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

After many types of messenger bags I decided to switch out to a backpack for a lot of my work. I did some research online, checked out the reviews and decided on this SwissGear SA 1923. Good bag. its a very well made back and so far has held up to a lot of my punishment. Its easy to sling over my shoulder and when I have to carry something large I can wear it proper and not worry about it slipping off. It has ample storage space and a lot of compartments to store the odd bits. In the main computer compartment I store my Lenovo 14 laptop. The only addition I did was put a piece of foam at the bottom of the compartment from a Targus bag to keep the bumps from hurting anything. The bag is made to TSA specs so the next set of zippers inwards will cleave the backpack in two. In normal mode it allows me to store my iPad or bluetooth keyboard in a webbed compartment. Oh, quick hint. At the top, where all these zippers meet, theres a loop where I put a carabiner. All these zippers have a hole at the end where theyll easily fit onto a small carabiner. Do this or the weight of the laptop will pull the zipper down. No problem unless youre wearing the backpack, driving down the road on your motorcycle. VERY close call. Side pockets allow me to separate out my AC adapter and small amount of tools. Theres a large central compartment for my notebook (paper) and iPad and a front pouch that gathers all of my other bits and pieces. Oh yeah, theres a top front pocket, by the handle, thats perfect to hold quick to get at items. Great for drink mixes or granola bars. The material seems tough, it stores a lot of my junk and is pretty easy to carry around. Exactly why I purchased it. Easy to carry by the handle as well as one or both shoulder straps. Plenty of pockets and carabiner attachment points. And, is TSA compliant. But why not 5 stars? I only had two problems with this bag, both relatively minor. First, it will fall FLAT ON ITS FACE! The way the bag is made causes the bag to flop over onto its face no matter how its loaded. Not really a problem but I like to put my bag down so I can get at the pockets and the first time I did this it took a header off a chair and crashed onto a concrete floor. Kind of a pain to always have to hide away the pockets when you put it down. Second complaint is the lack of storage for small items. I have a lot of cables, adapters, and other small do-dads. There really isnt a good small item dividers. Like I said, small complaint but important to me. Ive gotten around it by purchasing other small zippered storage bags that I can stuff into the larger compartments. All in all a good bag. Glad I purchased it and would recommend to others but with those two caveats.

I purchased this backpack for travel. After coming back from five weeks overseas, I really put the backpack through its paces. I used it for packing through the airport, to-and-fro the office, as well as a few side hikes without electronics. So far, no signs of stress on the seams or other stitched parts. First, the SmartScan feature is amazing. This is definitely a time saver in the security line where a few extra seconds can alleviate some serious headache in the masses. Even through international security lines, no one ever said anything and the pack went straight through the scanner. The side-load of the laptop is definitely something I am not used to or have seen before, but it actually worked great. This is one of those dont knock it til you try it type things. The backpack has plenty of storage and organization, overall. The mesh pocket inside is great for passports/documents and the mp3 player pocket is great for packing along an external hard drive. The lower front pocket has plenty of space for pens, documents, phone(s), business cards, and includes a nifty keychain that you can snap your keys to. The tall, zippered side pockets are perfect for a glasses case or something like that. I also slipped my mouse in there too. Heres the problem - the mesh pockets are fairly tight and not prone to stretching as far as other SwissGear packs of the past. So, if you load up the zippered pocket, you may not have room for a water bottle; maybe some gum or throat lozenges. If that zippered pocket is empty, dont even consider a Nalgene. You can hold a 20oz water/coke bottle at best. Lastly, on the storage parts, the main compartment is very well thought out. There are some complaints about how access is a little tight, but I had no issues. The good part about this is that the sides of that main compartment create a good shroud around everything you have in there. Heres that bad news - two parts. If you have read other reviews about padding on the bottom and the zippers, those are totally accurate. SwissGear could have added something ever-so-slightly to pad the bottom of the laptop better. There is plenty of room in there to add that in, even with a 17 laptop I had stowed. Then there are the zippers - ooooh the zippers! This design is clearly a product of the economic downturn design budget there at the head office! They look somewhat rugged. The zipper tags feel rugged. However, the zippers are prone to skipping teeth and you have to be somewhat gentle with them. Basically, you have to watch it when zipping to make sure its okay. You cannot just zip it quick and run out the door. What is needed are some of those trusty YKK zippers we all love. Dont get me wrong, though. Once they are sealed, youre good to go. All that being said, I would definitely purchase this again. Overall, it worked perfect for what I needed and everything has held up well. Dont go for the $80 price this bag has sometimes. Add it to your Amazon Wish List and wait for a price drop in the $50-$60 range. An easy 4 Stars (5 if they fix the zippers).

I have spent a long time looking for a great work backpack and this is it. My basic requirements were a bag that could hold my work gear; laptop, tablet, chargers, mouse, and most importantly papers and files. Its easy to find a briefcase or messenger bag that has dividers for paperwork, however it was nearly impossible to find this simple, yet critical feature in a backpack. This bag met all of those requirements. In total the backpack has 3 main compartments; one with the usual pen/pencil pockets, a mid size compartment with the file dividers, and finally the laptop compartment. I have a 15 inch work laptop, however there is enough room in the compartment for one up to 17 inches. In additional to the main compartments, there are 2 large side zippered pockets, 2 side mesh pockets, 1 small back pocket, and 1 zippered internal pocket. The backpack has a zipper travel feature which splits the bag in half for faster TSA lines. I was skeptical that TSA was going to let this pass, however I was able to pass the bag through xray machines in two US international airports without incident. Lastly, I have scoliosis which makes carrying bags painful at times. This is the main reason I wanted to switch from a briefcase to a backpack. This is hands down the most comfortable backpack Ive owned and has excellent weight distribution capabilities. I would recommend this bag to anyone who needs a solid, large capacity work backpack.

