Traveling once a year for a vacation somewhere on the beach to sip frozen drinks, and getting to leave your laptop at home, is one thing. However, most of the business travelers who hit the road once a month or once a week don’t have that luxury. With air travel restrictions on bags being tight, and just downright expensive, it means that the business traveler needs to choose his or her laptop bag wisely. It needs to be easy to carry, fit quite not just a laptop but a variety of items, and easily stow in the overhead or the seat in front.
Styles and colors vary based on a frequent flyer’s taste, but some of the best computer bags have certain features in common.
- Trolley sleeve: Many frequent flyers try to avoid checking bags, not just because of the expense, but because of the added hassle and time that the process adds to the trip. This often results in one bag with clothes and essentials (often on wheels) and then a “personal item” like the laptop bag. The easiest way to zip through airports is for that laptop bag to slide on top of the wheeled bag to be able to ride along. The laptop bag stays in place because a trolley sleeve slides easily over the handle of the wheeled bag. Running through airports with Mobile Edge’s casual tote laptop bag, for example, is easy because of this feature.
- Wheeled laptop bag: Not all laptop bags have them, but wheels definitely speed up getting through the airport and can save a traveler’s back at the same time. A wheeled laptop bag is perfect for the day-tripper who just needs to carry the laptop and maybe a change of shirt, or even for the commuter running through the streets of the city. High Sierra’s variable-wheeled laptop case is a virtual office on wheels, offering protection for a laptop and compartments for anything that someone will need to carry for a day’s worth of business. The telescoping handle retracts so that someone can hand carry the bag and then stow it easily under the seat in front.
- Organizer pockets: There are never enough pockets for the traveler. hp ryzen 3 Having exterior pockets for tickets and a water bottle makes for easy access. A front zipper pocket with slots for business cards, keys, and phone/PDA is a necessity. In the interior, having large compartments for various projects will keep a traveler organized on the road. Skooba satchel 2.0 luxe has all of this and weighs less than 3 pounds (of course, that is before everything is packed into it.)
- Padded shoulder strap: The next best thing to having a wheeled laptop case, for the person who is carrying a laptop brief on his shoulder or wearing a laptop backpack, is padded shoulder straps. With even the smallest amount of weight, a bag strap can dig into the shoulder if not properly padded. The Manhattan Portage wallstreeter laptop messenger is an example of a designer laptop bag that offers a cushioned shoulder strap for a comfortable journey.
- Checkpoint-friendly laptop bags: Bags that are labeled checkpoint friendly or mean that the laptop can stay in its compartment while going through the x-ray machine. requires for a bag or sleeve to be compliant that it not have metal or other elements blocking the view of the laptop in the x-ray. Kiva’s ez-check laptop case is a perfect example of a laptop brief that has this feature. If someone has a favorite bag, then it’s also an option to just carry a laptop sleeve that comes out at security, like the Greensmart laptop sleeve.
