Xbox controllers are on sale for $44 each, plus the rest of the week’s best tech deals

The Xbox Wireless Controller is on sale for $44 at Amazon and Walmart. It’s $1 more directly from Microsoft and at Best Buy. At most retailers, the discounts apply to the white and black colorways. Other colors are also on sale, but aren’t as deeply discounted. 

The revamped gamepad has the same layout of previous generations, but with more responsive buttons and triggers and smoother joysticks. In addition to the Xbox Series X and S, it also pairs with Windows PCs and Android phones and tablets via Bluetooth. It runs on AA batteries, so you may want to invest in rechargeable cells or a rechargeable battery pack.

In an exclusive sale through Engadget, one of our top recommended cooking gadgets is $30 off. The Thermapen One instant-read meat thermometer is on sale for $79, down from an MSRP of $109. This runs through February 28, or until it’s sold out. 

The “One” in the name stands for the amount of time it should take to get a reading, ie, one second. It made our list of the best grilling gear because we found it fast and precise with an easy-read display. Plus the display auto-rotates making it even easier to gauge your meat.

In an ongoing sale at Amazon, a bunch of charging accessories are getting discounts of up to 44 percent. Deals include Anker’s 20,000mAh portable charger for just $34, or 25 percent off the list price. It has a built-in USB-C cable that doubles as a carrying strap and can charge multiple devices at once. 

Also on sale is the Anker Prime 100W GaN Wall Charger, which is $68 after a 22 percent discount. It comes with two USB-C ports and one USB-A port with a max output of 100 watts when using two ports at once. 

The smaller Anker Nano 65W GaN II Charger has just one USB-C port, and is on sale for $28, which is a 44 percent savings from the $50 retail price. 

If you have an iPhone 14 or earlier, the Anker Nano power bank with built-in Lightning connector is a great way to give your handset a partial refill thanks to its ultra portable design. It’s one of the top picks in our guide to power banks. 

Dyson’s Airwrap is back down to it’s lowest price yet, as long as you’re a Best Buy Plus member. The multi-styler retails for $600 but is now on sale for $480. 

The Airwrap relies on air instead of extreme heat to dry and shape hair — which could help keep your hair healthier over using a curling iron, straightener or blow dryer — and uses a technology called the Coanda effect, a phenomenon describing airflow’s tendency to follow the path of a curved surface. Here, the air jet flows around the tool’s barrel or brush attachment, so it wraps, dries and styles hair all at once. 

The deal only applies to Best Buy Plus members, a $50 per-year subscription that gets you discounts like this one, plus free two-day shipping, sort of like Amazon’s Prime program. 

The Famicom-inspired version of 8BitDo’s Retro Mechanical Keyboard is on sale for $80 at Woot. That’s a 20 percent discount and an all-time low for the relatively new accessory. The colors match Nintendo’s 8-bit Famicom console and has Japanese characters below the keys’ English markings. 

The mechanical board has hot-swappable PCB key switches, supports custom keyboard mapping and connects via Bluetooth or wired. It also comes with two smashable (and programmable) buttons. The sale should go through Thursday 2/29 or until it sells out. 

The higher-capacity model of the iPad Mini is $120 off and down to a record-low price at Amazon right now. The 256GB model is now $529 instead of $649 for all four colorways. The smaller-capacity model with 64GB of storage is also on sale for $100 off or $399, but it often hits that price point, which is about $20 more than the lowest it’s sold for.  

We named the Mini the best iPad for one-handed use in our guide to Apple’s tablets and gave the slab a full review when it came out in 2021. With its Liquid Retina design, TouchID top button, second-generation Apple Pencil support and USB-C charging, it’s more of an ultra-portable iPad Air — though we should note that it still uses Apple’s previous A15 Bionic chip and not their newer M-series silicon. It’s also worth pointing out that new iPads are expected this year, which could have something to do with the discount.

Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air M2 with 256GB of storage is back down to an all-time low price at Best Buy. It’s down to $999 after at $300 discount and the deal applies to the Starlight, Midnight and Silver colorways. That matches the lowest price we’ve seen to date. The 512GB model is also $300 off, so you may want to opt for that one of you’ll need more storage.  

We gave the 15-inch MacBook Air a 96 in our review, noting that it’s more than just a larger version of the 13-inch model. The larger screen finally lets you get the most out of the powerful processors Apple has plunked inside its latest Air laptop. 

Apple’s second-generation Pencil is on sale for $79 at Walmart. That’s not an all-time low, but represents a 39 percent discount. A stylus is essential for iPad drawing and handwritten notes. The second generation adds features missing from the original, such as magnetic charging on the edge of an iPad. Note that it’s only compatible with newer models of iPad Air, iPad Pro and iPad Mini, the standard iPad requires the first generation Apple Pencil, which isn’t on sale, but is also selling for $79. 

The base model of the latest generation of the iPad Air is on sale for $449 at Walmart and Amazon. The MSRP is $599 but it’s often on sale for $499. This sale represents a new low price. 

It’s the iPad we recommend for most people because it’s speedy, has a great screen and works with current-generation accessories. It’s great for games and streaming, but can also handle productivity tasks when you add a keyboard and mouse. 

With the release of the M3 chip this model, which uses the M1 chip, is ready for an update, which will likely come this year. Still, if you’re not concerned with having the latest thing, this is a good deal on a tablet that should serve you well. 

The Bose QuietComfort wireless headphones are $100 off at Bose and Amazon. That brings them down to $249, which matches their all-time low price. The deal applies to all colors including the standard black and white but also Cypress Green and Moonstone Blue.

These are the new generation of the QuietComfort 45 headsets, which are our pick for the best noise-canceling wireless headphones. In addition to great ANC, they also have comfortable and soft earcups with a padded band. You’ll get 24 hours of use on a charge and the adjustable EQ gives you control over the audio. 

The Ultra QuietComfort model is also on sale, with a 12 percent discount dropping them from $429 to $379. We gave these a review score of 86 when they came out last October. 

Panasonic’s S5 II with an 85mm f/1.8 prime lens is on sale at Amazon and B&H Photo Video for the lowest price yet. The set is $1,796, a savings of $800 over buying both separately. That gives you not just a discount on the camera, but also a free lens.

In our review we noted that the 24-megapixel, full-frame mirrorless S5 II was a great value at $2,000. It makes for a great vlogging camera and has a phase-detect autofocus system that eliminates the wobble and other issues of past models.

Apple’s latest HomePod smart speaker is on sale for $285 at B&H Photo. It’s not a huge discount or it’s lowest price yet, but the larger Siri-enabled speaker rarely goes on sale, and the deal applies to both the white and black speaker.

The speaker arrived in early 2023, and we gave it a score of 84 in our review last year. It works well with other Apple devices and services, and we found the sound was richer than smart speakers from Amazon and Google, but it’s also much pricier. If all you’re looking for is a smart speaker with good sound quality, you may want to go with the Sonos Era 100 though that speaker isn’t on sale and only works with Alexa’s voice assistance. If you prefer interacting with Siri and want full sound, this HomePod deal is a good bet.  

If you have an iPhone and need a Bluetooth tracker to keep tabs on stuff you may otherwise misplace, we recommend Apple’s AirTags. Right now, a four-pack of the discs are on sale at Amazon for $79 instead of the full $99 price tag. That’s close to the lowest price we’ve seen for them. 

They tap into Apple’s crazy-vast Find My network which relies on other iPhones to track the location of any lost AirTag — and its attached items.