June 08
Perhaps it is of little surprise but as a general rule, my laptop tends to travel with me to most places - dinner with friends, drinks with friends - heck, I even manage to cart it into work. It's not a small thing either - I elected for a big screen as I spend so much time staring at it and whilst I dream of a Mac (Book Air, please and thank you) the brick of a laptop I carry around with me bears no resemblance whatsoever.
Therein, when offered a trial on the Kensington Contour Balance Notebook Roller (herein referred to as 'KCBNR' - which is still a mouthful!) I leapt at the chance.
Designed for women and billed as 25% lighter than most of its competitors,
this bag on wheels for my lump of lard of a laptop seemed like a
godsend.
Fitting up to 15.4" Widescreen inside was just perfect. Better yet, the designer obviously
knew the UK rather well as they had made the bag water resistant.
This was all sounding rather good.
Unpacking it, two of us scanned it critically. Somehow it looked rather dated... smart, yes but dated nonetheless. We looked inside and shied away. It looked like a toiletry bag!
I pulled out the extendable handle and whooped! At six foot in height, the handle was perfectly
comfortable. The reviewer with me however stands at about 5ft 4" in flats - we adjusted
the handle to suit her and did so easily. Bonus points.
I searched around for a shoulder strap ... the spec's say
there is one and it tucks away - indeed, very well away! I
couldn't find it nor where to attach it! Drat.
I picked it up by the handles at the top and cringed - this
Roller had obviously not been designed for this. No padding for
your grip and rough edges made carrying like this for any distance
a real no-go (but that said, it is a roller bag ...)
We struggled a little with the interior pocket design too. Opening the bag was rather odd - one side of the laptop compartment unzipping all the way to the base and the other side only opening halfway around. Fiddly!
We walked around it, we picked it up, we rolled it along, we zipped and unzipped ... we put it aside for a moment and came back to it with fresh eyes ... but no, this bag, whilst the idea is great (with added thoughtfulness such as a magnetically closing water bottle compartment) just didn't have enough about it to justify the price tag.
Such a shame.
With an RRP in the region of £69.99 this bag might not be the answer but Kensington have a huge range and you may want to pop to the site to check out what else is on offer (I did!)