‘It's just attacks on price every single time we launch a product… If you want the best engineering, you have to pay’ — Jake Dyson is fed up with the criticism of Dyson's prices

Talk to anyone about Dyson, and you can be certain that pricing will come up before long.

It's not unjustified: this is the brand that gave us a $399 (£299 / AU$549) hair dryer, back in 2016 when that kind of price tag was unfathomable for such a product.

It's the brand whose current flagship stick vacuum costs $979.99 (£749.99 / AU$1,349).

And, most recently, it's a brand that unveiled an electric toothbrush that costs $499.99 (£419.99 / AU$799).

I'm not surprised, therefore, that at a roundtable I attended at the recent Dyson Unpacked launch event, the conversion ended up turning to pricing.

Nor was I surprised to hear that the roundtable guest of honor, Jake Dyson — son of brand founder James and company Chief Engineer — had plenty to say on the subject. [To avoid confusion, throughout this feature I'll use 'Jake' to mean the person, and 'Dyson' to refer to the brand.] "If you want the best, you have to pay," he begins.

"If you want the best engineering, you have to pay.

If you want all the features." If you move past the price tag, Dyson's products often really do achieve something different.

That hair dryer's unusual design breathed new life into a market that had been stagnant for years.

That flagship stick vacuum can sense exactly the size and number of particles it's sucking up and adjusts its suction in response.

And the toothbrush? It has an in-built camera and can detect gaps between your teeth, into which it'll shoot mouthwash.

So the price tag might not be on a par with that of competitor products, but neither are the products.

We're not interested in doing the cheapest.

At all.