How We Research
We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
If you want to turn a modern USB-C phone or tablet into a wired-headphone machine with zero fuss, choose Temdan USB C; if you need to free yourself from cables entirely and send TV or in-flight audio to two Bluetooth headphones at once, choose SOOMFON Airplane. These two dongles look like cousins on a shelf — both small, both ending in a 3.5mm jack — but they solve completely opposite problems.
• Temdan USB C's biggest strength: a pure, plug-and-play USB-C-to-3.5mm adapter with a DAC chip rated up to 16bit/48KHz, arriving as a 2-pack so you can leave one in a bag and one at your desk.
• Temdan USB C's biggest trade-off: it is strictly a wired bridge — no Bluetooth, no battery, no display. It only helps if you still own a wired headset worth plugging in.
• SOOMFON Airplane's biggest strength: a Bluetooth 5.3 transmitter/receiver with an LCD display and touch controls that can pair up to two headphones at once and run roughly 15 hours on its built-in lithium-polymer battery.
• SOOMFON Airplane's biggest trade-off: it is a battery-powered gadget with more moving parts — you have to charge it, and the ABS enclosure does the job without feeling premium.
• Who Temdan USB C is for: anyone whose USB-C phone, tablet or laptop lacks a headphone jack and who wants the simplest possible wired fix.
• Who SOOMFON Airplane is for: travelers, gym-goers and home-theater watchers who want to cut the cord and share audio with a second person.
The Temdan adapter is about as close to a "why doesn't this just exist" product as the category gets. Its whole job is to convert a USB-C port into a 3.5mm female jack, and it does that with an advanced DAC chip that handles decoding up to 16bit/48KHz. In plain terms, that ceiling is comfortably above what streaming music and phone calls actually deliver, so the adapter isn't the weak link in your chain. The spec sheet also calls out noise reduction, which matters because cheap passive dongles are exactly where you hear hiss and crackle.
The feature list is more generous than the size suggests. It passes through microphone audio and wire-control functions — volume, pause, play — so a standard headset with an inline remote still behaves like a headset. There's one honest caveat worth repeating: Apple EarPods won't respond to volume adjustment through this adapter. Call quality and playback should still work, but if you live on EarPods and adjust volume constantly, that's a real annoyance to know about up front.
Compatibility is the other headline. The list spans iPhone 17/17 Pro/17 Air/17 Pro Max down through the 15 series, iPad Pro, iPad Air and iPad Mini 6, MacBook, the Samsung Galaxy S25/S24/S23 families including Ultra and FE, Z Fold and Z Flip lines, Note 20/10, Google Pixel 10 through 4, Huawei Mate and P series, and OnePlus 6 through 9 Pro. It's white, it measures about 5 x 0.4 x 0.25 inches, and it weighs essentially nothing at 0.01 kg. No plug, no driver, no software — insert the USB-C end until you feel resistance or hear a click, make sure the 3.5mm jack seats with no gap, and you're done.
Buy it if you want a wired, latency-free connection for headphones, a headset or a powered speaker, and you like the idea of a two-pack so a spare lives wherever you do. Skip it if you've already moved fully wireless, or if you need to broadcast audio to more than one listener at a time. This adapter is a one-person, one-cable solution.
The SOOMFON Airplane adapter attacks the opposite half of the audio problem. Instead of giving your phone a jack, it takes audio that already lives in a 3.5mm socket — a plane's seatback entertainment system, a gym's cardio machine, a car stereo, a home stereo — and beams it out over Bluetooth 5.3. The name tells you the flagship use case, but the spec sheet is broader than that: it's built to work as both a transmitter and a receiver, and it's designed to feed two headphones simultaneously.
That dual-headphone capability is the standout feature, and it's the reason this thing exists in the shape it does. On a long flight, two people can watch the same seatback screen without splitting a single pair of earbuds or fighting over a Y-splitter. At home, one person can send TV audio to their own headphones while someone else does the same — no one has to crank the volume, and no one has to hear it.
