Thinkgeek Bag of Holding

Thinkgeek Bag of Holding

This bag is true to its name. It holds a ton of stuff, a deceptively large quantity. The canvas build isn’t very bulky, so unfilled the bag seems pretty small, but the tiered comparment design allows you to put a whole lot into it. The name and front logo also give it some pretty big geek cred. The laptop compartment is reasonably padded and accessible independent of the other compartments, which makes it great for airline travel, and it easily held the Dell D820, a brick of a 15″ notebook (17″ might be a little snug). My current work laptop and personal laptop (14″ and 12″ respectively) are swallowed by the space, and there is more than enough room in the other compartments for me to carry a second laptop in a laptop sleeve.

After a year of use, build quality is holding up well. The canvas isn’t as resilient as the ballistic nylon or cordura that Timbuk2 uses, but with a couple cans of Scotch Guard it has held up well. It is a little disappointing that there isn’t protective flaps over the laptop zipper to keep moisture out, but pretty much the rest of the zippers are covered by the main flap. Unlike Timbuk2, the main flap is the sole seal for the bag, with each compartment also having a zipper, except for the very front pouch that is held by velcro. This last bit always bothered me, because it only velcros in a small spot in the very center and I was always afraid of things jostling out along the edges. The main flap is closed by two snaps rather than clips, which makes it easier to open. I was a bit afraid they may wear out, but after a year they are holding up strong.

While there are several compartments, a lot of them spacious, there isn’t a lot of organization options for smaller electronics, which was a little surprising considering the demographic that shops at Thinkgeek. I can’t imagine I am the only one that carries a DS, MP3 player, cords, chargers, and other sundry electronics in the bag- I suspect much of the Thinkgeek staff does as well- so I feel like considerations should have been made in the bag’s design. I think if one was carrying a lot of large books (generously- textbooks, realistically- game books) this bag would be great.

The strap is pretty crummy. It holds up, but isn’t very padded. What drives me insane though, is how easily it becomes unadjusted. I am not a large person, so have it adjusted pretty small. Under moderate load it slips back into a larger size pretty easily, which is annoying. It also attaches to the bag with elongated D rings, which slip out of place and get twisted up very easily.

Pros:

• Really is a bag of holding- it is deceptively spacious, but isn’t bulky
• Not a bad price, though it is made of canvas
• holds up well to use
• External access to laptop compartment

Cons

• Spacious, but not organized. Smaller items will easily be swallowed by this behemoth
• Strap sucks- it has no padding and constantly becomes unadjusted
• Canvas is less weather resistant, though Scotch Guard can rectify this

Conclusion – Grade: A-

This was my primary bag for quite a while, and it came so close to being ideal. If it had better organization for smaller items and a better strap I would likely have settled on it. I could carry around just my laptop for the day and the bag seemed pretty small, but I could also cram two laptops, my other gizmos, and a couple of days clothes in it when traveling. The canvas didn’t really bother me, and it seems to hold up fine, and the price is hard to beat. Also, by its very name it is obviously targeted as a Geek bag.

~ Joshbw

Timbuk2 Messenger

Timbuk2 Messenger

The Timbuk2 laptop messenger is a high quality laptop messenger bag from the company that brought messenger bags into mass market appeal. The build quality is top notch, and the ability to customize the colors and fabrics is pretty appealing, but you will pay for both. It comes in three sizes to accommodate your laptop needs, with the largest size accommodating a 17″ MacBook Pro reasonably easily.

In general I think there are a lot of parallels with the Apple Design philosphy- with this bag you are really paying for style and quality, but style trumps functionality. The bags hold a lot, but they focus on large, open compartments to capture the classic courier bag feel. It has a smaller front compartment with some pen organizers, and a couple small pouches, as well as a larger pouch in the main area, but mostly everything jumbles together. This is less than practical if you want to keep the bag organized with a multitude of stuff, such as I carry. It is easy to get into the bag, as it really just has one big flap that connects with clips, but as a result it doesn’t form any real seal. I found this very concerning with a laptop, especially when I commuted by foot in Pacific Northwest weather.  Also, it would have been trivial to add a water bottle holder on the side, it practically begs for it, but alas, that wouldn’t capture the true courier feel so it is not present.

