Swiss Gear SA1923 Black TSA Friendly ScanSmart Laptop Backpack - Fits Most 15 Inch Laptops and Tablets

This bag is great, really liked it and I had always wanted one. It had fit all my laptop gear and then some. BUT, it didnt fit the laptop itself. I have an MSI Titan gaming laptop (17.3in) and the corner of the laptop sticks out of the bag and I cant zip it up. Forget fitting it into the laptop sleeve slot. Maybe if it was thinner it would have fit, but my MSI too thicc with its nice cooling system. Boyfriend is happy to take it off my hands tho!

I got this as a gift for someone who travels a lot, so I cant really speak to longevity. Ive had dozens of laptop backpack over the years and this one has to be one of the best designed ones Ive seen. I initially purchased the larger one, since the detentions were only a half inch larger in each direction! That was a huge mistake. a half inch all around is way larger than one would think and no way that one would have fit under an airline seat. This bag, on the other hand is the perfect size for someone who has to carry a lot of gear, but needs to remain conscientious of size. The fact that it opens up like a clam shell is really nice. To think of all the times I had to manage two laptops, shoes, belt, wallet, carry on.....just shoot me already! This bag definitely keeps the line moving faster. Wish everyone had a similar set up going through the TSA checkpoints!

At first, I liked the pack a lot. It seemed well-built, has pockets everywhere, plenty of room and is TSA-friendly. (No more removing the laptop through the scanner). Theres plenty of room for my 15 MacbookPro which is stored securely and is well-padded. After daily use for about 7 months the pack is showing its age. Im constantly forgetting to close all the zippers (its hard to tell when theyre open with the black-on-black color). It no longer wants to sit upright, but is always falling over. A couple of the zippers dont glide smoothly any more, but get hung up. Finally, some of the interior pockets are getting loose and floppy. Even so, its a better pack then I had before and Ill probably keep using it until it falls apart, but I cant say if this is one of the better SwissGear backpacks. SwissGear packs seem everywhere and I expected a little better quality. The pack is reasonably lightweight and I got it at a decent price. I would call it a good, but not great backpack.

I cant tell you how excited I am this bag is in the Gold Box on Amazon! Totally getting a new one despite trepidation to retire the old one... I travel a lot and have had a bag nearly identical to this model 1923 for a while. Its been all over the USA and throughout the World with me. It is not only incredibly durable but has easy to reach pockets for everything. The ScanSmart is great for airports who allow it. The trim is reflective which am pretty sure saved my butt when I was walking through a back alley in France last month... blasted scooters. This bag has stories, many stories. Its the most interesting bag in the world and has been the best backpack Ive ever owned. After years of severe abuse; here are my notes on this bag: Note: I give this 5 stars on account of the fact that its outlasted any other bag Ive owned: Pros: Durability: Seriously, over 150k miles Ive traveled with this bag... Its still intact. And I didnt buy it, I found it on the side of a rubbish bin full of junk from China. So yeah, dont judge me for dumpster diving when I saw something I knew would be awesome, despite its likely use in an Asian drug deal or hostage exchange! It gained a new life as my travel companion. The Small top/outer pocket: This little bugger will hold 82 Euro in change with room for train tickets and is still so easy to get to you can grab a Euro on the fly without removing the pack and the zipper prevents loss of contents. (Actual reach ability will vary on your flexibility and length of arms) Airflow: It didnt make my back all sweaty carrying it all day on a hot late spring afternoon wandering the streets in Amsterdam. Its also very comfortable to wear and didnt give me trouble despite many long walks and hikes including a 35 km jaunt around Paris holding 2 days worth of clothes, trinkets, laptop and a large camera. Pockets galore: The little pocket inside, labeled as an MP3 pocket is a flap pocket that very nicely holds anything you want to get at easily... such as headphones like I use it for. Especially useful when in tight spaces like a tiny plane seat where disturbing the large smelly man asleep next to you on an Inter-European commuter flight could result in disastrous consequences. Yet another time this bag likely saved my life. Rugged handle: The Handle at the top is not only useful for lifting the bag and easily retrieving it from overhead bins, It will save your life by providing something for someone to grab onto when you slip on a gangplank exiting a channel ferry in Belgium and prevent you from entering cold icy waters of the Rhine in mid winter. Cons: Zippers: While the actual pulls are metal and will last a million years the tracks are plastic, very durable but after an encounter with a rogue hatch on a train in Germany, the zipper on one of the pockets would stick on the track. This was abuse, not manufacturing defect. Any other bag would have be unusable at that point, I just stopped opening the pocket all the way until it finally came undone in LA leaving only one of the two pulls on the track. (Looking forward to the new one to use that pocket again!) Inside Liner: After its encounter with a garbage bin which brought this pack to me, I had to wash it. The inside lining of the bag came apart. Maybe a toss through the industrial dryer on high wasnt a good idea despite the germ/smell killing benefits. If you get dumpster residue on yours; it will take a wash, just hang it up to dry as I did on subsequent washes. (Its endured at least 3 washing machine visits since Ive had it) Bottle Pockets: The mesh pockets on the side are great but the elastic will fail eventually and cause you to lose your water bottle somewhere in Paris and leave you parched after that amazing ham and cheese street-crepe, curse you worn out elastic. The above mentioned dryer encounter likely didnt help the elasticity. Summary: Buy this bag! It will save your life several times and endure some of the most harsh beatings you could ever imagine while containing all of your vital travel items and mementos on the way and at the same time protecting your laptop. I hope the new one will accumulate as many stories and adventures as the old one has.

