Over the last few years, seemingly every tech company under the sun has put out their own range of headphones. Home appliance giant Dyson has recently joined the party – in a way that no one really saw coming:

Meet the Zone; a pair of noise-canceling wireless headphones that come with built-in air purification tech, and a bizarre aesthetic that sits firmly in the valley between cyberpunk and… well, we’re not sure, to be honest.

The Zone was simply revealed this week, as Dyson teases potential customers with a Fall 2022 release date. While we understand a lot about the tech on display, there’s not much data available regarding price, battery life, or even weight – which seems to be a major concern with the device.

How does the Zone work?

While it resembles something straight out of Blade Runner, the Zone simply reuses Dyson’s existing air filtration technology – within a much more compact form factor.

The Zone pulls in air through each earpiece, both of which house an array of air filters. These are then routed through the mouthpiece – delivering a hit of pure air, devoid of most particles and pollutants. While the front comes with an optional full-contact mask, it normally works by creating a small ‘bubble’ of clean air for your nose and mouth.

Dyson claims that the filters get rid of 99 percent of contaminants, and can last a year before needing replacements. This obviously depends heavily on where you live, and how often you use the headphones.

The mouthpiece itself is surprisingly well engineered. It sits in place with the help of magnets, and even has a hinge to help you talk with anyone brave enough to approach you in public with these on. You even get multiple levels of air filtration, an accelerometer can speed up airflow if you’re running short on breath during physical exertion, for instance.

Apart from the air filter feature, the Zone takes on most of what you’d expect from a high-range modern set of Bluetooth headphones. You get three sound-cancellation modes, app connectivity to determine air quality and other metrics, and USB-C interfaces.

Chaim Gartenberg from The Verge managed to get his hands on a prototype earlier this year – here’s what he had to say.

“I could feel the jets of air being pumped in front of my face — although I was indoors, so it was hard to tell just how much cleaner it was. ANC worked well, and the audio quality for music was good without particularly dramatic bass.”

Despite hailing Dyson for creating a ‘unique’ if ‘odd-looking’ product, Gartenberg also highlighted its (other) main flaw – weight. “Zone headphones are also very big and noticeably heavy. Dyson has done an admirable job of cramming all this technology into a pair of headphones, but they’re still comparatively bigger and bulkier.”

Soon, a massive load of memes and jokes flooded Twitter – even though most were relatively well-intentioned:

Will customers get ‘in the Zone’ once the product goes live? We’ll just have to wait and see.

(Featured Image Credits: Dyson, Warner Bros. Entertainment)