ear ear buds. Both the AirPods Pro and Jabra Elite 85T’s are shallow fitting in ear earbuds as
in they don’t go in super deep into your ear canal helping them feel more natural and comfortable for
long use sessions while still passively blocking out a good amount of ambient noise. However since
these earbuds are shallow fitting they can wiggle out from time to time especially the AirPods Pro.
Where as the Galaxy Buds Pro’s go in a little deeper than both the AirPods Pro
and Jabra’s but not as deep as the Echo Buds. So the Galaxy Buds Pro do offer better lock
down than the AirPods Pro and Jabra’s but they do feel a little more intrusive by comparison.
Overall ear bud fit does come down to preference… but something the Echo Buds do have over all of
these other earbuds is that they have optional ear fins. So if you’re looking for maximum lock down,
then the echo buds have you covered.
But now lets talk about connectivity…
the Echo Buds, AirPods, and Galaxy Buds all each establish a connection with your phone.
So if you just want to use one earbud at a time you can use either one it doesn’t matter.
And this is a the connection set up that we except from our earbuds now in 2021.
Where as the jabra’s are still using a hero and side kick set where one earbud the hero earbud
in this case the right earbud actually establishes a connection with your phone
and then relays that connection to the other earbud. So if you just want to use one earbud
at a time you gotta use the correct earbud. In this case the right earbud, the hero earbud.
Now for the most part earbuds that are still using a hear and sidekick set up do feel rather last
gen. However the Jabra’s do justify their use of a hero and sidekick set up cause they can be
connected to any two devices at the same time regardless of operating systems. So if you’re
a power user with multiple devices you can hot swap between any two devices regardless of OS.
Where as the AirPods and Galaxy Buds allow you to hot swap between multiple
devices but only in their respective eco systems. And then there are the Echo Buds where switching
between devices is easy enough but you can’t hot swap between your devices… you gotta manually go
into your devices bluetooth menu and establish a new connection.
But now lets talk about sound, the Echo Buds sound like your typical pair of entry level earbuds.
They sound very narrow, they have lots and vocals and a ton of bass that can easily get over
powering and it can get muddy from time to time. Now thankfully you can adjust the EQ on these
earbuds through the Alexa App and I found that bringing the bass down by two clicks and lowering
the mids one click will get you a more balanced listening experience. But still these earbuds do
sound very narrow. Now the AirPods Pro do sound a little more open the Echo Buds and their mids and
highs are well defined… but the bass on these earbuds does not resonate what so ever. So the
AirPods Pro sound very flat and they’re still narrow when compared to these other two earbuds.
Now the Jabra’s do sound noticeably more open and the AirPods Pro cause they have better instrument
separation and they do have hard hitting bass that resonates a little. Now even though these
earbuds do have a customizable EQ, I do recommend these earbuds to people who are looking for a
warmer bass heavy EQ cause these earbuds just don’t sound as open as the Galaxy buds pro.
Now like ive said in the past, the Galaxy Buds Pro are my second favorite sounding earbuds,
first place goes to the Sennheiser CX 400BT and Momentum 2’s. But still the Galaxy buds pro have
great instrument separation cause of their dual driver set up. And these earbuds have very deep
resonating bass. My only compliant is that the highs can get a little too much from time to time…
but nonetheless the Galaxy buds pro should have no problem please someone who’s looking for a
neutral or vocals focused EQ cause of their great instrument separation… or if you like a warmer EQ
and you’re looking for lots of bass than the Galaxy Buds Pro can deliver.
However one very important thing to point out about the Galaxy Buds Pro is that if you
want to use their app to select from their different pre set EQ’s to just mess around
with their settings in general… you’re going to need an android device. Cause as of June 2021,
6 months after their release, Samsung still hasn’t updated their iOS App to support their earbuds.
So if you’re an iPhone user you won’t be able to adjust you ANC or ambient mode levels and
more importantly you won’t be able to up date them. Which is pretty important cause
more recently the Galaxy Buds Pro got the tap the edge feature that was missing from
the Galaxy Buds Plus which allows you to raise of lower the volume of your music with these earbuds
and allows you to keep pressing and holding on these touch pads to cycle between your ambient
mode settings and manually activating your voice assistant. So im just saying if you
want to get the most out of the Galaxy Buds Pro then you’re going to want to be an android user.
