Aviator Slide Review — A Near Perfect Metal Wallet
The Aviator Slide improves on the basic sandwich-style metal wallet with a pull strap and a slide-out coin compartment. The modular design lets you mix and match materials and components.
PROS
- customized for number of cards you carry
- easy card access with pull strap
- slide out coin compartment
- modular design
- lifetime warranty
CONS
- cash strap not wide enough to hold a card
- coins rattle in coin compartment when walking
Specifications
- Materials: Aluminum, Titanium, or Carbon Fiber
- Weight: less than 2 ounces empty
- Dimensions: 3.34″ x 2.12″ x .20″ (85 x 54 x 5 mm)
- Capacity: Holds 1–20 cards
- Warranty: Lifetime
The Aviator Slide ultimate slim wallet is designed and made entirely in Germany. If you’re in the US, it will take a week or two to arrive.
Is it worth the wait? Absolutely. Read on and I’ll tell you why.
Full Review
The Aviator slide is a sleek sandwich-style wallet that sandwiches credit, debit, and other similarly-sized cards between 2 exterior plates that are held together with elastic. You may have heard of other similarly-designed wallets like the Ridge, Fidelo, and Rossm that work in a similar way.
But the Aviator takes these wallets to the next step with a unique modular and customizable design.
First, there’s a pull strap to easily eject your cards. Fan them out (pick a card, any card) and choose the one you want. When you push them back in, the pull strap automatically retracts. This feature is decidedly low tech but works perfectly without the need for a fancy card ejection mechanism.
The Aviator Slide is an improvement over the original Aviator (which is still available on the Aviator website) that does not include a pull strap. I bring this up because both of them have a prominent slot cut out of one side for pushing your cards out with your thumb. With the Aviator Slide, you have your choice of using your thumb or the pull strap.
Next (and this is the coolest feature), the Aviator Slide has a removable coin holder for holding loose change, a spare key, or a safety pin for potential wardrobe malfunctions. The regular size holds up to 7 coins and the “double” holds 14. The bottom of the tray has a layer of felt (what Aviator calls an anti rattle insert) that helps to keep the contents from rattling.
When I placed 3 USD quarters and a spare house key in mine, I could still hear a faint rattle with every step I took. It’s not like walking around with a box of Tic Tacs in your pocket, but still, the sound is noticeable.
There is also a cash strap for storing cash folded over twice, receipts, or a movie ticket. The instructions that came with the wallet say you can put a hotel room card under it, but try as I might, it couldn’t make one fit.
Because most other cards like transit passes and building access cards are the same size, they won’t fit either. Luckily, the pull tab makes it super easy to remove and then reinsert any of your cards in a New York minute.
Performance
It’s modular in design, which means you have some decisions to make before you buy.
When you place your order, you have to specify how many cards you plan to carry. The factory then pre-adjusts the tension on the elastic straps to accommodate the number of cards you choose, from as few as 1 to as many as 20. They’ll also adjust the length of the pull tab accordingly. I Iike to carry about 8 cards in mine.
If you want, you can easily make the adjustment yourself. Aviator encourages this by including a Torx screwdriver. Use it to remove the 8 screws on one side and take off the outer plate. The locations for making the adjustments are underneath. In this video, Aviator shows you how to do it.
While you have everything torn apart, don’t forget to adjust the length of the pull strap. If it is too long for the number of cards you plan to carry, the end gets sort of floppy and annoying. When it’s set correctly, the metal tab that covers the end of the pull strap should just clear the exterior plate.
If the tension on the elastic is set too tight, I found that my thumb slips and slides on the top card when I try to push it out. That’s not a problem with older credit cards with raised numbers because your thumb can get a strong purchase (pun intended) on the numbers.
The pull strap eliminates the need to use the thumb slot at all. But it’s always there if the spirit moves you.
If you lose any screws, they throw in a half dozen extras in the box. And yes, take it from me, they’re easy to lose. They are crazy tiny.
The model that I’m demonstrating in this review is the Obsidian Black Slide. Aviator sent me this one for review. It has aluminum outer plates, an aluminum inner frame, an aluminum coin tray, and a carbon fiber money clip plate. For that, the price is $187. That sounds like a lot because it is a lot.
Because of its modular design, you can also choose acrylic glass instead of aluminum for the coin tray and inner frame. You can also forgo the carbon fiber cash clip. This knocks the price down to a much more affordable $79 without losing any of the functionality.
Weighing in at less than 2 ounces when empty, the Aviator Slide barely registers in my pocket. I always carry my wallet in the same pocket as my iPhone. That said, it’s important that any wallet I carry fits next to my phone and not on top of it. Because the size of the Aviator is no larger than a credit card, it fits perfectly.
The only thing I don’t like is that the hardness of the Aviator’s aluminum plates can potentially degrade my phone over time. Even though the corners and edges are rounded, I still worry that the wallet can ride up onto my phone when I’m walking or running. Those repetitive movements can do some damage in a hurry.
The only solution to that is to put the Aviator in my other pocket. But then, my steel keys might scratch the softer aluminum of the wallet. This actually happened to my aluminum Ridge wallet. The reality is that metal is more abrasive than leather. Get over it. (I have.)
The Aviator is an RFID-blocking wallet, which means everything inside is protected from legitimate and illegitimate scanning. In other words, you will have to remove any RFID or NFC cards like transit passes, credit and debit cards, and building access cards before you use them. Because of the pull strap, this is easy as pie to do.
Anything under the cash clip, however, is unprotected because it is outside the RFID protected zone. As I mentioned, the strap is too narrow to accommodate a plastic card. But you can make your Aviator Slide unlosable by adding the Chipolo CARD Bluetooth tacker. Most other Bluetooth trackers are the size of a credit card, but the Chipolo CARD is 40% smaller, so it fits just fine.
The smaller a wallet is, the easier it is to lose. With the Chipolo card, I can use my phone to find my wallet, and, more often, use my wallet to find my phone. I lose my phone, on average, 3 times a day. It’s pitiful.
Should you get it?
The Aviator Slide is one of my favorite wallets and I highly recommend it. It has the same footprint as the popular Ridge card holder, but the pull strap, thumb slot, and coin tray of the Aviator truly make it a cut above. Because the Aviator is modular, you have the option to trick it out to your heart’s content, but be willing to pay the price for your choices.
The good news is the price of the basic aluminum Obsidian Black Slide is in line with what you would expect to pay for a high-quality wallet. It’s an extremely practical and functional wallet with a clean, modern design that looks and feels good in your hand. If you want to spring for the additional bells and whistles, go for it. But the functionality and usability of the Aviator remains high no matter which version you choose.