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.

My teenage son has used this backpack for a year. It still looks brand new even with filling it up everyday with school books (does not have lockers at his school). When I say fill up with books, I don’t mean a couple books. I’m talking he can’t put anything else in it because it is filled up (7 different classes with 2 English books). The seams are all still intact with no signs of stress.

Had this for about 8 months and so far it has performed well.No problems to report. I use it for work and travel for work. It holds my laptop easily. Had a 15 laptop and it held it no problem. Now I have a smaller one and it swims in the pocket. Can easily fit a tablet or even 2 laptops. Havent tried the TSA friendly feature as I have pre check. There are enough pockets for for all of the stuff I carry. One thing I might change are the side mesh water bottle holders. When there is stuff in the zipper pockets next to the mesh pockets, it is hard to get a large water bottle in there or a thermos. Smaller water bottle fits ok. Im happy with it. Update: Been using this backpack now for 5 years. Traveled past 5 years for work with last 2 years solid travel and after several hundred flights and 3 continents, this backpack is still going strong. Showing very little wear. Zippers all in good condition, handles still secure and attached. Easily holds my laptop and an iPad. Still havent tried the TSA feature as Ive always had pre check. I honestly did not expect to still be using this after 5 years but I think I will get at least another 3 years out of it before I simply get tired of it and buy something new just to buy something new. Cant ask for too much more out of a backpack than I asked of this one. Update 2022: This backpack is still going strong. I added a new continent in 2022 with 2 trips to Australia, one to Korea and several trips to Europe. It is only showing the slightest bit of wear and only on the inside. It must be nearing a million miles of travel by now along with daily trips to the office when I’m not traveling. I don’t know if they still make this model but if they do, it’s a great durable everyday travel backpack

I bought this bag to replace a travel carry on I had. Funny how once I got to the airport that I noticed 50% of the travelers had Swiss Gear backpacks. Good sign. I bought this bag for my GF who is a Flight Attendant and she loved it. Anyway, it has pockets to keep all your stuff separate and organized. Everything is pretty easy to get into. The handle on top is great. On the left shoulder strap it has a band that you slide your sunglasses into to hold. That was the coolest. Why I didnt give 5 stars. It has a bit of weight to the bag even when empty. But, that is because it is a good quality bag. Just sayin. My only suggestion is to put your own tag or ribbon on it because everyone has one of these bags and they all look alike.

Swiss Gear backpacks last forever. The one my daughter has been using daily for 7 years had no issues other than her water bottle did not fit well. This one is more than a school backpack, with thicker/sturdier material. A bit heavier than I hoped. It is a wider backpack, but doesnt look weird on my slim daughter. I ordered slate and got a blue, which is part of the reason I knocked a star off. Not going to go through the hassle of exchanging though. The other reason is that it is really difficult to understand how much a bag weighs by itself online - Id like that to be included in the specifications.

This fits my 15 inch laptop comfortably in its own compartment. I also have a legal sized portfolio that fits comfortably in another compartment. Then there is a 3rd (main) compartment. This main compartment has various pockets for various small things like pens, pocket knives, erasers, and what-not. There are a couple of zippered pockets inside. I wish more of these pockets had zippers or Velcro closures. The only thing that has cause me real problems is the pocket for your music device/cell phone. This pocket is inside the main compartment near the top center, near the cable exit hole/flap. My MP3 player is tiny and its clip does not grip well on the smooth slippery material. My player has slipped up and out of the pocket a couple of times. I thought I lost my MP3 player, but I found it later that evening at the bottom of the main compartment. After this happened twice, I just decided to stop using that pocket for anything. It would be nice if there was some sort of grippy/rubber/textured material inside the pocket, or there was a strap, or a zipper, or a flap held shut with Velcro, or some sort of closure to help secure ones device in this pocket. That handle on top of the bag feels beefy and securely attached. The padding in the straps could be more substantial. Although I have a complaint about the MP3/Phone pocket, I am still giving this 5 stars because everything else about this bag is awesome.

I needed to replace my old laptop backpack and noticed many colleagues using the SwissGear line. The difficulty in ordering one of these on-line is that there are a number of variations and the differences are subtle. From everything I could learn an all websites, including Amazon, there were 2 models I was interested in. the SA1923 (this one) and the SA1900. The photos are misleading. They are not necessarily unique to those specific models. I had to order both packs and compare in-hand and send the one back that I didnt fit my needs. The only difference between these 2 models, besides the color, is this one has a full width pocket for a slim folder or notebook opposite the laptop compartment in the section that opens up to lie flat on the airports scanning conveyor. The SA1900 has a compartment for an iPad in that location. All other compartments and sections of the pack are identical. The pack is roomy and can old a lot. Probably more than I really want to carry. My only complaint is I wish it had just a couple of other small zippered sections inside for small miscellaneous items often needed on business trips (e.g. medications, snacks, sunglasses or reading glasses, etc.). Also, keep in mind access to the laptop compartment is one side only (right side while wearing the pack). The zipper goes from the top of the pack down the right side only. There are other models in this line that are smaller and more simple. If the features each offer is important, just dont rely on the pictures if they seem to be the same as other models.