The Dyson Zone air-purifying headphones make Razer’s Zephyr facemask look positively understated, but then the former also features integrated noise-canceling headphones. We now know that it will arrive in the US this coming March and start at $949. Dyson says the headphones’ 2,600mAh battery offers up to 50 hours of ultra-low distortion audio, advanced noise cancellation, and faithful, full-spectrum audio reproduction on a single charge. It also provides 38 decibels of noise cancellation, features 40-millimeter neodymium drivers, and can reproduce frequencies from 6Hz-21kHz. Moreover, the Dyson Zone will support SBC, AAC, and LHDC audio codecs and Bluetooth 5.0 at launch. The other aspect of the headphones is the air purifier, which can capture 99% of particle pollution as small as 0.1 microns, much larger than viruses such as the coronavirus—the Zone is designed mainly to protect from city pollutants. The dual-layer carbon filters, which are enriched with potassium to target acidic gasses like nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and ozone, will last around 12 months before needing to be replaced. The Dyson Zone has three purification levels. When combined with audio listening, each one significantly impacts battery life: the Low setting drops it to four hours, Mid offers 2.5 hours, and High offers just 1.5 hours. Dyson says it takes three hours to charge the headphones from zero to 100% using USB-C.
Dyson previously said the Zone had been in development for six years rather than being created in response to the pandemic, as was the case with some other air-purifying masks—even though they don’t actually protect from the virus. The Dyson Zone will be available in Ultra Blue/Prussian Blue this March. There’s also a Prussian Blue/Bright Copper version only available directly from the company that comes with a second electrostatic carbon filter, a soft pouch, and an inflight adaptor kit.
