Nomad Leather Charging Wallet Slim REVIEW

A good daily use wallet with a little extra in its back pocket.

I’ve never liked bulky wallets and I like keeping a minimal profile with objects I carry on my person. I don’t keep my phone in a case because of this and I have moved from wallet to wallet trying to find one that won’t make me feel lopsided. I finally found one that I felt would make me happy with Nomad, a company that strives to make modern, stylish charging solutions while keeping their products as minimalist as possible. Their Leather Charging Wallet Slim seemed to be the ideal wallet option for me since it not only incorporates a battery, but it also provides a way for me to carry my essential documents without being weighed down. Here is my review of it.

DETAILS
As the title might suggest, the wallet is made of 100% vegetable tanned Horween leather from Chicago, Illinois. The leather has been minimally treated and will develop a patina over time. Because of this, no two wallets are alike. There is a 2,400 mAh Lithium Ion battery built into the spine of the wallet with an attached Lighting cable (output charge 5V/1.5A). There is a high-strength aluminum casing included with the battery with Polycarbonate end caps for durability. The battery recharges using a Micro USB 5V/1.5A charging port (a cable is included).

The wallet has two card slots on each side and a center pocket where you can stash some cash or a few more cards. I will say that getting things in and out of that center pocket can be a bear, but it does secure items quite nicely. It’s important to note that this wallet was specifically designed for carrying a few bills as backup cash. Nomad suggests if you desire to carry more cash, then the bi-fold wallet might be a better fit for you.

USER EXPERIENCE
One of the first things I do when I receive a new product is to smell it. This might seem weird to some, but your sense of smell is closely related to memory — probably more so that any other human senses. I bring this up because leather is one of the strongest scents I know and as a little kid, that smell was ingrained in me. I would work with my grandfather in the jock’s room at Churchill Downs wiping off saddles and other tack. This memory in particular lives with me even today and smelling leather brings it back. When I opened the box to the Slim Charging Wallet, I was super excited — more than most would be — because the memory of my grandfather and that jock’s room came flooding back to me. Even though this might seem like a tangent in the review, I assure you that the smell of real leather was one of the reasons I really wanted this wallet.

As far as the wallet function goes, it met my expectations well. It is designed to be slim. Therefore, I expect it to hold less than a standard wallet. That said, the center pocket is difficult to use. I’ve stored a couple of cards and up to 4 bills in it and it’s just a very tight fit. I’m hoping that over time it might loosen up a bit. I don’t want it so loose that everything falls out, but just loose enough to use easily. The card slots are perfect. They fit standard credit cards sizes as well as my driver’s license. I have one card in each slot and that is what I would recommend as trying to add additional cards makes it nearly impossible to take your cards out or put them away.

When it comes to the battery, the specs from the product designer state that it has a large enough capacity for one full charge of an iPhone 7’s battery. An iPhone 7 only has a battery that is 1,960 mAh and the technical specs of the wallet battery show a 2,400mAh capacity. I did upgrade my phone this year to the iPhone X so that is the device I chose to test the battery with. With that in mind, the iPhone X has a battery that is 1.4 times larger than an iPhone 7 and 1.1 times larger than the wallet’s battery. So, from a 0% battery on the iPhone X, I would expect to see at least an 89% gain on the battery. I have listed the timing below from my charging test of the Nomad Wallet battery.

iPhone X Charging Times: Total battery capacity 2716 mAh (estimated)

The battery in the wallet died at 11:03 p.m. As expected, I did not get a full charge of the phone, but what was unexpected was how little of a charge I got. When you run the figures from the above chart, that is only a 27% gain from a full charge of the wallet battery. I do want to point out, however, that this charging event did not take into account the iPhone’s activity while it was being charged. Even though I was not personally using it while it was charging, there are still background tasks running. I would suggest that if you want to get the most of your charge, you will want to power down your phone or at least set it into AirPlane mode.

I will typically test out the Power Delivery of a battery using a USB tester, but the tester I have is not compatible with Apple Lightning cables. Since that is the only output charging option on this battery, I was not able to test it.

CONCLUSIONS
The Leather Charging Wallet Slim is a nice daily companion for the wandering nomad. It tucks away easily and doesn’t make you feel ‘weighed down’ like a lot of wallets will. I love the added emergency battery inclusion and feel that as long as you treat it as emergency only it’s going to suit you well. Overall, I give the Leather Charging Wallet Slim from Nomad a 5-star rating.
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