Laptop Trolleys:

A trolley gives you the most protection of any kind of laptop transporter. A trolley is defined by having wheels and a handle, which allows you to fully take the weight off yourself and just cart around your computer without strain. It is essentially equivalent to wheeled luggage. For business people, this can be an excellent solution, as sometimes, in certain industries, you might have a large 17” laptop and a number of reference books or files to carry around. You could not possibly carry all this around in your arms, it is just too heavy, so the only other alternative is a backpack. This may not suit your business aesthetic, however, and even a backpack can be a pain if you have to travel long distances. For a more elegant and relaxed look and experience, a high quality trolley for your laptop can be a great choice, giving your back a rest while retaining the appearance of any other wheeled luggage. It is a good idea to look for trolleys with a full metal frame, as these are much more sturdy than the cheaper versions which are essentially a bag with a handle tacked on afterward.

An especially tough make is the Pelican laptop case, which is waterproof and dustproof. You can get a Pelican laptop trolley with enough space for your clothes for a short business trip as well as a laptop. And none of the weight is on your shoulders.

Laptop Cases:

A laptop case is similar in appearance to a briefcase, and can be an excellent choice when you need to carry the laptop and not much else. Compared to a trolley a laptop case will not carry anywhere near so much, but most people do not need to carry large amounts of gear with them. Look for a waterproof laptop case, as these are vital if you get caught in wet weather on the way to or from work, especially since computers do not take kindly to water damage.

Laptop Bags and Sleeves:

These bags are much more casual than most of the cases and trolleys out there, and are intended for the casual person who just wants to look good when moving their laptop around. You can find a laptop bag with all the style of regular bags and purses and they can be as much an addition to your wardrobe as they are functional. A laptop sleeve is simply a thin line of padding with a zip that can protect your laptop from scratches – these are not usually designed to be carried solo, but are useful when you want to put your laptop in your current bag or backpack without damaging it.

Whether you need a laptop trolley, case, bag, or just a sleeve, always pay attention to the quality of the model you are buying. Although you might be tempted to get the very cheap versions, these can actually cost more long-term as they wear out and look shabby or even break. Stay away from the bottom of the barrel and you can be sure to have something that will last you for years.

In more recent years, however, we have grown to be a lot more relaxed aboutour laptops. They have come down in price (relative to the price of most otherthings) and are not seen as quite so fragile. Moreover, they are no longer thepreserve of the rich or of business sorts. Go onto a campus or into auniversity lecture hall these days and all you will see is laptops. So they arenow much more everyday items that get tossed into a backpack or normalmessenger bag.

Yet they do still need some protection and often a laptop sleeve can providea useful compromise between not protecting your precious computer at all andbetween carrying it in a huge padded bag.

The great advantage of a laptop sleeve (or, a notebook sleeve if you have ana really small notebook) relates to its small size. They are usually made ofjust a few millimeters of rubbery fabric such as neoprene, which is the samesubstance that diving suits are made from. They fold down pretty flat when notin use and add hardly any bulk to your notebook so you can carry it in aregular back.

A laptop sleeve will help provide protection against basic bumps andscratches. This is especially important if your laptop has a glossy finish orif you have an iPad or other tablet computer where the screen is exposed todamage.

It will also help protect it from minor spills of liquid, very short andquick downpours of rain and will also keep dust out of its sensitive workings. Inshort, if you need some extra protection for your computer but don’t want to gothe whole hog and use a big laptop bag, then consider a simple sleeve. The addedprotection it affords is usually enough for most people’s purposes. Just becareful not to drop your bag from too much of a height, or you could hear thehorrible sound of breaking glass and plastic.

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