Keyport Slide slims down, techs up your keychain
Make your keys look cool while saving space in your pocket with the Keyport Slide.
- North American Car, Truck and SUV of the Year (NACTOY) Awards Juror
If you're like me and you don't like little sharp metal objects jingling around in your pocket, scratching up your phone, and ripping holes in your pants, you may be looking for a way to manage your keychain. The Keyport Slide aims to do just that, replacing your keychain with a slick looking aluminum chassis that sheathes your keys, creating a solid unit that doesn't jingle around and weighs next to nothing--as long as you aren't carrying more than six keys around at a time.
The Slide measures 4 inches long by 1.25 inches wide and is a half inch deep. It's got a reasonable 2-ounce weight that makes it feel good in the hand, but is light enough to not weigh down pockets or damage locks or ignition cylinders.
During the Keyport ordering process, you'll be asked if you want to add a car key to the Slide and what make, model, and year the vehicle is. This is to determine whether your car features a microchipped security key and what version of the Keyport Slide you will have to purchase. You'll also have to print out an ID sheet, that you'll use as a guide to photograph your current keys, so that Keyport can identify their design and send the right blank Blades for your locks.
After receiving your Keyport, you'll then have to take the blank Blades to your local locksmith to be cut to match the keys you're replacing. This can get tricky when you're looking to duplicate a car key with a security microchip, but if your dealer doesn't raise an eyebrow at your odd-looking key blank, you should be good to go. Once you have a full set of duplicate key Blades, you can then load the Keyport.
The Blades are loaded into the Keyport by popping a plastic cap off of the tail end of the unit's body. Each Blade gets one of six colored spring-loaded nodes inserted into its base before being slid into one of the Keyport's six channels. With all of the Blades in place, the cap is replaced, and each key can be exposed by pressing and sliding its node toward the business end of the unit.
For users with fewer than six keys, optional accessory Blades can be ordered to fill in the blank spaces. Users have the choice of a 4GB or 8GB USB drive. There's also an LED flashlight Blade, which is great for opening locks in dark places. Finally, there's an optional bottle opener.
Every Keyport features an etched ID number that the user can register on the myKeyport.com website and is marked with that URL and the promise of a reward. That way, if the Keyport is ever lost, a good Samaritan can pop online and contact you without ever meeting the owner of the lost keys. Unfortunately, the reward appears to be a $20 discount on the purchase of a Keyport of their own, but you're encouraged and allowed to provide a small reward of your own.
It's all very cool and sleekly packaged, but then you have to consider the price. The Keyport Slide itself starts at $49, but if your car requires a chipped key, that price jumps to $69. The blank Blades are $4.99 each, which doesn't include the cost of having your keys cut at a locksmith. Add $5.99 for the bottle opener, $9.99 if you want the LED flash light, and $18.99 or $28.99 for the 4GB or 8GB USB storage, and its easy to watch the cost of a streamlined keychain alternative spiral out of control. As tested, our nonchipped Keyport Slide weighs in at $98.94; that's a pretty penny to save a bit of pocket space.