It’s still winter. That means for much of North America, we’re still dealing with the aggravation of trying to operate our smartphones and other touchscreen devices in nasty, cold weather. It’s not as bad as the “old days” when you had to risk frostbite by going barehanded if you wanted to use a phone outdoors, but many of the winter touchscreen gloves currently on the market are lacking. They’re either thin, or have limited conductive pads sewn on the ends of one or two fingers — or both. Moshi Digits Touchscreen Winter Gloves are the answer if you’re looking for the rare combination of cozy comfort and full touchscreen support.
Ready for the Winter Cold
The problem with many touchscreen gloves is their use of thin, stretchy fabric. The idea is to make it as easy as possible to operate your mobile device, but the thin fabric doesn’t always do well in the bitter cold.
The Moshi Digits gloves are knit with a warm fabric and an even warmer micro-fleece lining. They have an extended, elastic cuff so you have coverage beneath the end of your coat sleeve. They feel like real winter gloves, and stand up to the cold. They aren’t bulky, but they are reassuringly fuzzy, like a nice pair of wool knit gloves. They are available in a light or dark gray, with color availability depending on size.
Grippy and Works With All Fingers
The palms and lower parts of the finger on both gloves in a Moshi set are treated with GripTrak. As the name suggests, this grippy material makes it easy to securely hold your device. Because both gloves get the coating, it doesn’t matter whether you’re left-handed or right-handed.
The real magic (at least in terms of touchscreen operation) comes in the use of conductive fiber on all fingertips. You don’t have to worry about trying to line up a sewn-on pad on the end of a specific finger — they all work with your touchscreen. You also don’t have to worry about those conductive pads falling off. With the Moshi gloves, the special conductive fibers are part of the knit.
During testing, the gloves did a great job of enabling accurate and responsive touchscreen operation in cold temperatures. Even multi-touch gestures. Hands warm and smartphone usable without frustration is mission accomplished!
Moshi says the Digits gloves can be safely hand-washed.
If You Have Large Hands…
If your hands are larger than average, you may be out of luck as there is no XL size offered. Moshi says the L is good for hand lengths of 7.1 to 8.1 inches, which is pretty generous. Unfortunately, mine are bit larger than that and I not only couldn’t cram my fingers all the way into the L size gloves, I couldn’t remove them after the attempt without the inner liner turning inside out. So my wife did the testing… Make sure you check the sizing guide before ordering.
Recommendation
If you use a smartphone or tablet outdoors and you want the warmth of a pair of knit gloves, the $29.95 Moshi Digits Touchscreen Gloves should be high on your list. They’re comfy even in bitter cold (without being bulky), they let you securely grip your smartphone, and the conductive fibers on all the fingertips make smartphone touchscreen operation easy.
Disclosure: Moshi provided Digits gloves for evaluation but had no input into this review.
