Swiss Gear SA1923 Black TSA Friendly ScanSmart Laptop Backpack - 15 Inch & Belkin Standard 8-Inch by 9-Inch Computer Mouse Pad with Neoprene Backing and Jersey Surface (Black) (F8E089-BLK)

I read many of the reviews and decided to buy it in the end when there was a great deal on it for over half off. ($59) I have actually seen the price on this fluctuate before so I just waited and hoped it would go back down... And to my luck it did after a few months.As many other owners of this bag have said, I agree that it is probably the nicest backpack that I have ever owned. The material that it is made out of is thick and seems very durable, it has metal pull tabs, and is well sewn for a sturdy product. It is also sturdy enough to stand upright on its own when I set it down, which is nice in my opinion. The handle at the top seems to be made of quality, hard rubber and is extra reinforced to ensure it can stand up to heavy loads.The material seems to be very water resistant. I tested this by making puddles of water on the fabric to see if it would absorb it. After a several minutes, the puddle remained and the inside was dry. I did this with the padded parts too which do absorb water, but even so, after minutes of letting the pool of water sit in the drenched fabric, the water still was unable to penetrate through to the inside. I went further and tested the inside lining and it seems even more water resistant than the outside material. I don't say that any of this is water proof because after wiping up the puddles, the fabric remains slightly damp (the inside lining was nearly dry) but the fact it is able of hold a puddle of water for a long period of time without getting through the other side proves it is difficult for water to penetrate all the way through. Therefore, I trust that it would hold up in rain just fine. I can't accurately test if water will easily seep through other parts of the bag (zippers, seams, etc... Just don't go swimming with it) but I know water won't be getting through the material itself. The only part of the bag I'd be concerned of water getting through to the inside is the side pockets as there are ventilation holes, but other than that I'd say this bag is weather resistant.Wearing this backpack is very comfortable, with ample padding for the back and well fitting straps, I can imagine I will rarely feel too uncomfortable wearing it for long periods of time. I can feel the gap that they leave open along my spine which allows me to assume it does actually let air flow through keeping my back cool, which I look forward to as my back tends to sweat a lot while wearing backpacks. The adjustment straps are also easy to pull because of the plastic loops they added to the end of them, making it easy to tighten and loosen while wearing it. The shoulder straps have a few extra loops for accessories as well. The one loop on the left shows that it is for sunglasses. There are two towards the top of each shoulder strap with an image of arrows pointing up and down... I don't know what these are made for.There seems to be a lot of discrepancy in the size of laptop this bag can hold so I would like to try and clear this up. The bag actually comes with a tag saying it is made for a 17" laptop. Laptops, televisions, and most other things with digital screens are typically measured diagonally. That being said, it holds my 17" (14.75" x 9.5" x 1.125") laptop just fine with quite a bit of room to spare (about 2" of extra space on both top and side). The padding is nice around the sides and top of the laptop, but just like some other reviews, I feel there isn't much padding on the bottom (most backpacks don't from my experience) but there is a little as the material the bag is made of in general is fairly thick. Because of the extra space though, I solved this minor issue by rolling up an old medium sized T-shirt and stuffing it on the bottom of this compartment. It makes my 17" laptop fit snugly and now I have no worries of damaging anything when I set the backpack down. This compartment also has fuzz along the sides for a padded velcro strap to securely strap the laptop in place as well.With everything I've said so far about the laptop compartment, in theory, a 19" laptop might make a tight fit (you'd be cutting it close if you tried). I can't guarantee that claim though because laptops can vary in style and size.The zippers next to the laptop compartment unzips all the way down so the back of the bag, where the laptop resides, can flap apart from the rest of the bag which is how the smart scan feature functions. There is a thin divider for a few papers here as well.There is ample space in the main compartment to hold plenty of things. There is a small pocket to hold your phone or music device and a well covered slit above it for headphones to be slipped through so you can listen to music from the device. There are built in file dividers to separate documents. There is also an interesting piece of padding sewn along the bottom, back end of the bag underneath the separators which allows it to flap up and down... I just push it down so it lines the entire bottom of the bag which also allows the bag to hold its shape and may protect anything in this compartment from impact (they should've had similar padding in the laptop compartment...). I guess if I had important papers along with clothes or books in the bag, I could also lift the flap up against the dividers and it would prevent the clothes, books, or anything I put in the main compartment from wrinkling my documents in the dividers. Other than that, I don't know why the bottom padding is allowed to flap around.There are two smaller compartments in the front of the bag. The one on the top is narrow and can fit a graphing calculator or a DVD box... or perhaps a sandwich (though it might flatten the sandwich out). The bottom is nice and spacious with multiple small dividers and pockets to hold various things like pens, pencils, post it notes, an ID card, and a bigger pocket in the back for a planner/organizer. There is also a detachable key ring as well.The side compartments are very spacious reaching up to almost 3/4 the length of the bag. A small umbrella, liter water bottle or a large rockstar energy drink could fit in either pocket. You might want to avoid putting water sensitive items in here because they are vented by two holes, but honestly, the holes are small enough that I wouldn't worry too much about water getting in unless it's pouring (I put my laptop's charging cable in here). Along these side pockets is an elastic pocket for a liter sized water bottle or canister. There is a clip strap to hold it in place. Note, if you do decide to put large water containers in these pockets, it makes it difficult to fit thicker items in the zipped compartments (and vice versa).This is a great backpack and I am very excited to use this for the years to come.

