Synergy X Review

1. The Naming Problem

There's a 91mm model called the Companion. It's a Climber with the small blade and can opener swapped out for a nail file (like the Cadet's) and the new package opener. That opener debuted on the Companion. But remember: it has a blade. Then in 2025, Victorinox debuts a line of alox models all named as variations of Companion. And they're bladeless. I'm not complaining about them being bladeless. They're nice tools. But they took the name of a bladed tool and called these new tools the same thing. So the Companion S is really an Alox Jetsetter. The Companion X is a pair of scissors. And the Companion Slim (the thickest of all the new Alox Companions) is the scissors, cap lifter, and package opener. Awful, inconsistent naming, but whatever.

What about an Alox model with the original Companion's toolset? It can't be called a Companion because that's only for bladeless tools in Alox. They put the Companion's toolset into a new model called the Synergy X. The Synergy X is a divisive model—I'll get into that. But let's talk about what it gets right first.

2. The Toolset Appeal

The original Companion had a popular toolset. Victorinox messed it up by putting it in a series of goofy city-themed scales that a lot of people didn't want. They eventually released the Companion with normal scales alongside the Alox models. It's a good urban toolset. It's not an outdoors knife. It's a toolset I liked for home, as it covers 99% of my at-home tasks. I like the file for softening rough edges as well as filing my nails. I have a large blade for breaking down cardboard boxes. I have scissors for precision cuts. I can pry things open, chew through box tape and blister packs, and I have some capable screwdrivers at hand.

3. Three Design Additions

The toolset wasn't the problem for the Synergy X, though. It's the three things surrounding the toolset that pissed a lot of people off.

Liner lock
Pocket clip
Skeletonized scales

I'll address each one in order.

4. The Liner Lock

People ask for liner locks on the medium-sized SAKs all the time. Victorinox heard this and added one. But it's not what anyone expected. They took a standard 93mm spring-and-layer construction and slapped a liner lock on it. That's it. Nothing new. Nothing specially designed. They went the cheapest, easiest route. The SAK collector types on YouTube hated it. Regular people were unbothered. The people upset about it all cite the danger of how it works. If you watch them close it, they do so by pushing the liner lock lever with their right thumb and closing the knife with their non-dominant left hand. Sure, that seems dangerous. I usually hold the knife body in my left hand and pinch the blade with my dominant right hand and close the knife. So this liner-lock-plus-spring problem doesn't feel like a problem to me. The spring is so strong you have to get the blade to an angle of less than 45° for it to close on its own. Is it lazy and cheap design? Yes. Dangerous? No.

The last criticism of the liner lock is that it's not legally okay to carry locking blades in certain countries. That's not a design problem of the knife. That's just an unfortunate legal issue. I use the Synergy X as a wide-coverage, high-fidelity home knife, and the locking blade, while unnecessary, doesn't affect my ability to use it.

5. The Pocket Clip

Watch a few older Swiss Army Knife reviews on YouTube and you'll hear people (or read comments from viewers) wishing Victorinox would add a pocket clip to their knives instead of the keyring attachment point. There are two complaints:

It's not removable.
It's flimsy.

Number one? Fair point. That would be nice. Number two? They're missing the point. The clip on the Synergy isn't a work clip. It's not meant to be an ultra-secure clip. It's a built-in pocket dangler. It's meant to keep the knife from falling to the bottom of your pocket. And it does that. It lets you have the knife accessible and removes the keyring attachment hotspot.

6. The Skeletonized Scales

I don't like the look of these scales, and at first I didn't get why Victorinox would drop the classic look of the standard Alox scales. But then I thought about weight. The Synergy X is five grams heavier than the Pioneer X—another three-layer Alox knife. If the Synergy X is five grams heavier even after removing material through skeletonization, how much heavier would it have been if the scales were solid? Again, this is meant to be an urban knife. People have different weight expectations for a knife they might carry every single day in the city. I think Victorinox is sensitive to weight, and an overly heavy Synergy X would be a harder sell to the target audience, so they accepted the tradeoff of skeletonizing the scales.

7. Worth the Trade-offs?

To me, as an at-home knife, getting the toolset was worth the trade-offs of having a pocket clip I didn't really need, a liner lock I didn't really need, and skeletonized scales that I don't like (although the silver scales deemphasize the cutouts).