Best Everyday Carry and Travel Gear: Nine Picks Worth a Look

Introduction

Every few weeks a fresh batch of everyday carry and travel gear lands on our desk, and this round turned out to be an unusually strong one. The list spans nine items: a pocket knife, a premium pen, a portable DAC, a serious flashlight, a phone selfie stick, a tech pouch, a flight-friendly power bank, and two card wallets with a clever pop-up mechanism. Each one solves a specific problem well, and several of them earned a permanent spot in daily use.

James Brand Ellis Slim

The Ellis Slim is the thinnest full-length knife James Brand makes, aimed squarely at anyone who wants to minimize weight and bulk. At just 8mm thick and 50 grams, it feels right in the hand, and the understated, simple-but-functional design is easy to like. The 67mm (2.6 inch) drop point blade uses Sandvik 12C27 steel, a tough and capable all-round blade steel.

It is a non-locking slip joint with an elongated nail nick requiring two-handed opening, a strong back spring, and a half stop for added safety. That makes it legal to carry in most parts of the world, including the UK. On the back there is a wire deep carry pocket clip, plus a scraper/flathead screwdriver/pry bar at the end that also works as a lanyard or keyring attachment point.

The standard version comes with black G10 scales or aluminum scales in Canary orange, both around £99/$99. There is also a partial serrated version with tan G10 scales and black steel for about £10/$10 more, which helps with fibrous materials but can hinder in other ways. Overall it is a practical, pocket-friendly lightweight knife.

Bastion Bolt Action Pen

Bastion’s bolt action pen has been the daily driver here for a couple of weeks, and the quality and finish are excellent. It is five and a quarter inches long, about half an inch in diameter, and this version is made from raw grade 5 titanium, the favorite finish among the wide choice of materials available. At under 50 grams (1.7 ounces) it is noticeably lighter than the stainless steel version, which weighs 80 grams thanks to its satisfyingly thick walls.

The styling is deliberately simple, proving that less is often more in good design. The bolt action is addictive, if a little noisy due to fairly high spring tension, and the pen clip is rock solid with good strength and tension. The machining is so precise that the screw-off front join is completely hidden, which is part of why the design looks so clean.

It uses the readily available Parker-style G2 refill with plenty of choices, and a spare refill plus a protective felt sleeve come in the box. Prices start around £50/$50 and rise to around £80/$80 for the titanium version, which is genuinely good value among premium pens.

Go Blue DAC

Music is part of many people’s everyday carry, including ours, and this tiny gadget is the Go Blue DAC. A digital-to-analog converter is needed because your ears hear analog waveforms while music is stored and streamed digitally. Your phone and wireless earbuds already have one, but a separate DAC like this uses high-end components engineered to a different league, adding quality, detail, a wider sound stage, and more volume, since it is also an amplifier.

To get the benefit, you need a high bitrate music source such as Amazon Music Unlimited HD/Ultra HD or Tidal, plus good quality wired headphones plugged directly in. The Go Blue itself is tiny, beautifully designed, and weighs just 28 grams (an ounce), small enough for the fifth pocket of a pair of jeans.

The real convenience is Bluetooth: instead of being tethered to your phone by cables as with older DAC setups, you plug headphones directly into the Go Blue and stream from a phone, laptop, or tablet while roaming free, and it sounds fantastic. There is a rotary volume knob, a play/pause/skip button, a built-in microphone for voice assistant and calls, a couple of bass modes, a 3.5mm output, and a 4.4mm balanced output. Battery life is 10 hours. At around £180/$180, if you love your music, you will love this too.

RovyVon Falcon X1

The Falcon X1 continues RovyVon’s newer design language seen in the X0 and X2, but it is much bigger and much more powerful. Maximum output is an impressive 12,000 lumens with a quoted range of 300 meters (985 feet), though the practical range is closer to 75 meters. At 380 grams (13 ounces) it is heavy, but that weight translates into a genuinely well-made, heavy-duty feel, with thick-walled aircraft grade anodized aluminum construction.

The three XHP 70.2 LEDs are optimized for flood over beam with a 6,000 Kelvin color temperature, a good balance between cool and warm. Run times range from an eco mode at 20 lumens lasting a quoted 220 hours, a very usable 400 lumens for 14 hours, 1,000 lumens for 5.5 hours, 2,600 lumens for 2 hours, and a turbo level of 12,000 lumens that drops after one minute then continues at 3,000 lumens for 1.7 hours. There is also a strobe mode and an SOS mode.

Operation is intuitive: a single switch gives direct access to eco, last-used level, turbo, and strobe. There is a lockout mode via four rapid presses and a built-in fan to keep things cool. With an IP55 rating it can get seriously wet but should not be submerged. Inside are two 21700 batteries that explain the long run times, but they are not user replaceable, which will be a deal breaker for some. USB-C charging is included along with a belt pouch, and it comes in anodized black or micro arc oxidation white. It should retail around £200/$200, and if you can live with the fixed batteries, it is a great pocket-sized all-rounder.

