Satechi debuted its new Find My passport wallet alongside the rest of the tech industry’s IFA launches, and following a string of models from other brand’s leveraging Apple’s item tracking action. But with Satechi being among our favorite accessory makers out there, and it’s latest release coming along with one very useful feature we have yet to see much from the competition, we decided to get hands-on to give it a run for its money. Head below for our hands-on impressions.
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Hands-on with the new Satechi Passport Holder with Find My and MagSafe charging
The new Satechi Passport Holder comes complete with a vegan leather build and built-in Apple Find My tracking. But, perhaps best of all, it also features wireless MagSafe charging and you can scoop one up on sale right now at Amazon.
It retails for $59.99, but you can score one for $53.99 shipped on Amazon right now.
Features at a glance
- Wireless Charging input: 2.5W
- Battery size: 210 mAH; rechargeable lithium
- Wireless Technology: Bluetooth 5.2
- Speaker volume: 80-90dB
- Connection range: 32-64 feet indoors; 64-160 feet outdoors
- RFID-blocking technology
- Length: 5.6in / 14.3cm
- Width: 4.2in / 10.6cm
- Height: 0.7in / 1.7cm
- Weight: 104g / 3.7oz
gadgetnewsonline’ Take
First up, let’s talk build. The new Satechi Passport Holder with Find My is made of a vegan leather treatment throughout. It takes on the form of a slightly more shiny leather-like treatment on the outside and the top of the inner pockets. Inside, behind the pockets, the material presents more of matte or dull finish. I like this. It adds a touch of interest to an otherwise all-black accessory and makes the whole thing feel a little bit more premium, much like the subtle visible stitching around the exterior perimeter and interior pockets.
I, as anyone who has read my reviews in the past will know, am a big fan of the feel and longevity really full-grain leather provides. It almost always lasts longer and remains in better shape than the vegan counterparts in my experience thus far, but I’ve also not been able to put 10+ years of work into a really good piece of vegan just yet. Having said, I also really like animal-friendly materials, feel as though we should at least all be trying our very best to move in this direction, and very much appreciate Satechi’s effort here.
All-in-all, it’s a nice piece of stitched together animal-free leather and one of the better versions of it I have tested out on any substantial vegan leather gear – it’s hard to tell sometimes when you’re talking about a phone case or something with a piece of vegan leather thinner than a sheet of paper, but this one is clearly robust, and yet soft to the touch.
As for the actual carrying capacity here, you’ll find a passport pocket on the right hand side and boarding pass slot on left layered by a collection of four card holders. Simple, effective, and nothing more than you really need here. I for one don’t want to keep cash or extraneous documents in my passport wallet, and this setup is more than enough for me.
I do have some minor issues here though. Unlike some of the more recent passport wallet releases I have reviewed, the main passport pocket is extremely tight and snug. Because it’s on the right hand side of the wallet, you’re either sliding your passport in there upside down, or open paper side-first (as opposed to leading with the spine of the passport into the pocket). This is fine and all, also not unheard of, but because the pocket so so tight around my passport, I am afraid of wrinkling or folding the pages of the passport every time I try to wrestle it in there. I mean even if you split the passport, so half of it is in the pocket and some of it isn’t, you’re still leading with the open side and it’s still very tight – it’s not just tight because of how thick a traditional passport is, but also in terms of the size (height, up and down).
Now the obvious thing is here is that it’s going to loosen up just enough over time, and I truly believe it will judging by the type of materials used here. But this is a thing and it’s going to be mildly annoying every time I have to put my passport in there. I guess if you leave the credentials pages out and the rest in the pocket, it’s less of an issue, but I’d rather not have to take the chance of having to fight with it going through customs either way.
All that said, and presuming the main pockets loosens up a touch over time, I so far really like this passport wallet. It’s thinner and more sleek that some of the full-grain leather models I have tested out recently, better quality vegan leather than others, and, this next part leads us into the next section of this review perfectly, it features the best implementation of Find My in a passport wallet yet.
I have tested out a number of different Find My passport wallets thus far, and it’s usually pretty obvious just by the look, thickness, and feel they have some tech hidden inside. But that’s not the case with Satechi’s. If you didn’t notice the subtle power button in the interior spine of the holder, you might not even know it’s not just a regular passport holder. I like this a lot.
That aforementioned power button is how you turn the wallet on and pair it to the Find My app on your phone, a process, by the way, that was entirely painless and simple. You just hold the button for a sec with the Find My devices menu open, and it finds, pairs, and sets up in as long as it takes you to name it and pick an emoji (I’m using a book this time because I’m running out of proper wallet icons at this point).
Left Behind notifications, sounding a chime on the passport wallet’s built-in speaker, and leveraging the Find My map finding action is all in place here, as you would expect. It’s also all in place on every Find My wallet I have tested, but there is one not so minor thing Satechi’s passport wallet has going for it over every other model I have tested – wireless MagSafe charging.
All of the other models I have gone hands-on with come with a small cable that magnetically attaches to a charging point hidden somewhere inside the wallet. This is fine, I guess, and works just as fine, but it’s not wireless and I’m sick of having to keep track of a million cables, especially when on vacation. These cables also usually come in the form of those you can’t use with any other piece of gear in your travel kit…so bring on the wireless action I say.
The front cover of the Satech passport wallet has a subtle round detailing embossed on the vegan leather surrounding the equally as subtle Satechi branding – this is an indicator for where the magnetic charging array is hidden within. It works just like any other MagSafe charging device, just like an iPhone. You simply slap the passport wallet down on your MagSafe stand or one of those handy travel chargers we have seen from Anker and Twelve South you’ll likely be taking with you on-the-go anyway, and your set. No fumbling around with an extra cable, and no taking a chance you’ll lose the only cable the other guys’ wallets will work with (it might be a nightmare to have to find one of these abroad too).
In the end, overly tight and soon-to-be soften pocket aside, this is a really good passport wallet, the best example of Find My I have seen in one yet, and features the wonderful simply wireless charing action.
Buy the Satechi Passport Holder with Find My
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