Review of the red pocket Portland

I had a black pocket Portland a while back, but I gave it to hubby in the great ‘convert the uninitiated’ scheme (he’s still using it!) and I had expected my ‘new’ red Portland to be identical to the black Portland in everything except colour.
Wrong.
I’ll get to the difference in a bit.

General walk-through:

Cover
It’s a nice red leather. There are a couple of marks but nothing serious and nothing a bit of polish and a quick brush-up won’t remedy. The leather isn’t as ‘grippy’ as the black version (but the black one may have been the one that’s different and all other Portlands are more like this one). This one feels much more like my green personal size version.

Front cover

Back cover

Inside
The left-hand interior has a gusseted (great word!) pocket, which is where the difference from the black version is. In the black one the edge of the pocket makes a cover for the zipper, but in my red one, there is a flap to cover the zipper. I wonder when and why they changed? Does anyone know.
The pocket is lined with red material ‘watermarked’ with the filofax f.

Inside

Flap covering zipper

The right-hand interior is the same as the black version – four card slots with a full-height pocket behind. The interior is lined with the same red material as the zipped pocket.

Card slots

There is no full-width pocket along the back (unlike in the Cavendish).

The rings are 15mm (I almost weep as I write this because we all know deep down that I will not be able to make this work as a planner and wallet combined). They are quite stiff, but I’m fairly sure the binder hasn’t had a lot of use. All of the rings are perfectly aligned.

It came with just a few things – a week on one page 2014 calendar, a today marker, a set of post-its and two top-opening clear pockets (one crystal clear, the other the softer, slightly opaque plastic).

I have made a week on one page diary for the remains of 2013 for it – I will post about it soon!