Quick review
The good
The not-so-good
Easily one of the most compact chargers out there, the Twelve South Butterfly aims to keep your iPhone and Apple Watch charged in the smallest way possible.
Travel can be fun, exciting, and something to look forward to. But you know what we don’t always look forward? Packing the necessities so we don’t feel as if we’ve left something behind.
Making sure you have everything you need can lead to overpacking, which in the case of this gadget owner, often means overpacking cables. If you know you know, and if you find yourself nodding, it means you’re also packing an extra cable or three to make sure your phone doesn’t run out of charge.
Not just for your phone either, but other devices, like a wearable and the like. You might even choose to skip the original cable, just in case there’s a risk of losing it (which can happen).
One way to fix this is to travel with a dedicated charger. Instead of needing several cables, you can try travelling with a wireless charger for the bed and desk side, assuring you’ll always have the right charger for the right purpose.
The problem, however, is size: pick a wireless bedside charger, and they’ll often be big and angular, and hardly made for compact luggage.
That might be what makes Twelve South’s Butterfly so damn intriguing. Not much bigger than the case for a pair of earphones, it’s a wireless charger made to make travel that much easier.
Does it work, and is it compact and versatile enough to make charging while travelling easy as?
What is the Twelve South Butterfly?
Another of life’s many, many chargers available for your bedside and desk, Twelve South’s latest charger is a compact little thing really designed for travel. That could just be work or a more extended trip, but travel is the clear motive for what the Butterfly offers: a compact disc with two chargers inside.
On the surface, the Butterfly doesn’t look like much. It really just looks like an earphone case or a small compact mirror. That’s it.
Open it up, however, and you’ll find two flat charging spots: the larger one being a MagSafe charger and the second for an Apple Watch, which conveniently pokes out and can be used either lying flat or standing up.
What does it do?
At the back of the Butterfly is a USB-C port, and there’s both a Type C cable and a 30W charging brick in the box, plus a little plush velvety pouch for you to store all three in.
When you need it, simply take the Butterfly out, unfold it, plug it into a cable and the wall (or a battery pack, if you must), and set your devices on the charger. It’s that easy.
Does it do the job?
Compact and clever, the Twelve South Butterfly seems like a perfectly appropriate charger for iPhone owners with the almost obligatory Apple Watch in their lives, also.
The charger handles two of the most useful items in an iPhone owner’s life, and technically can also handle a recent pair of AirPods or AirPods Pro on either the MagSafe or Apple Watch fast charger, too.
It’s about as easy as it gets for chargers, and easily one of the most compact you’ll ever see. It’s about as practical a necessity for iPhone owners as it gets.
You can even use the back of the MagSafe section to magnetically mount the Apple Watch side, and use the watch charger as a sort of desk stand of sorts, holding up an iPhone for charging or even viewing.
What does it need?
There’s not really much it does need, perhaps beyond maybe an extra USB-C port. Even then, we’re not sure it would be that much of a use.
If you needed to charge a pair of AirPods Max, you will need an extra port; the AirPods Max can’t be wirelessly charged. That said, if you have a pair of AirPods Max, you also probably have a cable that can be plugged into any USB port, including one that’s probably on a computer you might be travelling with, as well.
Needing a USB port on this diminutive device hardly seems like an issue at all, really.
Is it worth your money?
What could be, however, is the price.
In Australia, the Twelve South Butterfly costs $220, making it a fairly costly wireless magnetic charger, particularly with only two chargers built-in. The $200 mark and higher is typically where we see three-part chargers, covering phone, watch, and earphones.
Belkin’s 3-in-1 Boost Charge Pro is pretty much made for a desk and chimes in at a nearby $230, while the similarly compact 3-in-1 Anker Charging Cube goes for a higher cost of $299.
Twelve South’s Butterfly is only a 2-in-1 charger for $219.95, which may seem like a bit of overkill, but wins on size.
Nothing is this small. No other charger is this compact. Twelve South’s Butterfly is about the teeniest little charger around. That could well be worth the price tag alone for travellers counting every ounce and gram.
Yay or nay?
The fact that the Twelve South Butterfly comes with its own little plush bag helps make the case for this model, because it adds to the versatility of the charger.
You simply need to toss the Butterfly, cable and charger and bag and all into your luggage, and you can rest assured your phone and watch will be charged practically where ever you go. That’s a win for people who live life by their iPhone and Apple Watch, and need that sense of reliability.
Frankly, we wish something like this existed for the Android camp. It’s a luxury iPhone owners can get, while Samsung and Pixel owners can watch on with envy.
If you’re one of those iPhone owners that needs to keep a recent iPhone charged on travels, as well as an Apple Watch you love, the Butterfly could be the most useful accessory you take with you.
Just don’t forget it when you check out of your hotel. It’s so compact, you just might. Recommended.
