Backpack Laptop Case Reviews
My thanks to everyone who's sent me a review of the laptop case they have. If you're willing to have your words put up here (minus the email address), I'd love to hear from you!
JanSport Laptop Transit
From David Hiebeler:
I had to remove the padding from inside the bottom of the actual laptop pocket, but fortunately there is room for it inside that compartment of the bag, beneath the laptop pocket itself, so it still protects the bottom of the laptop as it's supposed to. But it's a snug fit, a laptop any bigger than mine wouldn't really fit in the pocket. Other than that, I like the bag a lot.
From Ong Beng Hui:
The pack has a few compartments which is very useful for travelling. It has a laptop compartment which holds the laptop in a pouch. The pouch might be too small for large notebook like Digital Ultra 2000 but fits my [Toshiba] Tecra nicely. It also has a separate compartment for the power adapter and cable. Be careful with the compartment for adapter; it is not padded at all. I guess the most useful feature is a huge normal daypack compartment which I can put documents or possibly, clothes. for travelling.
In short, I am an extremely happy owner of the pack. It is very useful not just a regular laptop pack but also as a backpack for short trips.
L.L. Bean Campus Computer Organizer
From Lisa Cozzens:
I have a Campus Computer Organizer from L.L. Bean. It's just a normal L.L. Bean backpack (which means it's tough as nails -- my previous backpack made it through all four years of high school, and this one has survived the first year of college with no signs of wear), but it's got a special
padded laptop compartment inside. While it doesn't have as many computer-specific pockets and crevices as other bags might have, it does have plenty of space for whatever you need to bring along. Also, from the outside it looks *exactly* like L.L. Bean's non-laptop backpack, so it doesn't scream "Expensive laptop inside, please steal me!"
From Walter Lefmann:
I got the LLBean pack today, and was quite disapponted: The dimensions of the laptop compartment are *not* what was advertised in the catalog (print or web). There is also a design flaw for water protection.
Full review here...
Spire USA Zoom pack
[Personal note: If your name is Michelle, I think the Zoom pack is the one for you....]
From Michelle Bazie:
Well, I think I might have struck gold! I ended up ordering the Zoom backpack from the folks at spireusa.com. The bag was delivered today, so I may be speaking too soon, but it looks good. Its design appears to be well thought through by people who were mindful of the challenges of mobile computing.
The shoulder straps are ergonomically designed and really well-padded. The bag itself is lightweight and not too big. As soon as I get home, I'll try it out on my heavy laptop and see how it holds up to the test!
One of the most interesting things about the bag is that the laptop isn't held directly against your back. The laptop "sleeve" is suspended and attached to the back of the center compartment divider. It's difficult to describe, but it looks like a good product.
From Michelle Godfrey at Mindspring:
[positive review with a large Dell (15" screen), full text of it here]
Targus Convertible Backpac
From Dave Hiebeler:
I have the Targus Convertible Backpac. Yes, it does open wide (180 degrees) so in principle you could use the laptop without taking it out. But I never do that -- I adjusted the holding strap inside so the compartment is just the right size for the laptop; so if I used the laptop without taking it out, the fan vent would be blocked by the side of the backpack, and I'm afraid it might get too warm.
I haven't used other laptop backpacks so I have nothing to compare to, but I'd say this backpack is reasonably well-padded on all sides. It also has 4 small rubber feet, so if you set the backpack on a damp surface or even about 5mm of water, it should probably be OK (as long as it doesn't tip over). However, the backpack is not water-resistant - I have had some papers get damp inside after I rode my bike through heavy rain for about 10 minutes while wearing the backpack. (I wrap my laptop inside a plastic bag when I think I'm going to get caught in rain). I may apply some waterproofing to the bag.
Besides the laptop compartment (which I also keep the power brick and PCMCIA ethernet dongle in), it has another compartment for books, which has a divider splitting it into 3 sub-compartments. The laptop compartment also has an extra half-size pocket on the front wall, and the whole bag has another half-size pocket on the outside which is held closed by velcro.
