This is the Dumbest Product I've Ever Reviewed

foreign

[Music]

okay it's kind of hard to believe but

yeah this is a real product what I'm

holding is the new Dyson Zone air

purifying headphones that's exactly what

they're called you can look it up so

when this first started popping up on

actual like Dyson social media channels

I had to double check the calendar to

make sure it wasn't April 1st because

seriously Dyson are you pranking us

right now this is It's a thousand

dollars

for air purifying headphones I wasn't

really sure what to think probably safe

to ignore it

but then one by one videos started

popping up on YouTube on Twitter on

Instagram and people actually started

asking like hey Marquez can you check

out those Dyson headphones can you check

out the Dyson zone so that look you see

here is me realizing I just spent a

thousand dollars plus shipping on

something that I already believe is a

terrible product but I'm still here to

do my job and find out anyway but here's

the thing and probably the weirdest part

and most important part of this whole

thing

Dyson this product could only have come

from Dyson it it makes no sense but

makes all the sense in the world so

ignoring the whole embarrassing social

media campaign around the vacuums for a

second like I love my Dyson vacuum

cleaner right A lot of people I know

have bought Dyson vacuums No Regrets We

love these things they're great and then

over the years Dyson has built up like a

cult following and loyal fan base over

what is basically

Motors and filtration like Dyson is a

Motors and filtration company and

they've built that out and turned it

into some of the most amazing vacuum

cleaners in the world and they're also

some of the most expensive like

seriously if you want a stick vacuum you

can just get one on Amazon for like a

hundred bucks easy but then you kind of

get the feeling that Dyson is the brand

name that they're all copying but

naturally you don't stop there right

you're successful with one thing but you

got to Branch out so what else do you do

you've all seen the Dyson bladeless fan

thing right I mean this is almost a

legendary product on its own the Dyson

fan slash air purifier in the corner of

the room of a 500 a night Airbnb do

other companies make bladeless fans now

sure but people want the Dyson one the

700 Dyson one another successful

implementation of Motors infiltration

there's also the Dyson hair dryer

another cult classic this thing is

absolutely incredible I don't even use a

hair dryer I actually use this thing to

heat up the dbrand Skins to put on the

back of my phones and it's awesome for

that too another successful

implementation of Motors infiltration so

Dyson is no stranger to charging a lot

of money successfully for a seemingly

Niche product but that doesn't mean they

can't miss you guys have probably heard

about maybe you haven't they made a

floor lamp too

maybe you haven't heard about it because

it's less successful it's also 850 so

they can miss you also might have heard

about the car prototype that they

brought to CES which like okay yes you

make Motors and motors are one part of

an electric car but there are lots of

other parts of a car that are really

hard and trust me a Dyson car is kind of

a tough sell no matter what you're going

to price it at so Dyson has a lot of

hits and some complete misses

so what's this one going to be

okay so this product is part headphones

part air purifier

I know about headphones so let's talk

about the headphones part first and

these headphones are absolutely wild

first of all

they're gigantic like they're absolutely

huge I don't even have to tell you that

now a lot of the size will make more

sense when we get to the filtration part

and everything that's also inside these

ear cups later but just as a pair of

headphones on your head these things are

huge they stick out a lot to this side

but honestly it's mostly the weight okay

so Audio Technica is M50 so I've talked

about those in the past very familiar

headphones totally normal

288 grams

not that bad on your head then you get

to like the heaviest headphones we

talked about how heavy airpods Max are

those are 388 grams which is a lot

these are

588 grams so it feels like I'm wearing a

football helmet these things are so

heavy now there's a lot of metal but

they do try to maximize comfort with

these really soft cushions and the ear

cups are super soft and the top of the

headphones are soft and then it's this

purple velvet color the side pieces are

more for stability to keep them in place

on your head and honestly if you're just

sitting in one place not moving around

too much listening to music in a chair

or on a train or something I guess then

they're not terrible it's just the

second you start moving around or

looking up and down or walking that you

really feel the weight it seriously

feels like a helmet material wise though

it is nothing but the premium materials

I gotta say the headphone band is metal

the cushions are super soft the ear cups

are metal through and through you can

see the microphones very clearly around

the bottom the USBC port and the

controls are actually very very clever

everything is on the right ear cup and

it's mostly by this little joystick here

so instead of trying to swipe on a

finicky touch surface or something like

that you literally tap up and down on

the joystick for volume tap left or

right for the next track and previous

track and amazingly you can actually

hold down the joystick to the right or

left to scrub forward or backward in

whatever audio you're in and it worked

in a bunch of apps for me too to my

surprise worked in apple music worked in

Spotify my podcast app it didn't work in

YouTube or SoundCloud but even yeah just

the thought of being able to fast

forward a little bit to the middle of a

podcast or something on Spotify is kind

of sick I've never seen that before but

of course with the super high price tag

you hopefully care about how they sound

so how do these sound big premium

expensive active noise cancellation 40

millimeter drivers how did these do they

sound as high-end as they cost

no they don't but they sound okay I mean

they sound like some two to three

hundred dollar headphones that I've

heard even though they're built like 400

headphones but I'll say the sound

