The first-gen Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones are $150 off right now

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The first-gen Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones are $150 off right now

These are on a steeper sale than on last year's Black Friday.

Andre RevillaContributing ReporterWed, January 14, 2026 at 4:48 PM UTCAdd Engadget on GooglePhoto by Billy Steele/Engadget

The first-generation Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones are on sale right now for $280, marked down from $430. That 35 percent savings is an even steeper discount than we saw last year Black Friday.

Bose

Bose QuietComfort Ultra

$279$429Save $150

Bose's first-gen QuietComfort Ultra are $150 off.

$279 at AmazonExplore More Buying Options$430 at Target$450 at Verizon

In our review of the first-generation Ultras, we gave them a score of 86 out of 100, noting their best-in-class active noise cancellation (ANC) and comfort. Bose improved its stock tuning for these headphones, which we could immediately tell sounded warmer and clearer. Bose has typically lagged behind the likes of Sony and Sennheiser in raw sound quality, but the first-generation QuietComfort Ultra was a big step toward catching up.

Bose added "Immersive Audio" to this model, which is the company's take on spatial audio. The company claims this feature effectively puts you in the acoustic sweet spot of a set of stereo speakers. In our testing, we felt this didn't always make songs sound better, but it did make them louder and in some cases made certain details more noticeable.

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The Ultras offer up to 24 hours of battery life with ANC turned on and about 18 hours with both ANC and Immersive Audio enabled. In our testing, however, we were actually able to beat Bose's estimates for battery life.

The second generation of these headphones are currently our top pick for best noise-canceling headphones, but when this older model is heavily on sale, the differences between them are less dramatic. If you're in the market for a pair of great noise-canceling cans, consider checking these out.

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