Twelve South Airfly Pro 2 Review: Add Bluetooth to all flights

Spending a lot of money on a great set can be very frustrating Noise cancelling headphonesjust to get on the first flight with them and make sure you can’t hear the entertainment in the flight. Some over-ear BT headphones can work with wired, but not all. Some True wireless earphones There are charging cases that can be plugged in via analog and connected wirelessly, but not all. Luckily there is a solution. It’s the Airfly Pro 2 from the 12 south.

I reviewed the previous one Airfly Pro And I found it to be a convenient way to add Bluetooth otherwise. The Pro 2 claims to be a bit easier to use with more physical buttons and features Bluetooth 5.3. Like its predecessor, it’s not just travel. It can be used to add Bluetooth to any device with headphone output. Or, if you have auxiliary inputs (many old cars), the Pro 2 acts as a Bluetooth receiver like the Pro, allowing you to send audio from your phone or tablet.

Overall, the Pro 2 works well. There’s no need to upgrade if you have a predecessor, but even if you fly occasionally, it’s definitely worth carrying it on board.

Hardware

• Bluetooth version: 5.3
• Connection: USB-C (for charging), 3.5mm analog
• Battery life (claim): 25 hours
• Number of simultaneous BT connections: 2
• Bluetooth mode: Transmit (TX), Reception (RX)
• Bluetooth Codecs support: Aptx Adaptive, Aptx HD, Aptx Low Latency and SBC (transmit mode). APTX, APTX HD, AAC and SBC (Receive mode).

The Airfly Pro 2 is an almost thumb-sized dongle with 3.5mm (1/8 inch) analog connections at one end and an internal Bluetooth transmitter/receiver. You can connect anything with the headphone output and send audio to your headphones via Bluetooth, or connect anything with the analog “aux” input to send audio from your phone or cell phone. Media Player.

The original Airfly Pro is now simpler with two buttons and a receive/transmit mode switch, but the Pro 2 adds a physical power switch and two dedicated pairing buttons to each headphone connection, switching between the original modes. On the front, the volume button replaces the single all-purpose button in the Pro.

Twelve South claims the Pro 2 has a 25-hour battery life. The longest flight you can take right now from JFK to Singapore in New York is around 18 hours and 40 minutes, a little longer than 15 hours lax-to-melbourne The flight took several years ago. This seems to be a lot, as your headphones don’t last that long, whatever they are. Don’t forget to request an aviation exercise before you go. It takes about 2 hours if it’s completely empty.

The regular Pro 2 comes with a USB-A-to-USB-C charging cable and a small cloth carrying bag. Pro 2 Deluxe It also includes dual mono adapters, which are still used on some aircraft, and a vegan leather pouch. I would recommend Deluxe because it’s hard to know if your particular aircraft has an old connection. However, you can find it at $10 on the Pro 2 compared to the higher price of the Pro 2. 2 packs of these adapters from Amazon for half that price. With the grand plan of things, it’s only a few dollars, but I think there are plenty of unnamed adapters that offer similar features to air fly.

Ease of use

Connecting to the Airfly Pro 2 is easy. Place your headphones in pairing mode and turn on the Pro 2. I have tried headphones and earphones of all ages. Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S3, Sony WH-1000XM5 And my reliable NC earphones, Bose QuietComfort Ultra. Everything is connected without any problems. To avoid confusing your headphones, we recommend turning off Bluetooth on your phone before you start. If you want to connect a second pair to the Pro 2, use other headphones in pairing mode and hold the Pair 2 button. If you want to pair another set of headphones, hold down one of the pairing buttons. It flashes yellow a few times, and alternates between white and yellow, just like the first pairing.

I understand my preference for the simplicity of the original pro-design, but the additional buttons make things easier to understand. That’s especially important, as most people only exercise aerospace a few times a year. You don’t need to add to the annoying whole flight by trying to remember how to connect earphones to watch old TV shows.

There is still some audio latency. You will notice this as a slight delay between when something happens on the screen and when you hear it. Like, people’s lips do not match perfectly. It’s under 50 ms and 12 Souths claim 34ms so if you don’t usually notice or care about something like that, it may not be a problem. Even if you notice, delays may be fine given that the aircraft’s cabins are not the perfect audio and video location. It is worth noting that the original version had the same issue due to its own Bluetooth connection.

Speaking of perfect audio, the Pro 2 features Bluetooth 5.3 and supports APTX HD codecs. In theory, this could mean high quality audio compared to the base SBC codecs of many Android phones (Apple devices only support AAC and SBC). But two things about it. First of all, there is no very different sounding difference between SBC and APTX on most headphones. Second, theoretical improvements in fidelity will be completely lost to the jet engine roar. So for me, the Airfly Pro 2 is easier to use than I expect to see better sound quality. The original pro sounded good and worked well. This is the same.

Bluetooth 2 Go

As a supporter of frequent flyers and noise-cancelling headphones and earphone vocals, I have been carrying on board for a while. Of course, you can download shows and movies to your mobile phone or tablet, but there is a possibility that there is a large selection of content available for aircraft in-flight entertainment. On longer flights, that’s pretty big. It’s a very disappointing thing you need to switch to wired, non-noise cancelling headphones or earphones after NC gets used to a better environment. So, that’s why the Airfly Pro 2 is a great option despite its higher price, as it has limited functionality improvements compared to its now deprecated. But it is still available for nowthe predecessor.

If you need to connect two headphones at once and you don’t think you need them to receive Bluetooth, Airfly SE It’s basically a cheap option that does the same thing.

There is another aspect worth considering. This is the overall trend for airlines to add Bluetooth to their entertainment systems in flight. I recently flew United Flights with this feature and others announced that they would add it. Meanwhile, Alaska Airlines has abolished Seatback Entertainment on many flights. Instead, simply connect to the aircraft’s Wi-Fi on your own device to stream your show or movie collection. It’s cheap for them, so you wouldn’t be surprised if more airlines went that route. However, for now, most aircraft do not have any of these options. Also, even if you have any of these options on a particular route, there is no guarantee that the aircraft actually fly will actually fly (the changes in the plane occur frequently). Therefore, the aviation movement is less of a necessity than before.

---

In addition to covering camera and display technology, Jeff gives a photo essay About cool museums and more Nuclear submarine, Aircraft carrier, Medieval castle And epic 10,000 miles of road trip.

Please check again Dummy budget triphis travel books and he Bestselling Sci-Fi Novel About urban-sized submarines. You can follow him Instagram and YouTube.