overall is pretty balanced and

reasonably Bassy and Punchy in the low

end there's a pretty good passive seal

with these ear cups and then the active

noise cancellation does a little extra

work for you it is just a Bluetooth

headphone there's no wired connection

and nothing fancy as far as lossless

audio or special codecs or anything like

that but you know they sound crisp with

a little extra brightness in the highs

what's more impressive is so the active

noise cancellation is pretty good but

the transparency mode is actually

excellent this is the best I've heard

from anything that isn't airpods and you

can double tap the right ear cup to

switch between transparency mode and

noise cancellation the battery life of

these is about 50 hours which is right

at the top of its class where noise

cancellation headphones with ANC on

um they also don't have an on off switch

so they do on head detection kind of

like airpods Max so when you take them

off your head they go into this I title

mode and you put them back on they play

this nice chime they turn back on and

now you're listening to music again

ergonomically they're not anything

special but we know the joystick for the

controls the transparency mode

these are pretty good headphones

so that brings us to part two so like I

said this is a two in one product part

headphones part air purifier let's just

completely ignore the why for a second

just so we can just understand what's

happening and how this works so these

headphones come with this little plastic

visor thing so inside the ear cups of

the headphones you can pop off the

outside cover and that's where these

filters go that came in the box and

those filters are covering these air

intakes and Tiny micro compressors that

suck in the air from the outside world

these filters help purify the air by

cutting down 99 of pollutants as small

as 0.1 microns then they pass that clean

air through these slots the visor

connects the headphones via magnets to

these slots and creates a seal so that

the air is channeled down through it and

passes over your nose and mouth through

the mesh at the front it is a pretty

intricate setup but the idea is pretty

straightforward basically like oh okay

you've got noise pollution noise

canceling headphones gotcha cover oh

you've got air pollution too

fresh air all the time we got you

covered now the timing of these was

actually super unfortunate because

contrary to what you might be thinking

right now this has nothing to do with

the pandemic nothing to do with covet it

happened to be announced right around

the same time

um but this is really directly

advertised that people who live in or

commute in cities with bad air quality

dust pollen smog gas fumes grass

clippings whatever it is just bad air

quality so the idea is you're about to

go out on your commute with the polluted

world around you so you put the

headphones on you snap the visor on and

now you're uh you're getting the fresh

air the entire time you're outside with

these fans spinning

it's the idea anyway now I went through

the painful exercise of going out and

testing these things so you don't have

to okay so I'm looking kind of

ridiculous on public streets because hey

I want to see if this will actually work

I walked past roadways to see if I could

smell gasoline I walked past Landscaping

to see if I could smell pollen and lawn

clippings I walked into a public Porta

John to see if I could survive you know

and uh bad news I could still smell a

lot of everything I mean there was a

nice little stream of fresh air going

over my nose and mouth it's a nice

little breeze but yeah you can still

smell everything I think right off the

bat there's really actually two main

problems that hit me immediately with

this setup one is when you put all these

together and you put them on uh the fans

which are in the ear cups start spinning

up and the air compressors turn on and

you can hear that because it's right on

your ear and so you're hearing that

through your music so you can kind of

drown It Out by turning the audio up but

that right off the bat was kind of

annoying but then the second is there's

no seal like you can still have air

passing over your nose and mouth but

things can also slip in above and below

even if it's close to your mouth so they

want you to have as little of a gap as

possible and it's adjustable so you can

shrink that visor down as much as you

want to basically have it touching the

tip of your nose but stuff will still

get in as long as there's no seal and

nobody wants to walk around breathing

from a literal tube like a scuba diving

mouthpiece so yeah this is just a

built-in flaw of the fact that nobody

wants that that's the way it's designed

plus there's a bunch of other quirks

like once the filtration gets going the

battery life goes from 50 hours to two

hours the visor is super light and

flimsy because it's completely plastic

presumably to be lightweight and keep it

balanced on your head but then it also

has all kinds of weird scratches and

poor finishes on the mesh and rubber and

plastic and just feels really cheap and

none of that none of that even touches

just how ridiculous you look and then

there's the pull medical problem so I'm

not a doctor but I do have a friend who

is Mike also happens to have a YouTube

channel you might have heard of him but

he explain to me exactly why this

product is even more flawed than I

realized on the surface yeah so I see a

product that actually confuses me more

than anything because I don't know who

the intended customer is because they

very clearly say this is not a medical

grade product there's no seal that

exists here on like a traditional n95

mask I look at the marketing material

and I see somebody out in a city in a

subway station and on the streets and

there's there's pollen there's smog

there's all kinds of other things and

they put this on and suddenly the air

they're breathing is clean they don't

smell or inhale any of it is that a

dream or am I missing something they say

that the product cleans up to 0.1

microns particles out of the air but

it's not HEPA rated because a HEPA rated

filter will actually filter particles

with a

99.95 efficacy it's not as good as an

n95 mask which has a seal and this is

where a lot of misinformation actually

spreads with n95 masks because when we