I could easily carry a second laptop in a laptop sleeve, and it would hold most everything I needed, but I sort of felt it was like my mother’s purse, with just a bunch of junk floating around needing to be dug out. I also resented that I had to pay extra for a strap pad, though it is pretty comfortable. If you customize a bag, it is pretty easy to end up with a $150 (or more) contraption. That said, the strap pouches for music players and cell phones, while also pricey, are pretty nice, and I have used them on multiple messengers and even a backpack that had a convenient place for them.

Pros

• Well made, of high quality material
• You can customize the bag and get just the look you want
• laptop padding is pretty effective
• Holds a ton of crap

Cons

• Pricey
• Doesn’t offer a lot of organizational space for the gadget heavy
• I worry about it keeping the elements out with its single flap design, even after using it for quite a while

Conclusion – Grade: B

If it was a bit cheaper I would rate it higher, and I dig the customization. You can get it a bit cheaper if you buy a premade one (especially if you buy it from a source other than Timbuk2 directly), but I think that really defeats the draw of Timbuk2 (get the bag exactly how you want it). I didn’t like how disorganized the bag was, but I did like the space it offered. I could carrying everything pretty comfortably, even if the constant sense of chaos within it bothered me. If you want a high quality bag, built how you want it, and don’t mind a bit of disorder, are willing to pay the price, and live in a place you aren’t worried about being out in the elements in, this is a good bag for you.

~ Joshbw

eBags Downloader

eBags Downloader

The eBags Downloader is a fairly cheap laptop backpack (you can regularly get it for less than $40 on sale) with two primary compartments, plus side pouches and a small additional pocket on the back. One of the side pouches can be used as a water bottle holder if left open. It has a small water resistant opening to allow headphones out of, and a lot of internal organization pouches. The laptop sits in the largest primary compartment and has padding on three sides. The back padding is reasonably comfortable. I managed to squeeze a 15″ Dell D820 into the laptop compartment but it fit really tightly against the top and had no padding on the upper portion. I’d recommend 14″ and smaller machines for this pack.

This is probably a good bag for a student who carries one or two text books with them plus a laptop. It does fill up very quickly though, and can be a bit uncomfortable when full. The audio holder can hold a portable CD player (are those still made), and as MP3 players slide around a lot in it. It worked for me on a day to day basis, but just wasn’t accommodating enough for travel with all of the stuff I carry. I was making a decent number of compromises, and the straps wore out pretty quickly with the load I usually carried.

This is definitely a “value” bag, where they tried to offer nice features, but cut corners doing so. The zippers are exposed, rather than having a small flap covering them, and aren’t great quality. The straps are entirely mediocre- some more padding and sturdier material would have been welcome, as would a sternum strap. It has some laptop padding, but not all around.

Pros

• Very Reasonably priced (eBags has it on sale fairly often for around $40, and you can get it for $30 at the right sale)
• Offers a fair amount of organizational pockets within each compartment
• Nice bright colors

Cons

• Strap wore out after less than a year
• Fills up quickly, and uncomfortable when full
• Audio pouch allows too much movement of player
• Questionable water resistance as a result of exposed zippers
• Laptop holder doesn’t offer great padding, and is horrid if you need to get a laptop out at security gates.

Conclusion- Grade:  C

You get what you pay for. This bag will last you a while, but isn’t a bag for the long haul. It is cheap, but you can see where they kept the price down. It offers some organization, but certainly doesn’t meet my needs. I’d recommend the bag for teenagers who are going to want another bag next year just because anyway.  That said, if you can find it for $30, its worth $30.

