Like the Groove Life Wallet, the Ögon Slider wallet uses an aluminum plate to slide up and present its cards. Different from the Ekster or SECRID card holder wallets, which use triggers, the slider is more efficient. However, the Ögon Slider is missing a way to carry cash. And then we find out it might be a knockoff! How many more things can we handle!?
(if you want to see all the features and how many cards and cash it can hold, please watch the video)
Instead of a button to extract cards from box wallets, we now have a few that use a plate that slides up. In this review, we have one of those, the Ögon slider automatic wallet. But what if I told you this was a knockoff?
It comes in a rather fascinating slider packaging. It slides with one simple motion and retracts very nicely. The slider wallet has a front slider that raises up the cards. It is extruded aluminum and seems to have a single insert. If you remember our review of the Groove Life Groove Wallet, well, this wallet here has one feature that is the interior card slot, which can hold a capacity of up to six flat cards, or about four or five embossed. The ejection slider mechanism retracts itself. However, with this wallet, I do not see any way to carry cash. It measures 3.8 x 2.5 x 0.5 and weighs 74 grams or 2.6 ounces. Thus, no capacity for cash. This wallet was rushed into the market, which I came to find out. Well, how did they do that? Why did they do that? Well, keep reading, the drama gets rather juicy.
I got six cards in, a mix of embossed and non-embossed, as well as an ID. That kind of gives a feel for how that increases the width, which is why you only have a limited capacity of embossed cards that can actually go in the wallet. The company recommends up to six flat cards or four to five embossed and no cash can be carried, which honestly is a terrible oversight.
This particular wallet is designed and made in France from recycled aluminum and polycarbonate. The cutout from the extrusion can be seen at the very top, and you can see the ridges there. This should be smooth, which raises questions about the finishing that is not done very well and likely should not have passed quality assurance. This wallet, like the Secrid, has an extruded piece of aluminum all the way around, and the insert is in the bottom. The Secrid, however, has its little trigger mechanism. If we move the slider up, you can see the rails and the mechanism on the bottom is secured via two screws, that is where the lift is moving this up. You can see from the railing from the exterior what provides the lift to the arm that helps the cards exit the box itself. Please watch the video to get a glimpse of the mechanism.
The wallet is priced at $40, a reasonable price, except that we do not have anything to handle cash, which presents a problem, unlike its closest competitor, the Groove wallet which we recently reviewed. This latter does indeed provide and accommodate cash either in the clip or in their leather add-on that provides a quick access card slot, as well as money strap and it screws on as a replacement on the back for the money clip. That allows not only to have the very slick capability of a slider plate but also the ability to handle cash. Unfortunately, that is not the case with the Ögon. What the Ögon has done, however, is that it picked up what was a little deficient in the Groove wallet usability, that is the texture. The Ögon has a little thumb indentation and ridges, permitting the easiness of pushing up, and that is what the Groove is missing. However, implementing these changes on the Groove would mess up the aesthetic. Besides, even the Ekster and the Secrid provide an external carry method for cash, while cash carry is a non-existent option for the Ögon slider wallet. That means that you have to carry cash in a different wallet and that is not ideal, as a single wallet is really what is desired.
You are probably thinking, “Well geez, Mark. Why don’t we have the Ögon just do something very similar to what we saw in the Groove?” Well, they really cannot because they have the insert piece on the bottom and the bottom is where the Groove actually attached its money clip and its other add-on. This means that they are unable to do so because it will be under a lot of stress, and if you try and attach it to the plastic piece, the polycarbonate will be under a lot of stress and will likely break. In the end, the solution was really to say, “Screw it, let’s ship this thing anyway, even though it is deficient and doesn’t have a money clip.”
That said, here are the details, it is a knockoff of the Groove wallet. Groove Life patented the slider mechanism, which Ögon evaluated when Groove was in their kick-starter development, and they rushed their slider out to market. So yes, I am going to call it a knockoff, and to that end, the whole, “Screw it. Let’s ship it anyway.” Is looking more and more like reality. Due to the violation of the patent that Groove has on the slider mechanism, it looks like the Ögon Slider wallet will be leaving the U.S. market soon. So if you want one, you better pick it up now. That is how the free market gives and takes, so I think it is all good.
The final score of Ögon slider automatic wallet is three for quality, which includes the fit and finishing struggles; price scores a three, it is much less expensive than its competitors, but it is missing features; feature scores a two because it is missing a method to carry cash; usability scores a four since it is easy to use; and perception scores a three. That gives this wallet the final score of 32 out of 50. If they only had a way to carry cash, but that is too bad.
