Nomad’s claim to be “Reinventing the USB cable. Again.” was recently investigated by our very own Tom Dawson who reviewed two of Nomad’s portable cables, the ChargeKey and ChargeCard, and here we have news of Nomad’s latest product, the NomadClip. As with the ChargeKey and the recently re-designed, tougher ChargeCard, the NomadClip can both charge the handset (or tablet) and sync data, is MFi certified and available in either Micro USB or Apple Lightning configurations.
As you can see by the main picture, the Clip is shaped like a carabiner, with a full-sized USB socket at the end of one of the pull-out cables, and a Micro USB socket on the other. Just like the ChargeKey and ChargeCard, the NomadClip is designed to be portable and unobtrusive yet able to be at hand with a minimum amount of fuss. Where the ChargeCard is designed to reside in the cards section of your wallet (or purse), the Clip can be hooked onto your keyring like the ChargeKey or can be hooked onto your belt or rucksack for ease of use. The Clip has a hardy steel frame with a Bayer Science polycarbonate outer casing, and is said to be ready for the “Nomad” life. It should be remembered that while the Clip is similar in appearance to a mountain climbing carabiner, it isn’t designed to be weight bearing and shouldn’t be used as such, so please people, let’s not be having any mishaps or inadvertent re-enactments of 127 Hours.
The ChargeKey and ChargeCard are available to pre-order for $29, with the NomadClip coming in a little higher at $39 directly from their website. So they aren’t exactly cheap but they are nicely designed. Luckily we do have a discount code “LIVESIMPLE” that will drop the total by 25%, which means the ChargeCard and Key are $21.75 each after discount, and the Clip is a more friendly $29.25. On the plus side, Nomad offer free shipping in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia with a $5 flat fee anywhere else in the world.