Amazon's already affordable AirPods rivals are even cheaper than usual

Now, granted, Amazon's rookie effort in the crazy crowded, Apple-dominated true wireless earbuds space is far from perfect, as suggested by the mediocre 3.6 star average based on more than 3,500 customer ratings on the world's largest e-commerce platform. But we're pretty certain many folks can settle for mediocre sound performance and noise reduction technology at a cool $40 off an already reasonable $129.99 price.

After all, you're looking at some mighty sleek headphones here, tipping the scales at 7.6 grams each and yet fully capable of keeping your tunes going for up to 5 hours on a single charge, just like the significantly costlier non-Pro second-gen AirPods. The lightweight charging case sold alongside the Echo Buds can bring that number all the way up to 20 hours, while some quick 15-minute charging action is purportedly enough to deliver a solid two hours of uninterrupted music playback.

Of course, one of the key selling points is undoubtedly the native integration of Amazon's crazy popular Alexa AI, which means you can access your favorite voice assistant with no hands, just like the AirPods support "Hey Siri" commands and Samsung's Galaxy Buds are designed to seamlessly summon Bixby... for the two people that actually find that app convenient.

All in all, Amazon still has a long way to go before it can challenge Apple's dominance in the thriving "hearables" market, but if this reduced price tag sticks, the Echo Buds will definitely put the company on the right track to the industry's silver medal position.