Filofax Personal Cuban Review

I must admit, this was kind of a risky buy for me... mostly because of the colour. I got it in chilli red. The Cuban model came in a range of colours: saddle brown, chilli red, ink blue, black and chestnut. I initially wanted the chestnut / saddle brown, but alas, it wasn't on sale. It was down to either the chilli, ink or black. I could've gone with the usual ink / black colour, but I wanted to make a leap of faith by going with the chilli. I guess it was calling out to me as well... (sounding a little insane right now..). So I bought it, and here it is:

Cuban!

All of my Filofax managed to come in its own little black box, shielding it from the harshness of the world

I remember, when I first opened it up, all I could think of was: please be a nice red, please be a nice red, and it really was! It matches my current wallet colour, which is just a darker shade of red, but just as glossy as the Cuban. Picking it up will allow you to feel its smooooooth skin.

Thickness

Back

On the insides:

Inside: unable to lay flat - held open with a finger & paper weight

Inside of the front cover

Back

The Cuban has 6 slit pockets for your cards, and one slightly larger pocket for... sticky tabs / notes, maybe? One thing I've realised about the organisers I own are the pockets. I don't seem to like slit pockets - they stretch, tends to have little threads / glue sticking out of them and as a result, spoil the look of the organiser. I prefer the fully made pockets with stitching. It's a lot more durable, and of course, a whole lot nicer. But that's just me... because fully stitched pockets would also mean a little extra bulk too...

The back just held a mesh pocket... I'm beginning to realise that back pockets aren't all that... and I'm starting to see how some people would prefer a notepad holder instead. It would help alleviate the pressure on the rings by holding lesser papers, but of course, the thickness would still be the same. Potato, potatoe.

Moving on: the rings were fine, not gappy / misaligned. I'm thinking though, I may be pretty lenient with the whole gap / misalignment issues while I review the organisers, because after a while of actually using them, I do tend to realise that one ring tends to be misaligned, catching on the papers at times. But it hasn't been too much of a hassle / trouble for me, so I'm fine with it.

The organiser came with the usual week-on-two-page diary, dividers, notes, to-do lists, addresses, A-Z tabs, black ruler and a card holder.

To be honest, its whole built and material kinda reminds me of the Metropol. It too has the same smooth skin and its inability to lay flat, but of course, the Metropol isn't made of Italian leather. But similar, nevertheless...

While reviewing the Cuban, I realised that the Chilli colour was actually somewhat similar to a red Domino, so I pulled it out for a comparison:

Colour comparison

I would say that the colours are pretty similar, except the Cuban has a little bit more of a shine to it.

And so, as much as I love the colour, and seem to have this weird irrational attraction to it, I'm letting it go because of its inability to lay flat. It's for sale on my eBay store now. Details are in the 'Items for Sale' tab. (SOLD!)

And that's the Cuban Chilli!