The trouble with 17″ laptops

Posted by neha | Gear, Tech | Thursday 23 August 2007 9:35 pm

Finding a laptop bag is not meant to be hard; there are more obscure pieces of technology that take an entire scavenger hunt to locate. Take for example, my laptop keyboard’s control button. That puppy popped off and I thought I would never hear the happy tap of my “Ctrl” button again. But, thanks to some friendly powncers, I acquired a new one on eBay.

As I have discovered in the past few days in Seattle, finding a case which holds a fresh flashy laptop can be difficult. My uncle has a spanking new 17″ widescreen HP which requires a bag that can protect a laptop of that size, preferably with wheels, lightweight, and under $50. I looked at online retailers, as well as on foot at Fry’s, Circuit City and Office Depot. A few bad salesmen later, no luck.

El targus saves the day

The search finally ended at Best Buy. I found a lightweight Targus messenger bag for $25.99, on sale for half price. The compartment for the laptop has a good amount of padding, though the shoulder strap could use a little more. The bag also features an accessory organizer and cell phone case. No wheels, but it’s still not a bad buy for 25 bucks!

Big screen laptops are here to stay. I think it’s time that bag makers get with it and provide more wide-load friendly gear with a smaller price tag.

6 Comments »

  1. Comment by Moses — August 23, 2007 @ 9:44 pm

    The applesacs are $29.99, and darn sexy. I have the desktop mac, but if I had a laptop, I’d get that one.

    http://applesac.com/

  2. Comment by Phillip — August 24, 2007 @ 3:57 am

    Targus makes a pretty good bag. I like STM (what I currently have) and also Booq (my last bag before the STM). I have had Targus bags in the past though. Now I’m mostly a backpack guy.

  3. Comment by Marco Kotrotsos — August 24, 2007 @ 5:35 am

    Gawd, i have an Acer laptop (20″) and i had to tug that thing along in a big shopping back for about half a year….they only started (targus) to make 19/20″ bags only recently…

    but

    no wheels….

    it is incredibly painful to carry a 20pound(!) laptop bag with the strap around your shoulder…

  4. Comment by kris — August 24, 2007 @ 7:11 am

    http://store.mozilla.org/product.php?code=MZ34014&catid=10

    It’s what I have and I love it.

  5. Comment by Dred242 — August 29, 2007 @ 6:59 am

    I saw and followed your post on Pownce to here,
    I too am on the hunt for a new laptop bag, but I’m looking for more of a sling type (one strap) bag. I’ve looked at the Sling Pack from incase and a Belkin sling type of bag too. I don’t need to carry much, just the laptop, power-cord and extra mouse. So for me, a sling is the way to go.

    Dred242
    http://www.Dred242.com
    http://www.DigitalDred.com
    Pownce User: Dred242

  6. Comment by Ross C Brown — September 15, 2007 @ 2:24 pm

    Laptop bags are so hard to buy. Of the ones I have I keep returning to my Crumpler bag. It cost a small fortune (£120, so about $220) but it has room for loads and loads of stuff. Its been dropped countless times and never damaged my computers once.

    I did, for a while, manage to transport THREE laptops in it with ease. The only problem is that it is massive! And I’m not that big a guy.

    Right now, I have a £30 ($60) slip case for my MacBook Pro and I then place that in a while plastic drawstring shoulder bad that Apple give away in their retail stores - god help me when I drop it…

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