SwissGear Unisex-Adult 5358 USB ScanSmart Laptop Backpack, Black Dot, Large

let me start out by saying nobody, and i mean nobody, makes better backpacks than SWISS GEAR! hands down they are the best! i have an old SWISS GEAR bag that dates back to the early 2000s (man im old) ... it was my road warrior technology backpack ... i loved it but thought i would update it given how much i used this bag (still sturdy, no rips/tears, but signs of age/wearing as expected). the 5358 black/blue back has the BEST LOOKS of any bag, bare none. but im returning this back for 3 reasons: 1. water bottle pockets. they wont hold a 32oz gatorade bottle w/o buckling them in (which poises another problem as those buckles get in the way of opening up the bag altogether. just give me DEEPER mesh pockets for waterbottles (BOTH SIDES please). and while the side insolated area is nice, its made for only small 12oz bottles. 2. shoe carrier. this is a technology carrier backpack, and not a workout bag ... having a compartment for shoes is just not somethign im interested in. if i need to carry shoes, ill bring a gym/clothes bag with. 3. key hook on the outside. i use this ALL THE TIME on my current swiss gear backpack ... i dont want to open up my bag to get my keys ... i LOVE the key hook (and my model has it on the handle. maybe im too picky, but reason #1 is enough for me to say no to this model.

This bag is great. Not huge and not small just the right size. Has a good amount of organization and compartments to keep things In their place. The old thing that would be better is if the keep cold zipper pouch was bigger. I can keep a tall red bull in there but a 1lt water bottle size would have been nice. Other than that I think this bag is perfect. Its my daily laptop backpack as I travel to different sites for work.

So many storage pockets and very nice large pocket with organizers for your laptop and accessories! Best book bag I have purchased to date.

A heavy-duty, well-designed, spacious backpack! I used it on a trip to Australia and it held a tremendous amount of stuff. When it is full and has a laptop and large power bar in it, it is really heavy, so when I arrived, I took out some of my stuff to make it lighter for daily use. The USB port on the strap is really convenient and, although the phone pocket is not really designed for a max sized iPhone, the fabric is stretchy enough that I could use it. The bottle pocket is deep enough that bottles dont fall out. The other side pocket extends into the body of the backpack and is lined with thermal insulation to keep something cold (presumably, it would work to keep something warm, too.) The straps and back are padded, so it is comfortable to wear. It also has a chest strap that provides additional support. I highly recommend this backpack.

Excellent bag the only problem is the water pocket is too small

This is my 4th swissgear backpack in the last dozen years. This is the first one I feel lets me down straight out of the box. First off, what clueless marketing person photographs a pocket knife in a tsa backpack paragraph and shows a picture of it? Want to make sure you never fly again? Use the backpack the way swissgear depicts. They dont show it here like they do on their webpage but swissgear believes that people have small cell phones and dont have cases on them. Thats the photo they use on their website to demo the cell pouch. Reality= the last 5 phones Ive owned do not fit into this pouch at all. Negates the tech savvy usb cable to the internal pouch where your battery pack is supposed to be. They might market this to the tech crowd but its very poorly thought out. Try putting a pair of shoes into this bag from the side without taking out all of the contents of the pouch the side entry shoe pocket enters. I dare you.