Quad Lock Selfie Stick

Quad Lock has long been our preferred system for mounting a phone in the car, on a mountain bike, and on a desk, so their selfie stick was a welcome addition. It is nicely made from glass-filled nylon and black stainless steel, weighs just 200 grams (7 ounces), folds down pocket-sized, and extends fully to 462mm (18 inches) via a chunky telescopic pole.

The rubberized grip and an effective lanyard wrist strap are nice touches, and the double articulation offers 270 degrees of movement that stays tight without tools or thumb screws. Better still, the handle opens into a very stable tripod, great for selfies, group photos, night shots, and time lapse, with rubberized tripod feet for extra grip.

Attachment uses the original twist-and-lock mechanism, so both old and new Quad Lock cases work, and it is more secure than the newer magnetic system. Once in place the phone feels super secure. At around £43/$50, factoring in the design, quality, and compact functionality, this is a great addition to the Quad Lock ecosystem.

Compagnon Tech Pouch

Compagnon is a German company making bags and backpacks with an emphasis on camera gear, and this tech pouch is something else when it comes to quality, detail, and organization. It is designed for tech and camera accessories, though it can hold anything, and with the included strap it can even become an everyday carry bag.

The main face material is X-Pac, lightweight, extremely tough, and waterproof, while the rest uses extremely tough waterproof ballistic 1650 denier nylon. The whole bag weighs just 230 grams (8 ounces). The strap features aluminum carabiners and a quick release buckle.

Organization is outstanding: two waterproof YKK AquaGuard zippers open two compartments, one with a voluminous mesh pocket, a stretchy mid-slung pocket, a flat pocket, a key loop, and a cable pass-through for charging a device from a power bank; the other has pen loops, a split zip pocket, three stretchy mesh pockets, and six elasticated loops. Two Hypalon belt loops on the back and a bottom carry strap use heavy-duty bar tack stitching. Available in black only, priced at €79/$99, similar to the market-leading Peak Design tech pouch though a bit more compact.

CharGeek Storm 2

When it comes to power banks, nothing beats the CharGeek Storm 2 on looks. The transparent body with aluminum end caps and a super clear mini color screen showing live monitoring of all input and output sockets plus detailed battery status makes a refreshing change from the usual black bricks.

It has four ports: two USB-C (one rated at 100W for both input and output), an 18W USB-A, and a 75W round DC input/output port. It supports just about all fast charging protocols, so it charges devices as fast as possible, and its own batteries fast charge in around an hour and a half. Power comes from eight quality Samsung lithium-ion cells totaling 25,600mAh, just inside the maximum capacity legally allowed on a flight. Remember that power banks must be carried in hand luggage and removed at security.

It charges three devices at once with protections against overheating and short circuits, and should manage around seven iPhone charges, three iPad charges, or two MacBook charges. We would prefer a second USB-A over the somewhat dated DC socket, but the screen and max flight capacity make it a great option for digital nomads. It comes with a yellow USB-C cable and a cloth pouch, priced around $220.

Extremext Wallet

Extremext has been around for a few years focusing on wallets and everyday carry accessories, and these are for people who primarily carry cards. Press the button at the bottom of the wallet and the cards pop up nicely separated, making it quick to identify and access the one you want. The mechanism takes six flat cards, though raised text or digits eat into that space; with three raised-digit cards, only two flat cards fit alongside, though the mechanism still works reasonably well.

The aluminum version looks and feels really well made, and includes an aluminum plate held by a rubber bungee that stores another six cards pushed up and fanned out old-school style. The bungee also doubles as a cash strap for folded notes. The color shown is graphite, with 13 colors available in total.

Extremext Parliament

The Parliament wraps the same card mechanism in nappa leather, combining the pop-up system with the bifold experience of a traditional wallet. It is an interesting idea, but it does add bulk, and in our view the three extra slots gained with the bifold do not compensate for losing the aluminum plate found on the previous model, which takes six additional cards. The mechanism and cash strap are also permanently fixed and cannot be removed or replaced.

Still, if you carry mainly cards and need quick access to up to six of them, this could work well, particularly the aluminum version. Pricing sits around the £60/$60 mark going up to around £100.

Buying Advice

If you carry mostly cards, the Extremext aluminum wallet is the stronger pick of the two. If audio quality matters to you, the Go Blue DAC needs a lossless streaming source and wired headphones to shine. The Falcon X1 is a superb flashlight as long as non-replaceable batteries are acceptable, and the Storm 2 is aimed squarely at travelers who want maximum flight-legal capacity. For smaller budgets, the Quad Lock selfie stick and the Compagnon tech pouch offer the most polish per pound or dollar.

Conclusion

This haul covers a lot of ground, from a UK-legal slip joint knife to a flight-max power bank, and the common thread is thoughtful design backed by quality materials. Match each item to a genuine need in your own everyday carry and none of them should disappoint.