I bought this to replace my laptop bag for to/from work and business trips. Because my laptop and other gear was so heavy the bag put a strain on my shoulder and back. I wanted something to distribute the load evenly and wouldnt wear on me during long jaunts through airports.After a two day search on the internet I came across this backpack and after reading reviews decided to buy it. I wasnt disappointed! The pack is well made and has plenty of storage space and compartments. A must because i take a lot of gadgets with me. The side entry for the laptop is easy and fast. The Scansmart is nice but if your using the compartment for storage everything will fall out when opening. That being said the side entry for the laptop is just as fast in my opinion. It would be nice to have some extra padding between my back and the laptop. With a laptop in it, it feels like a board is strapped to your back. Thats the only reason I gave it a 4. All in all I am very pleased with the purchase and would buy it again if I had to do it all over.

Ive had this backpack for 7+ years now. The best Ive ever had. No issues and everyone seems to want one, including my wife. I had a zipper issue that it went off the track, but easily fixed. I was so nervous Id not be able to fix it and checked out that they have a 3-5 year warranty, 10 if you buy right from their website (not amazon). If this was unrepairable, Id be getting another swissgear backpack - no doubt. Great product and lasted the test of time from travel, work, etc.

This bag has much larger capacity than the other SwissGear backpack that I was unhappy with. I needed a bag that had a dedicated and padded area for a laptop, and large compartment to fit my work cloths and lunch for when I go to the gym, and this does the job. My other requirement was a side buckle so that I can attach wet flip flops to the outside, and this works adequately. I keep my lifting gloves in the mesh pockets and they stay put, even on motorcycle rides. I dont ever use the 2 side zippered pockets, but others may find a use for them. So far Im happy with the durability over the past 6 months of daily use. I dont expect problems so early considering my previous Outdoor backpack lasted 10 years before the shoulder straps began to tear.

I just got the item a few days back - it seems to be exactly as per my expectations (and the description on the site). It is spacious, and well suited for my day-to-day needs. Ill need to use it for a couple more months to provide a more detailed feedback, but here are some initial observations: 1. The middle chain that opens the bag completely should be really helpful for airport security checks - hopefully Ill not have to remove my laptop and can just pass in the bag opened up. 2. The section in the front is spacious enough to hold a couple of books (books totaling 2 inches in thickness) and a tablet. 3. I can fit my 13 macbook pro comfortable in the laptop section at the back with a lot of room to spare. I think a 15 laptop would easily fit too. Not so sure about 17 4. Lots of small pockets / room for accessories - cables, connectors, pen-drives, travel adaptors, cameras (My GoPro has a nice fitting place inside) etc. 5. Very comfortable on shoulder. No negatives so far, except that I would like a red+black dual color version of the bag (Searched at many places, but this particular one comes only in all-black).

I tried the following bags before settling on this one: SwissGear 1900 – tablet sleeve not useful for my purposes Under Armour Storm Hustle II – nice lightweight bag but not sufficient number of useful pockets (internal zippered or velcroed) KAKA waterproof – roomy and well constructed but no internal zippered pockets SwissGear 1908 – not bad but the SwissGear 1923 had more pockets / stitching seems weak Amazon Basics Adventure – fair construction / good weight / not enough useful zippered internal pockets – I liked that laptop compartment had anterior and posterior padding SwissGear 1923 – has one internal zippered pocket in the bag’s flap. Zippered side pockets and front carabineer are also useful. The backpack handle would have been better if it were more rubbery and flexible instead of hard plastic. This bag weighs a bit more than some of the other comparable bags.

