by There’s always some weird piece of tech floating around with a big brand name attached that just makes you go, “Huh?” Wearables tend to dominate this market for some reason. They often have promise but look pretty ridiculous. I’m talking about things like Google Glass – the augmented reality glasses that appeared long before their time – or Razer’s RGB Zephyr face mask (opens in a new tab), which I still want. The things that usually end up in hardware purchase articles are regrets (opens in a new tab)or the way of living in the future is not quite where we had imagined (opens in a new tab).
Spotted ahead of its March release, Dyson’s Zone is the technology I’m positing as 2022’s best example of “huh?” This set of rather advanced headphones is indeed made by the king of vacuum cleaners, Dyson. As an old person, I can say that their vacuums are good, but I can’t help but wonder if these headphones will suck as much.
The specs on these things look legit. They have up to 50 hours of battery life and features such as advanced noise reduction. The zone also boasts full-spectrum sound and ultra-low distortion, while looking just like the filter in my V6 Animal stick vacuum cleaner. It’s a choice, that’s for sure.
Dyson doesn’t let its air purification expertise go to waste with these boxes. The filter-like ear cuffs are just that, said to be able to capture 99% of pollution particles and then blow it out towards the nose and mouth. There is a full face panel part to help with this that connects to the headphones and goes over the mouth or nose.
This also works with the app, because of course it’s an app. It can be used to control things like volume settings and noise reduction, and also works with the air-purifying part of the Zone, giving you a reading of the air quality around you.
Wearing the full set gives off a sort of futuristic semi-open helmet vibe I expect from a futuristic anime, and looks quite heavy. Definitely one of those things that needs to be tried in person before making any choices on the purchase front. Especially given that these air purification boxes are far from cheap.
The official price for the Dyson Zone is $949 USD, and it’s going to want to sound good and clean some air for that price. Of course, the company’s vacuum cleaners are not cheap either. For people who work in noisy and polluted environments, the Dyson Zone may be the godsend they’ve been waiting for.
A bit like the Razer Zephyr, it’s clear that this is a product marketed to our current fears. Be it air pollution or disease, people are much more concerned about what they are breathing. It is worth noting that no benefits related to Covid protection are mentioned in the product description (opens in a new tab).
