Nomad Leather Mag Wallet Review: The Most Premium MagSafe Wallet

Nomad has long been one of the best accessory manufacturers out there, at least for those willing to spend a little extra for higher quality. Of course, that's not everyone. Plenty of people prefer to save their cash and don't mind accessories that aren't quite as premium, but for those who do like the finer things in life, accessories like the new Nomad Leather Mag Wallet make a serious case for themselves as being the perfect pair to a premium device like an iPhone.

But is the Leather Mag Wallet actually worth the higher price that you'll be paying over other MagSafe wallet accessories? Or should you save your cash and go for others that are still premium but come at a lower cost? After using Nomad's wallet for some time, it turns out there are plenty of benefits to spending the extra money. Here's what you get by buying the Nomad Leather Mag Wallet.

The premium quality of the Nomad Leather Mag Wallet is immediately apparent when you first take it out of the box. The wallet is built from the real Horween leather -– and not only does it look like it, but it feels like it too. For the uninitiated, Horween is known among leather aficionados as being very high quality due to the use of top quality hides and premium stains and oils in the tanning process. I wouldn't call myself a leather expert, but I have actually done some leather working, and I can tell where leather is of high quality. It certainly is here.

The Nomad Leather Mag Wallet comes in two colors: rustic brown and black. While some might prefer the black color for its more subtle look, I prefer the rustic brown option as I think it looks a little classier. That might, however, depend on the color of your phone or case.

One of the things I really like about this wallet is the slot in the bottom that makes it easy to push out your cards when you need to access them. I've been using Apple's official MagSafe wallet for over a year now, and I kind of like the opening on the back, but it's not always especially easy to push the cards out that way. It's much easier on the Nomad wallet.

That said, there are some other differences between the Nomad MagSafe wallet and Apple's official one that aren't necessarily as beneficial. The Nomad MagSafe wallet has full Find My support, which we'll get into later, but it does mean that the wallet is a bit bulkier as a whole, since it has to fit the electronics and a battery, plus a way to charge that battery. Add to that the fact that the wallet holds four cards instead of three, and it adds even more bulk. To be clear, this is still far slimmer than any wallet you've likely used before if you haven't used smaller MagSafe wallets in the past. It's just that if you're used to a super slim model like Apple's, you will experience a slight adjustment period.

That's not to mention the fact that plenty of users will find the added bulk easily worth the trade-off, given the room for the extra card and the tech features under the hood. After using the wallet for a few weeks, I'm one of those people, and at this point, I have no problem with the size of the Nomad Leather Mag Wallet.

As mentioned, the Nomad Leather Mag wallet has full Find My support. Adding that, however, is more complicated than you might think. Yes, there's the communications technology necessary to integrate the device into the Find My network, but there's also the fact that you need a battery to power that technology and a way to charge that battery. Nomad's approach to all this is pretty smart.

All of the tech is completely hidden inside the base of the wallet. You won't even find a USB-C port for the battery. Instead, you'll charge it wirelessly just like you would your iPhone, placing it on a MagSafe charger or standard Qi charger when you need to. This is a smart approach. After all, the wallet already has the magnets necessary for MagSafe, and using wireless charging means that Nomad doesn't have to add unsightly design touches like a physical port.

Now, you might be wondering what makes the Find My built into this wallet different than the Find My built into Apple's official MagSafe wallet. Apple's official MagSafe wallet doesn't really have any tech built into it. Instead, your iPhone simply recognizes when you detach the wallet and basically logs that location. The end result is that when you're looking for your wallet in the Find My app, all that you'll see is the location that you took it off, not necessarily where it happens to be in that moment.

That's not true of the Nomad Leather Mag Wallet. Instead, the leather MagSafe wallet has actual Find My support, meaning that its location will be updated in the Find My app, where you can also do things like trigger a sound from the wallet to make it easier to track down. To be clear, the Find My technology built into the wallet isn't the same as the ultra-wideband technology found in AirTags, so you won't get things like precision tracking, which might help you locate the wallet down to an area of only one foot or so. You will at least be able to track it down to its general location, hopefully then using the audio feature to pinpoint exactly where it is. You can also enable things like left-behind notifications in the Find My app, where you also see the wallet on a map and be able to trigger sounds if you're within 150 feet.

The battery built into the wallet will last five months on a charge, so it's worth remembering to charge it up every now and then. Unfortunately, it does not seem as though you'll get notifications when the battery life on the wallet is low, though you can check the battery level in the Find My app. It's perhaps worth setting a reminder or something for every three or four months to charge it up. Thankfully, the wallet will beep when it has fully charged, though it's quiet enough that you may not hear it if you're not next to it.

As far as MagSafe wallets go, the Nomad Leather Mag wallet is the most premium out there, at least when it comes to a blend of features and design. It's slim and sleek, built from premium materials, and makes it easier to track down when lost than other wallets do. Sure, it's slightly bulkier than Apple's first-party wallet, but the trade-off is space for more cards and better tracking. If you're willing to spend the $80 necessary to get it, then the Nomad Leather MagSafe Wallet is absolutely worth buying.

The competition

There's nothing out there that's quite as high quality as this wallet, but there are still plenty of MagSafe wallet alternatives. Chief among those, perhaps, is Apple's first-party wallet. That wallet is slimmer than the Nomad one and only holds three cards -– but it doesn't have the same Find My support as Nomad's wallet. Also, after a year of using Apple's wallet, it does show signs of wear like some of the trim on the sides coming off. I haven't tested the Leather Mag Wallet for long enough to know if it will fare similarly.

Should I buy the Nomad Leather Mag Wallet?

Yes. It's an excellent MagSafe wallet.