Overall it's a good bag, but I have 2 main complaints: it is really blocky (which I think makes it look ugly), and it says Targus on it, which in addition to the blockiness just advertises the fact that you are carrying a computer. (Once when I went to a doctor's appointment and happened to be carrying the bag, the doc took one glance at the backpack and said "have you got a computer in there?")
From Erick Reyes:
I have a Targus Convertible BakPac myself and I love it. It's the hunter greeen one (trying to not draw to much attention to my high-priced contents) and it's great. It's big enough to put my Canon BJC-70 portable printer into also. The hide-away straps are also a good feature (which was why I bought this particular bag).
Willow Designs packs
From Alan Miller (your host)
I have one of the Kerouac packs, but just about everything here should apply to all four packs in the product line.
This is a pretty nice pack - it's a little bit boxy because of the foam, but because it's rounded at the top and relatively shallow (at least as I carry it without a full load of books in addition to my laptop) this isn't too excessive. Because Willow Designs is a relatively small operation and both far away and in another country I think it's fairly unlikely that anyone's going to recognize my pack as being a laptop pack based on having seen others like it, though they may decide that it has one inside it because of the padded shape.
As far as protection goes, I feel pretty darn good about this pack - while I don't plan to make a habit of it, I think I could safely drop this thing quite a distance without needing to worry about the safety of anything inside it. The laptop rests against the back of the pack (closest to my back as I wear the pack) and is held in place by an elastic strap across it and two dividers at the top and bottom, with the accessory pouch beneath the bottom divider and the power brick and a paperback above the top one. The dividers are adjustable and are held in place by Velcro on both ends and on their bases. There's a slight tendency for small items in the top to slide down, but a touch of Velcro on the back of my (small) power brick took care of that - there was exposed Velcro internally since I didn't have the top divider all the way up. I've not had any problems with paperbacks or other thick items sliding down.
The Kerouac is a pretty good-sized pack, and is probably all you'd need for most laptops these days. For the ones with 14- and 15-inch screens it might be necessary to move up to the Darwin packs, but they might also fit vertically in the Kerouac with the dividers spread as far as they'd go. The biggest problem there would probably be where to put the power brick. At 5'8" the Kerouac is about as large a pack as I'd want to get, and the Thoreau might actually have been a better choice - it's a bit shorter vertically. The Darwin (which became available after I got my pack) could be too tall for comfort on anyone less than 6 feet tall.
One wish that I had when I first got the pack was for an external pocket designed for papers (especially airline tickets) only, and that's actually one of the improvements they've added to the Darwin at least - I believe it's also on the other packs, but I'm not certain of that. I also had some concerns that the shoulder straps might not hold up well since I carry the pack over one shoulder, but I've seen no signs of problems and from looking at it even carried by one strap the weight seems to be distributed pretty well across the entire attachment area rather than concentrated at one end (which is what I was concerned about). It's worth noting here that since I'm out of school I seldom carry a full day's worth of textbooks (or the equivalent weight) around with me, so if you're going to destroy your back with and extra 20 or 30 pounds of paper on one shoulder this might be more of a concern to you.
Overall I'd have to say I'm pretty happy with the Kerouac pack - it's solid, holds everything I need to carry and has held up quite well for the time that I've had it - no signs of stressed seams or fraying fabric anywhere.
Not-Quite-Legalese
Reviews from people who currently have packs are what's going to make this site worth using for people, and I suspect that everyone would appreciate any experience you can share. If you'd prefer not to have your full name associated with a review, please let me know what name I should list it under. I (as the site maintainer) will give preference to well-written reviews, and I reserve the right to edit for readability & politeness, summarize, or just plain leave out any reviews I receive. If I edit your review in any way (other than trimming out leading or trailing paragraphs that I think are intended for me rather than public consumption) I will contact you, and if you object to how your review is presented please let me know and I'll remove it immediately. Also, I'm not going to put email addresses on here in directly usable form - I have heard notes about scanners looking for email addresses on web pages, and I'd rather not have it happen here.
Basically, I'd like to keep the tone of these pages positive - if a pack is unsuitable for something (or suitable for only a limited range of laptops) I'd love to note that here, but only if you tell me why it's unsuitable. My assumption is that any manufacturer still in business had some target market in mind, and if you're outside that market I'd like to be able to note both who's outside it and who's inside it.