- Orbitkey offers a bunch of different ways
to carry and organize your keys,
plus a couple of other helpful goodies as well.
And we've been testing various aspects
of this system for over a year,
so we're excited to jump in and share our thoughts with you.
I'm Tom, the founder of Pack Hacker,
where we use our expertise and real-world experience
to provide practical resources
and honest opinions guiding you towards smarter travel.
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Let's jump right into the overall Orbitkey ecosystem.
[upbeat music playing]
Kicking it right off with the Key Organiser,
this basically turns your key chain
into a Swiss army knife of keys and other tools.
The main benefit of an organizer like this
is to keep your keys from jingling around,
as well as keep them protected inside of a sheath
where they can't scratch anything else -
either in your pocket or in your bag.
This organizer holds two to seven keys,
however you can get an extension piece
if you'd like to hold more.
We've been testing the active version
in the black color, because ... black.
This more rubbery version offers a nice feeling in the hand,
and overall it's held up pretty well
considering we've been using it nearly daily for over a year.
However, some of the lighter versions
in the customer reviews have shown quicker wear and tear.
I know there's a white version over there
has a lot of scuffs and marks on it,
so just consider that as you're choosing
the color for this specific active material.
We also have two nylon versions,
but they haven't quite seen as much use
and testing as the active version.
Orbitkey also offers this in canvas and leather,
as well as just a plethora of colors across the board,
so there's definitely a lot to choose from
to fit your style of your EDC or your travel kit.
This version does carry two to seven keys on the inside.
And there's also an exterior D-ring
that can hold an additional keyring or other keys -
or any other accessories -
maybe if you have a larger car fob,
it's going to work well for that.
They include a couple of different washers
that are going to be used depending
on the amount of keys that are inside of this sheath area,
and it's really important to get this right.
So if you follow the instructions,
that's going to create the best experience
as you start adding all your keys on here
and using this for longer.
It's going to keep a nice tight fit
depending on the number of keys inside.
In addition to that, the screw and post pieces
that we have going on here
are a self-locking mechanism.
And at first I thought this was
a bunch of marketing BS. However,
in practice it actually works quite well.
If you tighten up this screw you can actually feel it
lock into place depending on how far that you've turned it.
So the great benefit here is that if you want
a little bit looser of a hold on your keys -
and you just want them to flip out really easily like that -
you can do that by keeping it a little bit
looser and locking it into place.
However if you want a tighter fit,
you want to kind of get your keys out
a little bit more in the action of what you'd have with
a Swiss army knife or something similar,
a little bit harder to get out,
you can do that too if you screw
this thing in a bit tighter.
So nice that there's some versatility there,
and it actually locks into place.
In over one year of usage this has held up
pretty well so far, even after taking it apart
and putting it back together to switch out keys,
it's held up decently well.
And it's come loose on maybe two occasions,
but it's easy enough to use a coin
to just tighten it up, or a flat-head screwdriver. So,
so far, so good on the Key Organiser.
Next up we have the Orbitkey Clip,
which we did not feel as positive about
when compared to the Key Organiser.
Honestly, if you like clipping your keys to your pants,
or inside of a backpack,
we think you're better off going with
an ordinary keyring and a carabiner
compared to the Orbitkey Clip.
Starting off with the clip portion -
it looks like an ordinary carabiner,
but functions a lot differently
and is made out of much different materials.
It offers a bit of a flimsy feel in your hand
and the mechanism functions in a similar flimsy way.
We couldn't help but feel like
we were going to break this thing every time
we hinged and unhinged it.
It doesn't even really hinge,
it sort of here, on this clip.
A typical carabiner will hinge on the side here.
But this is sort of just an extra piece
of material that kind of bends up,
so definitely a bit of a different design as well.
And this just happened -
so it actually gets caught quite often
when you're clipping and unclipping it.
So that is just overall a 'con' -
doesn't feel like a super great setup to us.
And honestly a regular carabiner is going to be
more robust than this clip.
It definitely feels like it's never truly closed.
And that adds additional risk
that this thing is just going to fall off
of either your belt loop, or your pack,
or wherever you end up wanting to hang your keys.
At the end of the clip there is a small clasp
which functions sort of like a belt loop -
you can just slide it off and that can
completely detach the clip.
That small clasp design doesn't really seem necessary
as you can still fit the keyring
on here without undoing that,
and it just creates another place
for the clip to fall off of the keyring.
Moving on to the Ring potion of the Orbitkey Clip -
we overall dig the way it looks.
However it is made from similar material to the Clip,
which again, we haven't found to be the best material.
Orbitkey mentions that you can carry
up to 10 keys on this thing providing that they fit.
Not every key that we have works on this system.
So for instance, we have a bike lock key
and the hole that that is on is just
too small to fit in here when compared
to an ordinary metal key chain.
To open the key chain you pull the tab down
and rotate it 180 degrees;
then you're met with an opening
where you can quickly and easily slide keys on.
Now this doesn't necessarily end up being
a lot easier than an ordinary metal keyring,
because you have to rotate it so far.
And then once you have a bunch of keys on there
it can kind of be cumbersome to fully open up as well.
