PowerFold Wallet: Power in your Pocket

We've got a special little sneak preview for you here. This wallet will be launching on the 5th July, but we have got an early look at some details, photos and specifications that we can share with you. There is also a prototype of the wallet winging its way to us as we speak, so we will be able to bring you a special early review very soon! We'll update you when that happens.

But first things first, let's cover what we know about the PowerFold Wallet, by Bolt 'N' Hammer Leather (BNH Leather).

About the PowerFold Wallet

As the name might suggest, the PowerFold isn't just an every day wallet; it incorporates a rechargeable battery, which acts as an energy reserve to charge or provide emergency power to your phone or other gadgets whilst on the go. To put it even more simply, this is a wallet with built in phone charger.

There are plenty of products that offer this same idea in the form of a "credit-card sized" charger, but most have proved to be either totally unreliable or too bulky to fit in any respectable wallet. This means while the concept might have been good, it hasn't really been delivered on with much success as of yet. So, the idea of integrating the charger into the wallet itself definitely carries some merit.

Let's focus on the charging aspect first, then we'll come to the wallet part of the design. The wallet comes with micro USB and Apple Lightning (suitable for iPhone 5/6) connectors built-in, which means it will fit the vast majority of phones and other devices right from the off. It has been ergonomically designed to allow the device and wallet to be stored in the same pocket so you can charge conveniently anywhere, and there is no need to worry about your phone getting scratched up thanks to the soft leather.

Now I'll be the first to admit I don't know much about electrical currents and the like, but the PowerFold Wallet has already received Fcc, CE and Rhos certification, which apparently means we can rest assured that it is perfectly safe to use on our gadgets and keep in our pockets - it would be pretty useless otherwise. On the subject of things I don't really understand, the PowerFold boasts a 2500 MaH li-polymer battery... if that means something to you, then you must be pretty smart, congrats. For the rest of us, that translates to it being able to provide about 24hrs of battery life, or 8hrs talk-time.

That's enough jibber-jabber about technical things, now it's time to talk about something I'm used to, the Wallet itself. Now in saying that, I don't want to confuse you, the wallet is built around the battery, so that it is all one entity, and even the charging cables and so on are built in so that it appears just like a normal, elegant wallet. What I mean is that we should talk about how it deals with your cards and cash, that after-all is the most important job of a wallet.

The nice thing about the PowerFold is that BNH Leather appear to have built it with style and usability in mind, rather than just designing a charger then shoehorning a wallet around it, which would have been an easy trap to fall into. Everything about the wallet seems to have been well though through and deliberately done. 

The PowerFold is made from extra thick genuine leather. Now, don't panic at the phrase "extra thick" - yes, usually we would frown upon this at Slim Wallet Junkie as it would be unnecessary bulk, but here it is a necessary feature, so we can make an exception. The thickness of the leather serves to protect the battery itself, as well as your gadgets so they do not get scratched. And let's face it, a wallet with a built in battery charger is never going to be the slimmest wallet you can buy, so that is a trade-off you have to make if you want the convenience of back-up power in your pocket. We should say though, that whilst all that is true, it appears that they have kept it impressively sized for what is packed in there, though we don't have any actual dimensions yet, so we will have to wait until we are holding it in our hands ourselves to really know for sure on that one.

The PowerFold Wallet has a sleeve design (yeah, we thought the "Fold" bit referred to a Bi-Fold design at first too), with two cut-away pockets on the front side. The cutaway design means both should offer fairly easy access, and the front-most one is open down the entire side, making it perfect for storing folded notes. The back pocket is for cards, and can apparently hold up to a whopping 12 cards. You already know we're about to say this is far too many for anyone to carry around, but the option is there if you want it.

The wallet will be initially available in a choice of smooth or textured black leather, with either white or black stitching. Brown leather and yellow stitching will also be available as stretch goals, and at a very achievable level, so should become a realistic option if that tickles your fancy.

The PowerFold Wallet on Kickstarter

This nifty little charger in a wallet will be launching on Kickstarter on the 5th July, so you will have a jump on everyone else to get the early bird offers (we've seen them, they're pretty good). Don't say we never do anything for you! In the meantime, you can head over to BNH Leather's website where you can enter the contest to win a PowerFold Wallet, as well as find out more about it and sign up to the newsletter.

We will of course update you as the project launches, and once we've got chance to check the wallet out for ourselves. In the meantime here is a preview of the yet to launch Kickstarter video to get your chops around: