Bag / Case brand preferences?

Hi, I have been looking up and down and all around the net for an ideal bag. Since I will be purchasing my first laptop, I don't have any history with these types of bags to have a real oppinion, just ideas.

Does anyone have particular brand preference when it comes to laptop bags / cases? I believe that i'll be going for any type of shoulder bag (as opposed to brief case, backpack, or sleeve)

Most likely laptop purchase will be Fujitsu S2000 13.3" or Sony S580 13.3"

Thanks

 

Tumi makes the best bags, a bit expensive though. However, the build quality is top notch. Crumpler bags are also good quality from what I hear, little less in $$, check ebay. They are not as professional looking IMO.
Wegner (swiss army) makes some nice looking bags, they are in the $40-70 range. I have seen these at Office Depot.
I am trying to find somthing, a mixture between capacity and style.
There is Samsonite, which are ok looking, build quality is good.

Sony Vaio makes a nice little leather bag, iv seen it cheap on ubid.com. Unfourtantly it won't fit my laptop...

 

The Brenthaven Solo 14" shoulder case is also a good choice for the S580. If you want to see a Brenthaven bag in person, head down to your local Apple Store. Apple sells a lot of Brenthaven bags for their iBooks and PowerBooks.

The coolest feature of the bag is the Brenhaven "CORE", which is a padded section that provides "bumpers" or "shock absorbers" for your laptop. It's hard to describe; see the Brenthaven website for details:

http://www.brenthaven.com

(That said, I'm leaning toward the Tumi Essential Brief for my Sony S580 -- but it's also about $300 more than the Brenthaven case )

 

Thanks for the input, but there is no way I am going with Tumi (and most likely not Samsonite either). I was at Innovation Luggage yesterday, and Tumi, while they are always good build quality, are about 3x the weight of the laptop itself, LOL. Just carrying the empty bag is 5lbs or more probably. Samsonite is almost as bad. Sure they are good looking (Actually Samsonite is WAY too conservative for me and all the models look the same)

I need well built and LIGHT. Obviously I won't get an APC out of a 2 - 3.5lb bag but I know they are out there cuz I have looked at tons on Targus.com , but I also wanted to see what the competition is offering. I will check out the other brands you mentioned. I did see one Brenthaven, I liked it, but I wanted to see more since it wasn't quite right. I figure they still have lighter. I will go down to the Apple store when I have time as well.

 

Weight was a big concern for me too, and I think the Crumpler line is the nicest wrt qaulity, casual appearance, and weight. Well-made, water-resistant and good to excellent padding (depending on the model- obviously, the more padded models are heavier). The "embarrassment" line is an adequately padded case and the moderate embarrassment is 28 ounces versus 3 pounds for a similarly padded Tumi case. Their backpacks hover at around 3 pounds. The Brenthaven cases afford better padding (touted to be amongst the best in the industry) but weigh in in the 3 pound area for a messenger bag similar to the considerable embarrassment. If you tend to fling your laptop case, then you will need the padding of Crumpler's more heavily padded case, but if you treat it with normal care (including transporting books and the like) then the padding in the embarrassment line is fine. Best prices are from Photococan on Ebay- and they are very nice to deal with- even willing to exchange a backpack for me (never used) bought several months ago for only a $5 fee since it was missing the bag/wrapping.
Since the Fujitsus have a noteable amount of screen flex in them, I would rec. a screen protector from shaggymac to protect the screen from keyboard imprint if you plan on carrying lots of books with it.

 

screen flex? really. Ill have to check into a screen protector then. certainly worth the investment., especially considering I am already planning on purchasing the extended warranty. may as well do a good job at all of it.

 

If your looking for a very well made back pack that doesn't shout to the world "Hey i'm carrying a laptop in here, come curb kick me and steal it" then you should check out www.tombihn.com . TomBihn makes a great backpack, I like the one called the Brainbag. To protect the laptop you then buy a sleave from Tombihn, he makes two that have plastic shelding in them to protect the laptom as well as cusion it from the side that will be closest to the ground.

And I bought a stupid shaggy mac screen protector thing, and I love the stupid thing.

Crumpler looks like they make some cool bags too.

 

Turns out that I will be placing an order for a Thinkpad T43 14" model after endless hours of research and running/reading around in circles, lol. I won't be purchasing a backpack bag tho... however I will still have a look at Tombhin as well.

I saw some Oigo bags recently, they were pretty cool too.

 

this is what I've narrowed it all down to for Thinkpad T43 14"

* Targus 14" Ultra Lite Corporate Traveler with Air Protection
* Targus Evolution 14" Ultra Portable Leather Notebook Case
* Targus 15" Corporate Traveler w/Air Protection
* Brenthaven Solo 14

They all provide solid protection and are reasonably priced for what they provide.

The Tombihn models are nice, but they require the purchase of a bag and then ALSO the brain cell if you want to really have a solid carrier. So to say the least, they get expensive real quick. On top of that, if you want to have the nice shoulder strap, that's yet another $25... sheesh.

Crumpler bags did not interest me. Everki seemed pretty good, but I just got a better feeling for the protection in the ones I listed.

The only others I have seen to bother considering are Ogio and *possibly* Wenger/Victorianox (whichever). I have looked at pretty much every half decent company out there, and those 4 are the best I found that won't cause anyone to go broke and still get good protection, while having solid functionality.

 

Check this out. www.booqbags.com

You can also buy Booqbags at Semsons.com. http://www.semsons.com/follapbagfre.html
Semsons sometimes have special offers. Just compare the prices.