Slashdot Mirror

http://www.jansport.com/js_product_detail.php?cid= 10&pid=TM76

I have a bag similar to this - it's several years old so they don't make the one I have. It's got a laptop compartment, with a nice padded bottom and fiberglass insert that acts as a shock absorber for a laptop when I carry one. It's got two cell phone pockets on each side (one for personal, one for work).

The inside is nice - place for a pen/pencil (I like nice writing utensils so I carry my own...). Another nice pocket in front of the laptop compartment for files. And a bunch of nice pockets on the inside for miscellaneous stuff.

The top flap is cool as well - it zips open to a cd-player/mp3 player compartment, and has a small slit in the cover for headphones to run through. I love it.

I could reduce what I carry, but don't want to.

I have the essentials:

Wallet
Keys
Sunglasses w/ case
Work Phone

Then, the extras
PDA w/ AvantGo/Games for boring moments during the day
MP3 player for walk to work.
Personal cell phone (it's my only phone...no landline)

I have a man-purse..I admit it.

As several other people here have mentioned, JanSport makes several different laptop backpacks that are inexpensive, light, and durable. I have a 12" Powerbook, and found that this:

http://www.jansport.com/productdetail.php?tid=4&ci d=16&pid=T160

works quite well. Lots of pockets inside for accessories, and a side pocket that's the perfect size for my iPod! It also looks like an ordinary backpack, so it makes you less of a target for snatch-and-run theives.

Having worked at the campus computer store at UNC-Chapel Hill for four years, I've seen a lot of bags come and go. As of 2000, all incoming freshman are required to own a wintel laptops, so as of now there are ~13,000 floating around our campus.

By far, the most consisten bags we've sold are Jansports. They're not fancy, but they have two advantages that you can't beat for the money: One, a padded foam brick with a bowed plastic "spring" in the bottom of the bag, important because that bottom edge of your bag takes a hit *every time* you set the bag down. Sounds like common sense, but most laptop bags (even the high-dollar ones) have about 1/4" of padding around ALL edges. Two, a lifetime warranty. Straight up, something great to have.

So, for the money, I'd go with Jansport. Particularly The Optimizer, though this is beyond your pricepoint.

However, what you're asking for is a bag you can really beat the hell out of, and the lifetime warranty on the Jansport bags doesn't mean that the things won't break, it just means you can get them repaired if you do. If you want something tougher, you're going to spend a lot more money - probably twice the dollar amount. I've been impressed with the design of Crumpler bags, as they have large YKK zippers, ripstop nylon, and other materials that you look for in good camping gear. That said, I haven't seen how they actually perform.

The only bags I would recommend against are the Targus bags. In particular, the Sport Deluxe model. The thing looks coo, but it has a lot of absolutely useless mesh, tassles, rivets, and other bag design gie-gahs that do nothing but snag and tear. I have seen a lot of customers' Targus backpacks go to pieces. This is a brand built on marketting to the business executive type, and they have failed at building a bag for the "urban adventurer."

A final word on your choice of a $50 price point: when your bag fails, you're 1,000 miles from a repair center, and you now have a $2,000 4.9lb paperweight that you must drag around with you, you'll wish you had spent another $50. I don't think you need an exotic $200 bag, but understand that with Jansport, Crumpler, and perhaps a few other bags, you get what you pay for.

Having worked at the campus computer store at UNC-Chapel Hill for four years, I've seen a lot of bags come and go. As of 2000, all incoming freshman are required to own a wintel laptops, so as of now there are ~13,000 floating around our campus.

By far, the most consisten bags we've sold are Jansports. They're not fancy, but they have two advantages that you can't beat for the money: One, a padded foam brick with a bowed plastic "spring" in the bottom of the bag, important because that bottom edge of your bag takes a hit *every time* you set the bag down. Sounds like common sense, but most laptop bags (even the high-dollar ones) have about 1/4" of padding around ALL edges. Two, a lifetime warranty. Straight up, something great to have.

So, for the money, I'd go with Jansport. Particularly The Optimizer, though this is beyond your pricepoint.

However, what you're asking for is a bag you can really beat the hell out of, and the lifetime warranty on the Jansport bags doesn't mean that the things won't break, it just means you can get them repaired if you do. If you want something tougher, you're going to spend a lot more money - probably twice the dollar amount. I've been impressed with the design of Crumpler bags, as they have large YKK zippers, ripstop nylon, and other materials that you look for in good camping gear. That said, I haven't seen how they actually perform.

The only bags I would recommend against are the Targus bags. In particular, the Sport Deluxe model. The thing looks coo, but it has a lot of absolutely useless mesh, tassles, rivets, and other bag design gie-gahs that do nothing but snag and tear. I have seen a lot of customers' Targus backpacks go to pieces. This is a brand built on marketting to the business executive type, and they have failed at building a bag for the "urban adventurer."

A final word on your choice of a $50 price point: when your bag fails, you're 1,000 miles from a repair center, and you now have a $2,000 4.9lb paperweight that you must drag around with you, you'll wish you had spent another $50. I don't think you need an exotic $200 bag, but understand that with Jansport, Crumpler, and perhaps a few other bags, you get what you pay for.

With that and a folding bag for clothes and books, I've got enough for days on the road. The laptop rides in front of me and the clothes ride behind me so that the straps go over my head and cross each other.

Then I got a Jansport, this bag's grandfather. The organizer is very cool, with enough pockets for CF, several PC cards, wires, pens, freaking everything. I've had it for nine years and it has held up to daily use and abuse on bike. Overloading it ripped one seam, which was not used to hold anything in and was easy to sew back up.

When traveling, I came to prefer the shoulder bag to a back pack for compactness and difficulty of pick pocketing. I had started to wear my back on my belly in crowds but it was uncomfortable.

Check out the Jansport PC port. I was in the same boat as you are. The Jansport was the best comfort / space / price I was able to find for my 17" Powerbook.

Even with the Powerbook, and all associated cables and other bits, I still have plenty of room for books, papers, and other stuff.

I recently picked up a Jansport PC Port. It's a backpack bag and has plenty of padding for the laptop. It has these neat "Airlift" shoulder straps that actually help with weight alot. It was also one of the few laptop bags I was able to find that would hold my 17" Powerbook.

I carry my essentals - wallet, cellphone, PDA, multitool, Zippo, earplugs, keys, LED mini-flashlight - in, or on the belt of, a Jansport waistpack.

For carting papers and books to and from work and generally carrying stuff about town and countyside, I recently got a Crossover backpack, which I'm pretty happy with.

Got them both at Sunny's Surplus, the local camping-type place.

Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | http://www.infamous.net/

Unfortunately Jansport no longer appears to make this particular bag, but they still do a laptop bag which I found here.

Unfortunately Jansport no longer appears to make this particular bag, but they still do a laptop bag which I found here.