Moterm Versa Personal - Review

The Moterm brand is a relatively new name to us in the planner community, but it is a brand that has an ever growing fan base as they continue to bring out new models at affordable prices and at a rate that seems unbelievable as they react positively to customer suggestions/requests.

Given the amount of interest I've seen on You Tube and Facebook, I decided to take a look for myself. At the end of July they announced another new model, the Moterm Versa in personal size, they had previously brought out the Versa in pocket size and it sold out in days!

I ordered a Moterm Versa personal size in black leather via Ali Express. There was a choice of colours available, but I went with the black rather than a pastel colour. Call me traditional if you like!

My order was confirmed within a few hours of me placing it and they estimated that the delivery date would be 13-16th August, it arrived on the 13th August. I was able to track the progress of the order from start to finish. There was no problems with payment, my account was debited on the day of despatch.

The item was very well packaged for shipping with a stout outer carton, inside was a simple presentation box containing the planner inside a cloth dust bag both showing the Moterm brand name.

The Moterm Versa is a two part organiser. There is an outer 'jacket' and the organiser itself, in addition they also include a leather flyleaf and approximately 100 sheets of undated lined journal type pages.

Together the two parts make up quite a substantial planner/organiser.

There are a lot of pockets in different sections, and card slots in different groupings we well. There are two places for pens/pencils. The inside of all of the pockets are lined with a cloth material that will not stick to plastic cards that you store in them.

The outer jacket, it has a full width back pocket that is 320mm in length and 195mm deep, almost big enough to take a full A4 size sheet of paper, but not quite.

On the inside front cover you will find four card slots visible on the pocket flap. Behind the pocket there is a full height slip pocket.

The pocket is held closed by two poppers top and bottom. Open it up and you then find a full height zipper pocket, five more vertical card slots and another full height slip pocket behind the card slots.

In the spine of the outer jacket there is a slot to hold a pen or pencil.

The rear inside area of the outer jacket you will find five more horizontal card slots with an ID pocket at the foot of that section with the Moterm card and tag next to it. Behind this section are three full height slip pockets. The deepest one is used to hold the back cover of the organiser section in place.

On the outside of the cover there are two places for the clasp popper to be closed in to, this gives you the option of additional capacity should you really need it.

The removable organiser can be used on its own, you don't have to use it with the outer jacket. The outside of it is in leather, likewise the inside is in full leather as well.

The front inside cover has four horizontal card slots as well as a deeper business card pocket at the foot of that section. Behind this there is a full height slip pocket for holding additional papers.

The flyleaf which is held on the rings has a leather and elasticated pen loop as well as three horizontal card slots on the reverse side.

The rear inside cover of the organiser section doesn't have any pockets so it slips in to the outer jacket easily.

The rings are attached with a simple bolt arrangement, which makes them easy to change. They are 25mm internal diameter in a silver finish. Moterm have other rings available on their store site in silver, gold, and rose gold finish in 25mm and 30mm size. I've ordered a set of 30mm rings to assess their suitability for the Moterm Versa for width. I think it might be ok, but I will report back when they arrive, hopefully soon.

[See my review of the 30mm rings in my Moterm Versa]

The organiser also came with 100 sheets of undated lined journal type pages.

The outer cover and the organiser both have some form of stiffener present in the covers between the leather and the inside. This is only there to help the organiser keep its shape and it doesn't impact on the ability of the organiser to lay flat when opened.

The leather it self is pleasant to touch. There was a slight chemical smell to the leather, but this has disappeared by leaving the planner out of the dust bag and box for a day or two. I've also given the leather a wipe over with some leather care solution that too improved the smell of it.

The organiser doesn't seem fragile, the rings snap closed in perfect alignment each time. The stitching is very good and also consistent on all edges at quite a high stitches per inch all around.

The edges of the leather are all neatly finished there are no rough edges or stray threads on the stitching.

Dimensions: The Moterm Versa measures as follows:

• Organiser section (Open) 290 x 185mm
• Organiser section (Closed) 138 x 185 x 32mm
• Outer jacket section (Open) 335 x 208 mm
• Outer jacket section with organiser section installed (Closed) 170 x 208 x 45 mm

Please note that the thickness of both when closed will also be dependent on the contents of the pockets and rings. 

Weights:

• Organiser with flyleaf = 240 g
• Outer jacket = 272 g
• Both combined 512 g

Please note that the above weights are with the rings and all pockets empty. 

All of the above I have kept to my usual style of being objective as possible, my usual technical type description, but I'm sure you want to know my own opinion and what it is like etc.

They often say 'You get what you pay for' and that is true of most things.

I bought the Moterm Versa out of my own money. I paid €76.54($90, £69) including shipping. I didn't opt for express delivery, I went with the standard shipping to France. It arrived within the time limits and without any issues.

The buying experience was not a rushed one it all went smoothly and there is plenty of feedback about the status of your order and when it is shipped and the tracking details etc. The tracking number worked with LaPoste my local mail service as well.

I would say that it is certainly worth the money I paid for it and the overall quality is comparable to other organisers I own at the same price point and much higher too. How many other organisers have the grand total of 21 card slots!!??

If you want to see how it compares to other brands, I recommend looking on You Tube there are plenty of comparison videos on there, so you will get the opinions of other people as well as just mine.

Further Information:

Moterm planners are available via their AliExpress page or Amazon USA I am told they are still working on their own website.

There are also groups on Facebook the main one is fully supported by the company.

• Moterm Planner Fan Group
• Gillio VDS and Moterm Planner Community
• Moterm Planners B/S/T
• Moterm Planners BST Europe