This folio caught my eye because it holds a regular letter size notepad, or a notebook. With this versatility, and for the price it is no wonder that 84% of people like it on Amazon. I am reviewing it because I wanted to see why 27 people thought it was cheap, and 13 were disappointed, and one guy thought is was Sh*t.
Overall, the design is good and the reason everyone likes it, but the production isn’t the best quality. When manufacturing folios, companies have to decide on if they will bond (glue) the cover material to the hard backing cardboard interior. Cambridge decided against this as many companies do, because it is more expensive in time and materials. This creates a “puffy” look to the exterior like it is slightly inflated. They also chose to use a lower grade faux (PU) leather that looks nice but feels more like plastic vinyl.
To save you time in reading, here is a list of the remaining review points:
The Good
- Light Weight – Including only the case it weighs 14.53oz.
- Useful Small Notepad – The 5x8 notepad is handy for lists and quick notes.
- Notebook Paper – Medium quality paper. Fountain pens feel scratchy and there is some see-through to the other side.
- Lots of Pockets – The large pocket holds letter pages well and can even fit a magazine in it. The zipper pocket is useful for small things, but it can also carry a phone.
The Not So Good:
- Loose Exterior Faux Leather - As I mentioned above.
- Poor Stitching - Exterior has visible fray points
- Weight - Becomes an issue when loaded up with notebooks, resumes, pen, business cards at 1.85 lbs
- No Zipper or Elastic Closure - No way to keep folio closed while not in use
- Nylon Interior Looks Cheap - Compared to the rest of the folio, the mix of materials isn’t appealing.
- The Zipper on the Interior Pocket Breaks. This is an issue for a lot of reviewers so you have to be careful with it.
To go one step further, you can upgrade this folio to make it stand out in your meetings as I mentioned in an earlier blog.
Even more than that, the pocket is large enough to hold a tile locator to make this a smart folio and help you avoid loosing it.
