Outdoor Products Power Pack backpack review

Review of Outdoor Products Power Pack Backpack.

After toting around my new Asus S96J in a normal, one compartment North Face backpack for a few days, I noticed a few small scratches on the cover, and decided it was time for a real laptop backpack. I wanted a backpack that looked nice, somewhat professional, and could carry a lot of stuff. I commute to college, so I need to bring all my books for the day with me. I did a ton of research, and really didn’t want to spend a whole lot of money on a bag, so I first checked out Targus, and Wenger. None of their styling really did anything for me, nor did most of them have enough space for my needs. I loved my North Face bag, as it was the most durable and rugged bag I’ve ever owned, so I checked out some of their stuff, and chose the North Face Recon II. Luckily, and unluckily, before I made the purchase, I went over to REI and found my laptop didn’t actually fit in the bag. So while I wasn’t stuck with a bag that didn’t fit, I was also back at ground zero. So I looked at some of the other bags at REI, and found one that suited all my needs, the Outdoor Products Power Pack. I’ve never really heard this bag mentioned, and after using it for 2 months I still love it. So I thought I’d give it a review.

The bag seems to be very durable, after using it for a few months it shows no signs of use. It’s made out of nylon, and uses slightly above average size zippers (the ones on my North Face were massive, so maybe that has spoiled me some. There are nylon flaps which cover the zippers to prevent leaking from rain, which is nice, but sometimes they get in the way, especially with the front pouch. The zipper sometimes rides over the flap, and jams. It’s annoying, but is fixable through some brute force. The bottom of the bag has an extra layer of padding to protect your stuff if you drop the bag.


The straps are slightly large than average, and have good padding. The back is also quite well padded, with an air channel running down the center so your back doesn’t get quite as sweaty while lugging around a ton of stuff. This bag was also one of the most comfortable bags I tried out, even with around 15 pounds of stuff in it. It’s got straps to go across the chest to more evenly balance the weight, and has more straps on the sides to cinch down the main compartment.

It also looks pretty good, if a little average. I’m not going to go into too much detail, because everybody likes something different, but there was nothing that I would find unpleasant about the bag. I went with the black one, while they also offer a combo white and blue bag.

The bag has 3 compartments, a very large main compartment, which has a padded laptop pouch in it, an average sized middle compartment, which is supposed to be used for your cd or mp3 player, and a front compartment, for all your laptop accessories and other random little things.



The main compartment is huge. I was able to fit my laptop, a 5 subject notebook, a 500 page hardcover psych book, and 3 smaller softcover books (about 700 pages total) with space to spare. I doubt I’d ever need to carry more than this. As a traveling bag, I could fit 2 changes of clothes in their easily, along with whatever toiletries I needed. Despite this big pouch, the bag doesn’t look all that big unless you have it packed, so you don’t look like you are going backpacking if you are just walking from the train station to your office, or from your dorm/car to class.

Here's a pic of all the stuff I had in it in the previous pic, and still could have fit more stuff in there.


The laptop pouch has enough padding to protect your laptop from anything in the main compartment, and will protect it against minor bangs and drops, but I’m not sure if I’d trust it with a fall from chest height (though I’m not sure I’d let ANY bag do that). There is a strap that holds the laptop in place, and then another flap that Velcro’s into place over it. This is where we encounter the first of many internal pockets. One thing that is nice about this bag is that there are TONS of pockets in this thing, one for almost everything you could want, and conveniently labeled for what they think should go in them. In most cases I would hate this, but the choices they use make sense most of the time. There are three mesh pockets on the flap, and are supposed to hold cables. Specifically a usb, a phone/network cable, and one not labled. All are the same size, but I doubt you could fit a very large network cable in there, maybe 5 feet at best. There are also two larger pockets on the outside of the laptop pouch, and a large network cable would fit here perfectly.


The middle compartment is supposed to be used for music stuff, like a cd player or mp3 player. It’s got a little port for headphone cables to come out of, which is something that is showing up in a lot of bags now, that I don’t really get. Who wants to leave their mp3 player in their backpack, where they can’t control it? But I digress. It has pouches for a cd player, mp3 player, large can style headphones, and even a removable cd wallet. It’s also got plenty of space for jewel cases, or dvd cases, which is what I usually use it for.



The Front compartment is where all your computer asscessories and other gadgets are supposed to go. See the picture for references to all these pockets on the inside of this compartment. The outside has a pouch for a full size mouse, about 4 pen holders, and a zippered mesh pocket.

On the outside there are two other pockets, one for your power adapter, and one mesh bottle holder. The power adapter pouch is interesting. It’s got a ton of padding, I guess this is so the prongs don’t rip through the nylon, and to give the laptop a bit of extra padding. Some of the padding lifts up to give you access to the main compartment, and a small slit in the laptop pouch allows you to plug your laptop in to charge while never taking it out of the bag. It also vents the laptop, so it doesn’t get too hot in your bag. Not hugely important, but a nice little touch.

Now the best part about this bag is the price. I picked it up at the REI store for only 60 bucks, and it’s only about $10 more expensive on their website. This was cheaper than almost all of the other bags I looked at, and offered me a lot more than those other ones too. I would definitely recommend this bag to anyone who wants an inexpensive, but well made and hugely useful bag

 

I really like the labels for what goes where. That makes me laugh.

 

Yeah, that stuff is normally kind of annoying, but the labels actually make sense. I forgot to show the place you put the power adapter, but it's on the right side of the pack.

 

shameless bump, this is my first review, I would love some feedback on it.

 

LOL, nice review. I like how they have the top cover for the laptop. Too bad my maxxum doesn't come with one like that.

 

Great review wetzilla

 

Nice review wetzilla. Does the bag look unisex? I don't want a big honking guy looking bag, but I do need it to carry a 15.4 laptop plus one hard cover book and a small binder.

 

Thanks guys. The black one is more masculine(sp?) but I saw the blue and white one on a woman today and it looked just fine. It collapses down a good amount when there isn't much in it, so it doesn't look all that big.

 

nice review.

 

nice review!

that amount of stuff (or more) packed into the bag would probably put crazy amount of stress on the zippers.
Normal zippers (like the ones on my targus bag) don't like that, how about the ones on your bag?

 

Great review guy. I too have a x96j though the z version. Im transfering college into SDSU so this is THE review I was looking for. I most likely will end up ordering it since I seem to have the same needs you do and its worked out well. I only wish i could try it out in person though I guess I cant have everything I want. Thx for the review!

 

I didn't notice any undue stress on the zippers, the side straps with the plastic buckles seemed to take most of the weight off of them. I haven't carried around a huge amount of stuff in it yet, only a few books and my laptop. I was just showing what would fit in there. But I did walk around with all that crap in there a little bit, and it seemed fine.

 

@wetzilla,

Hows the bag doing? Is it strong to carry load? Does it seem to fall apart?

I am going to buy this bag soon and use it as a travel bag.

 

Great review. Thanks.

 

wetzilla,

I went to their web site and didn't see any specs for the size of the nptebook pocket. Any idea? Thinkit will fit my rig: 15.5" x 11.75" x 2.35"

Thanks