Okay, let’s just be honest about this. The Dyson Zone looks weird. 

It feels a bit like what Daft Punk might wear around the house or on a beach holiday. 

But this is about function, not fashion – even if Dyson has done its best to execute both.

If you don’t know what that function is exactly, the Zone is a pair of high fidelity noise-cancelling headphones paired with a wearable air purifier. 

Too late to ride the Covid wave perhaps, but while the battle to avoid a potentially deadly virus has waned, demand for pollution-free air may one day reach the West. 

If it does, Dyson is ready.  

It’s hardly surprising the brand that first made its name in vacuum cleaners should lead the way in personal air filtration, and in all honesty, the Zone is a bit of a technological marvel. 

In a nutshell, a fan within each can sucks in air, pulls it through a filter, and pumps it back out through the ‘visor’ that hovers in front of the wearer’s nose and mouth.

According to Dyson, electrostatic filters capture 99% of particle pollution as small as 0.1 microns, while ‘K-Carbon, potassium-enriched carbon filters target prevalent acidic gases most associated with city pollution’.

It’s a feat of engineering, and honestly, I genuinely like the feel of breathing in fresh air at my desk or on the tube. 

But there’s no denying it’s a significant piece of kit, and to be honest, the Zone does feel quite heavy and bulky. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very comfortable courtesy of copious padding, but when on the move it feels precariously balanced, and is prone to shift if you’re looking up or down. 

Then again, that could be great for my terrible posture. 

It also isn’t 100% compatible with glasses. To get the visor sitting in the right place, I and other women who tried them on found they had to sit surprisingly far back – only adding to the insecure feeling. But when covering my mouth and nose, the visor then clashes with my glasses.

Glasses also dampened the noise-cancellation by breaking the seal around them, but for those who perhaps wear better-fitting, less nerdily massive glasses, this is where the Zone really excels.  

Just yesterday, the London Assembly’s environmental committee raised concerns about ‘excessive’ and ‘hazardous’ noise on the Tube. As a regular user of the Jubilee line between Canary Wharf and London Bridge, which surely reaches about 1,000 dB (or feels like it), the Zone came into its own – once I’d removed my glasses. That meant I couldn’t see or hear, but if you’re going to feel like a mole, the Underground seems a fitting locale.

Above ground they also fared well, dampening the hustle and bustle of Tower Bridge, the City and Oxford Street on a tour of the capital that garnered many odd looks.

Dyson reports the headphones contain eight microphones to reduce the external noise by up to 38 decibels.

Unfortunately they can’t quite compete against the sound of the fan, which can still be heard over both the noise cancellation function and music, but only just – and for white noise lovers, it’s a bit of a bonus.

What the hay-fever sufferer thought

Here’s a sentence I never thought I would ever write: now I know what it’s like to be King Charles.

Sadly not because I’ve suddenly come into a lot of money, but because when I put on the Dyson Zone headphones, they were so heavy it must have been similar to wearing a crown at the coronation.

Billed as being able to filter air and thus clearing pollutants and allergens, as a hayfever sufferer I was very excited to try them – and I was able to breathe more easily within seconds of placing the mask part over my nose and mouth. The noise-cancelling element was the best I’ve ever come across in a pair of headphones.

I would need longer to see if the mask truly helped my allergies in the longer term, but the flow of air into my face presented a different problem and caused my contact lenses to feel as if they were drying out.

It’s awesome the amount of tech the Dyson Zone has inside – but they’re just too weighty for me to wear for long, or out and about.
Sian Elvin, deputy news editor

For music lovers too, the Zone is a solid pair of headphones. You can’t complain about the sound quality, which offers three settings including a bass boost, if that’s your bag. To be honest I mainly tune in to podcasts and only listen to music when running, which I absolutely would not risk a pair of £800+ headphones doing. 

But if money were no object, would I wear them?

I genuinely do like the air purifier, and as someone becoming increasingly concerned by the effects of air pollution on my health, can see gadgets like this becoming more prevalent – one day. 

Does it work? No matter where I was around London the Zone app showed a glowing green line for good air quality. Granted it was a Sunday, but you’d still expect worse standing behind a bus on Oxford Street.

Are they too big? For me, yes, but not for everyone – and don’t forget, this is the first public iteration following 200+ in development. The next Zone will no doubt be more compact, and the next further still. 

The price isn’t small either. Starting at £749.99, it’s a punchy entry.

Of course, new tech is expensive, and let’s not get into the ethics of whether only the rich should be able to afford clean air – the answer is obvious.

But the Zone isn’t just about the visor. That’s it’s USP, but it’s also a pair of cracking headphones. You can’t say the audio quality isn’t exceptional, including when making calls, which are crystal clear.

Whether they’re worth the money and the weird looks is down to the individual – and if you’re not prepared to wear the visor, the cost to value ratio takes a hit.

If I see anyone wearing a pair in the street though, I won’t gawp or judge. They’ll be breathing better air than me.

The Dyson Zone is available in ultra blue and Prussian blue, and Prussion blue and bright copper, starting at £749.99

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