Again, a metal keyring is totally fine,
and for a quick 'pro tip' you can just use nail clippers
to open up a metal keyring if you
don't want to use your fingers.
The Key Clip is offered in a bunch of different colors,
but you know us - we chose the black on black version.
It only took us two weeks of use
before we decided that the Key Clip just wasn't for us.
It doesn't feel sturdy enough.
And it feels a little bit risky
carrying around your keys in this way
when that carabiner clip does not fasten,
and then there's an additional place for the keyring
to fall off of the clip.
So again, we really love the Key Organiser
that we mentioned first, but the Clip is just not for us.
Next up we have the trusty Multi-Tool
that we have been testing for over a year
alongside the Key Organiser.
It's great to have a tool like this
close to you on your keys,
and it is likely within arms reach whenever you need it.
The low profile is good as well -
it's on the smaller side for some
micro tools that we have seen.
However, this is actually a benefit for travel -
it's less intimidating, less likely to get flagged by TSA.
And just to add - we're not trying to
sneak anything past TSA.
At the time of this review, it is TSA compliant.
However, just note that if you're going to be bringing
a larger multi-tool it is more likely to get flagged.
This little guy on your keyring,
less likely to get flagged because it blends in more
and it isn't quite as intimidating looking.
This handy and small Multi-Tool
comes with six different tools in one -
we've got a bottle opener, a multi-size hex wrench,
a box cutter, a flat-head screwdriver, and a file.
The box cutter feature has opened
just about every single package
we've ever received here at Pack Hacker.
And actually come to think of it now
I'm not really sure how we opened
packages before this one came...
Hmm.
The flat-head screwdriver piece
has been really great to tighten up
loose doorhandles at Airbnb's,
as well as using it out in the field
when some photography gear needs
a little bit of maintenance.
And of course the bottle opener feature -
that has been used plenty.
If you grab the Key Organiser,
we would definitely recommend
picking up the Multi-Tool as well.
It's a handy little piece of kit
that integrates really nicely within the Key Organiser.
Last piece is relatively new to
the Orbitkey ecosystem at the time of this review.
The Travel Kit offers a handy way
to remove and store SIM cards when you're on the road.
This is especially great in countries
where it's just a little bit better,
maybe a little bit cheaper overall
to use local data with a SIM card there.
You just pop it out, put that new SIM card in,
and then store your old regular
SIM card within the Travel Kit.
Before this, I personally used
a small plastic bag to hold all of my extra SIM cards.
At the end of my two years as a digital nomad
I think I had a collection of about 30.
I sorta just collected 'em and, you know,
just kept them as like little keepsakes -
kinda wanted to see how many I would get.
Now the Travel Kit holds two, which is totally enough.
Usually when you use one of these
they are disposable and you chuck it out.
So maybe you want one and an extra,
and then you know you've just got your one
that you just have regularly from
wherever it is that your main phone plan is from.
With the Travel Kit it is really easy
to remove the SIM tray pin for removal from a device.
This is the exact correct size,
and it's much better than trying to use
a pushpin or a paperclip while you're on the road.
Again, if you are at an Airbnb or a hotel
you gotta go track one of these things down
in order to flip one of these things out
without a special tool.
The sleeve that that comes in
is a kind of silicone feel.
Maybe it's the same TPU material as we've seen
on that Key Organiser that we've been testing -
just really easy to kind of pop SIM cards in and out.
There's really nothing too special about it,
it's sort of just a silicone tube.
Maybe there could be a little bit more
thinking around the organization in a 2.0,
but it gets the job done, and it's secure.
There's a bunch of other stuff in the Orbitkey ecosystem
that we haven't necessarily tested yet,
and we do have some thoughts on them
even though we haven't tested them.
We have not gotten our hands on the Orbitkey Strap yet.
We think that will be kind of similar to the Clip -
where it looks a little bit better online
than it is in actual practice.
The USB 3.0 drive is pretty self-explanatory.
We chose not to take up precious space
on the Key Organiser with this thing
as we have found smaller flash drives,
especially great with use for travel.
The Bottle Opener is pretty much
a pared-down version of the Multi-Tool.
The Multi-Tool offers a lot more functionality
in a small package; we just recommend grabbing that instead.
And arguably it is lighter since there is less material
cut out for the other pieces of the Multi-Tool.
The Nail File & Mirror is an interesting concept
if you want to use that often.
We haven't tested it yet, but we enjoy the concept.
And lastly, the Extension Post -
we haven't done hands-on testing with this yet,
but it will allow you to add more keys
to that Key Organiser should you choose to do so.
Wrapping this up - we are a polarized bunch
when it comes to Orbitkey's ecosystem.
We've had some really great luck with the Key Organiser,
and then not so great luck with the Key Clip.
The accessories are overall pretty good as well.
We would love to hear what you think in the comments below.
And be sure to hit our individual review pages
over at packhacker.com where we cover
the pros and cons, the overall rating,
as well as the full written review.
Thanks for keeping it here at Pack Hacker,
your guide to smarter travel.
We'll see you in the next video.