Now whether you’re an iPhone user or an android user the Echo Buds have
always listing Alexa support. So you can use Alexa directly from your earbuds either to control your
smart appliance around the house like you normally would and you can even use Alexa to control your
media on your phone and you can even use Alexa to place a phone call all with just your voice.
Now this is very similar to how you can have always listening Siri if you’re using
AirPods with an iPhone or Hi Bixby support if you’re using Galaxy Buds with a Samsung device.
However if you do decide to use always listening voice assistants on any of these devices
they all take their toll on the battery life.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these earbuds. Now first I want to
tapper expectations here. None of these ear buds are going to block out nearly as much noise as a
proper pair of over ear ANC headphones like either the Sony 1000XM4’s, Bose NC 700’s or AirPods Max…
Now with that being said, even though its cool that the Echo Buds have active noise cancellation
at a a very low price… their ANC mostly focuses on constant low frequency sounds and they don’t block
out all that much noise in general. If active noise cancellation is very important to you
then I highly recommend the Jabra Elite 85T’s… they block out the most amount of noise here
with not a lot of cabin pressure. Below them are the AirPods Pro which block out a decent amount
of noise, but then under them are the Galaxy Buds Pro and finally there are the echo buds.
But like ive mentioned in the past, I only use the active noise cancelation on my earbuds when
I have to and what’s really important to me is the quality of their ambient mode.
Now for the most part the ambient mode on the Echo Buds, Galaxy buds, and Jabra’s sound natural
and they all do a decent job of blocking out wind noise when walking out doors.
But they all have a noticeable hissing to them in the back ground and if you
raise their ambient mode then that hissing becomes even more noticeable.
Where as with the AirPods Pro… their ambient mode has zero hissing in the back ground and its sounds
the most natural. But what’s really impressive is the amount of wind noise these earbuds manage
to block out. In situations where you’ll be walking out doors and get hit by a gust of wind
the AirPods Pro will manage to still block out that wind noise where as all of these
other earbuds will pickup that wind noise. So for someone who basscialy uses their ambient
mode all the time when they’re outside thats a pretty big deal.
But finally here’s the microphone test. Now the echo buds have a good
sounding microphone for phone calls if you’re using them in a quiet room. Your
voice has a good amount of amplification to its but with out sounding robotic.
Where as with the Jabra’s this microphone can sound a little shallow.
But then there are the AirPods and Galaxy buds which also like to put
a decent amount on amplification on your voice.
But the Galaxy Buds do like to put the most amount of amplification here.
However when it comes to blocking out ambient noise, even though the echo
buds are trying to reduce all of this chatter… what really ends up happening
is that your voice really starts to sound different. With the echo buds an
echo starts to develop and you’ll might even get a little reverb.
But for comparison sake, the Jabra’s don’t block out any ambient noise at all
Where as with the AirPods they do manage to reduce all of this chatter, all while still
keeping your voice front and center without developing an echo or any reverb.
And the Galaxy buds pro also try to do this, but since they do have more amplification to them
they do let in more noise pollution.
But nonetheless the echo buds have a decent sounding microphone for phone calls…
but you wanna try to mostly take your phone calls in a quieter environment.
So with all that bing said, the echo buds 2 are a decent pair of earbuds at $140.
They have active noise cancellation, an ambient mode, always listening Alexa, a decent sounding
microphone and a usable combined battery life. They get the job done, but if you decide to go
with these more premium options then you are going to get a better return on your investment.
If active noise cancelation is a big deal to you then you’ll want to go with the Jabra’s. Or if
sound is a big deal to you then you’ll want to go with the Galaxy Buds Pro… however with the
Galaxy buds if you want to get the most out of them then you do gotta be an android user cause
if you’re an iPhone user you won’t be able to use their app. But if you are an android users then I
still recommend that you stick with the AirPods Pro cause they’re still the most convenient.
They’ve got the smallest case here, they block out a decent amount of noise, they
have the best ambient mode, they have a longer battery life, and they have hey Siri support.