AirFly Pro by Twelve South

I talked about enjoying the audio wirelessly with the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones when traveling overseas. However this is limited to streaming the audio via your smart devices. 

What about using own headphones or earbuds with the in flight entertainment? You can go wired with the XM5 headphones like I mentioned in the previous post. 

If you want to go wirelessly with your own true wireless stereo TWS, either earbuds or headphones, your definitely won't regret owning the AirFly Pro.

Read on.

I found the AirFly Pro by chance, thanks to Google Assistant feeding the news as my morning staple food everyday. 

Simply, it's a Bluetooth adapter that transmits the audio from the in flight entertainment to your TWS via Bluetooth. Power on, pair it with your TWS, plug it into the audio jack of the in flight entertainment and enjoy! As easy as ABC. 

The box comes with AirFly Pro, a type C charging cable, a soft pouch and user manual.

Pairing process is a breeze.

1. Turn off the Bluetooth on the smart device that paired with your TWS.
2. Put the TWS into pairing mode.
3. Power on AirFly Pro. The LED flashes amber and white.
4. It will auto pair within seconds. 
5. Done. AirFly Pro flashes white. 

Only 2 steps to use it in flight. Power it on, plug it in. Enjoy! 

If the TWS supports multiple device pairing, then you won't need to re-pair every time you use AirFly Pro.

I recommend to perform the pairing before travel or at the latest time before boarding. You do not want to be caught without internet if face problem during pairing.

I have tested it by plugging into my laptop's audio jack, streaming audio through it to my Sony headphones XM5. It sounded decently with AAC codec. Yes, the AirFly Pro only supports AAC and doesn't support hi-res codec like LDAC. At the same time I also doubt the contents playing through the in flight entertainment support hi-res audio. 

One plus point to the Sony headphones XM5. It supports multipoint connection for seamless switching between devices under hi-res LDAC codec with the latest firmware. Check out this video.

There's a cheaper model, AirFly without Pro. The Pro has dual functions, as transmitter and as receiver. When use in flight, it's a transmitter to transmit the audio to the TWS. 

When use it in receiver mode, the audio transmission is in opposite direction. You can plug AirFly Pro into the AUX-In of old speaker system or old car head unit. Toggle the switch to RX. That way you can stream the audio like Spotify playing on your smart device and streaming through AirFly Pro to the old speaker or car stereo. This is useful when renting a car that comes with basic car headunit and provided the headunit comes with AUX In. 

If you don't need the receiver feature, AirFly should be suffice.

What if the plane is still equipped with the old school dual leg audio jack?

Get ready with the adapter. You should be good. It would be perfect if Twelve South includes that in the box. 

Lastly, AirFly Pro has 25+ hours of play time according to the box. Quite matching with Sony headphones XM5. Full charge is within 2 hours from a good USB type C charger. 

You can get AirFly Pro from Amazon or Apple Store. Too bad Malaysia Apple Store does not carry this and I got it from Apple Store Singapore at SGD79 with my cousin carrying back for me. 

Are you ready for next overseas vacation? I am. 😁