2011 The North Face Surge backpack - No padding in laptop compartment?

I just picked up a North Face Surge backpack based on great reviews. I'm currently comparing between the Surge, the Level 8 Atlas, and the BBP bag. The North Face is clearly the most comfortable backpack and sits perfectly on me.

However, the laptop compartment seems to lack any padding whatsoever. One side (the side that faces my back) is just hard/stiff/plasticy. The other side has maybe 2mm of padding. And it's not foam padding. It's more like a light jacket fill.

Did they change something for the 2011 edition of this backpack? Previous reviews seem to rave about the protection for the notebook, but what I have now has absolutely no protection.

I really want to keep the Surge rather than the Atlas, but it just doesn't seem like the Surge was built to hold a laptop. The Atlas has vastly superior padding and is also TSA-safe, but it just doesn't feel as good on my shoulders as the Surge.

 

I am thinking about getting the North Face Surge backpack and therefore would appreciate any feedback including padding.

Apparently the Surge has a "dedicated laptop pocket can fit in up to 17 inch laptops."
See: North Face Review
However, it seems that you can hardly fit a 15.4 inch laptop (Sager 2090) with a 9 cell battery in there according to the following user review.
See: User review by Rcervantes

I want to use it for a Lenovo ThinkPad L520 with a 15.6 inch display will it fit and be well protected? Is it suitable as hand luggage. How much clothing could I stuff into the other main compartment? Would it be better to get the North Face Big Shot?