Levenger Circa Sliver Cover

The Levenger Sliver Cover (via Levenger or Amazon)  is a newer version of the Circa line of covers that you can get to customize your Levenger Circa Notebooks.  I was drawn to this version because I was looking for something sturdier than the Circa Dimensions cover (see below) but thinner than the actual leather covered covers.  This was all driven by a desire to slim down my laptop bag as much as possible.

Levenger Circa Dimensions Cover – Thinner and More Flexible

The cover you see above is the very cool looking but also very thin Circa Dimensions notebook cover.  With my desire to slim down my bag, I figured this cover would be the best option so I swapped things out and loaded it up in my bag.  Of course it took up less room that way, but I quickly came to the realization that this cover was not the right tool for the job.  Well at least not for me, but the cover still looks really cool with its carbon fiber pattern printed on it.  With most of the weight of the notebook being supported in the center by my finger tips, you can see that the weight of the paper and discs really weighs down the notebook.  My biggest issue was using the notebook in meetings where I was at the desk or office of someone else where I didn’t have it laid down flatly on a desktop.  Trying to take notes holding the notebook in my hands with no pressure on the back to keep it stiff made it a bit hard to write steadily.

The Levenger Circa Sliver Cover is Noticeably Stiffer

Now if you take a look at the Levenger Circa Sliver cover, you can see that its stronger and more able to hold up to the weight of the paper and discs, although the discs here are plastic vs the aluminum, I think its the weight of the paper that really gave the Dimensions cover problems.  There are a few trade-offs you make with this sliver cover as compared to the standard book cloth and leather covers.  The two things that you give up for the thinner size are a pen loop and the inside cover pockets.  Now a brand new version of the Circa Sliver referred to as the smooth version (via Levenger) has the inside pockets but no pen loop, so that might be a better option for those that want some storage space still and without putting in a divider with pockets.  The one thing I didn’t realize I used the pen loop for was to quickly indicate the front and top of my notebook.  In these versions without a pen loop its easy to forget which end or side is up.  It can get frustrating at times when you come and go a lot with the notebook.  I found myself constantly flipping it over and around  For this reason I decided to get my name embossed on the cover so I had some sort of landmark to quickly orient myself with the correct position of my notebook.  The newer smooth version also looks like it has a simulated leather pattern in it as opposed to the wavy lines in the standard Sliver version which you can see below.

Levenger Circa Sliver Custom Embossing

I was a little surprised by the inconsistency of the personalized embossing of my name on the cover of my Levenger Sliver notebook though.  To me this doesn’t quite live up to my expectations of the quality that Levenger usually puts into their products.  You can see that from left to right, the depth of the embossing varies greatly, with the “B” in my first name barely breaking the surface and the final “e” in my last name being fairly deep.  Obviously the deeper embossing makes my name easier to read because it turns that part of the cover a darker blue and eliminates the wavy lines completely.  I was also surprised at the variation of the letters “n” and “e” in terms of how thick they are.  The “n” in my first name is significantly thicker and heavier than that of my last name, maybe it was double stamped somehow?  Similarly you can see that the first and second “e” in my last name are completely different sizes as well.  I’m pretty sure this isn’t supposed to be the style of this font, I would assume that the letters should at least be similarly sized.  Overall this isn’t a huge deal to me since as I said, I really just got this done for a quick visual cue as to where the front and top of my notebook are.  Normally I may have contacted the Levenger customer service folks who are always great at replacing and standing by their products, but at the end of the day I don’t want to contribute to any waste in terms of the materials used or shipping required to make a new cover for me.

Personalized covers aside, the Sliver cover definitely meets my need for being thin enough to lighten the load in my bag but also sturdy enough to make for comfortable writing when I’m on the go in the office.  Check out Levenger or Amazon to grab one for yourself.

UPDATE:  Check out our update on how the awesome folks from the Levenger Customer Service team corrected the issue regarding the personalization.

©2016, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.