Dyson’s air filter headphones are coming to turn us into cyborgs

Dyson is following through on its promise to sell a high-tech face mask and wants to launch its Zone headphone and air-filter combo in January 2023 with a design that leaves only the eyes uncovered.

The pricetag of $949/£749 is about double that of the most popular high-end noise cancelling headphones, such as Apple’s $550 AirPods Max or Sony’s $399 WH-1000XM5. However Dyson is clearly setting itself apart with a removable air filtration unit.

First introduced in spring as an idea, the headphones come with a filter unit that is attached to the headphones with magnets. This then pumps filtered air to the mouth and nose.

You can also use just the headphones without the mouthpiece, meaning you don’t always need to walk around looking like Batman nemesis Bane from “The Dark Knight Rises”. Dyson says you can turn off the air supply by pushing down the headband or removing it completely.

Dyson isn’t yet showing what it’s like to have a conversation with the headset on, but it does say that the visor doesn’t seal off the nose and mouth, and merely sits close to the face without touching it.

Electrostatic filtration captures up to 99% of particles down to a size of 0.1 microns, such as dust, pollen and bacteria. A potassium-enriched carbon filter is said to purify the air we breathe of gases such as nitrogen dioxide or ozone. You will need to replace the filter once a year, Dyson says.

In addition to air pollution, the Zone also works against noise pollution, and Dyson says its active noise cancelling (ANC) in the Bluetooth 5.0 headphones works with eight microphones and is supposed to be able to attenuate disturbing ambient noise by up to 38 decibels (dB).

At 595 g, the headphones alone are quite heavy, and get only heavier when you attach the 75-g air filter. The Apple AirPods Max have already been criticized as noticeably heavy at 385 g, significantly more than the 250 g of Sony’s WH-1000XM5.

The 2,600 mAh battery in the headphones charges fully via USB-C in three hours. This is enough for up to 50 hours of pure music listening or up to four hours of combined audio and filter operation at the lowest airflow speed.

The combined time drops accordingly at medium (up to 2.5 hours) and high airflow speed (up to 1.5 hours). An accelerometer in the headphones monitors the user’s activity and automatically adjusts the airflow speed if desired.

Dyson has also added a sensor to detect when you’re not wearing the device so that the Zone can save power and switch to standby when you take it off. It will also automatically switch to audio-only mode when the filter headband is pushed down slightly or removed completely.

A built-in sensor monitors nitrogen dioxide levels. These are displayed in the MyDyson app, as is the level of ambient noise. The app also controls airflow, ANC, some audio equaliser modes and a volume limit.