Save Your Back

I've received several enquiries about my notebook backpack from friends and strangers, latest one from Yashmin on a previous post.

Notebooks today have become necessities. Eventhough we used to lug around 3-4 kilo monstrocities, notebooks today aren't that much lighter, especially if you carry around the charger, external drives, spare CD-ROMs, USB mouse... you get what I mean.

Personally, I've managed with the bare minimum, I prefer to use the touchpad, my current office notebook has the CDR-W/DVD drives built in, and because thanks to the thumbdrive, my external floppy disk drive stays in my drawer. At 3kg, a large screen notebook like the one seen in this picture is still a challenge to move around.

Molly (my iBook) is a 12" blessing in disguise. It's light, small (so it fits into any decent-sized bag) and the charger is a neat little disk that's not a nightmare to transport.

But back to the 15" notebook and how I bring it around.

I ditched the Targus notebook bag that came with it, mainly because I'm convinced that the bag adds another half a kilo to the overall weight (in actual weight and 'drag'). I used a free notebook backpack I got from a course a while back, which didn't have all the pockets and frills that makes most notebook bags look masculine. But due to the sheer dimensions of this notebook, the bag itself couldn't offer the protection required (especially in the corners).

I hunted around and on impulse, bought a Desley bag. Less frills, fits the 15" nicely, with room to spare for a 2nd notebook. Yes, this bag was huge.

On a transit in Singapore, I wandered into the Samsonite boutique in Suntec City and saw these models. I've seen the first in KL, in at least 1 bag shop in KLCC (near the LRT station entrance) and one on the ground floor in Midvalley. It was retailing for abt RM500 a couple of months ago, but wasn't suitable because it barely fit my notebook, and the rigid clamshell structure didn't leave much room for anything else. The bag was cool though, it reminded me of the bag Lara Croft carried around in the last Tomb Raider.

I finally bought THIS>>> bag from the Samsonite boutique. It is from Samsonite's Phillip Starck line of backpacks. It has self-retractable straps, padding for one notebook and enough space for my charger and notepads. It hugs nicely to your body, ensuring maximum support for your back. I'm not sure if this bag is unisex, though I've seen one guy carrying it at the airport. But the design is definitely appealing to my feminine side.

I have only one complaint though, the finishing on the handle wears out after a while, but all in all, this is a nice refreshing change from the notebook bags of yesteryear.

I was told that this bag is available in Malaysia in Parkson outlets.

Posted by Najah Nasseri at 2003年11月21日 13:03 | TrackBack