The Dyson Zone is a better pair of headphones than portable purifier

The Dyson Zone is an undoubtedly eye-catching headset. It turns out if you put a company best known for masterfully designed vacuums and air purifiers up to the task of creating a personal audio device, it'll make a pretty unique pair of headphones.

The Zone are over-ear headphones that double as a portable air purifier for the smog-filled cities of our unevenly distributed future. While the headphones carry many of the thoughtful details you might expect from a company that crafts statement pieces as much as they do appliances, they also house more than a few unfortunate trade-offs.

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After spending the last few years devoted to noise-cancelling wireless earbuds, the Dyson Zone surprised me with its ability to block out sound, and confirmed my suspicions that its novel ability to purify the surrounding air would end up being more annoying than useful. At $699.99, the Dyson Zone is no doubt a quality pair of headphones, but after using them for the last week, I’m not sure who I could really recommend them to because of all the other things they do.

Dyson Zone

The Dyson Zone is a curious combination of wireless noise-cancelling headphones and a personal air purifier that sacrifices fit to do a little bit of everything.

Pros

• Impressive ANC
• Air purifier really does work
• Up to 50 hours of battery life with ANC on

Cons

• Heavy and a little cramped
• Expensive

$700 at Dyson$700 at Best Buy

Design

Nails the 'robot' aesthetic

The Dyson Zone are a big pair of headphones — so big I think just about anyone would notice them. That really starts with the headphones' metallic ear cups, which are covered in holes, jutting out well beyond what's traditionally been an acceptable distance from your ears to accommodate the air purifier tech and replaceable filters that come with the headphones.

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At first blush they look like Dyson's other products, a tasteful mix of exposed