SOLO Classic Collection Ladies Laptop Tote

This is a great bag for its price range. It’s the right bag for people who travel occasionally or who don’t like to spend a large amount of money on expensive materials. It has a feminine and professional look. You can fit a 16″ laptop in it, and it has compartments for your keys, mobile, or any other small accessory. It seems that customers who own it have noticed that the handles wear out fast, because they commute to work or are constantly on the go. This bag would be more appropriate for those who carry lighter weights.

Kensington K62533US Contour Balance Notebook Roller Bag

This Kensington bag strikes a good balance between a rolling laptop bag and a women’s tote. It has a stylish look, and you have plenty of room for your laptop and any extras like notebooks, files, folders, and whatever else you want to carry. Don’t worry if you end up with a heavy bag, you can roll it easily as it moves smoothly. It remains quiet even on tiled surfaces. It’s a durable bag, with a good price tag ($85).

McKlein USA W Series Willowbrook Leather Detachable

There’s a reason this is one of the bestselling briefcases for women. You’ll love the versatility of this bag, which you can turn from a practical handbag into a rolling bag by using the wheel assembly. You have plenty of options with the colors it comes in, and it has a stylish and feminine look. You can fit a laptop up to 17 inches in size, and its leather material is durable. A common observation among buyers is that you can’t fit too many items in it. If you absolutely need to carry many folders, files or accessories you can have a hard time with it.

Everyone will be looking for different features in  stylish ladies laptop bags or briefcases, so every one of these items covers different needs. The SOLO Ladies Laptop Tote will be best for women who plan on carrying a lighter load, and won’t put much stress on the bag, and it’s at a very accessible price. The Kensington is perfect for those who want to load it up with a bundle of things, whether it’s for travel or just things you need, it will work beautifully for you. Lastly, the McKlein briefcase will be a perfect fit for women who search for a bit more style in their bag, and don’t plan to carry many items in it.

Now that we have our super size and yet lightweight laptop we usually want to do what a laptop is designed to do and that is travel with it whether it is from bedroom to living room or from home to office. Or some people even travel to other countries for work or play with their laptop in tow and for that kind of travel you want to be sure that your laptop is going to be in good working condition when you arrive.

There are a variety of laptop bags to choose from but when looking at them you have to make sure that they say for 17 inch because many of them are designed for the smaller and more common sizes of laptop. With due diligence you will be able to find a good 17 inch laptop bag that suits your needs. Your local office supply store has a huge selection and each line of store carries something just a little bit different so if you like to shop you can have a blast find the right bag with a design that suits you whether it be very professional and business like or more trendy with zebra stripes.

The laptop bags of all sizes have a variety of pockets to store all the accessories that are needed to make your laptop function. And if you’ve never traveled with your laptop you will find that it needs just a bit more accessories than they show on the television commercials. For example you will want to be sure to have your charger, if you have an external hard drive, if you have an additional fan for your laptop all of those things you will want to take with you for you are going further than the next room. So when shopping for laptop bags be sure that it’s not only big enough for your laptop but all of the essentials that you will need to make it worthwhile to take your laptop with you because if you can’t charge it while you’re gone then it just becomes a rather large book weight.

If you already have a great messenger bag or briefcase that you absolutely love to travel with and it already has the additional room needed for your laptop and accessories then all you will need to look at getting to protect your laptop is a laptop sleeve. Again these are carried almost everywhere and you will need to ensure that you get one that is the right size for your laptop and even though it may look like your laptop won’t fit the sleeve is supposed to be snug to your laptop so with a little gentle pressure you will the sleeve keeps your laptop snug and tight and will protect it from scratches, dings and a reasonable amount of bumping around. A sleeve that is going to go inside your other bag or case you can really have a good time with colors and designs or if your bag is already colorful then wow people when you pull out a very traditional looking sleeve.

If you can’t find the laptop bag that is just right for you then don’t write off a great messenger bag. Any type of bag or briefcase can be beefed up with foam padding cut to cradle your laptop. So if grandma’s antique carpetbag speaks to you as no other bag does and it makes a statement about you then add some foam padding from the local fabric store, its very economical and you can have the old and the new together.