I can't tell you how excited I am this bag is in the Gold Box on Amazon! Totally getting a new one despite trepidation to retire the old one...I travel a lot and have had a bag nearly identical to this model 1923 for a while. It's been all over the USA and throughout the World with me. It is not only incredibly durable but has easy to reach pockets for everything. The ScanSmart is great for airports who allow it. The trim is reflective which am pretty sure saved my butt when I was walking through a back alley in France last month... blasted scooters.This bag has stories, many stories. It's the most interesting bag in the world and has been the best backpack I've ever owned.After years of severe abuse; here are my notes on this bag:Note: I give this 5 stars on account of the fact that it's outlasted any other bag I've owned:Pros:Durability: Seriously, over 150k miles I've traveled with this bag... It's still intact. And I didn't buy it, I found it on the side of a rubbish bin full of junk from China. So yeah, don't judge me for dumpster diving when I saw something I knew would be awesome, despite it's likely use in an Asian drug deal or hostage exchange! It gained a new life as my travel companion.The Small top/outer pocket: This little bugger will hold 82 Euro in change with room for train tickets and is still so easy to get to you can grab a Euro on the fly without removing the pack and the zipper prevents loss of contents. (Actual reach ability will vary on your flexibility and length of arms)Airflow: It didn't make my back all sweaty carrying it all day on a hot late spring afternoon wandering the streets in Amsterdam. It's also very comfortable to wear and didn't give me trouble despite many long walks and hikes including a 35 km jaunt around Paris holding 2 days worth of clothes, trinkets, laptop and a large camera.Pockets galore: The little pocket inside, labeled as an 'MP3 pocket' is a flap pocket that very nicely holds anything you want to get at easily... such as headphones like I use it for. Especially useful when in tight spaces like a tiny plane seat where disturbing the large smelly man asleep next to you on an Inter-European commuter flight could result in disastrous consequences. Yet another time this bag likely saved my life.Rugged handle: The Handle at the top is not only useful for lifting the bag and easily retrieving it from overhead bins, It will save your life by providing something for someone to grab onto when you slip on a gangplank exiting a channel ferry in Belgium and prevent you from entering cold icy waters of the Rhine in mid winter.Cons:Zippers: While the actual pulls are metal and will last a million years the tracks are plastic, very durable but after an encounter with a rogue hatch on a train in Germany, the zipper on one of the pockets would stick on the track. This was abuse, not manufacturing defect. Any other bag would have be unusable at that point, I just stopped opening the pocket all the way until it finally came undone in LA leaving only one of the two pulls on the track. (Looking forward to the new one to use that pocket again!)Inside Liner: After it's encounter with a garbage bin which brought this pack to me, I had to wash it. The inside lining of the bag came apart. Maybe a toss through the industrial dryer on high wasn't a good idea despite the germ/smell killing benefits. If you get dumpster residue on yours; it will take a wash, just hang it up to dry as I did on subsequent washes. (It's endured at least 3 washing machine visits since I've had it)Bottle Pockets: The mesh pockets on the side are great but the elastic will fail eventually and cause you to lose your water bottle somewhere in Paris and leave you parched after that amazing ham and cheese street-crepe, curse you worn out elastic. The above mentioned dryer encounter likely didn't help the elasticity.Summary:Buy this bag! It will save your life several times and endure some of the most harsh beatings you could ever imagine while containing all of your vital travel items and mementos on the way and at the same time protecting your laptop. I hope the new one will accumulate as many stories and adventures as the old one has.

This is a well made backpack as it should be for the price of it. Lots of storage/pockets.

Es una mochila robusta, de material grueso y resistente (y hasta el momento impermeable), con mucho espacio al interior. Las líneas blancas son de material reflejante. El compartimiento para la laptop de hasta 15.6" tiene cierre lateral, el cierre que sigue después de este es para abrir en su totalidad la mochila a fin de mostrar el equipo en la revisión de los aeropuertos y también tiene espacio para acomodar folders o libretas. El cierre siguiente es el que tiene más espacio, tiene la bolsa para el reproductor o celular y tiene en el fondo el elemento acolchado que cuando lo bajas permite que la mochila permanezca parada así como una bolsa de malla con cierre en la parte superior del compartimiento. Por último dos cierres más al frente en el exterior de la mochila; uno en la parte inferior para guardar lapiceros, colgar las llaves del gancho incluido, memorias, etc., otro en la parte superior un poco más pequeño. En el exterior de la mochila hay dos bolsas laterales con cierre en donde caben perfectamente los cables de la computadora y a cada lado de estas bolsas la tradicional bolsa de malla para transportar bebidas. En los tirantes acojinados encontrarás un elemento para colgar tus anteojos. El asa superior viene reforzado y al frente encontrarás un gancho para sujetar tu chamarra o cualquier otra cosa que en tu viaje cargues.

Use fir work

Perfect buy. Right overall size. Pockets galore. durable design.

Lots of pockets, looks to be good quality, perfect for carry-on back for trips.