Filofax Compact Pennybridge Review

And here it is! The Filofax Compact Pennybridge in black. I picked it up today at the post office and admittedly, I was excited. Besides, I had high hopes for this one - this was my first compact Filofax after all, and I was really interested to see how tiny those rings really were, or how great it acts as a wallet.

Here are the unboxing pictures:

All the way from UK!

First: Box wrapping

Second: material wrapping

Third: Filofax plastic wrapping

I was happy with how it was wrapped and wasn't quite surprised that it came in the plastic Filofax wrap rather than the black cardboard box, which I've read, are being phased out. It does make the item look cheap, but oh well, I did grab this for a bargain anyway.

Now onto the actual product:

Front

Back

Nothing-fancy zip

Thickness

I must admit, the material was absolutely lovely for a non-leather product. It was smooth and soft and for someone who loves leather product, this would probably be the only non-leather Filofax I wouldn't mind having. It's slightly grained as seen in the pictures and it's an all round great product. The zipper was plain, simple and doesn't contain any Filofax engraving as my Holborn did.

Inside:

I didn't realise it at first, but this seller didn't include any A-Z tabs or dividers... Hmm..

Pockets!

More pockets!

Pocket on back cover

When I opened it up, I was... let's just say... a little overwhelmed with the amount of pockets the Pennybridge held. Although I've seen it in pictures, it never quite comes to the real thing.. I wasn't really interested in the inserts that was available in the diary as I had my own so I wasn't too upset that it didn't come with dividers. I was more interested in the folder itself. For one thing, it didn't open flat, which I was fine with, and for another, there was something quite peculiar about them:

1. It's really hard to close the rings when you have as much inserts as what was given. The small metal rings made it slippery for my fingers to close them and I had to do everything to avoid my fingers getting snapped up when the rings finally decided to close
2. This Pennybridge had... really weird rings (can't say it any better than that!). If I used the set of rings on the right to close it, the left set would only close halfway, needing that extra guidance to close it the whole way, and vice versa. The rings had no gaps or any significant problems with it, I just thought that was a little weird and I'm not sure if that's the same with all Pennybridges out there?

These are how the rings look like:

Tiny rings!

And this is the ring size comparison with my Holborn:

Not the best picture out there but the difference is obvious

Now comparing the Pennybridge size to my zipped Holborn:

Holborn vs. Pennybridge

Height comparison

Up top!

The real test came when I decided to fill the Pennybridge up. I didn't put in everything I had in my Holborn, just adding the necessities which included my month to view, week per page, notes and expenses. These were held fine by the rings. The pockets, however, were a different story. This is what happened when I decided to put all my cards in the slots:

Doesn't close!

Maybe I have too many cards, but what's the point of having so many card slots if you can't use them all?? And yes, although it was able to be zipped up properly, there was this bulge coming from the cards that was really unpleasant:

Bulging Pennybridge

You can't exactly see it in the picture, but trust me, it's there. So after all the excitement and high hopes for this baby, I must say, I was actually quite disappointed at the end of it. It's a nice product overall to maybe just put a few cards in, but it can't exactly be used as a fully-functioning wallet. Not to mention, you could basically forget about the addition of a phone into the designated phone compartment; poor Penny would probably explode by the end of it. In the end, this Filofax would probably be only used to be stared at and stroked and not exactly be used in the real world for me. It's neither great in the wallet compartment or practical, and it's small rings limits your inserts greatly. Maybe one day I'll find a use for it, but for now, on eBay it goes!

(If there are any readers out there who still crave a Pennybridge despite what I've said on this review, I'll be selling this Pennybridge for AUS$40 - postage will be calculated individually. Do contact me if anyone's interested! SOLD!)