It’s hard to find real good stuff to keep in my pockets.
Really enjoying these huge windows.
This is generally the kit that graces my pockets when I’m leaving the house.
iPhone 12 128GB Black w/ Baltic Blue leather case
Apple Airpods Pro
Popov Leather card holder Royal Blue
Keys on a dangler/shackle
I’ve slimmed down a lot, but this is mostly due to the ongoing pandemic. The furthest we go from home now is really about 10 minutes or so for groceries.
iPhone 12: It’s been a nice change from Android. Overall it took be a very short time to get used to the difference in operating systems. I still use a pretty full Google ecosystem for apps, along with a mix of Microsoft stuff. Camera on the Pixel still feels better but the iPhone is very solid. Battery is leaps and bounds better. With the current lifestyle of “on WiFi all day” I generally end the day with about 4 hours of screen usage and 50-55% battery left. Idle drain is minimal, so I generally get close to a 2 day battery out of the thing. The leather case feels great and has definitely gained a bit of patina in the few months I’ve had it. Power Delivery is still available with USB-C to Lightning cables, so other than having to buy a bunch of new cables, I’m very happy with the switch!
Airpods Pro: Well, these are it. These are the best of the best. Noise cancelling and battery are about the same as the WF-1000XM3. The sound signature is a bit more neutral which is preferred. The passthrough is infinitely better, and let’s not get started about the case size! It fits in my jeans pocket, which is perfect. If Apple enables reverse wireless charging off the iPhone, it’ll be a great setup!
Popov Leather Card Holder: I’ve spoken about this many times before. Still one of my favorite wallets, and has continued to wear beautifully. Holds 8 cards no problem.
Dangler/Shackle for Keys: I moved back to this setup. It’s a lot slimmer than the Quiet Carry Shorty I had for a while. The Shorty was built well but had a few caveats with shorter keys, and I wasn’t using the multitool a lot when I was carrying my Big Idea Designs TPT, which felt like it had a lot more usability and was considerably slimmer.
So yeah, it’s a bit light now, you’ll probably notice I’m not carrying a handkerchief or the titanium pocket tool - This isn’t because I’ve given up on them, it’s just because they’re not needed now. The TPT is actually my favorite pocket doodad, as it does two things perfectly - It opens boxes and bottles.
Am I 100% happy with my carry? No. I want to add a few things, actually! Although battery anxiety with the iPhone 12 is considerably lower than with the Pixel 3/4, there’s times I could see myself needing a bit of a boost if I get caught out for longer than expected. This is most likely to happen after the pandemic, but I’ve had an instance where I was stuck with just my phone and although I was fine, I had to be pretty conservative. MagSafe seems like it should be able to offer a compact battery which could possibly double battery life when out and about. There’s a few models currently on the market that are fairly attractive (Oisle does a color matching version with a capacity of about 4300mah, ZEERA does a 3000mah model constructed out of aluminum, Anker will be launching a few in February), but no first party options yet. I’m likely to wait for the Anker to see what it looks like. I prefer the brand, and it it offers options like the Oisle/ZEERA (functions as a USB-C battery pack and can work as a wireless charger when plugged in) then I’ll likely jump on that. Otherwise I’m likely to grab the ZEERA, at least until Apple hopefully releases a first party option. Ideally I want a small, just-in-case power bank that’ll fit in my skinny jeans and not look like a tumor.
I’m also interested in grabbing the MagSafe wallet - I like the size and the 3 card capacity, as really, when I’m going out I only need ID, credit card, and transit pass. I’ve had my rewards cards all on my phone for ages, and honestly in most cases all of my payment sources are on my phone too. It’s definitely optional but could be nice.
There’s other stuff I wouldn’t mind having like an actual wall charger and a cable. The wall charger is a long shot but could be done with an Anker PowerPort Atom iii Slim, my current favorite charger. It’s about the size of the Airpods Pro case. For cables I really like the concept of the InCharge 6 and I have a couple, but they don’t do fast charging. I’ve backed the Incharge X , so we’ll see how that shakes out. I have a feeling I’ll end up with a 3 foot USB-C to Lightning cable if I needed it though.