A good laptop bags doesn’t only have to be functional but it can be fun just as your computer can be full of surprises and reflects who you are and what you do the bag you carry it in can be fun and full of surprises to or conservative. The key is getting a bag that fits our laptop and suits your needs with basic transportation such as a sleeve or something with a lot more room for all the necessary accessories there is the right bag for any need and any size of laptop.

For the past couple of years, at least one small part of this little dance has been made easier. In 2008 the Transport Security Administration (TSA) set out some guidelines on a new group of laptop bags that were exempt from the normal rules. For those lucky enough to have a checkpoint friendly laptop bag, the bag need only be opened and put through the x-ray machine without having the laptop itself removed.

What makes a laptop bag checkpoint friendly?

The basic idea is that the bag has to be designed in such as way that the operators of the x-ray machines have a totally clear and unobstructed view of the laptop. They don’t want things like power cords and accessories obscuring the view. Nor do they want parts of the bag causing confusion, such as metal zippers or buckles or the like. A couple of examples are simple laptop sleeves, butterfly style bags that open up in two halves and so-called trifold bags that also unfold into a flat configuration.

To meet the requirements there should be nothing on the laptop section such as pockets or bits of metal that would interfere with the operators getting a clear look at the inside of your laptop.

Who makes checkpoint friendly laptop bags?

There is a long list of manufacturers that makes these bags. The TSA itself doesn’t actually approve any. It has just set out the guidelines that manufacturers follow. Quite a large number claim that their laptop bags are checkpoint friendly, but there is no independent verification of this. This is why it is essential that if you buy one, that you check that it really meets the requirements.

Some checkpoint friendly laptop bag reviews

Here are the names of a couple of bags that claim to meet the requirements.

• Skooba R101-101 Checkthrough Checkpoint-Friendly Laptop Bag: The Skooba is a really well priced bag that is designed to hold 15 inch laptops. It has a dedicated laptop compartment that folds flat and is see-through so that the security officers can clearly see there is nothing else in the compartment. It also has 20 other pockets and compartments scattered about including one that is accessible and designed to hold your tickets and passport. A lot of the internal pockets are made of mesh, so you can see at a glance what you’ve stowed in them (USB cable, flash drive, whatever). The downside is that it doesn’t have a huge amount of padding to protect your laptop and it is too big for everyday use.
• Targus Zip Through Corporate Traveller Case: This is a bag made by a really reputable laptop bag manufacturer. Who hasn’t had a Targus at least once in their lives? It also has a dedicated laptop area and the whole bag butterflies out for security. Its list price is lower than that of the Skooba, but depending on when you look it actually comes out more expensive sometimes because of the great deals that Amazon has on the Skooba. It also has a bunch of compartments but they aren’t mesh, so if you are looking for something small then you’ll have to open each one.

Checkpoint friendly backpacks

There are also a couple of checkpoint friendly backpacks out there such as the Case Logic Security Friendly Backpack. It also has a zipper that allows you to butterfly the backpack for security. The rest is pretty much a normal backpack, but it has given up some functionality to incorporate the security-friendly features so it probably has fewer usable internal compartments and dividers than you are used to.

What it looks like to the security operator

A leather and a nylon laptop bag made by Dell

The two laptop bags pictured here are both made by Dell and came with Dell laptops from work.

Now a lot of people are not going to be huge fans of Dell laptop bags. I mean, these are not the most stylish or cool looking bags by a long shot.  But they are pretty well made and score highly for practicality. And they really just blend in in a business setting.

Starting with the leather laptop bag. The first thing that you notice about this is that it is actually quite a high quality bag.

The stitching is all really high quality as are the fittings and the attention to detail is superb.

If you look at the clips connecting the laptop bag to the strap they are made of really high quality metal.They clip in securely and don’t pop open very easily at all.

These are not the usual plastic bits of rubbish that you find on a lot of bags. The ones that bend and break and drops your laptop down a flight of stairs as I’ve once had happen with another carrying case.

Okay. Here’s another detail that I liked. If you look closely at the tag on the zipper (and please excuse my pathetic excuse at taking photographs – I’ll get better at this with time – I hope) you will note a little round loop. There is a matching one on the other zipper so you can lock the main laptop compartment of the bag. That may seem a pretty useless idea. At least I thought it was, until just before Christmas this year I was on a business flight with my laptop in its bag in the overhead locker. Normally it is right above my head, but in this case it had been moved about two rows back by the air hostess because she needed to cram something else in. I still figured it wasn’t a problem as I would notice if anyone tampered with it.

