Everest Luggage Slim Laptop Backpack

I was looking for a simple, slim backpack that I could take on my daily commute. I work in a semi-casual office, so I wanted something comfortable but that didn't look like I'd just come in from the high Sierras. I carry my laptop every day, and usually have my Kindle, a couple pens, and a notepad along. Sometimes a Clif bar or another snack, but I travel pretty light. This bag looked like just the ticket, with a basic, good-looking design and a focus on just carrying your laptop and a few bare necessities. It has a sternum strap, which is a great extra feature for those of us with back problems who don't want to hunch our shoulders to keep the bag from slipping around. It's also got broad, comfortable straps and a really solid top handle. Unfortunately, it doesn't do the trick for me, and I'll be sending it back.

It's hard to tell from the images, but this backpack is really designed for lugging around a big, clunky, old-school laptop. The laptop compartment takes up most of the space (all of the height and width, and nearly all of the depth), and doesn't feature a built-in sleeve, or straps, or anything to keep your laptop secure once it's in there. My 15" Dell rattled around uncomfortably inside, and my wife's 13" Macbook was even worse. Probably one of the big 17" desktop-replacement laptops would fit snugly; anything smaller is just going to bounce.

That's the kind of design decision you'd expect on a laptop bag from 2005, and maybe that's when Everest came up with this concept. Still, there are a lot of big, unwieldy laptops out there, and maybe you need a backpack for yours. Even if that's the case, I'd still advise against this one.

The other big flaw is that the zippers are utter crap. One zipper was broken when I opened up the box, but I'm willing to forgive defects. On closer inspection, it seems that these zippers are supposed to be waterproof or some foolishness like that. They're surrounded by some weird plastic edging that comes up so close to the zipper teeth that it's next to impossible to open and close the bag. You know how sometimes a coat zipper gets caught on its liner? With the way these zippers are set up, you're always going to be getting them stuck.

If you've got a huge laptop and can dedicate a lot of time to fiddling with zippers, this is still a good-looking bag and could be fine for you. Me, I'm sending it back, and I'll keep looking for a simple, slim laptop backpack.