Twelve South StayGo Mini Ultra-Thin USB-C Hub

Let’s be real here, Apple has always been rather minimalist with the ports on its devices, especially on anything not called a Mac. So when I got a new iPad Air earlier this year, the need for a hub of some sort became pretty obvious. Well, Twelve South to the rescue! As someone who’s been using their products for years, my choice was effectively made for me when I saw the StayGo mini available. Two clicks and three days later, I had it in my hands. And what can I say, it’s classic Twelve South.
The hardware is top-notch, it fits solidly on the side of my iPad Air and it does what it says on the tin. In addition to the hub itself, there’s also a USB-C extension cable in the box that’ll allow you to leave the StayGo mini on a desk while your iPad or laptop is on a stand. I’ve only used it briefly with my MacBook Pro as a test, but it works surprisingly well. As for its intended use with an iPad, I’m currently writing this review on the train from Cork to Dublin, with the hub connected to my M1 iPad Air and an SSD and pair of headphones plugged in, and it’s working like a charm. That’s also where the picture for my review was taken.
There are a few things that keep me from giving the StayGo mini the full set of five stars. Two of these are cosmetic in nature. The plastic face of the hub came with an extremely persistent protective sticker attached to it. Even after multiple attempts to clean that off, the residue is still somewhat visible. In addition, the hub is ever so slightly thicker than the iPad, which kind of destroys the seamless appearance of the hub. The third and last bit of criticism is that the StayGo mini lacks an SD/microSD card reader. It’s a minor oversight, but it would have given the StayGo mini just that little bit of extra usability. As it stands, it is an excellent bit of hardware that’s a must have for anyone who wants to use their USB-C iPad for anything more than just content consumption.

When it works, it’s better than the competition. Small, compact, perfect for what I need. Problem is every couple of months I need to replace it. However, the other brands I’ve tried are even worse.

This was EXACTLY what we needed. Since Apple removed the audio jack on the new iPads, this left is with a huge problem for our stage track playback & in-ear monitor rig. We needed the audio jack output to feed our drummer his click track and audio track, and then a USB out to feed our audio interface which send multiple audio tracks out to FOH front of house sound.
Since Apple removed that jack it thru our newly recorded tracks and our new onstage sound setup into a tailspin….. until we found this! It is the perfect answer to our problem! It provides audio out – to say earbuds/headphones and gives you hi-speed data out via usb and can allow a charge to your iPad as well! It’s small, very well built and gives you all the accessory ports that you would need for audio (headphones/earbuds), a pro audio interface or a camera or to connect to a PC/Mac all at the same time – this is worth every penny!