Heading into my 2nd year of college i decided i needed a new backpack. A lot had happened since the first year including destroying old backpacks and buying expensive things that need protection. Namely: books and laptops. Therefore, this backpack came as a godsend to the kind of person who needed maximum durability and space for as little money as possible. First up, it's comfortable. Not Rolls Royce comfortable, but an definitely a HUGE step above each and every single backpack I had owned beforehand. The back is ergonomic and covered in mesh that breathes and makes long bike rides to campus at least a little less painful. The straps are thick and are padded with mesh as well. They've taken an entire semester of abuse with no sign of being anywhere close to tapped out. In terms of style, I like it. It's not going to make you the coolest kid in school, and it isn't packed with any expensive tech, but it does look trustworthy. It looks like it was made to be dependable, and to someone who is constantly on the move between school, work, and gigs, trustworthy beats all. It may have only one color option, but it's that sort of no-nonsense black on black color scheme that interested me. It's not designed to be flashy, and that's a good thing. Often times I'm toting equipment in this bag for various shows and the last thing I want is for someone to take my bag because it looks nice. Some have complained about amazon's choice to make these and similar products so understated, but to me its a sign that you're paying for pure usefulness and durability. No gimmicks. Speaking of usefulness, this back has a LOT of places to store things. The only fault here is that some laptops won't fit in it. Now, most people will never even encounter this issue, but for those of us who have massive gaming/production laptops, 17 inches is the limit. My MSI laptop that is 17.3 inches is just slightly too big. I can force it into the bag, but then it pokes uncomfortably into the zipper. My advice, go with one of amazon's laptop bags. I got one for cheap that fit my needs. Anyway, the bag has a massive laptop sleeve that opens via zipper on one side and includes a padded velcro harness to keep it in place. it also has a pocket about the same size that can be zipped all of the way open and includes a little pocket for a tablet. My Ipad 3 fits into that pocket with a little room to spare. Both of those pockets are intended for laptops/similar profile devices, so they are fairly slim, but thy should serve you fine. The main pocket is not as tall, but has by far the most space. It contains two dividers for and a standard pocket for media devices at the top. Other than that there are two water bottle sized compartments with zippers on each side, two mesh bottle holders on the outsides of those, a small pocket about the size of a coin purse at the top of the largest pocket, and a front pocket with the standard assortment of smaller pockets, keyring, and ID holder. There are also two adjustable straps on the sides for securing the bag further. As I'm sure you can tell, this backpack is absolutely no frills, its not fancy, and it won't win you any fashion awards. It will, however, securely protect almost anything you could want to throw into it and still sit comfortably and safely on your back. It gets 5 stars easily because of all of that. I use mine every day and have never encountered anything that caused me to question this bag.
