Dyson, the British company best known for its vacuums and blade-less fans, has announced the price and availability of its wearable air purifier that also features noise-cancelling headphones.
The Dyson Zone will set you back a staggering R16,460 ($950) at today’s exchange rate and will be available to purchase in the US, the UK, Hong Kong, and Singapore in March 2023.
Daft Punk meets the health-conscious
That price tag would be ludicrous to most sane people. But for audiophiles looking to fill their collections with something unique, or for the kinds of people who keep a fully stocked underground bomb shelter, the Dyson Zone might just be worth it.
Despite what you might think and with the timing of the announcement, these were not made to be worn during the pandemic. The Zone has, according to Dyson, been in development for six years. They will not, nor do they claim to, remove viruses from the air you breathe.
Instead, these are geared towards people living in cities with high air pollution who have been wearing face masks long before the rest of the world cottoned on to their benefits.
Exorbitant price tag aside, these do feature some interesting specs – at least on paper. The Zone supposedly sports a 50-hour battery life (audio playback and ANC), an eight-mic array for the noise-cancelling system, a relatively wide frequency response from 6Hz to 21kHz, and will feature some smart features accessible through the MyDyson app. Although, that battery life could plummet to 4 hours if you want purification and ANC at the same time.
As we highlighted in our initial report, our biggest concern comes from combining an air compressor – something that traditionally makes a lot of noise – with a pair of audio drivers. Hopefully, for the folks planning on picking up a pair, Dyson has spent the last six years figuring out how to do just that. We’re still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but that price tag makes the pill slightly harder to swallow.
