These original Echo Buds were actually the first TWS earbuds I ever purchased, and I believe that was at the start of 2020. These impressed me enough that I got into the whole universe of TWS earbuds and I have…a bunch more of them now…
Anyways, these have good audio quality, noise cancellation, and passthrough/ambient mode. I wouldn’t say there are any huge disadvantages to these over any other options going on nearly 2 years since their launch, but that being said there’s a ton of other TWS earbuds to choose from, and the $70 discounted price is only OK for what you get.
These “only” have microUSB, which I don’t prefer but they come with a cable so I can’t complain too much about that. They’re “only” IPX4, which is on the lower end but then again some others are rated less (or not at all.) They only have 5 hours of music playback with 20 total including recharges from the case, which isn’t particularly impressive considering there are some alternatives with 10+ hours per charge (and many more with the case.) They come with ear tips and wing tips, the latter of which many other sets don’t include. The Echo Buds of course integrate with Alexa and the mobile app, which I already use but you can technically connect these without the app I guess. And then of course the final point of contention is that these have already been replaced by a 2nd-gen successor.
So are these worth buying at $70 right now? I’m not sure. They do work very well with a good feature set in my opinion. It’s just that there are so many other options. You could, for example, get the Edifier TWS1 PRO right now on Amazon for ~$43 if you just want great audio quality (and some other advantages over the Echo Buds) and don’t need noise cancellation. Or you could get the Edifier NB2 Pro for $80, giving you ANC on a more modern design than the Buds, but this entire class of product usually has cyclic price discounts and coupons and I got a pair for $60 after discounts and tax, which is of course less for a new model compared to the ~2-year old Echo Buds. And those are just a couple of recent examples from Edifier alone, without even mentioning any other brands like Soundcore, Soundpeats, JBL, Sony, 1MORE, Sennheiser, Lypertek, LG, Tozo, JLab, Creative…or any of the brands that got kicked off of Amazon like Aukey, Mpow, Taotronics (they all had perfectly good audio products, but you have to buy them elsewhere now.)
June 16, 2021 I bought the 2nd gen wired charging case ones from the mothership for $79.99 so if you’d like the newer ones with a couple more features they go on sale for not too much more. Just have to wait, but Black Friday, cyber Monday coming up in a couple months then holiday times after that. Might be worth a wait if you’re not in dire need right now. The gen 2 ones don’t stay in as well as AirPods or airpod pros. Their batteries don’t last as long. They don’t connect or stay connected as readily. But they are cheaper and decent sound quality for the price.