I live with my laptop. I carry it everywhere. Everywhere meaning home, car, office, planes, trains, asia, europe, all over the world. I put all my essential stuff in a bag with my laptop -- that becomes my life support system. I am a big fan of the Trager USA's cross country laptop backpack. You can buy it from Ebags. However that bag is not perfect, and my second one just broke. So I decided to try something different. A messanger style bag. I always carry the backpack using one strap only anyway. So why not try the messanger bag style.
These are the things that I carry with me each day:
laptop
paper, and folders, up to A4 size
electronics, adaptors, cords, camera, MD player, MDs, small boxy items that need to be protected
personal supplies -- cough drops, aspirin, tissues, glasses cleaners, some of these I store in a clear plastic pencil box
travel paperwork, tickets, passports
disposible reading materials
My requirements are:
space for laptop, padded for laptop protection
back outside pocket for newspaper/magazine, while waiting for the plane
larger front zip pocket for air tickets and other stuff that I can get to but remain secure
strong but light material, water resistant
lots of inside pockets
wide strap
good handle
Medium sized
After much research I found that there are no bags that fits my need perfectly. There are a few that come close. I decided to try the Clyde from Tonicware. I bought it from Design Object, a web only store that sells well designed product. (My last purchase from them was a moyapak).
Good points about the Clyde:
Bag is really well made. Material is strong but soft. Just the right mix.
The size is good, it is on the larger side, but does not look too big. i.e. I think it can carries more than it looks.
It has just the right number of compartments. Too many and things get lost. Too few and you cannot organize things.
I fit these in the clyde as follows:
laptop -- laptop area in main compartment
paper, and folders, up to A4 size, rest of the main compartment
electronics -- inside main zip pocket
personal supplies -- some in the inside main zip pocket (pencil case)
other loose personal supplies -- inside small zip pocket
travel paperwork -- outside front zip pocket
disposible reading materials -- outside back pocket
Size Matters
Last Saturday I had to bring my shuttle PC to the office, with all the accessories, to build it. The extra room in the clyde made it easy. I just threw all the extra cords and cables, booklets and CDROMs into the main compartment. I would not have been able to fit them in the Trager. Then on Sunday I scheduled a phone conference in the middle of my weekly table tennis practice. So I took my sports stuff out of my table tennis bag, threw them into the Clyde, and carried basically my work stuff plus my sports gear all in one bag into the gym. Normally I have three bags -- work bag (Trager), sports bag (a small bag from LL Bean), and my Tai Chi bag (a very old backpack). Now I can see that I can fit one of the other bags' content into the messanger bag if I need to. This may matter if I had to carry this stuff while walking or taking the bus/subway. Since I have been driving most of the time it was less of an issue to have two bags at any one time with me.