23 September 2015

Another Gillio Compagna - Review

The door bell rang yesterday and there stood our post lady with a box in her hands and her smart phone for me to sign for the parcel...


What could this be I thought......



It is of course the long awaited Gillio A6 Compagna in Epoca Rust.






The design of this organiser was one of the things that came out of the Gillio Think Tank back in June 2014 held in London. Therefore the internal layout of this A6 Compagna is different to the other sizes.

Opening the organiser this is the internal view of it.


Like the other Compagnas it has the big full width back pocket, it can take folded A4 sheets or sheets of A5 paper or A6 comfortably too.  For people in Europe and other parts of the world that use the ISO standard paper sizes, this is an obvious advantage.


The rings are 23 mm internal diameter, the same size as other Gillio medium size organisers so in terms of capacity you shouldn't have any issues with being able to store all of your important information.

So looking at the front inside cover layout.


Working down through the layers, we have four vertical credit card slots. We also have three full height slip pockets which get progressively deeper, starting with the shallowest behind the credit card pockets which is approximately 65mm deep to the deepest at about 90mm deep. 

The Gillio logo is neatly embossed at the foot of the interior. This close up photo also shows off the quality of the stitching and leather work. 


Moving now to the inside back cover view. 


We have an expanding full height zip pocket. On the face of the pocket are two more horizontal credit card or business card pockets. On the outside edge in line with the clasp there is a leather elasticated pen loop. 

It is worth noting a small detail, a small leather flap covers the zip pull when fully closed. 


Another new design feature of this model are the ring protectors, these act as a cushion between the rings and the interior leather and over time prevent the rings from putting dents in the interior of the organiser. On this model they are removable and therefore user replaceable. 

So here is the organiser without the ring protectors. 


Here are the ring protectors themselves. The plastic tabs are easy to press under the ring mechanism. 


And here they are fitted in to the organiser. 


Like other sizes of Compagna the A6 comes with a leather fly leaf which has a suede reverse side. But another addition on the A6 is that the fly leaf also has a leather elasticated pen loop, this pen loop is off-set from the centre, but this is a good thing because it will then allow for different pen clips, on pens you might already own. 



So in terms of size how does the A6 compare to say a medium size. I don't have a Medium Compagna, so I did some simple comparison photos with a medium size Gillio Amica. 

First of all side by side. You might be able to spot the slight difference in height and that the A6 is wider. 


So standing them one in front of the other, this shows that difference slightly clearer. 


Looking from the spine the A6 looks fatter, but that is due to the ring protectors pushing out the leather slightly. Both have the same ring size, so if you grip the A6 in your hand, it is in reality the same thickness as the medium.


The A6 Compagna comes with a full set of A6 inserts as well as a Gillio pen. 

The diary supplied with the A6 Compagna runs from September 2015 through to December 2016. 


The diary pages are the same design as the medium size inserts, but resized to A6 size. 


There are tabbed contact pages and address pages as well.


Pages for appointments and lined notes pages.


And for projects there are graph pages and expenses pages too.


The inserts come with a full set of A6 tabbed dividers which use top tabs and side tabs. Like the medium size inserts some of the dividers have spaces to write on them and other useful information printed on them.


The A6 Compagna is available in 5 colours initially, they are:

  • 770 EPOCA RED,
  • 773 EPOCA RUST, - as reviewed in this post.
  • 774 EPOCA GOLD,
  • 777 EPOCA ORANGE,
  • 825 EPOCA LILA

770 EPOCA RED  

773 EPOCA RUST, - as reviewed in this post.

774 EPOCA GOLD

777 EPOCA ORANGE

825 EPOCA LILA
And they will be available to order from 10am(CET) on Thursday 24th September, the starting price will be from €298 including VAT. 

Here is a link to the page on the Gillio website

Thank you to Gillio Firenze for supplying the review sample of the new Gillio A6 Compagna. 



7 comments:

  1. Nice, but €298!!! I'll stick with my Finsbury!

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  2. I didn't like the ring protectors at all, so I'm glad those are detachable, but this planner looks just perfect. I'm wondering though, is it easy to get our hands on accessories for an A6? Like credit card pockets, plastic pockets, and so on? The Gold is gonna be mine for sure. :)

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  3. Shamini - the brand Sucess has lots of inserts!They call it senior size!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shamini - the brand Sucess has lots of inserts!They call it senior size!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you, Steve, for the great review. The internal set-up looks different and interesting. A6 becomes my favorite size lately.
    Do you have, by chance, inserts for A6 with week starts on Sunday?

    ReplyDelete