For years, I’ve touted eBags own line of luggage and backpacks for their durability, ingenuity, design and affordability. In fact, it’s the only luggage I personally travel with.
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On a six-week trip through Southern Africa, the only suitcase I packed was their Mother Lode TLS Mini 21”³ Wheeled Duffel. It proved so damn near-perfect in every respect that it’s my go-to pack for literally every trip, no matter the duration. On those rare occasions when I need to pack a little more, I opt for their 24″ Hardside Spinner.
But the one bag that’s always eluded me was an ideal laptop pack, specifically one that could adequately and safely carry my camera gear as well.
Enter eBags’ TLS Professional Slim Laptop Backpack.
The Skinny
In eBags own words, the TLS PSLB is:
Corporate Casual meets Professional.
We’ve taken a different point of view when it comes to a laptop backpack. Gone are the bungee cords, exterior mesh pockets, carabiner clips, and all of the other outdoor/sports bling that has no place in a professional setting.
The TLS Professional Slim Laptop Backpack features an all-black dress code that doesn’t look out of place in an office setting despite being a backpack. Isolated rapid-access compartments protect your laptop, iPad or tablet, sequester your printed materials, force you to be neat & organized by eliminating clutter zones, in a package that defies its published cubic inch capacity. It’s like turbo charging a compact car.
The gist: be stealth. Think “professional adult traveler” and less “broke backpacker”, while still offering all the features and durability of a typical hardcore backpack.
The Traveler’s Take
… and it does. This pack is for smart, pro packers who prefer to leave almost anything that’s remotely superfluous at home. The clever design is compact and lightweight enough that I don’t feel like an overburdened sherpa. Yet it’s large enough, with pockets, zippers, straps and compartments just so that I’m able to pack exactly everything I need.
As with all of eBags products, it’s clear that a great deal of thought and consideration went into the product design of the TLS PSLB (*two years* according to eBags). A few features we really love:
- A fully padded and lockable laptop compartment – completely isolated from the contents of the pack. Easy access via an “L”-zip opening. Fits laptops as large as 1.5” thick x 12.25″ wide x 17.5″ tall.
- Top-load tablet pocket is fleece-lined for automatic glass cleaning, measures 8-1/8” wide x 11.5” tall, lays flat between the main and laptop compartment, and is lockable.
- An organizer that actually keeps you organized. This eliminates any chance of stuff piling up at the bottom of the compartment by creating a 2-dimensional workspace free of clutter.
Particularly noteworthy is that, in addition to the main laptop compartment, is sandwiched a second vertical compartment ideal for packing a micro 4/3 digital camera and even a lens or two. While this isn’t an explicitly advertised feature, it works great for my purposes!
A nice little bonus is the “crush-proof AC-Adapter garage” (pictured above) at the bottom of the pack for ideal load balancing. This isolates heavy (or fragile) accessories from the rest of the pack. It’s even removable for those times when you need extra storage capacity.
If you’re looking for a pack with lots of room for expansion – one that will allow you to pack your laptop, tablet, phone, headphones, passport, other essentials, with plenty of room left over for trinkets and knick-knacks – look elsewhere. But if you’d like to carry just the essentials in a compact, cleverly designed, stealth pack that’s not begging for attention, your daybag has arrived.
Pricing + Availability
Available now in black for $99 USD (with free shipping) directly from eBags.com.