I read many of the reviews and decided to buy it in the end when there was a great deal on it for over half off. ($59) I have actually seen the price on this fluctuate before so I just waited and hoped it would go back down... And to my luck it did after a few months. As many other owners of this bag have said, I agree that it is probably the nicest backpack that I have ever owned. The material that it is made out of is thick and seems very durable, it has metal pull tabs, and is well sewn for a sturdy product. It is also sturdy enough to stand upright on its own when I set it down, which is nice in my opinion. The handle at the top seems to be made of quality, hard rubber and is extra reinforced to ensure it can stand up to heavy loads. The material seems to be very water resistant. I tested this by making puddles of water on the fabric to see if it would absorb it. After a several minutes, the puddle remained and the inside was dry. I did this with the padded parts too which do absorb water, but even so, after minutes of letting the pool of water sit in the drenched fabric, the water still was unable to penetrate through to the inside. I went further and tested the inside lining and it seems even more water resistant than the outside material. I dont say that any of this is water proof because after wiping up the puddles, the fabric remains slightly damp (the inside lining was nearly dry) but the fact it is able of hold a puddle of water for a long period of time without getting through the other side proves it is difficult for water to penetrate all the way through. Therefore, I trust that it would hold up in rain just fine. I cant accurately test if water will easily seep through other parts of the bag (zippers, seams, etc... Just dont go swimming with it) but I know water wont be getting through the material itself. The only part of the bag Id be concerned of water getting through to the inside is the side pockets as there are ventilation holes, but other than that Id say this bag is weather resistant. Wearing this backpack is very comfortable, with ample padding for the back and well fitting straps, I can imagine I will rarely feel too uncomfortable wearing it for long periods of time. I can feel the gap that they leave open along my spine which allows me to assume it does actually let air flow through keeping my back cool, which I look forward to as my back tends to sweat a lot while wearing backpacks. The adjustment straps are also easy to pull because of the plastic loops they added to the end of them, making it easy to tighten and loosen while wearing it. The shoulder straps have a few extra loops for accessories as well. The one loop on the left shows that it is for sunglasses. There are two towards the top of each shoulder strap with an image of arrows pointing up and down... I dont know what these are made for. There seems to be a lot of discrepancy in the size of laptop this bag can hold so I would like to try and clear this up. The bag actually comes with a tag saying it is made for a 17 laptop. Laptops, televisions, and most other things with digital screens are typically measured diagonally. That being said, it holds my 17 (14.75 x 9.5 x 1.125) laptop just fine with quite a bit of room to spare (about 2 of extra space on both top and side). The padding is nice around the sides and top of the laptop, but just like some other reviews, I feel there isnt much padding on the bottom (most backpacks dont from my experience) but there is a little as the material the bag is made of in general is fairly thick. Because of the extra space though, I solved this minor issue by rolling up an old medium sized T-shirt and stuffing it on the bottom of this compartment. It makes my 17 laptop fit snugly and now I have no worries of damaging anything when I set the backpack down. This compartment also has fuzz along the sides for a padded velcro strap to securely strap the laptop in place as well. With everything Ive said so far about the laptop compartment, in theory, a 19 laptop might make a tight fit (youd be cutting it close if you tried). I cant guarantee that claim though because laptops can vary in style and size. The zippers next to the laptop compartment unzips all the way down so the back of the bag, where the laptop resides, can flap apart from the rest of the bag which is how the smart scan feature functions. There is a thin divider for a few papers here as well. There is ample space in the main compartment to hold plenty of things. There is a small pocket to hold your phone or music device and a well covered slit above it for headphones to be slipped through so you can listen to music from the device. There are built in file dividers to separate documents. There is also an interesting piece of padding sewn along the bottom, back end of the bag underneath the separators which allows it to flap up and down... I just push it down so it lines the entire bottom of the bag which also allows the bag to hold its shape and may protect anything in this compartment from impact (they shouldve had similar padding in the laptop compartment...). I guess if I had important papers along with clothes or books in the bag, I could also lift the flap up against the dividers and it would prevent the clothes, books, or anything I put in the main compartment from wrinkling my documents in the dividers. Other than that, I dont know why the bottom padding is allowed to flap around. There are two smaller compartments in the front of the bag. The one on the top is narrow and can fit a graphing calculator or a DVD box... or perhaps a sandwich (though it might flatten the sandwich out). The bottom is nice and spacious with multiple small dividers and pockets to hold various things like pens, pencils, post it notes, an ID card, and a bigger pocket in the back for a planner/organizer. There is also a detachable key ring as well. The side compartments are very spacious reaching up to almost 3/4 the length of the bag. A small umbrella, liter water bottle or a large rockstar energy drink could fit in either pocket. You might want to avoid putting water sensitive items in here because they are vented by two holes, but honestly, the holes are small enough that I wouldnt worry too much about water getting in unless its pouring (I put my laptops charging cable in here). Along these side pockets is an elastic pocket for a liter sized water bottle or canister. There is a clip strap to hold it in place. Note, if you do decide to put large water containers in these pockets, it makes it difficult to fit thicker items in the zipped compartments (and vice versa). This is a great backpack and I am very excited to use this for the years to come.