• Play Pro headphones look more expensive than they are
• 1g lighter than the Sonys at just 253g
• Launching at $59.99 / £59.99 / €59.99

We’re big fans of the fantastic Sony WH-1000XM4 wireless headphones, but even though they’re widely discounted now, they’re still beyond the budget of many buyers. That’s an issue Swedish musician and DJ Andreas Vural’s company would like to solve with its new Happy Plugs Play Pro headphones.

The Play Pro are one of a trio of headphones the firm is launching at CES 2025: it’s also launching the Happy Plugs Clip, which as the name suggests clip to your ears, and the Happy Plugs Adore, which are earbuds that come in a makeup mirror case. But the Play Pro are the most interesting as they’re a third of the price we’d expect to pay for a set of similarly-specced Sonys, and bear more than passing physical resemblance to the XM4, too.

Happy Plugs Play Pro: key features and pricing

The Happy Plugs Play Pro are wireless over-ears with an impressive 50 hours of battery life and the usual USB-C charging port. They’re made with 40mm drivers and are IPX4 water resistant. They’re portable too: they weigh 253g and you can fold them up for easy transportation (a feature dropped from the newer Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones).

A big draw here for the price is active noise cancellation, which is supplemented by what the firm calls “effective environmental noise cancellation for calls”.

We don’t have more detailed technical specs just yet, but the brand has previously focused on affordability and good looks; prior to this launch its only over-ears were the kid-focused Happy Plugs Play, so I suspect the sound here will be good rather than great.

But with a price tag a sliver under $60 and likely discounting – at the time of writing Happy Plugs is doing a buy one, get one free deal across its headphones and earbuds range – they could well turn out to be some of the best cheap headphones. We look forward to testing them in the future.

More from CES 2025

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