WRONG – When I got back into town from the airport I opened my bag and my laptop was GONE! That was an expensive lesson for me. From now on I plan to lock the bag, even when I think it is in sight. It is a whole lot harder for a stinking thief to sneak a whole laptop case off an airplane than it must have been for this fiend to just slip my computer into his bag.

What else can I tell you about the leather Dell case. Oh yes, it also has a really funky little organizer pocket at the front that takes all my stuff like flash drives, spare USB cable, keys and coins when I’m going through airport security. It opens right up with two zippers so you can really get in there and it also has a top flap with magnetic strips.

The newer nylon laptop case that I got with my replacement computer is clearly a cheaper product. That said the build quality still seems excellent. It also has the metal hooks on the carrying strap but is inferior in that it lacks most of the features of its more expensive sibling. It has only one main compartment (vs two on the leather bag), lacks the little loops on the zipper to allow it to take a lock (come on Dell, how much extra would those have cost) and generally looks a lot cheaper.

What it does not lack is padding. This seems to be one seriously protective bag. The main outer has a later of quite stiff foam in in it that provides quite a bit of protection against bangs and drops already. But the real protection is in the actual laptop compartment where it has another layer of stiff foam with little indentations. These aren’t quite egg box style, but they do protrude and provide a lot of padding.

In short, either of these bags will do the job and do it well. Of the two, I clearly prefer the leather bag. It looks a lot more expensive (in some parts of town that may be a bad thing) and it has a bit more space. That said my complain with both is that while they are great dedicated laptop bags that is more or less all they are. I don’t find that they have the space to take a lot of documents or much of anything else if I’m attending a conference. And if I’m travelling for business they are too big to fit into another bag comfortably nor do they carry much on their own. That may not be a problem in many places but here in Europe where the cheapest flights are with low cost carries such as Easyjet and Ryanair that only allow one piece of hand luggage then it become an issue. So I usually end up trading up to a bigger bag that can also double as an overnight bag or trading down to a neoprene sleeve that slips into my normal wheeled hand luggage.

Okay, so before we even get into an overview of the many, many kinds of computer cases that are out there, it behoves me to hold forth on the purpose of a these cases. Now that may also seem a pretty dumb thing to say, but just think about it for a second. Do you want something that will provide protection? If so, is it meant to just give light padding to stop your precious laptop from getting scuffed and marked in another bag? Is it meant to provide serious shock resistance so that your bag can be dropped from a reasonable height, say a desk, while still protecting its precious cargo? Is it meant to keep your laptop dry, or dust free, and under what circumstances?  Are you just worried about a little rains shower on your way to work, a drenching while river rafting down the Zambezi or protection from theft?
And do you want to wear it, carry it, sling it over a shoulder, hide it in another back? Am I boring you yet? Suffice to say, the reason there are no perfect laptop bags is that you will never find one to fit all of the ever changing circumstances of your busy and exciting life.
So if we give up on perfection, do we just have to resign ourselves to a search for the good enough laptop bag, the jack of all trades that will fit most circumstances? Or, as I have, do you end up owning a whole attic full of the damnable things?

To illustrate the point, why don’t you take a look at the category “laptop bags and cases” in Amazon.com. The top-sellers on the day I looked were (in order)

1. Case Logic Compact Portable Hard Drive Case (Black) by Case Logic
2. SwissGear SA1908 ScanSmart Backpack in Black by Swiss Gear
3. Case Logic LNEO-10 Ultraportable Neoprene Notebook Sleeve (Black) by Case Logic
4. Case Logic VHS-101 Portable Hard Drive Case (Black) by Case Logic
5. Case Logic VNC-17 17-inch Value Slimline Laptop Case (Black) by Case Logic

Just take a look at that list again. So we have a hard-drive case. Okay, I get that. Sometimes I want to carry my hard drive around without my computer. Then comes a backpack designed to go through airport security, an ultraportable, very thin little sleeve, another hard drive case and a run of the mill laptop case designed to carry a baby with a 17 inch screen. The point I’m trying to make is that there is no pattern here. People aren’t all going for the same kind of bag, because everyone has their own special preferences. This website is about trying to help you sift through all the thousands of laptop bags out there to find the one that work best for you. Welcome and read on.