Expert's Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
In my experience, combining a wallet with an iPod case usually results in a hybrid that excels at neither. Pacific Design’s NanoGo Wallet is better than many in this category, but still has its fair share of shortcomings.
At first blush, the NanoGo Wallet looks odd, like someone has stitched a leather iPod nano case onto a larger, credit card-sized piece of leather. You wouldn’t be wrong for thinking that, as that’s essentially what’s been done here.
On the side of the NanoGo opposite the iPod harness, you’ll find a plastic card holder for your ID and credit cards. In my tests, I fit half a dozen cards with ease, though more than four made the NanoGo bulge somewhat unattractively. Besides the card slot, there’s a Velcro-sealed pouch that opens along the long side of the NanoGo, in which you can fit some folded bills, though the more cards you put in the outside slot, the more difficult it is to secure the Velcro pocket. The NanoGo also includes a carabiner clip, as well as a wriststrap that you can use with or without the carabiner.
The iPod-case portion of the NanoGo has screen protection in the form of a flexible-plastic window. The case leaves the nano’s Click Wheel, hold switch, dock-connector port, and headphone jack accessible, though the opening for the dock-connector port is a little tight for some third-party accessories. The iPod is kept in place with a small leather strap that snaps to the top of the card slot on the wallet’s opposite side, thus serving double duty by preventing your credit cards from falling out. In addition, two notches at the top and bottom of the case let you wind up your headphone cable when not in use.
Like most iPod case/wallet hybrids, the NanoGo does not achieve perfection in either category. Although I might clip my iPod case to my belt, I’d rather not advertise my wallet quite so blatantly. And while I prefer to keep my wallet in my back pocket, that’s not really a suitable place to carry my iPod, lest I sit on it.
Although not a wallet for the George Costanzas among us, the NanoGo does at least let you carry the bare necessities. It might serve well for those who are looking for a secondary wallet that lets them take their iPod to the gym or on quick errands around town while also carrying a small amount of cash and a card or two. But overall the combination of wallet and iPod case seems to me to be a solution in need of a problem. –Dan Moren