WaterField Designs Backpack

[sc:hardware-category ]I’ve been using a SwissGear backpack as my primary travel bag for the last couple of years and it has done me well, but it had started to get a little frayed around the edges so it was time to take a look for something new.

The SwissGear bag is designed for a 15″ notebook, which makes it less than ideal for my ASUS Zenbook Ultrabook.  Likewise it has lots of large pockets that I don’t use and so decided to try to find something designed for a smaller laptop.

Surprisingly, that’s harder to do than you might think.  Most cases targeted at ultrabooks are just sleeves, which didn’t do what I wanted.  I spend probably six months looking for a new backpack and finally found one over at WaterField Designs.

The Staad Laptop Backpack is a custom backpack designed for smaller laptops and ultrabooks.  Of course the first thing you notice is the price 😉

I waffled for a while, but decided to splurge on one, so I ordered a black ballistic with black leather slim model and waited.

Waterfield takes care of the international shipping and duties, but it’s a two-step process.  First you place your order and pay for it and then they calculate the shipping and handling and send you a second ‘order’ to pay for it.

This went smoothly and they said to expect the backpack in a few days.

A week passed with nothing.  Then two so I decided to send an email and see what was going on.  The response was quick but I guess they missed the point as I received a request for another shipping ‘order’.

A quick e-mail exchange cleared things up and the backpack was on its way.  It looks like the international shipping is a manual process and I assume my second ‘order’ fell through the cracks.

Anyway, the bag itself is well made and quite beautiful.  The ZenBook fits in perfectly without a lot of extra room.

Overall it’s a great backpack, there are two external pockets that are easy to get to and large enough to hold a big phone or two.  The interior pockets are a little limited, there are two on the front part of the page which I put my mouse and power brick in.

The backpack is very slim and perfect for what I want.  There are a few things to point out:

  • Other than the two zippered pockets, there are not exterior holders of any kind, so if you want to carry a water bottle or an umbrella, your out of luck.
  • The interior pockets are a little small, if my power brick was larger I’d have to put it in the “bottom” of the bag, which is where I currently keep my backup power pack.

Of course the real questions with this kind of item is if it’s worth the cost?  The answer for me is yes, but it’s probably not for everyone.

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Greg

Greg is the head cat at JumbleCat, with over 20 years of experience in the computer field, he has done everything from programming to hardware solutions. You can contact Greg via the contact form on the main menu above.

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Greg

Greg is the head cat at JumbleCat, with over 20 years of experience in the computer field, he has done everything from programming to hardware solutions. You can contact Greg via the contact form on the main menu above.

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