Circa 1-2-3 Portable Punch Review

Circa 1-2-3 Portable Punch Locked Down

A short while ago, our friends at Levenger sent over this new light weight and ultra portable version of their Circa hole punch to review. The Circa 1-2-3 Portable Punch is significantly smaller and lighter than any other Circa hole punch that we have seen to date.

Circa 1-2-3 Portable Punch Unlocked

As you can see from the two photos above, the portable Circa 1-2-3 punch has levers that fold down and lock into place in order to make it even more compact. When the handles are in the locked down position, the overall height of the unit is a slim 3/4″ high, and when they are unlocked and ready to use it still only comes in at about 1″ high. This Circa punch measures up at 11 – 1/2 long and 1 – 3/4wide while weighing a feathery light 6.4 ounces. If you have ever used one of the full sized punches you will know that this is a huge difference as they are much heavier units.

Circa 1-2-3 Portable Punch Lock Close Up

The three collapsible levers on the portable Circa punch are individually able to be locked down by simply pressing them down and sliding the switch over…unlocking is also just as easily done by sliding the switch in the other direction. Initially when I looked at the punch, I thought that the locking segments had something to do with the size of the page you wanted to punch, but that is not the case, which I’ll show you in the next picture below.

Circa 1-2-3 Portable Punch Page Sizing Guide

If you click on the picture above you can see the green slide that acts as an edge for you to place different size sheets of paper or index cards against so you can assure that you get the correct alignment of punches for it to fit properly in your Circa notebook.

The capacity for this punch seems to be a maximum of two sheets of standard copy paper. The punch goes clean through two sheets with no issue whatsoever, but trying to force three sheets did not feel like it was going to work out so well. This is the obvious trade off for the extreme portability of this slimmed down version of the punch. While you wont want to use it to put together dozens of 25+ page notebooks, it certainly is handy to have around in your bag for the quick punch of a few sheets of printed emails or other items to slip into your Circa Notebook. The Circa 1-2-3 Portable Punch is definitely a great option for those that only need to punch a few sheets at a time, or just want to have a portable Circa punch to take with them on their travels.

Thanks as always to our friends from Levenger for providing this review sample!