Let’s face it. As cool as the Swiss Knife is, it’s now too big to share space in our pockets with all the other gadgets we typically carry around. The Swiss+Tech Utili-Key XT offers an attractive replacement, bringing eight indispensable (okay, arguably indispensable) tools at your disposal while measuring only slightly bigger than a regular key.
Instead of fold-out tools in a bulky panel for pocketing, the micro-sized stainless steel implement lets you have them occupying a small amount of space right on your keychain. That means no extra heft to carry and no pocket space to lose, all while still bringing the most basic of Swiss Knife talents along. It tightly squeezes in a bottle opener, a wire stripper, a wire cutter, three screwdriver heads (flat, Phillips and one specially for eyeglasses), a nail cleaner (clean up a bit, you filthy city slicker), a nail file (so you can, you know, fashion your fingernails into shape) and knife blades (serrated and straight).
That means you can sit down at a Starbucks, sync your laptop, pull out your keychain and perform a couple of productive activities while you’re waiting for that slow download connection to finish, including fixing your glasses, preparing your nails for a manicure and cutting the wires off a time bomb. Can you get any cooler than that?
If you’ve been on the lookout for a Swiss Knife substitute, I doubt you can get any smaller than this. The 8-in-1 Swiss+Tech Utili-Key XT is listed as imported (probably from China, whatever that is worth) and is available now for $16.50. [Eddie Bauer via Gear Patrol]