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First of all this is based on the knowledge I obtained while selling luggage about 7-8 years ago, so as per usual YMMV. Back in those days Brenthaven made the best bags to offer drop protection to your laptop. The owner or president or whatever Harvey Stone would come into our shop and demonstrate by dropping his bag with his laptop in it and then pulling it out and booting it up to show there was no damage. If the cases are too expensive, then check out the laptop sleeves, they have decent 20 dollar jobbys that will really work. I got a hundred dollar http://www.brenthaven.com/catalog-glove.htmllaptop glove for my bro in the army back in 2000 and he still has it. They're made with great materials up in Bellingham Washington and their warranty is phenomenal. They used to be fanatical about customer service, I bet they still are.

Also I have an older Halliburton 5" case and by itself that thing weighs a pretty good amount. If I throw in my latitude c800 with a 15" screen with both batteries and charger it's ridiculously heavy. The Halliburtons look cool but if you have to do any walking further than from your car to the client then forget it. They're damned impressive in interviews, that first impression with that bad boy and you'll be sure they won't forget you.

Brenthaven makes shoulder cases, backpacks, and wheeled cases all designed to protect your laptop. A few friends of mine at work have them and they love em. I think they come with a lifetime warranty too.

Their webpage doesn't have their entire product line listed, and it focuses more on their laptop offerings. They have many more backpacks (not made for laptops) which aren't listed on the page. Some of their packs are pricey, but they have some backpacks under $60 or 70 which would probably work great.

All of their backpacks are made in NW Washington, and I've been very happy with every one I've owned. They make very sturdy backpacks and are a great company in general.

I have a 15" PowerBook, and when I am in class, I can always use another battery. Having an 802.11b/g card is always helpful. For a bag, look at Brenthaven .

I have owned quite a few laptop bags over the years. I used to only recommend Tom Bihn bags, but recently I've switches to Brenthaven. When I first got my 15" TiBook I bought a Willow Design bag. The bag was very protective, but I was alway afraid that the internal zippers would scratch the outer case of the TiBook. I then purchased a TiBag, which I found to be too small, and because of my (xxl) size, the messenger strap kept coming loose, and the TiBook took quite a few tumbles, and the TiBag did not protect the powerbook at all. I was lucky enough to have Apple provide a Titanium 1 bag for my TiBook when I had some problems with a repair issue. These bags are the best I have ever used. When I recently replaced the TiBook w/ a 17" AlBook, I ordered the 17" shoulder case without a second thought.

I spent five years of my life in the Luggage and Leather Goods businesss and I have some opinions. There is always a limit to what you feel comfortable spending, but I have seen damned few bags that come even close to the powerbook bag by Brenthaven. USD$149 is not cheap, but it is not a four hundred dollar bag from Tumi or Hartmann either. I would never gamble a $3k laptop on a cheap bag, I can't afford the risk. Buy them at the Apple Store or direct from brenthaven.

I have an Executive Backpack (http://brenthaven.com/products/executive_backpack /executivebp.html) and it is sturdy and featureful AND doesn't make me look like too much of a dork! :-)

As far as price... well, they're cheaper than a Tumi, at least.

Brenthaven makes really nice, highly padded bags, that have an extra, built-in, removeable sleeve in them. They make them for all the PowerBooks including the 17in ones. I got one about 6 months ago and have been very happy with it. (I've got the Deluxe Slim I think)

It was a bit on the pricey side compared to what I was thinking (about $100), but it's a really nice, well constructed bag and the padding will pay for itself if you ride the train like I do and would otherwise bang up your laptop.

http://www.brenthaven.com/products/index.html

It has a removable sleeve that your laptop fits into, making it easy to take the laptop out while the bag is upstanding, without spilling cables everywhere. Makes it damm hard to actually damage the laptop when you inevitably drop the bag.

I've had two laptops damaged while in an overhead locker using the standard Targus 'slimline' bag -- yet (so far) not a scratch on my Thinkpad since swapping over to the Brenthaven.

I would say that it still looks like a laptop bag -- but not as badly as the standard IBM & Dell laptop bags that scream 'steal me'.

In short: the best laptop bag I've seen. I'm not sure I'll be buying anything else in future -- it's just a pain to find a online retailer that will ship at reasonable cost outside the U.S.

It has a removable sleeve that your laptop fits into, making it easy to take the laptop out while the bag is upstanding, without spilling cables everywhere. Makes it damm hard to actually damage the laptop when you inevitably drop the bag.

I've had two laptops damaged while in an overhead locker using the standard Targus 'slimline' bag -- yet (so far) not a scratch on my Thinkpad since swapping over to the Brenthaven.

I would say that it still looks like a laptop bag -- but not as badly as the standard IBM & Dell laptop bags that scream 'steal me'.

In short: the best laptop bag I've seen. I'm not sure I'll be buying anything else in future -- it's just a pain to find a online retailer that will ship at reasonable cost outside the U.S.

My backpack is nearly perfect. The only problems are the name and the cost. I am no executive and it costs ~$250. After coming back from a trip last year with my gerneric Taurtus or TUMI - whatever it was, I knew there had to be something better. A bag to hold my laptop, books, 1 or 2 days of clothes, bottle of water, etc, etc. It had to be useful. After an exhaustive search at stores and online, after looking at my housemate's Timberland it was clear that there are little choices out there. Around a year and many tech commando missions later: money well spent. [fabric: ballistic nylon; size 11.5" x 20" x 8.25"; weight: 3.6 lbs. ; volume 1898 in^3; laptop compartment: 12.75x" x 9.25" x 2.25"]