Sunday, January 20, 2008

Review: MacCase's MacPack (backpack for MB and MBP)

Official homepage MacCase

Intro


After posting the MacCase Sleeve review, here comes the review of the backpack manufactured by MacCase. The sleeve and the backpack can be purchased in a combo deal and I do recommend doing so, if you are considering buying the MacCase backpack...
Anyways, let's start the review.


Material and manufacturing

The material of the backpack is of high quality just like the sleeve was. The MacPack is made of very tough nylon. I have used the backpack over a period of about one and a half months, so far, and tried to "abuse it" on occasion and nothing ripped or got damaged. So, once again best grades for the choice of material. Regarding the manufacturing I have to admit that I was a little disappointed. I am not saying that it was poorly manufactured but compared to the sleeve the manufacturing was a little more poor. The embroidery of the logo in the front for example wasn't as good as on the sleeve. However, in whole, the manufacturing is very solid.

Design

The design of the backpack I really liked. It doesn't stand out too much and is kept really simple. The MacPack has two big compartments. The one in the back is where you store your Macbook or Macbook Pro (with the sleeve). This compartment is big enough to fit all Macbooks (up to 17 inches) and a couple of books if needed. The back compartment has some velcro strips where you can attach your MacSleeve if needed and there is also a strap which can be used to fixate your Macbook. The front compartment is where you keep all those little things like iPod, mouse, power adapter, usb hubs, etc. It has 9 small compartments as you can see in the picture and offers more than enough space to store all those gadgets that a modern road warrior might need. There is also a pass through for the headphones, should you decide to keep your iPod in one of the compartments. On the sides there are two mesh pockets where you can carry drinks. You can fit a bottle of Coke (size up to 0.5 l) or in my case I stored my Starbucks coffee mug in there. The grip handle of the MacPack is made of a soft foam that feels really nice when you have to carry your backpack in a crowded place for example. The neon green color might be a bit too much for some people but actually I kind of liked it and thought that it looked pretty good.



Comfort

I'd like to write some sentences here regarding the comfort of this backpack. Let me say this is one of the most comfortable backpacks I have had so far. The reason for this is firstly, the slightly curved shoulder straps of the MacPack. These straps and its shape guarantee a very ergonomic carrying experience. At first I thought they might feel weird but they really work well. Secondly, the materials used for the back of the MacPack and the shoulder straps guarantee a very comfortable carrying. The material used is a breathable mesh foam and feels very good when carrying the backpack. I have yet to find a backpack that is as comfortable to carry.


Final thoughts

Now, how does the first backpack review on Days of our Macbooks score you might wonder. If I had to give it a score on a 10 points scale I'd give it a 8,5. There is a one point deduction for the sometimes not so perfect manufacturing of the bag (ex. embroidery, pass through for headphones). This is nothing major but still something to mention. Half a point deduction because for my taste there is too much velcro used (the velcro straps in the back compartment to fixate the sleeve, the other strap to fixate the Macbook).
So who is this backpack for? I'd say this is a perfect combo for recent switchers who do not own a sleeve yet. You get a backpack and a sleeve for just 69,95$ which is a good price. Let's not forget that it is big enough to carry a Macbook, accessories and a couple of books; is very comfortable to carry and in my experience very tough.

MB-switcher

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just got one for my 15" MBP and can't figure out how I"m supposed to use three velcro strips on the back...

MB-switcher said...

I think ur only supposed to use one of the strips. there are probably three straps for the different models (13,3 macbook, 15 mbp, 17 macbook pro)

Jones Morris said...

Thanks so much for this information. I have to let you know I concur on several of the points you make here and others may require some further review, but I can see your viewpoint. Hurley Backpacks