SwissGear Travel Tech Elite 16" Laptop Backpack

Before I found SwissGear I only thought I liked my prior backpacks. They became my refernece. SwissGear seems to be standard issue for most IT people. My prior backpacks that have met my needs. Swiss Gear, Maxxum & Synergy (Older Version), and Kenneth Cole Reaction. I mention them as a reference. My purpose for a backpack is to carry my laptop, electronics, and accessories. This includes 16" Laptop, 13" Work Laptop, & Tablet. I'm glad to see it still has the key holder. I use mine for a small flashlight, ear plugs, & a swiss army knife attached via small S-biners. This is handy but does get in the way of using the pocket for a larger tablet. The pockets in the front compartment are ok, but I wish they had a small zippered pocket. The arrangement is fairly standard. The TSA friendly feature is handy for better access to the laptop compartment. The TSA has me remove my laptop anyway. They didn't get the memo. My 16" laptop is on the larger side and it fits comfortably. A 13" laptop fits easily into the tablet spot. Thus far the padding has protected my laptop in spite of the backpacks propensity to roll over (and often onto the floor). When it comes to sitting up, it's not as stable as my reference backpacks. The battery pocket works. I have a battery just under the maximum capacity the TSA allows, so fairly large. Having the battery in that spot creates a pressure point on your laptop. So far that's not caused any problems but it seems odd. A mesh pocket above the laptop and/or tablet pockets would be handy. The USB cable is USB A. Safe but not the future. The cable is longer than it needs to be though maybe that's so you can use a battery lower in the compartment. The extra length can sometimes get in the way. The cable doesn't appear to be replaceable. That's too bad. Cables wear out. One of the shoulder straps has the external USB A connection. A mesh pocket sits below it. It will hold a larger phone (S21 is what I used) for charging though it's an awkward arrangement but probably functional. The luggage strap is too low or to thin to hold it stable when loaded. It tends to lean and that will throw smaller luggage you may have it strapped on, off balance. I had to grab the hanging strap to keep it stable while walking. The handle is improved. They have the same metal cable but the padding is better. The hardcase glasses pocket is a mixed bag. My sunglasses are in a hard case so for me a soft one would work better. I carry my ear buds in this pocket as well. It's tight but fits. The glasses pocket is also in the way of getting anything in and out of the main compartment. More so as you fill the pack. You can see this in the photo. If they put it on the back, it would be in the way of the two pockets but less in the way of accessing the main compartment. It's an annoyance. The two pockets are nice. They should have put a mesh compartment above the pockets for misc items. The potential spot for the mesh pocket is in the photo. The main compartment is small relative to the backpacks I reference above. But for every day carry that's a fair trade off. The backpack has 3 outside pockets, not counting the sunglasses spot. It could have 7. It should have more than it does. The two side pockets are ok. One is mesh for a beverage but also has a zipper compartment with some insulation. It's gimmicky but...I used it for it's purpose so thumbs up. No problems there. The other side pocket is a shoe pocket. It has a mesh zipper pocket inside which I use for some cash that I'd rather store in the front compartment if it had actually had such a pocket. I also store a small pouch of accessories I use often. Yes a pouch inside a pocket because otherwise everything would get lost in the shoe sleeve. I might use the sleeve for a rain jacket in the summer. The last outside pocket is the front pocket. This is essentially using the front flap as some bonus storage. It's a bad design. I bought the smallest USB cable organizer I could find and found it wouldn't fit. The inside is large enough the zipper isn't. You can see this in the photo. I ended up using another pouch for inside the pocket. Where I would put other pockets. Two small ones would fit, on the top half of each side. The front flap could fit a small one where the Black cloth and logo is. You could have two more below that for relativly flat items.. Either vertical, horizontal or a larger one to fit misc items you tend to pick like boarding passes, luggage claims and paper. With these and the mesh pockets they could have added, or even half of them, this pack would be far better than it is. But it lacks some of the design niceties they used to include in their older backpacks. With that and a tweak to the design of the sunglasses holder location I would have the best daily carry backpack I've ever had. But that's not the case. I've had to improvise solutions to problems that older backpacks had already figured out. The quest continues for a good EDC backpack. This will do until I find it, but this isn't it. That said, my first choice for that next one would still be Swiss Gear.