Bose’s first-gen QC Ultra headphones have returned to their best price to date

This year’s CES introduced a bevy of unique headphones, including Fender’s first set and a pair that roll up to become a Bluetooth speaker when you want to share your music with friends. However, despite the interesting advancements, we doubt any of them will dethrone our favorite pair for travel: the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones. Thankfully, the first-gen noise-canceling cans are currently on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from Bose in several colors for $279 ($150 off), matching their lowest price to date.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones

Where to Buy:

• $429 $279 at Amazon
• $429 $279 at Best Buy
• $429 $279 at Bose

Although Bose introduced a second-gen pair of the QC Ultra in September, the original flagships offer many of the same hallmarks for $120 less, at least at the moment. They feature a comfortable build and a foldable design that makes them ideal for long flights and road trips, along with a commendable 24 hours of battery life. More importantly, they offer best-in-class noise cancellation and a pleasing, balanced sound signature that preserves highs and lows even when you dial back the volume. That’s on top of a natural-sounding transparency mode designed to pipe outside noise in and an Immersive Audio feature, which, while still hit or miss, can offer new depth to select tracks.

If you do decide to go with the first-gen model over Bose’s latest pair of headphones, you’ll only be giving up a handful of somewhat iterate update. The QC Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) — which also happen to be on sale for $50 off at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo — let you eke out slightly more battery life (30 hours vs. 24 hours), support lossless audio over USB-C, and feature an improved transparency mode. They also support Bluetooth 5.4 and a new Cinema Mode designed to bring dialogue to the forefront, though, for most people, we’d argue none of the features are worth shelling out an additional $120 for.

More deals and discounts of note

• If cracking the case and solving (non-racist) Lovecraftian mysteries is your jam, Steam’s weeklong Detective Fest runs through 1PM ET on January 19th. It’s a lot more curated than Steam’s typical sales events; however, you can still find excellent discounts on The Case of the Golden Idol ($8.99), Disco Elysium ($9.99), and plant-based puzzler Strange Horticulture ($6.39). I, for one, will be picking up last year’s most surprising GOTY contender, Blue Prince ($19.79), along with a fresh set of pen and paper to go with it.
• The UE Wonderboom 4 has been my go-to Bluetooth smart speaker since it arrived in mid-2024, but Tribit’s StormBox Mini Plus remains an excellent budget alternative you can pick up at Amazon starting at $29.99 ($10 off), an all-time low. The portable speaker features a fabric-covered cylindrical design that’s eerily familiar to rival models from UE and JBL, not to mention IPX7 waterproofing, a 3.5mm aux input, a speakerphone, and balanced, 360-degree sound that belies its pint-sized stature.
• Sharge’s Pixel 140 charger is currently available from Amazon (for Prime members) and Sharge for around $79.99 ($20 off), which is just a dollar or two shy of its lowest price to date. The newer, fifth-gen GaN charger swaps the LCD and OLED screens that have become pervasive in the charging world for a retro-inspired dot matrix display, which lets you see the real-time power draw at a glance. The slick charger also outputs up to 140W and sports three USB-C ports, allowing you to charge all your favorite gadgets.