Twelve South AirFly review: because not everything has Bluetooth

The Twelve South AirFly is a simple piece of kit with a singular purpose: connect your wireless headphones to non-wireless interfaces.

And there are, unbelievably, still plenty of those around. If you travel around a lot, you'll know the pain of threading a cable into an aeroplane's outlet, only to keep having to unplug and reconnect as your inconsiderate seatmates keep wanting to use the bathroom. And if you like the gym, you'll have to choose between lugging your phone along to have something Bluetooth-connected to listen to, or have to endure the sound of your own heaving, panting gasps as you try to survive 30 minutes on a treadmill surrounded by the worst radio pop or gym techno imaginable.

And if like me, you don't frequent either of those places, there are still obstacles to cross. Such as wanting to use your wireless headphones with a gaming/creative tower PC custom-built to a budget (so I skipped the Bluetooth connectivity). So when I was offered the AirFly for testing, I was intrigued, so have used it for work and play over the last few weeks. Is it worthy of being added to our guide to the best travel accessories for designers and creatives? Let's see.

Twelve South Airfly: Key specs

Design & features

The AirFly, like many of Twelve South's products, is neatly designed, with that rounded white look to make it fold effortlessly into an Apple-dominated ecosystem. The main unit is a pill-shaped plastic box, with a headphone plug on one end, for you to plug into a headphone jack. The Bluetooth transmitter in the pill is then turned on with a simple on/off switch, and there's a volume adjuster on the pill too. There's a button next to the on/off switch that you hold and push to initiate pairing, and with the three different headphones and earbuds I tested, every single unit paired automatically.

The other end of the unit is home to a USB-C port, for charging the transmitter. A USB-C to USB-A cable is included in the box.

While it's clearly designed with Apple fans in mind, it's compatible with any brand, and it connected equally quickly to 1More, Panasonic Technics and Edifier units for me, while plugged into either a PC.

There are three versions available, SE, Duo and Pro. The first two are only available in white, but the latter is also available in black. The SE will connect to one pair of headphones, while the latter two will pair with up to two pairs at once. And the Duo and Pro come with a travel pouch while the Pro also has Aux In compatibility on top of the standard Headphone Out for all three.

As a unit with a singular purpose, this is the feature functionality exhausted, but if it only does one thing, it's good that it does it well.

Performance & battery life

Like I said above, the AirFly connects easily and automatically to my headphones, regardless of brand or type. And when I used it during gaming, I didn't notice any lag between sound and image either, which was great to see for a unit that's mainly intended as an audio-only aid.

The battery life for the SE unit I tested is stated at 20 hours, while the Duo and Pro claim 22 hours. After charging up the unit on a Sunday night, I used it through a whole workday on Monday and Tuesday and a couple of hours of gaming on the Tuesday evening, and it only conked out late on Wednesday afternoon, which backs up the 20-hour claim by my count.

Price

The Twelve South AirFly costs between $34.99/£39.99 and $54.99/£59.99, depending on the model ranging from SE to Pro. I'd hesitate to pay over £/$50 for a Bluetooth dongle myself, but then I'm not a frequent flyer and/or gym rat, so this price may be much more palatable to those who need to be ready for Bluetooth shortage while on the go.

Should I buy the Twelve South AirFly?

The AirFly from Twelve South has a singular purpose, which is to feed a travelling pro's hunger for Bluetooth connectivity at all times. What it does is relatively simple, but it does it well, and with fairly impressive battery life. I can't help but feel it could be a little cheaper, but that's just, like, my opinion. As for choosing between the models on offer, the SE is the cheapest and unless you need multiple people to connect to the same audio outlet, offers the best value for money. If you want the Aux In functionality (such as in many cars), you'll have to go for the Pro model, leaving the Duo as the odd one out here.