Ekster makes premium smart wallets and their latest product is the Ekster 3.0. I must say that I was really happy when they contacted me to try and review their latest product. Couple of weeks later, the “Senate” wallet arrived and I really like it.
For the past year or so I was using another smart wallet and I must say that I also enjoyed using that one a lot. Comparing the two, I must say that the Ekster is much slimmer and compact and that’s mainly because it’s not a classic wallet per se, but more of a modern card holder.
The model I got can hold up to 6 cards, has a strap for some cash or another card and a quick card slider which “shoots out” all of the cards for easy access. It screams of premium quality with genuine top-grain leather, love the smell btw, and if feels compact in your pocket unlike something that will break after a few weeks of use. There’s also RFID/NFC protecting technology which protects your cards from wireless skimming and private data theft.
Apart from the RFID blocking tech, this smart wallet has some other cool tricks up its sleeve. If you get the optional tracker card, you will get access to some really cool features. This tracker card is made by Chipolo and in the past we have reviewed some of their small trackers. Long story short, these guys know what they are doing and the tracker card is fantastic.
It allows you to ring your wallet so that you can find it in your home if you manage to displace it. But it also helps you find your wallet in case you lose it. In a worse case scenario, you tap the Find My Wallet button in the app, which by the way is really well made and has a really easy setup process, the Chipolo Network will ping every Chipolo tracker worldwide until it pings your lost one and it will appear on the map. It’s a really cool tech and it saved my ass one time back when I was using the Chipolo tracker on my keys, so the tech works and I am really happy that it’s part of the Ekster 3.0.
The signal range is around 60 m with BLE 4.0 but that will vary if you are inside your apartment and such. Another cool feature is that this is the first voice-activated smart wallet, which means that you can ask Google Assistant, Siri or even Alexa about where your wallet is and they will ring it for you, neat feature.
But the best thing about this smart tracker card is it’s solar panel which can charge it in 3 hours or so and will last for 2-3 months depending on the use. I think this is the first tracker to include such feature and makes charging a breeze. The one thing that annoyed the heck out of me with the Woolet smart wallet I was using is the need to charge it via a USB cable. Yeah, it’s really strange to charge your wallet but that’s the world we live in nowadays, I guess…
Also while I was in a German airport control they kinda freaked out about that smart wallet, started asking silly questions of what is it, why are there cables inside of the wallet and they checked it for bomb material residue, which is crazy in my opinion. Now I haven’t traveled with the Ekster 3.0, but I believe it would be way easier to explain the tracker card then electrical wires in my wallet, we’ll see.
In the end the Ekster 3.0 Senate model is a slick smart card holder with a lot of great features, but it’s not really for me. You see, I am currently living in a country where most of the transactions are cash based and since I need the space to hold cash, I will keep using my current smart wallet, which by the way I haven’t charged since its battery died the first time. But if you are living that cash less life, then the Ekster 3.0 is probably the best smart card wallet (card holder) out there. Thanks for reading!
