Kinetik 15.4 Backpack

List Price: $146.02 Discount Price: $87.63

Features:

• Kinetik 15.4 Backpack

Customer Reviews:

A good looking backpack, with a few drawbacks [Posted on 2008-03-22]
This is a sharp looking backpack with a lot of nice features and room for slender items like folders and paperwork and slim binders. The zippers throughout the backpack are smooth and travel well, with few hang-ups. The exo-shell casing definitely contributes to the clean-cut look, but there are some drawbacks to this exo-shell design depending on your intended use.

I travel full time and my old backpack had a laptop section and then a cavernous main storage space where I could place all my gadgets and smaller hardware devices (I'm a network engineer, so I need things like spare network cables, a small network switch, and other small gear like that, as well as the ever-present wireless mouse, power brick for my laptop and a drawstring pouch big enough to carry my iPod essentials).

There are many little pouches and slits/slots for paperwork-style stuff or binders, but the only real place to keep my bulky gadgets is in the netted pocket on the lower portion of the inside of the shell. This works well enough, but because all of this weight is distributed to the front of the backpack, it has a tendency to tip over forwards when set down (even with the laptop providing counterbalance in the middle-back section of the backpack). This sort of defeats the advertised free-standing feature of this backpack. I found myself having to lean it against something or brace it in some way to keep it from falling over when not slung over my shoulder. It behaved better when fully opened and unloaded of my bulky gear, but even then it would tip forwards sometimes.

Another problem is that in order to access anything inside of the main compartments, you have to pretty much unzip it all the way, because the stiff exo-shell prevents any attempts for quick access. You might find yourself wrestling with the backpack when you're doing this, to keep it upright, because of the aforementioned problem with weight distribution. If you want easy access to anything you're carrying in this backpack, keep it in one of the smaller external zippered compartments

If you're an air traveler (like me), be warned: you may sometimes have trouble stowing this backpack on the plane because of its exo-shell. The rigid design doesn't let you squeeze it into tight spaces that would be handled just fine by an otherwise full fabric backpack (especially on those smaller regional jets with very small overheads and cramped under-seat storage).

Something that is completely missing is a side pocket for a water bottle. Lots of backpacks have these nowadays, and my old one had two mesh ones. This one has none, and no alternative external pouch.

While these things are a negative for my purposes, this is still, overall, a very nice backpack. The exo-shell definitely gives it a sleek, sharp look, and the fabric is a good quality ballistic nylon. The shoulder straps are connected along the full length of the top section of the backpack, which I feel would make it hold up very well over time, as most "traditional" backpack straps are separate and can eventually fray and come loose from the body of the backpack, requiring repair.

As far as externally-accessible compartments, the right strap contains a zippered compartment for a small/slender MP3 player or phone and a headphone port. This little compartment could also feasibly hold folded up paperwork like a boarding pass or your ID (for all those air travelers out there), giving quick and easy access that doesn't require you to un-shoulder the backpack.

There is a side zipper on the left side along the back that serves as the "official" quick-access storage compartment. It can hold more paperwork than the shoulder strap compartment and was designed specifically for this purpose.

A zippered compartment on the top of the backpack expands into the rear (laptop) compartment directly above the laptop sleeve. It makes for your best externally accessible storage for miscellaneous items.

For the main compartments, the rear compartment holds the padded laptop storage sleeve with Velcro strap on the inner wall, along with two slender storage slots for paperwork on the outer wall (the back of the backpack). I keep a notepad in the lower, full-size one. The half-size pouch above it is a tight sleeve and only good for thin items or paperwork.

The forward main compartment has a thin zippered pouch on the top of the inner wall and a good-sized sleeve about two inches wide, big enough for a binder, bunch of folders, or in my case, my spare network cables and small three-plug power cord. On the outside face of this pouch is a small elastic pouch, three pen sleeves, a bunch of business card sleeves, and a clip for things like your key ring or similar item. Opposite of this is the inside of the exo-shell, which at the top has two Velcro-sealed pouches side by side, each with graphics on them suggesting possible items you may want to keep there (iPod, small camera, mouse, webcam, thumb drives, etc). These are nice little pouches and I like them, but putting stuff in them contributes to the forward-leaning weight of the backpack. Below these two pouches is the main storage area for anything large. An elastic-rimmed mesh pouch covers it about halfway to the top, and it's good for carrying the laptop power brick and anything else of that size.

With all that said I would recommend this backpack to anyone that doesn't need to carry a lot of extra hardware beyond the laptop, laptop power brick, a mouse, and maybe another small electronic device like a camera and/or iPod. If you need more gadget space and less filing space for folders/paperwork/binders, or are thinking of using this for frequent business travel on airplanes, keep looking, otherwise, this backpack will serve you well and look good doing it. Just remember to load-balance it so it doesn't fall on its face.

Bigger in real life!!! [Posted on 2008-09-03]
This bag can comfortably accommodate my 17" dell laptop and all of the other junk that i feel i need to haul around with me. Too often the what you see on the internet turns out to be a little to big in the flesh if you know what i mean. Not so here. Additionally, its very comfortable for short to medium distances, has plenty of storage compartments that can be reconfigured (a few more compartments like that would make it great), and draws lots of interest with the shell and striking colors. The only downfall so far has been the scuff marks to the shell from my desk, doors, and walls. the white scuffs prove difficult to remove.

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