Review of Filofax Compact Regency - Guest Post Zoe

As part of the Philofaxy All Stars Tour, Zoe offered to do a guest post about her latest purchase......

Last Saturday at the NYC Philofaxy Meet-up, we were all surprised to see some of the new catalog selections in the store, despite having been told they would not arrive in the US until later in the Fall season.

We saw the Enigma, the Luxe and the Flex, but to be sure, the belle of the ball was the Compact Regency. Sam Flax had it in both black and brown (as pictured in that dreamy promo shot on the Filofax USA website…drool!)

Although I have ultimately become an avid user of the Personal size, a couple other Philofaxers have made the move to the Compact and I had been experiencing some pretty hardcore planner envy. In addition, I recently performed a major overhaul of my handbag, culling it of all extraneous content that I lugged around “just in case”, so all the recent buzz about the Compact got my mind working on the possibility of lightening my Filofax as well.

So, one of the goodies that came home with me from the NYC Meet-up was the Compact Regency in black.

The stats are as follows...

Ring size: ½” (15mm)

Left side: Left facing full length slip pocket, 4 card pockets, then a right facing full length slip pocket

Right side: Left facing full length slip pocket, a note pad pocket about halfway up (3” wide), then a right facing full length slip pocket

And in case you are wondering (and I know you are) it lays flat. Cue Hallelujah Chorus...

It comes with the standard fare of inserts in Cotton Cream, which I promptly removed.

Imagine my horror when I went to pop in my Franklin Covey inserts and they were Way. Too. Wide.

As in, the tabs stuck so far out past the edge of the Regency’s cover that they would promptly be bent, broken or otherwise destroyed with any real use. Crap.

This is not the case with any of my personal Filofaxes; the FC ‘s are wider than Filofax refills, yes, however they do not stick out past the edge of the cover. So, out came the tape measure, and it seems the Personals are about 5½" from spine to outer edge. The compact Regency is roughly 4¾". In asking around, it seems all Compacts are narrower due to the smaller (1/2”) ring size.

Note the Differences shown below, which show the Compact vs a Personal Kendal:

This would have been, you know, good information to have before spending my grocery money for the month. Oh well.

Also, despite having an elastic section to the pen loop, any pen I slid in made it so it wouldn't snap shut...even the normal, non-grippy Frixions. It seems as though the pen loop is attached on the inside edge of that cool right facing slip pocket on the back cover, so it sticks up a bit more than usual to accommodate a pocket being there.

The only pen I happened to have that would allow it to snap shut is the super skinny Frixion Biz (which is beautiful & looks fantastic w/the Regency, but sadly I find it too thin to write with comfortably). The Pentel Graphgear 1000 mechanical pencil also works, so at least I have options. I swore by the Graphgear before I found Frixions.

Here is the Pentel (in the loop) and the Frixion Biz for a size comparison:

So...no favorite inserts OR favorite pens for me in the Regency. Bummer.

However, to my surprise, I found I could fit an entire year of Filofax Week on 2 Page lined inserts (w/monthly tabs...in this case a set of Dayrunner Month on 2 Pages inserts that I had bought to see what they look like but never used because I didn't care for them) AND the 6 tabbed sections I want for the new year (To Do, Reference, Quotes, Goals, New Ideas, Important Info – using DayTImer “Shadows & Light” blank tabs). As long as I don't have too many sheets behind each tab everything fits just fine (I’ll get into what goes behind the tabs another time).

Am I going to duplicate these innards when it comes time to buy my inserts for 2012? I have absolutely NO idea. You know me; I love my Franklin Covey day per page. And I can’t use those in the compact Regency. So back to the refill drawing board I go.

For now, though, I am just excited to start using this lovely new Filofax - which I suspect will be well worth the insert effort - and joining the Compact club : )

Thank you Zoe for a very detailed review of the Regency Compact, the price over here in Europe is quite high, but I'm sure there will be a few people that will fall in love with it too.