HEADPHONES
72 APRIL2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE386
IT’STAKENAwhile,but Amazon has
expanded its audio range to include
headphones as well as speakers. The all-nnnew
Echo Buds are atruewireless set with theee
Echo-standardAlexadigitalassistant,buttt
what’smuchmoresurprisingisthat
supportforbothSiriandGoogleAssistannnt
isincludedtoo.
TheEchoBudsareofferingANCtech,
developed by Bose,and foralot less monnney
thanthesimilarlyfeaturedAppleAirPodsss
Pro.Couldtheybeabargaintoogoodto
turndown?
WINGINGIT
The Echo Buds are small, shiny black pearls of
plastic with discreet ear tips that jut out from
the front end. They’re thankfully spared from
any visible Amazon branding, and with IPX4
splash and sweat-resistance,theyshould
withstand light rain showers and intensive
workouts without any trouble.
Battery lifeisrated at five hours per
charge,with up to an extra 20 hours available
from the charging case.We’dsay this is pretty
accurate; using ANC drops single-charge time
closer to four hours, but that’s still reasonable
fortruewireless buds.
However,wealsofound these harder to fit
than most earbuds. Youget three sizes of
both tips and ‘wingtips’,the latter of which
help secure the earpieces in place,but what
initially felt like the most comfortable set
immediately allowed the Echo Buds
out. We hadtoexclusively use the
largest size of both tips and
wingtips, which have the added
nuisance of making it harder to
shut the charging case when
they’re equipped.
Since this is an Amazon
device,Alexa is obviously the
Echo Buds’ primary smart
assistant. As soon as you connect
the Buds to your phone and sync
them with the Alexa app on your
phone,you can issue Alexa smart
commands using only your voice.
When there’s no Wi-Fi or mobile dat
connection available,however,you’ll
have to live without those functions
To make use of the Alexa voice featu
your phone will also need to be runn
either Android 6.0 or iOS 12 at minim
Then, of course,there’sthat Goo
Siri smart assistant support. The latt
to work well enough, but unfortunat
experience with Google Assistant wa
frustrating one.With touchcontrols
AMAZON Echo Buds
★★★★★
£120•Fromwww.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
TheEchoBudsareafineifflawedwayofff
gettingANCin-earsforrelativelylittlecaaash
meanttobeveryeasytoactivateGoogle
Assistant(“simplypressandholdyour
earbud”,saytheinstructions)andgiveit
commands through the Echo Buds’
microphones. When it works it’s excellent, but
when it chooses not to –which is frustratingly
often –itcan take several reboots of the
AAAllleeexxxaaaaaapppppp,,,ooorrreeevvveeennnttthhheeeppphhhooonnneee,,,tttooogggeeetttttthhheeeEEEccchhhooo
BudstoplayballwithAndroid.
Thetouchcontrolsoptionsarepoorin
general,too.Thereareonlytwochoices:a
double-tap and along press. We foundthat,
when everything works well, it’s best to have
the ANC function controlled with adouble-
tap and use the long hold forGoogle
Assistant activation. It’s actually easier to
pause music by taking one Bud out of your
ear –auto-pausing itself being amuch
better-executed feature than the touch
controls –and forvolume adjustment, we’d
rather tell Alexa to do it, or use the slider on
the source device.
SWEET SILENCE
At least ANC works well. Very well, in fact:
switching it on and off on abusy street
makes it clear just how much noise the
Bose system blocks out. We were less fond
of the filtered pass-through mode; this is
sssuuuppppppooossseeedddtttooommmaaakkkeeeiiittteeeaaasssiiieeerrrtttooottteeemmmpppooorrraaarrriiilllyyy
listentotheoutsideworldwithoutremoving
theheadphones,butalmostseemstoadd
morebackgroundbabblethanisactually
there.Whenit’sengaged,however,ANCis
highly effective.
There are three microphones on each Echo
Bud, and theyseem to do agreat job of
picking up voice commands; we were able to
invoke Alexa with the quietest mumbling.
Since the Echo buds are integrated intothe
Alexa infrastructure,you can also issue all the
smart home commands that you’d normally
give to compatible smart devices at home.
The audio quality formusic isn’t stunning
on the Echo Buds, but it’s well balanced and
does agood job,with the soundscape filling
up the whole ear.Amazon has kitted out each
bud with aKnowles dual-balanced armature
driver,and these deliver adequatebass and
much higher volume than you’ll ever need.
Keep in mind that the quality of the audio and
noise-cancelling is greatly affected by the
between your ear and the
owever,the sound is
ve; the Apple AirPods Pro
cost over twice as much.
erior fit and more reliable
ANC buds do much to
edifference,and the
make foranother
ernative even without
tion.
onados who’ve already
Alexa experience,getting a
uds is nonetheless a
tep. Youwon’t be getting
ones, either: despitesome
nectivity issues, the Echo
tty good overall. Hopefully
ill come back next year
even better second
attempt; one that sorts
out these niggles and
becomes atop product
in the same vein as its
Echo speakers.
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