Booq or Tom Bihn sleeve?

I just got a Dell i6000d, and I'm looking for a backpack, or a sleeve, to protect it. I already have a decent backpack, but it has no laptop compartment. So, I thought I could get a sleeve and just put the sleeved-laptop in my current backpack.

So, I've narrowed the sleeves down to a Booq Vyper-L (seems to be almost a perfect fit for the i6000d) or the Tom Bihn size-1 Monolith . Does anyone out there have any experience with either (or preferably both!) of these sleeves? The Booq is certainly sexier, but the TB seems like it might be better in the usability department.

Lastly, if anyone has suggestions for a backpack in the $40-$60 range, I might consider that, instead. It seems like there are many out there in that price range, but I wonder if you still need a sleeve anyway for good protection?

Thanks,
Sion

 

I'm a big fan of Booq, but stay away from the Vyper. I tried one and it was flimsy, thin, and very cheaply built. Look at the Booq PowerSleeve 15 for your Inspiron 6000. It's an excellent sleeve.

 

The PowerSleeve15 is not wide enough for the i6000, and the next one up is IMO, too big.

Thanks for the comments on the Vyper. You're the first to say anything bad about it... all the reviews I could find just raved about it... seemed too good to be true when there are NO negative reviews.

edit: Booq have a new sleeve, called the PowerSleeve-L, which is the right size for an i6000, but it costs $90!!!!!! Sorry, that's just too rich for a sleeve, for my pocketbook.

 

I had a Sager 3790 and an Asus z70va. Both were 15.4" notebooks like your I6000 and they fit perfectly in my PowerSleeve 15 bag.

 

I just got the monolith from TomBihn.com. I have an IBM X40 so I got the size 5 which is the smallest they make. My other sleeve is a sumdex which is nice and compact if I ever had to put my notebook in a briefcase. The monolith is a little bit bulkier but it offers way more protection. I'm not goinna try it but I'm certain that if I dropped the monolith, with my computer inside it, from 4' off the ground, it would be just fine. The sumdex just doesn't offer that kind of protection. I carry my notebook in a backpack and the monolith is perfect for that. Tombihn also makes an awesome backpack called the brainbag which I'll post a review on sometime.

In another forum someone posted that they didn't like the tombihn sleeves (monolith and braincell) because they didn't protect the computer on the sides. This isn't true. Looking at a certain picture of them on the tombihn website may make you think that there is no padding on the sides of the sleeve, but there is. The sides just don't get the hard plastic reinforcement that the front, bottom, and back do. The monolith is designed to hold your computer so that it is taller height wize and thinner width wize. This is ideal for using in a back pack since it matches the size of binder more closely. If your goinna be carrying it in a messenger style bag, you'd want the notebook to sit longer width wize and shorter heightwise, Tombihn makes the braincell sleeve for just this application.

I first heard of Tombihn in these forums. Now that I have the monolith I'm happy to tell people that these are the best designed sleeves that I've seen. I've never used the booqbag vyper though. The Tombihn stuff is expensive, but not as much as replacing a computer.

 

I'm thinking of getting a size 4 Monolith for my new Asus Z63A. The sleeve can accommodate a 15" notebook, so I'm concerned that it might be slightly large for a 14" widescreen -- but that's a small difference, so I'm probably worried over nothing.

 

JackBauer,

The i6000 is a 15.4" *widescreen*, so it is wider and not as deep as a typical 15" screened laptop. It will not fit in the PowerSleeve15. If you read the internal dimension specs it is too short for an i6000, which is 14.02" wide, by 10.45" deep, by 1.52" thick. While I don't want a carrier that's TOO big for the computer, I don't want to have to jam it in and stretch the carrier, either.

On the other hand, I'm not familiar with the Sager or the Asus you mentioned. If they are truly the same size as an i6000, then you're right, I'm wrong and I appologize (but I still don't want the fit to be a tight squeeze...)

Thanks, -Sion