Most people buy a crossbody phone bag for one single reason: they want to leave the house without a handbag, but with more than just the phone in their hand. And that is exactly where the decision starts that nobody makes beforehand — should the wallet come along or not?
Because a phone bag with card slots replaces your wallet for short trips. One without is smaller and lighter, and lets you get the phone back out faster. Both are right, just not for the same person.
Three designs all called a phone bag
The crossbody bag for your phone is a small bag with an adjustable strap that the phone goes into — with or without its case. It hangs crossbody or over your shoulder, and depending on the model it has card slots.
The case with a chain is built closer to the device. The phone sits in a holder, the chain acts as the strap.
The bag on your belt does not hang round your neck but off your trousers. Different construction, different occasion — usually work or the Wiesn, as the Oktoberfest is known locally, rather than a stroll round town.
All three sit side by side in the phone bags collection. What sets them apart is not the size but what else fits in alongside the phone.
With card slots: what actually goes in
The most comprehensive model is the Smart Phone Bag Lina at €59.95: several card slots, a separate note compartment, a softly lined main compartment for the phone, an adjustable shoulder strap. That is a wallet with a phone compartment, not the other way round. The Smart Phone Bag Sandra, also €59.95, is equipped identically.
One step down is the Smart Phone Bag Lilie at €59.95. It has a slip pocket on the back for a card, ID or a little cash — enough for an evening out, not enough for the weekly shop.
The cheapest option with somewhere to put a card is the Small Phone Bag Kate at €29.95: soft lining, adjustable crossbody strap and a small extra pocket for cards or banknotes. If all you want with you is a debit card and a twenty, you need nothing more.
On the Phone Case with Shoulder Chain at €49.95, the pocket sits on the back of the case: cards, banknotes or coins fit inside, and it is worn on a metal chain.
Without card slots: when that is the better choice
The Smart Phone Bag Erna at €59.95 takes a different route. It has a separate compartment for the phone and, next to it, room for your wallet, keys and odds and ends — so it does not replace your wallet, it carries it.
That sounds like a detour, but for many people it is the more practical layout. If you already have a wallet you like, you do not have to reshuffle cards every time you change bags. And if you need more than three cards, the card slots of a phone bag will not be enough for you anyway.
The simple rule: card slots if the phone bag is the only thing you take with you. No card slots if the wallet is coming along regardless.
Will your phone even fit?
Here things get awkwardly specific, because exactly one figure is documented: the Smart Phone Bag Lina is designed for phones around 17 cm tall and 9 cm wide. For the other models it says “fits all common smartphones”, and that is not a measurement.
Measure your phone before you order — with its case on, if you leave it on. A Plus or Ultra format device in a chunky protective case is quickly over the 17 centimetres.
The advantage of this design over a classic case: it is not tied to one model. If you buy a new phone in two years' time, you can keep the bag. With a made-to-measure case that is not so.
Strap, chain or belt
An adjustable fabric or leather strap can be set to crossbody length and to shoulder length. Lina, Sandra, Kate, Lilie and Erna all have that in common.
A metal chain like the one on the Phone Case with Shoulder Chain looks different and wears differently — it rests on the shoulder rather than moulding to you, but it is the more eye-catching piece.
If you would rather wear the bag on your trousers, the Hodalump Phone Bag for the Belt at €29.95 is the alternative: a closed leather shape, a built-in pen holder, suitable for belts up to around 5 cm wide. That means it fits every belt in the leather belt collection, all of which are 4 cm wide. For work in hospitality this is the more obvious design than a crossbody bag — the article Putting together a waiter's kit goes with it.
And if you do not actually want a bag at all, just the phone on your body: the Smartphone Chain at €9.95 is a nylon lanyard with an adjustable neck strap that works without a bag.
The special case without a strap
Two models in the range solve the same problem without a strap. The Slim Phone Wallet at €19.95 is an ultra-thin buffalo leather case with a strong magnetic clip that sticks straight onto the phone and takes up to six cards — for MagSafe-capable iPhones and various Android models. The Smartcase at €8.95 is the leather version with a flap and room for cards or a little loose change.
Neither is a crossbody bag. They are here because for people who only want to hold their phone and two cards together, they are the cheaper and flatter answer.
What a phone bag does not do
It does not replace a protective case. The phone sits in the bag for as long as you are not using it — while you are calling, taking photos and typing it is out, and then it is unprotected. If you drop your device regularly, you still need a case.
Nor does it replace a handbag. What fits in is a phone, a few cards, notes, keys — not sunglasses, a water bottle or a book. If you carry more than that when you go shopping, you are better served by the women's bags collection.
And getting the phone out costs you one movement. If you check your screen constantly during the day, a closed bag feels like a brake. For some people that is precisely the reason to buy one — and for others the reason not to.
In short
Just a phone and two cards, at a low price: Small Phone Bag Kate, €29.95. Phone instead of wallet, with a note compartment: Smart Phone Bag Lina, €59.95. Phone plus the wallet you already own: Smart Phone Bag Erna, €59.95.
If reading this has made you realise you are actually after a bigger wallet rather than a bag, the right selection is in the article Women's wallets. And if you want both, take a look at the leather bags collection.