Don't upgrade your handset, upgrade what it can do: these new cheap hi-fi Bluetooth dongles unlock hi-res music from your phone, and ping it to your wireless earbuds

• iFi unveils UP Play and UP Play Max dongles
• Questyle reveals Dongle Pro 2
• All USB-C dongles for low or medium prices

If you don't love the way your headphones sound, it's not necessarily a sign to head to our list of the best headphones and pick up a brand-new pair. Maybe the problem isn't the cans, but how you cast your music to them.

A simple USB-C dongle plugged into your source might be all you need to get much better-sounding music. These small pieces of kit, generally designed for phones and games consoles, expand your source device's Bluetooth capabilities to allow for lower latencies, and improve bandwidth while allowing for advanced codecs, thus greatly improving your sound.

Three new USB-C dongles have just been released, so you've got plenty of options. The new products come from well-known audio brands iFi and Questyle too, and they certainly won't eat into your budget like a new phone will… 

Questyle's here in style

Let's start with Questyle, because it's only releasing the one new product. This is the QCC Dongle Pro 2, which follows on from last year's QCC Dongle Pro which we gave a near-perfect review to.

This Bluetooth transmitter is largely designed for iPhones, which typically don't allow for the kind of lossless wireless streaming that Androids get, but the brand also lists various games consoles as particular uses too (no mention of Android, though).

The Dongle Pro 2 uses Bluetooth 6.1, for a more reliable connection than a phone has by default, and lets you stream in LDAC, various aptX, LHDC and LC3 codecs. It also supports Snapdragon Sound.

All this means that you can enjoy higher-res music streaming on the Dongle Pro 2, and you can also connect multiple devies using Auracast. Questyle's app also lets you change audio codecs and manage which devices are connected.

This can be yours for the cost of $99 / £129 (roughly AU$230 — Questyle's website does ship to Australia, but the price is still in USD).

What's up with iFi

Then there's iFi's offerings, and the brand has two new devices: the UP Play ($59 / £59, about AU$110) and UP Play Max ($89 / £89, roughly AU$180).

Again, these seem primarily designed for Apple devices, and iFi says the Play "triples the level of detail in audio sent from Apple devices" which goes up to 4x for the Play Max. That seems to be the main distinction between the two devices.

They're also designed to offer noise suppression in calls, so they can be used for clear calling on your phone, or impeccable audio when gaming. Like the Questyle, they offer Auracast compatibility, the codec list seems to match with aptX and LDAC.

Unlike the Questyle, iFi specifies that Androids will also benefit from the Play and Play Max, as they're easier to use than fiddling around in your headphones settings to turn on codecs. The dongle also lets you pair multiple headphones at once, so you can listen with another person (or play games or watch videos).

iPhone owners are clearly the target here though. iFi calls AAC, which they use for wireless music, "ageing" and pitches its UP Play dongles as filling in a needed void.

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