The hardware backs the concept up. There's an LCD display, which is genuinely useful on a device this small because it tells you what mode you're in and what you're connected to without guessing at blinking lights. Controls are touch-based, so there are no tiny physical buttons to hunt for in a dark cabin. The 3.5mm AUX input feeds a stereo output, the enclosure is ABS plastic in blue, and the battery is a Lithium-Polymer pack rated for roughly 15 hours of playtime. The battery itself weighs 5.15 g, which tells you the whole unit is light enough to dangle from a seatback jack without stressing the socket. SOOMFON also backs it with a 2-year manufacturer warranty — a meaningful detail for a battery-powered accessory, because batteries are the part that eventually wears out.
Buy it if you fly often, share screens with a partner or kid, want wireless freedom from gym equipment, or want to send TV audio to headphones without running a cable across the room. Skip it if you just need to plug wired headphones into a USB-C phone — that's not what this is. It also asks more of you: you'll charge it, you'll learn the touch controls, and you'll pay attention to the display. That's the cost of going wireless.
• Best for a missing headphone jack → Temdan USB C. It restores the 3.5mm port your phone or tablet dropped, with no battery to manage.
• Best for sharing audio with a second person → SOOMFON Airplane. Two-headphone Bluetooth output is its defining trick.
• Best for flights and in-seat entertainment → SOOMFON Airplane. This is the use case it's literally named for.
• Best for zero-latency, zero-charging simplicity → Temdan USB C. Plug-and-play with no power source at all.
• Best for TV, gym, car and home stereo audio → SOOMFON Airplane. Its 3.5mm AUX input plus Bluetooth 5.3 covers all of those sources.
• Best for keeping a spare everywhere → Temdan USB C. It ships as a 2-pack, so one can live in a bag and one at home.
• Best for long sessions away from an outlet → SOOMFON Airplane, with roughly 15 hours of battery playtime.
• Best for Apple EarPods users who adjust volume a lot → neither is ideal. Temdan's adapter won't handle EarPods volume control, and SOOMFON is a Bluetooth link, not a phone adapter.
In my opinion, the right buy comes down to one question: do you need to add a jack, or do you need to escape a cable? If your phone, tablet or laptop is the source and you want wired headphones back, I'd buy the Temdan USB C adapter — it's the simpler tool, it ships as a two-pack, and there's nothing to charge or configure. If your source is a plane seat, a TV, a treadmill or a car stereo and you want wireless freedom or a second listener, I'd buy the SOOMFON Airplane adapter — the dual-headphone Bluetooth 5.3 output, LCD display and roughly 15-hour battery are exactly what that job needs.
They're not rivals so much as two ends of the same cable. Pick by where your audio starts, not by which one looks more impressive. Whichever you land on, check the current price on Amazon before you commit — both are the kind of purchase where a quick price look is worth thirty seconds.
FAQ
The specs suggest yes, because the DAC chip is rated up to 16bit/48KHz with noise reduction rather than being a bare pass-through. It also passes mic and wire-control signals, and you get two adapters instead of one.
Yes — dual-headphone output is one of its core design goals, which is why it's pitched at plane seats and shared TVs. Two people can listen to the same 3.5mm source over Bluetooth 5.3 at the same time.
It's listed as compatible with iPhone 17/17 Pro/17 Air/17 Pro Max, 16, 15 series and iPad Pro, Air and Mini 6. One caveat from the spec sheet: Apple EarPods won't support volume adjustment through it.
Playtime is rated at roughly 15 hours per charge on its lithium-polymer battery, which covers most long-haul flights. It also carries a 2-year manufacturer warranty, which is reassuring for a battery-powered device.
For that specific scenario, the SOOMFON Airplane adapter is the better fit. Two-headphone Bluetooth output means you can both watch the same seatback screen without sharing earbuds, and the LCD display makes switching modes easy in a dim cabin.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
When you buy through links on this page, we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon or its affiliates. This site is an independent third-party review and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amazon or the product brands mentioned.
See also: Anker Soundcore vs Kefine Klean Hi-Fi: 10mm Driver Earbuds, SGNICS Samsung Galaxy A14 vs Conyat Open-Ear Headphones, iKF Rona Retro Classic vs Langsdom AirWave Max Open-Ear, KOCOART Badger Playing Bass vs TOYANDONA 2pcs