Anyways, this is how it looks with proper lights and professional placement (I don't know how Deuter can always seem to inflate their backpacks like balloons).
As you can see, it has a nice green color which I really dig -what can I say, I'm a sucker for everything green- and it's not too big or too small for a working daypack. Yes, I use it primarily for work. I use another cool carrier -which apparently is the cool term for your travelling, hiking, overseas tramping trips- by Deuter, the Futura Pro 38, but let's keep the focus on the Tension for now.
First, the reason why I pick Deuter and not other brands, or other laptop dedicated bags, is because, well, laptop bags aren't really that comfortable in my back. I have about three and all of them feels like a huge hump that press my shoulders down even after walking around for less than 20 minutes. And as the nature of my job requires constant movements from one place to another, why not pick something with good shoulder padding and back system.
And Deuter was actually not my first option, I was browsing for, well, brands like Vaude -there's this really cool green vaude on their website, Karrimor -which also have a most wanted item whose name I forgot, and The North Face -though some are available, they normally come in boring black color, which in my case, attracts more mosquitoes.
But my eyes stuck on Deuter because their products are easier to find at highly bargained prices in Indonesia, in which the aforementioned brands are not. recommended sellers at Kaskus have always been my last resort.
enough talk and get on with the review.
Despite the cool looking backpack you see on top, this is how mine's looked with nothing in it.
And this is the back system I mentioned before (click on image for bigger view).I have to say that it's not working as I expected it would. Though I feel both back
pads pressing on my back, my reflect constantly forced me to fix the adjustments of
both the right and left shoulder cords so that both pads fall perfectly on the sides.
I would have preferred a single pad on the back bone, as I constantly have a backbone
problem, but that's probably just me.
I still sweat, but not as much I guess.
And there's also the chest cord which I don't particularly use, and the bag also come
with detachable hip cords, which I detached to slip the dangling shoulder cords in
Now moving on to the compartments
The bag has a small upper pocket that can hold your keys -with dangling key cord, itsy bitsy things like identification cards, possibly earphones, cigarettes and lighters, whatever small things you want easy access to.these are the two side pockets
this one has tons of pen holders, which is kindda cool -you'll know why later, and quite a space for anything else, like small size notebook and stuff.
The one on the left is made of an elastic material, which you'll probably missed on the images at the
company's website. This means the right and left
pockets are dissimilar in terms of design, with the
left meant to stretch to hold something bigger,
such as water bottles, or in my case, my box of
name cards.
Peeking at the main compartment,
there's a small zipped bag that can hold small and not too thick notes. Stuff like passports, your bankbooks and other of similar sizes should fit in this pocket. Though connecting cables for electronic devices can also fit here, I found it annoying to do so as it will block my access to the main compartment.
the inside compartment has an attached line of cloth that, I guess, were meant to hold your wet clothes. The design also meant for things to stay at the edge of the wall of the bag
so that the things you put inside won't dangle you down on the opposite direction. Plenty
of bags have this feature, so I guess you know what I'm talking about. This is where I put my
laptop in. The absence of a dedicated laptop compartment, in my opinion, is forgivable,
as it was never meant to be a laptop bag in the first place. I would advice for a laptop
soft case if you want to mount your laptop in at the expense of less space, but I'm doing
just fine without one :p.
I don't know whether 20 liter is the over all size or after the bag is shrunk. I'm saying this because the bag has an outside zipper that can give additional space for the inside compartment. With the load I'm carrying right now, I found it unnecessary to expand the main compartment, but it's good to know that I can if I need to.
This is the outside of the bag, which according to the Deuter website could (or should?) hold your skateboard in case you want to walk or run instead of glide. I haven't tried mounting a helmet in, which is partially one of the reasons why I bought this series instead the spider, which also look cool by the way, but the long connecting cords should do it, I guess, I don't really know, will update you if I finally mount something in it, if by chance I remembered to take pictures of it. You should see as I don't really like dangling cords on my bag, I kindda tighten them using plastic tighteners -whatever the cool term for it. They's the same cable tighteners available in different colors at your local utility shops.
The bag also has a glow-in-the-dark stripe that will prevent you from getting hit from behind if you're riding a bike or walking on the wrong side of a sidewalk-less street, which is a lot in Jakarta.Now that I have covered, I guess, all parts of the bag that need to be covered.
Here are the things I carry everyday to work,
-14 inch laptop from Toshiba
-my 500GB shock proof, supposedly, portable hardisk from Transcends
-itsy bitsy stuff like bunch of pens, toothbrush -shut up, lighter, portable ashtray, back up Senheisser earphones, press id
-slightly bigger stuff like notebook, passport and a couple of bankbooks
-box of namecard
-bunch of cable connection for charging electrical equipment, such as the shitty laptop charger -due to its weight and size, iPod cable, blackberry cable and hardisk connector.
-and finally a spare shirt in case I need to look neat pronto
just to show you the capacity of this bag, I have decided to include the ultra-thick Steve Jobs biography -may he rest in iPeace- by Walter Issacson inside the bag.
and now it's time to put everything inside, okay this one over here, that one over there, some of this stuff here, and, wait, yup.. okay and VOILA!!
This is how the bag looks after everything is clobbered in, also see the side pics to compare the thickness (click for larger view).
Just to give you an idea about the dimension of the bag, this is my son Kaezee next to the Tension -or simply because the purpose of this review is to make my son famous :p
here's pros and cons
pros
-green colored (the black stripe is also available btw)
-nice padded and wide shoulder strap
-big enough but not overly humongous for my back, appealing design
-I heard the bag is water proof :p
cons
-the back system I mentioned above
-lack of dedicated laptop container but okay laa
-placing of inside pocket that can block the way (I later see this as a good thing, as the bag doesn't necessarily weigh everything to the bottom part. Bag contents are evenly distributed on the upper and bottom parts to maintain its cool proportional shape, so it goes).
Overall I'm pretty happy with the bag as it answers my need for a hip-looking work daypack. And though the amount of things inside is similar to the amount of things mounted on my normal laptop bag, my shoulders receive less strain due to the width of the pad, and my back don't sweat as much.
Here's me looking happy
(mm probably later)
1 kritikan:
it's been a month and I really like this bag (grin)
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