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With the launch of 2023’s iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple discontinued its leather products in favor of FineWoven accessories. One of the popular products that has adopted this eco-friendly alternative is Apple’s FineWoven Wallet. While some customers have adapted to and love the new material, many others are concerned about its quality and price. To find out whether the new equivalent is actually a match for its leather predecessor, I decided to try it out. Unfortunately, there are much better options with the same features and price, and they don’t look like they just escaped from prison.
About this review: I bought an Apple FineWoven Wallet for personal use and wrote this review after a week of active testing. Apple did not have any input in this article.
Apple FineWoven Wallet with MagSafe
Overpriced and lacking
$48 $59 Save $11
Apple’s FineWoven Wallet is a sleek add-on that can store up to three plastic cards. It attaches to your iPhone magnetically and supports Find My. Nonetheless, it has a subpar build quality and is not worth its price tag.
Pros
- Supports Find My
- Attaches magnetically
- Slim and light
Cons
- Cheap material
- Limited card storage
- Hard to clean
Pricing and availability
There are multiple colors to pick from
Apple’s FineWoven Wallet launched back in September 2023 for $59. Customers can pick between five colors: Mulberry, Evergreen, Taupe, Pacific Blue, and Black. The FineWoven Case also offers these same five shades, allowing you to choose matching accessories.
Design
Similar to its leather predecessor, minus the premium quality
Apple’s FineWoven Wallet looks similar to its leather predecessor (both pictured above), featuring a slim build that lacks any sophistication. Its overall size matches that of bank cards, allowing you to store up to three plastic ones at a time. This makes it ideal for those who strictly don’t carry around cash or a ton of cards.
As we’ve already established, the highlight of this revised product is the new FineWoven material that replaces leather. According to Apple, it’s made from “durable microtwill†and has a suede-like feel. While I do agree that the FineWoven Wallet is soft, I wouldn’t be too confident about its durability. Despite the product itself potentially lasting for a long time, it doesn’t necessarily age well.
I personally opted for the black variant, as I always pick the darkest shade available. When it was still freshly unboxed, it looked neat and classy. However, after it spent a few hours in my pocket, it attracted a concerning amount of dust and lint. Now that I’ve used it actively for a week, it appears worn out and closer to gray than black. It no longer appears as a premium accessory that costs a whopping $59. Instead, it looks like a rag that has been used to wipe dusty tabletops.
Unlike its leather counterpart, imperfections don’t contribute to its well-aged personality.
Polishing the FineWoven Wallet with a damp cloth restores some of its original qualities, but it still looks old in its brand-new state. That’s not to mention that the FineWoven material doesn’t handle scratches well, and mild friction could potentially leave permanent marks behind. Unlike its leather counterpart, these imperfections don’t contribute to its well-aged personality. On the contrary, they further cheapen it and strip it of its superior characteristics.
Flipping the FineWoven Wallet over reveals a familiar cutout where you can slide cards out with your thumb. After all, the wallet itself is too tight, ensuring that no cards accidentally fall out. So, you must rely on the cutout to push its contents out. The mechanism is intuitive, and its build is generally solid. Thus, apart from the FineWoven material’s degrading appearance, the wallet itself is fine.
Features
Lost mode, location tracking, and detachment alerts
Apple’s FineWoven Wallet relies on MagSafe to attach magnetically to the back of your iPhone or compatible case. This means you can use it with devices as old as the iPhone 12 series. The moment you place the FineWoven Wallet on your iPhone or its case, you get a pop-up prompting you to add it to the Find My app. When you do, you can view its location, along with those of your other Apple devices.
Unfortunately, there’s still no way to pause Find My notifications in trusted locations
Unlike AirTags, however, this wallet’s location only updates when it’s attached to an iPhone. So, if you drop it somewhere, the Find My map will display the last location where it was physically connected to your iPhone. To make it less likely for you to drop or forget it somewhere, Find My will notify you a minute after it’s been detached. Unfortunately, there’s still no way to pause these notifications in trusted locations like your home. While other Apple devices allow you to whitelist locations, the FineWoven Wallet, just like the leather one, doesn’t. If you lose this wallet, you can mark it as lost in the Find My app. This way, if someone comes across it and attaches it to their own iPhone, they’ll be able to view your contact details.
The overall experience
A downgrade that works
The FineWoven Wallet gets the job done. It stores your cards and attaches to your iPhone’s back for safekeeping. Arguably, the only improvement in the revised edition is that it’s almost impossible to detach the wallet when paired with a FineWoven Case accidentally. Due to the FineWoven material’s texture and the resulting friction, having these two accessories paired together results in a stronger bond that is challenging to break. Otherwise, it looks worse and doesn’t age as well.
The two biggest annoyances I faced when using the leather edition were being unable to whitelist trusted locations to avoid unnecessary notifications and the three-card limit. The FineWoven edition addresses neither of the two, as it’s pretty much the same product but made from a cheaper material. And considering that it is a fabric of sorts, good luck trying to remove ink or other similar stains. Unlike the glossy leather edition, it has an absorbent, matte layer, which makes it more susceptible to stains and harder to clean.
Should you buy Apple’s FiveWoven Wallet?
You should buy the Apple FineWoven Wallet if:
- You’ve bought the FineWoven Case and want to utilize the stronger bond
- You actually like the worn-out fabric appearance of the product
You shouldn’t buy the Apple FineWoven Wallet if:
- You carry around cash or more than three plastic cards
- You’re still able to find the discontinued leather edition of this wallet
Generally speaking, the FineWoven Wallet is a bad product, particularly when considering its $59 price tag. While it does its job as you would expect it to, it quickly loses its premium shine and appearance, and it doesn’t complement your flagship iPhone. As previously mentioned, the only advantage to opting for this edition is the stronger attachment when paired with a FineWoven Case. So, if you’re using a different case or no case at all, you could safely opt for the discontinued leather edition, assuming you can find one.
Apple FineWoven Wallet with MagSafe
$48 $59 Save $11
Apple’s FineWoven Wallet is a sleek add-on that can store up to three plastic cards. It attaches to your iPhone magnetically and supports Find My. Nonetheless, it has a subpar build quality and is not worth its price tag.
** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
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