Our friends at TwelveSouth have recently provided us with a review unit of their HiRise Wireless inductive charging phone stand, which we’ve carefully reviewed! If you’re in the market for an inductive charging solution and are considering this offering from TwelveSouth, read on.

First things first, a few comments on design and build quality. The build quality is solid, with the base and stand made of a sturdy metal that has a nice weight to it and doesn’t move when you place a device on it. The design of the charger is really nifty because the surface that actually charged the phone detaches from the stand for situations where you want to lay a device flat instead of propping it up. This also makes it much more portable, but instances where you might want a portable inductive charger seem few and far between: on their website, they show someone using the charging pad disconnected from the stand and plugged into a MacBook, but while the charging pad is more portable than the whole stand, this isn’t actually a great use case for it because it still has to have a wired connection to your laptop for power, and it’s less convenient than just charging your phone with a cable when considering overall bulk and the inability to move the phone from the pad (as opposed to the relative freedom of movement afforded by a cable).

The charger itself is not the fastest, though. It’s alright as far as inductive chargers go, but it doesn’t seem to be leading the pack and it’s certainly quite a bit slower than most wired chargers these days. Still, if you’re using it to charge your phone overnight, this could be a good bedside option since it also props your device up for a better view of alarms, notifications, etc. That said, if you’re often finding yourself in a pinch and just needing to quickly charge up a bit, this is not the best option for that.

Overall, this is a nice product, but it’s just not quite practical enough to justify the price of $79.99 (or even the current sale price of $59.99) for most people. Unless you’re looking for an overnight charger and you have a very specific bedside aesthetic that requires that charger to match a very modern, leather and metal style with a black and gunmetal color palette, you can probably find something a bit cheaper.

Side note: if you have an iPhone 11 Pro, the camera system on the back is just large enough to slightly overlap with the edge of the charging pad and prevent the phone from sitting perfectly horizontal on the base of the charger. This will be a nonissue for most people, but for a select few like myself, it’s maddening.

CopyrightBro has recently partnered with TwelveSouth, a company committed to making the finest accessories available for Apple products, to bring our readers reviews of some of their latest products.

The first product we reviewed was the AirFly Pro, which is a nifty little bluetooth dongle that provides bluetooth input and output functions for devices that otherwise rely on wires. An example of a use case where it would serve as a transmitter for output would be if you have wireless headphones that you want to use with a source that doesn’t support bluetooth output, like machines at the gym or the seatback screens on airplanes. An example of a good use for input is if your car has an AUX port but doesn’t connect to your phone via bluetooth, the AirFly Pro is the missing link that can give you a wireless audio setup.

I was able to test the output functionality at the gym so that I could hear the TVs on my AirPods, and everything went off without a hitch. However, unless you really like listening to whatever is playing on the TV at the gym or you’re a frequent flier who loves their airline’s in-flight infotainment systems, most people are probably just going to connect to their own devices anyway. Despite being marketed more for this use case, I found the input use to be far more handy.

My car has an AUX port but no bluetooth support, so the AirFly Pro has been able to save me from the messy situation I had before, where I was having to use an AUX cord and Apple’s lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter. Now, I have the AirFly Pro connected to my AUX port and also plugged into the charger (it is battery powered, so you have to either take it inside to charge it every couple days, or just leave it connected to power in the car). The actual pairing process is easy: you just press the big button on the dongle for a second or two each time you get in the car, and it connects with no hiccups.

While it works well for input and output, I can’t help but imagine most people are going to use it for input. At $55, it’s not cheap, and there are certainly other options out there that don’t cost as much. However, the one-button simplicity of the AirFly Pro is very convenient, and it’s ability to work for a variety of use cases put it a step ahead of its competition. If you’re only looking for an input solution, you may find something better, but if you care about convenience and versatility, the AirFly Pro is a great option.