In my previous post about EDUCAUSE, I mentioned that I needed a new bag instead of my very heavy and unwieldy Samsonite leather laptop attache I’d been using, and that I was down to either a Tom Bihn bag and a Timbuk2 bag.
Well, I ended up getting a Timbuk2 Command Messenger TSA Laptop bag in black. Medium.
It’s really good. I’m still finding pockets in it. I just noticed a few days ago a zipper that led to a pocket near the bottom of the bag–would probably work well for a compact umbrella. It’s got tons of organizer pockets but they somehow don’t get in the way either. The main big compartment seems almost big enough to put a weekend’s worth of clothes in, for the right weekend. The shoulder strap is super comfortable and wearing it messenger style works.
The laptop compartment is basically awesome. It has a large part which can easily fit a 15″ laptop, and fits my 12.1″ ThinkPad Yoga very well. The compartment also has another pocket for a tablet, which I use to put my Nexus 10 (and sometimes Nexus 7) into as well. The whole thing unzips from the main case to lie flat for TSA purposes, which I got to check on our trip back from Oklahoma this Christmas (oddly, on the way down they didn’t have us take anything out of our bags or lie them flat–they didn’t have any bins at the TSA checkpoint and were just running things through intact.) It’s filled with this cool foam that is more like webbing, lined with nylon mesh. It is super cushy and super comfortable. There’s also the Napoleon pocket which you can jam all the stuff from your pockets into when going through airport security, which is great because then you can just pull it all back out as well and it doesn’t get mixed in with your other stuff.
The bag is at least 3 pounds lighter than my old leather attache and is so much more comfortable to carry it’s not even funny (I think I messed up my knee carrying my old bag around EDUCAUSE and it’s just getting better.)
I’m sure a Tom Bihn would also have been a great choice. My only complaint about the Timbuk2 is is’t not an elegant bag. I mean , it looks good, but it’s decidedly geeky. I almost got the Proof bag but I decided to save the money in the end.
At any rate, I’ve been using it for work and for air travel at this point and I keep being impressed with its capabilities, so I can recommend it. I’ll have some more travel this year and I’ll check back in on its performance and capabilities then.
