Amazon’s second-gen Echo Buds may not be at the top of the pack for the best earbuds you can get in 2023, but they’re quite good when they can be had for a song. That usually happens during sales events like Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday, but currently (on a random Monday), you can get the Echo Buds in black with a wireless charging case for just $56.99 ($83 off) on clearance at Best Buy. That’s a new all-time low for these noise-canceling earbuds and almost as cheap as the lowest price we’ve seen on them with a wired charging case. It’s also just $6 more than Amazon’s newer, basic-looking Echo Buds for 2023, but those have a semi-open design that lacks noise cancellation.
The Echo Buds came out in 2021 and offer a good value for features like noise cancellation with an ambient sound mode, and since they’re an Amazon product, you better believe there are Alexa voice command integrations. But even if you ignore that, the Echo Buds are just a good pair of earbuds with nice sound quality and a fairly comfy fit.
The Apple Watch Series 8 may have been an iterative update last year (much like this year’s Series 9 that came after it), but it did add a couple of features like crash detection and cycle tracking. But let’s be honest with ourselves here. Unless you’re spending big money on an Apple Watch Ultra, when you buy a recent Apple Watch Series, you’re mostly getting a table-stakes experience of fitness tracking and notifications on your wrist. Getting the newest model may be slightly more futureproof, but Apple Watches can last a good chunk of years before worrying about being left behind on software updates.