~ Joshbw

For years I have been on a quest to find the perfect Geek Bag to haul all of my crap around in, whether I am heading out to visit friends, running down to the local coffee shop, commuting into work, or suffering the tedium of airline travel. I have looked high and low for the perfect catch all bag, the irony being that in my search I have acquired more bags than if I purchased separate bags for specific use scenarios. Much like gadgets, all in one solutions may seem attractive, but rarely excel at any purpose, a lesson I seem to keep in mind with gadgets but refuse to acknowledge with bags. The reason, I suppose, is because I hate transferring stuff from one bag to another, so switching back and forth between bags isn’t practical (nor is just having duplicates in each bag practical with the level of crap I carry).

So in a multi-part series, not at all related to my security ramblings, I shall outline my quest and what I have thought about each bag along the way. To begin with, I will talk a bit about my usage scenarios, so that my particular opinion is understandable. To put it bluntly, my bag is the dream for would be muggers, though I myself am not (having lived in some bad places I am one of those people who habitually notices the movement of everyone around me and can spot threats fairly easily). At any point I am carrying at least one laptop, either my work laptop or my personal one, and often times I am carrying both, especially if traveling. Fortunately both of my laptops are rather small, as I prefer machines I can actually open up on planes with the whopping 12″ of total space they give you between your seat and the seat in front of you (do you know how much a pain in the ass it is to find small laptops with good resolutions and decent hardware?). Along with the laptops comes their associated power supplies (fortunately also pretty small), a wireless Microsoft travel mouse (death to touchpads, death to mouse nubs), a USB flash drive, and a Micro -> mini -> full SD adapter. Also, my personal laptop is a tablet, so I carry a spare stylus for it.

On top of that I have my Zune, plus the associated premium headphones (its nice that MS actually includes decent headphones for free), and syncing cable, as well as a 12″ 1/8″ to 1/8″ cable so I can use it with the aux jack in my car or in rental cars. I have my cell phone (at the moment an HTC Touch), sync cable, and charger. I have my Nintendo DS, games, and power adapter. Plus miscellaneous pens, some pain killers (my knee and back used to kill me on plane flights as a result of a car wreck, but surgery actually worked), usually the most recent issues of some combination of Discover, Scientific American, or Smithsonian magazine, possibly a computer book that I am reading (though I try to get ones that come with eBooks on a companion CD so I can just read them on my tablet PC), keys to my storage unit and desks (I don’t like them on my primary key chain, but also don’t want to forget them), and a novel (though I will soon get a Kindle to save space).

So I have a ton of crap, and holding it can be a challenge, especially if I want to maintain any semblance of order in the bag. Moreover, as I used to fly often, and now do so again, it is important that I can get my laptops out quickly while going through security, while still having padding for them, and it is also important that the bag doesn’t take up *too* much space, since tiny little commuter planes are my most common ride out of the hell hole I live in now (here is your 4 cubic inches of overhead space sir, unfortunately someone else is infringing on it because they bought three body bags on the plane and we didn’t speak up).
Various leather (or plether), formal looking business bags are right out. I’m not a business type so I don’t care for the look, but moreover the bags are rarely designed for ergonomic comfort, and take up a constant amount of space no matter how full they are. If I am carrying less stuff I like a bag that can compress down a bit. I tend to bounce back and forth between backpacks and messengers. Backpacks are more comfortable when loaded up with a decent amount of weight, but are more bulky in general. A backpack with crappy straps is usually still tolerable, while a messenger lives and dies by the quality of its strap. The benefit to a messenger strap is that can be loaded up with various gadget holders, bandolier style, and allow for them to be more accessible (Timbuk2 makes pretty good strap pouches that mount on messenger straps), though at the cost of also making them more exposed.

I am unopposed to walking, and especially if I am visiting the office in Chicago I will forgo a rental car and just travel on foot and commuter rail, so I do prefer a bag I can comfortably carry for a decent period of time, and water resistant in case I am caught in the rain. So in short I want a bag that can hold a lot, but has a compact footprint and allows for easy organization; a bag that allows easy access to possibly two laptops, while also offering padding; a bag that is comfortable and waterproof; and a bag that will hold up to continual abuse. Is that asking for too much? We shall see.

~ Joshbw