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Nice, Voluminous Bag for Carting Around a Heavy Laptop.
[/column]This rolling case has served me well for the last 3 months. Positives:
1. Samsonite is a trusted brand for me. I’ve only had one Samsonite laptop bag before this one – because I haven’t had to replace it. I bought my first one in 2007 and only now (eight years later) is the piping starting to fray. It’s survived countless road trips, flights, kids, animals, etc. The only reason I bought a new Samsonite is because I’m getting old and lazy. I’ve finally swallowed my pride and switched to a rolling case, and I love it.
2. This thing stores a LOT of stuff. Right now my bag holds a Dell Precision M4600 (a 15.6″ laptop that weighs almost seven pounds, another factor influencing my decision to buy a rolling laptop case), a modest quantity of 8-1/2×11″ files, the giant Dell power supply, a Logitech Performance MX mouse (huge but comfortable), Anker 4-port USB charger, various USB cables/handsfree kits/iPad charging stuff, pens/pencils, TI-85 old-school gigantic engineering calculator, headlamp, 2 pill bottles, iPad fitted with bulky Ballistic case, and Bluetooth iPad keyboard. This fits without bulging the case, which is important because the case is EXACTLY the underseat carryon size limit for domestic travel bulge it at all and you’ll be checking the bag. During football season, the back side of the case also holds two football jerseys, beanie, and baseball cap (technically a football cap) just in case my checked baggage gets lost and isn’t recovered before I can get to the stadium.
Negatives:
1. To extract a big laptop like a Dell Precision M4600, you have to unzip the front pocket fully, which, if you’re loaded with jerseys, power adapters, etc. in the back pocket, unbalances the bag which can throw off your flow when going through a fast TSA line at the airport. You could hypothetically partially unzip the bag and pull it out but in my opinion this puts unnecessary stress on the zipper. And it tends to leave scuffs on the shell of your laptop.
2. The handle gives you the wrong impression, like it can function at the midway extension point. In reality, leaving it at the midway point will surprise you later because it will randomly give out and either go down or extend up. Leave the handle fully extended or fully closed, and this won’t be a problem.
3. There’s a strap on the back for sliding this bag over the handle of your checked baggage. Velcro holds this strap down for when it’s not being used. The Velcro half that’s attached to the bag is starting to come off. My other Samsonite also has one piece of Velcro that came 60% of the way off. It’s like they leave one thing jacked on an otherwise perfect bag just to keep you on your toes. Not a big deal to me given all the other positives of the bag.