Keeping your phone safe with the Hangtime Koala Phone Harness
Active Gear Review is supported by its audience. If you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
It’s not that often that we go on an adventure these days without our phone, whether it be for taking photos or keeping it close by in case you need to make an emergency call. The challenge with keeping your phone close by on some adventures is that the consequences of dropping your phone can sometimes be an $800 drop in the bucket (or river, or snowbank, or ravine). This leads us to playing it safe to prevent our phones from taking a fatal fall and missing that epic photo that we wished we had taken.
The Koala by Hangtime is a harness for your phone that wraps around all four corners of your phone and attaches to a bungee cord with a secure clip. The Koala harness is made from a stretchy rubber material that holds its shape when stretched out over your phone that prevents your phone from slipping out of the harness. The first time you put the harness on and let it dangle, there is a little nervous moment. After doing a few test drops that didn’t include the potential of kissing my phone goodbye, I felt confident in using this harness for my phone in more serious scenarios.
Testing the Hangtime Koala Phone Harness
My first test with the Koala was on a trip to Nepal where my wife and I hiked up to Everest Basecamp. On the 10 day adventure, we crossed some high bridges that tended to wabble from other people crossing the bridge as well as wind. Since I wanted to be able to document my trip, I wanted to take pictures and videos on the bridges which is where the Koala came in handy.
I’ve used the Koala harness while both skiing at the resort along with backcountry skiing. If you’ve ever been on a chairlift and seen the fallen victims of gloves and ski poles, you know that dropping your gear happens. You typically don’t see phones under the lift because they either torpedoed themselves into the snow or some poor soul spent a half a day digging in the snow to find their phone. It has been nice to know that I can take my phone out of my pocket with ease and know that in the event of cold clumsy fingers on a chairlift, I will still have my phone with me at the end of the day.
I am also one of those people who tend to leave their pockets unzipped by accident and get that oh sh!t moment where I notice my pockets are open and wonder if my phone and keys are still with me. With the Koala harness, I still try to remember to zip my pockets, but the harness gives me a little more sense of calm knowing my phone won’t go missing.
When using the Koala in a zippered pocket, the cord is small enough where you can still zip your pocket up 99% of the way
Secure Clasp on the Harness
While it’s nice to have a tight harness that has a solid grip onto your phone, it’s also important for the other end of the harness to be secure. The clasp on the Koala is made of durable recycled plastic that is easy to lock in place on most materials and fabrics. I’ve used this clip on a backpacking hip belt harness, pant and jacket pockets with no issues to speak of.
Downsides to the Koala Phone Harness
The downside to the harness is having to put it on and take it off your phone depending on your adventure. It would be great to be able to incorporate this into a phone case in some capacity.
Final Thoughts
The Koala Hangtime phone harness is a super useful phone accessory for people who find themselves adventuring a lot and want the peace of mind knowing that their phone will be safe. The harness isn’t something that I have on my phone for day to day use as I already have a heavy-duty bulky case, but on days where there is more potential to drop my phone, the Koala Hangtime phone harness is a must. For more information, visit hangtimegear.com.
