Amazon's New Buds Make It Easier to Summon Alexa Than Ever

If you're in love with Alexa, Amazon's first-generation Echo Buds were a great pair of headphones. Sure, they didn't have the same sound quality or noise-canceling abilities as premium options from Apple and Samsung, but they were cheap, decent, and worked better with Amazon's voice assistant than any other pair. Wireless charging and noise-canceling join a brand-new pair of 5.7-mm drivers and beamforming microphones to create what's probably the best overall experience in wireless earbuds below $150. Add to that some of the best app integration available today, and the new Echo Buds are some of my favorite jack-of-all-trades headphones. The new Echo Buds don't really resemble their predecessors, apart from being made from the same matte plastic.