say n95 what we're saying is they have a

95 percent efficacy at filtering

particles that are 0.3 microns and you

might say well a covid particle is 0.1

Micron so does that mean they get

through n95 masks that's what some

people who are anti-master said right

most coveted particles that travel in

there are attached to things water

droplets respiratory droplets that kind

of thing so they're already bigger than

0.3 and they end up being captured by

the mask but they specifically choose

0.3 microns because when you go smaller

than that like a coveted particle at

point one it follows something known as

Brownian motion and this is where these

small particles move so randomly around

when they're dissolved in a gas like our

air that they end up being trapped by

The n95 Mask even better than the 0.3

okay there's a lot of things to why this

doesn't make sense I also saw a tweet

about how if you are specifically

thinking about covid and you are someone

who has covid and you wear this now when

you exhale all that air blowing is now

just being ejected out into space where

it'd normally stay in The Mask yes like

this device is not designed to keep your

air and your particles to your face like

a mask would yeah uh so what the company

has said in response to this that

there's enough room to wear a mask in

between but to me if you have room for

an n95 masks this eliminates the need

for this product because the n95 mask is

more effective at filtering the air and

creating a seal in this product so why

in the world would you wear a mask that

filters better than this and then this

thing on top of it but what I worry

about is it actually creates risk and it

creates risks in two ways one is that it

blows air directly onto your nose and

mouth which are your mucous membranes

anytime you have air circulating areas

that have a natural level of moisture

you dry them out dry mucous membranes

are a problem because they crack and

create openings for pathogen Center your

body then it's cold outside this thing

is blowing cold air at your mucous

membranes which actually causes

vasoconstriction meaning less blood flow

less white blood cells in the area

protecting you another problem and then

the real problem is I'm going to really

Hammer at home yes yes they say this is

like Urban environments where pollution

is high there's brake dust car pollution

all very valid all big problems we

should address

but in urban environments based on CDC

data

the rate per hundred thousand of debts

from chronic respiratory disease is

around 35. but you know what's 33

percent higher than that

unintentional accidents that goes up all

the way to 47 per hundred thousand yeah

and you know what's increasing rates of

unintentional accidents are you saying

that these noise canceling headphones

might actually cause more problems than

they solve yeah so why did they do this

Dyson is a weird company like I said at

the beginning they're they're a motor

and filtration company but they've had

so many hits they've made these Niche

products like stick vacuums and air

purifiers and hair dryers into like cult

favorites which is crazy I can actually

see how this product came to exist and

how it ended up being a thousand dollars

actually honestly

the thousand dollars part is the easy

part like when you just look at the

materials and the Cool Tech and the

packaging that went into this thing it's

kind of silly these headphones

themselves are super heavy but yeah

they're all metal the cups are metal the

bands are metal and there's obviously a

ton of tech in here the packaging is

hilarious there's not just the

headphones and the visor which look like

a smiley face but there's also a super

high quality carrying case with felt

lining there's a thick braided elastic

strap for that carrying case there's an

extra set of filters there is the

softest velvet headphone carrying pouch

I've ever seen there is a dual color

braided USBC cable with a headphone jack

adapter there's a metal airplane adapter

there's what I assume is a reusable

filter cleaner with a handle and another

carrying pouch for just the cables and

the accessories also super soft and then

there's this Dyson app that connects the

headphones that lets you not only change

the settings but also gives you a live

look at a summary of the air quality in

your area and then gives me a live

readout of the audio levels of my my

environment and how much sound the noise

cancellation mode is preventing from

getting to my ears I've never seen

anything like this with headphones and

like live real-time data visualization

like this gives you a summary of your

fan speed usage your noise cancellation

usage over time and gives you an

estimate of your filter life and a

direct link to buy new filters for once

you run out of the ones that come in the

box if you showed me all this repair

headphones and never even told me about

the filter thing or what brand it was

from I would assume that these are at

least 400 headphones but at the end of

the day most of this

like so many other things in the tech

world can be explained by

branding like it's only Dyson that could

have pulled this off and gotten this

thing as far as it has to get into this

video

but there's a sort of a term that you've

probably heard in the business world

before that a lot of companies use

called the loss leader strategy Barbara

Corcoran was on my podcast from Shark

Tank and she taught me about this

concept called Lost leader and basically

she believes that products that are

gimmicky in this vein will actually not

make company money but they'll draw

enough press that they'll sell other

products perhaps that's what's going on

they earn press yes yeah because there's

lost leaders that are like oh we can

afford to sell you this hardware for

cheap and lose money on it because you

will buy the software and make the money

back this one is a loss leader because

no one should buy it and probably no one

will but it'll generate enough Buzz that

people talk about Dyson we're doing it

right now and they'll be on them yeah

you win this round dice

here we are talking about your stupid

headphones with your stupid filter and

it's not you didn't even have to pay for

an ad like you wanted to so

yeah well played

thanks for watching

catch you guys in the next one

peace