Hello, my name is Eric, and I carry a man-purse. And I’m okay with that. It’s better than stuffing my phone and wallet into my pockets before a day of walking and sitting on the subway.
So, when BellaVita asked me to review their iPhone 4/4S leather wallet, I was interested. It might be a good solution for gatherings to which I’d rather not bring a man-purse, like a nice wedding or Fight Club.
SETUP
The BellaVita iPhone 4/4S leather wallet shipped in a nice decorative box. The wallet is made of real leather that has a good feel to it. Soft but seemingly durable. The stitching is sound.
The wallet comes in a rich espresso brown color. I have a new respect for my friends who do product photography because my photos, unfortunately, don’t capture the deep brown. You can better see the color in this stock product photo.
The wallet has three slots for cards on the left and the space for the phone on the right. The small tab in in the middle tucks into a space behind the phone to secure it.
Here’s the wallet with my cards and iPhone 4S. It’s holding:
- Windowed slot: Drivers license, MetroCard (thinner than drivers license).
- Card slot behind windowed slot: Two credit cards
- 3rd slot behind the other two: Five $100 bills, y’all! (Just kidding – it’s a ten and four ones) and two more cards.
- Naked iPhone 4S
I actually just fit one more card into the windowed slot, so it seems the wallet could accommodate six credit cards – unless you have the exclusive American Express made of thick, black carbon fiber. If you do, we really should talk.
The wallet closes and snaps in the back. The snap is solid.
The front and back of the closed wallet.
Alignment is important for a phone case so you can access all buttons and features. The alignment is fine on the top.
The bottom works, too. I plugged in my charger with no issues. The speaker holes look a little obstructed, so I performed a sound test in the video below.
The mic quality on my camera is average, but I can say that the sound was unimpeded.
And there’s the alignment for the camera and buttons. All in working order.
I normally have a thin case/skin on my phone, so I checked to see if the phone would fit in the wallet with the skin on.
The phone with skin slipped in the wallet just fine. Everything lined up, too.
USING THE WALLET
Carrying: The loaded phone wallet is slightly bulkier than my regular wallet, but I’m okay with that since I only have to carry one phone/wallet combo instead of the two items separately. Plus, it looks like I’m carrying a little Gideon bible, which means cool points when I breeze into church.
Opening/closing: As I said, the snap is solid, popping open and closed with no issues.
Using the phone: To use the phone, I fold the wallet open like so:
First thing I noticed is how exposed the $14 and cards in the middle slot are. They feel secure, so I’m not worried. It’s just something to be aware of when you use your phone.
I like how folding the wallet open gives the phone more heft and mass, making it less likely to slip when using one hand.
When texting, the wallet doesn’t obstruct any of the “keys.”
To take a picture, you have to unfold the wallet, of course, to free up the camera lens. I thought it might feel awkward and unbalanced, but it didn’t. I actually like having more to hold onto.
CONCLUSION
The BellaVita Vita Espresso iPhone 4, 4S Leather Wallet is a cool lifestyle item that works. It securely keeps my phone and a good amount of cards, all making them easy to access and use. The construction is solid. The wallet also serves a cushioned case, so if I drop my phone, it probably won’t get dinged up.
On a deeper level, I like how it encourages an efficient approach to what I carry on me. Right now, my regular wallet has a smattering of receipts and old business cards. And
Even deeper, I feel compelled to keep using my iPhone 4S beyond the point when I could upgrade to another phone, which wouldn’t fit the precise measurements of the wallet. That’s good, because I really don’t need to upgrade.
Even, even deeper, the real leather wallet fills me with pride as I look back on the advances of animal husbandry in human history, and… okay, I’ll stop.
You can get the Vita Espresso iPhone 4, 4S Leather Wallet at the BellaVita website for $55 with free standard shipping.
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Disclosure: I received the wallet to review. All opinions are my own.
I like it!