Billed as the ultimate laptop bag, the Manhattan Portage Wallstreet Laptop bag has a lot of great qualities. But it has some serious shortcomings as well.

It’s got tons of pockets, which is great.  But there are so many pockets, it’s difficult to remember where you put things.  If they were to line the interior of each pocket with a different color, or make them all different sizes, that might help.  But I’ve spent too much time rifling through pockets to find things that I think I’ve given up on the concept of a lot of pockets.

The exterior of the bag has a zipper around the outside that makes it expandable, which is great as well.  But there’s no way to lock it off, so it winds up expanding on it’s own over the course of the day, which is another drawback.

But the worst part is the padded shoulder strap attachment, which appears to have been lined with something that makes it impossible to kepp it from slipping off your shoulder. Unless you cross the strap over your head, there’s no way it’s not going to slip off.

But it is relatively inexpensive, lightweight and sturdy.  If it weren’t for the strap being too thick and slippery to stay put over the shoulder it’d be an almost perfect bag.  But as it is, I’d have to give it a C-.

$120 | MORE INFO

I work for a virtual company, so I tend to tote my workspace around wherever I go. Luckily for me, that workspace basically consists of a MacBook and a power adapter. Because of this, I’ve never really been inspired to replace my strapless, cumbersome, but cute Incase canvas sleeve.

Until now. Oh baby, until now.

Good friend Michelle Riggen-Ransom is now writing for Pop!Tech and she recently penned a post called “Pretty, practical, photovoltaic! Solar goes mainstream”. In the post, she profiles solar powered backpacks by a few companies, including Voltaic Systems. What caught my eye, though, was not one of Voltaic’s backpacks. It was the not-yet-released $599 Generator.

Yes, this thing is a motherloving generator in a laptop bag. The name may be a bit misleading. It does take an entire day of sunlight to get a full charge for a laptop. But talk about being the ultimate road warrior. Electricity? I don’t need no stinkin’ electricity.

At just under $600, I have to say this bag is way out of my price range. But a boy can dream, right? And the justification I keep offering myself… Adam, do it for the planet!

Airmail: AirMail
Durable manila-colored vinyl and lined with fuzzy, soft fleece.

Belkin: Neoprene Sleeve for MacBook Air
Keep your MacBook Air protected without the bulk.

Beyzacases: Thinvelope Leather Cases
High quality leather envelope-style MBA pouch with intricate stitching and details.

Case Logic: Reversible MacBook Air Sleeve
Durable, weather–resistant neoprene laptop sleeve cushions and protects.

Freitag: MacBook Air Sleeve
Recycled roof tarp outer, neoprene inner lining.

InCase: Neoprene Sleeve
The Neoprene Sleeve features durable neoprene construction, plush faux-fur lining and a slip entry closure system.

iSobre: Leather Envelope Sleeve
100% handmade leather sleeve.

MacCase: Premium Leather Sleeve
Fully padded sleeve with textured hide outer, available in seven colors.

Marware: CEO Envi for MBA
Top quality leather, a premium finish and a sleek profile.

Timbuk2: Steve Sleeve
Ultrasonic seam welds use a notoxic glue, the durable exterior softshell fabric (just like the stuff in mountaineering jackets) & low pile brushed fleece lining are made from post-consumer pop bottles (PET).

Wrappers: Cowhide MacBook Air Sleeve
Made from cruelty free, chic ultrasuede and lined with jet black microfibre.

And don’t forget the FedEx solution as well:

Introduction
I recently purchased the Bomber Jacket Laptop Messenger bag from Levenger. I have been eyeing this bag for quite a while and when Levenger gave me a 20% off coupon with a recent order, I finally pulled the trigger. But I have some fairly exacting standards when it comes to bags. Can the Levenger Bomber Jacket Laptop Messenger measure up?

Background
Before beginning with the review, it’ll probably be helpful if I give some background about myself and my use case. I am a nomadic programmer. I work a full-time day job; I run a freelance web design and technical consulting business; I am starting out in independent Mac software development; and I switch contexts frequently among the day job, home, school, and assorted mobile locations like Starbucks. So, I have to be able to carry with me a pretty significant amount of kit in order to be ready to work wherever I find myself with a spare half hour. As a result, I have an ongoing, near-obsessive quest for a great bag. For the past year or so, I have been carrying a Wenger backpack that I liked well enough. But something feels just a little bit out of sorts showing up to work or client meetings with a backpack. This is the color of my crystal when evaluating any bag.

Appearance and Aesthetics
Holy cow does this bag look great! The folks from Levenger certainly know how to use quality materials. The leather is soft and supple and smells great. The twill lining is soft as well. The zippers and other hardware are sturdy and made with high quality materials. The magnetic closure is cleanly hidden and keeps the flap from flying all over while I am walking. The strap is gorgeous as well. Whereas many bag makers treat the strap as an afterthought, Levenger has given the strap quality leather accents. The strap material is also found on the side ends of the bag to give the strap a sense of connectedness to the rest of the bag. As an accessory, this bag is near perfect.

Design and Functionality
For my money, I find the design and functionality of the Laptop Messenger to be the place where Levenger cut the corners. This is most unfortunate for a product as beautiful as this one.

The first thing I noticed was that the laptop pocket is the outermost pocket. This is the exact opposite of what a functional bag should do. The laptop will be one of the least frequently accessed items in the bag, particularly when on the move. The laptop pocket should have been placed next to the body instead. This would allow for faster, easier access to files or smaller items in the accessory pockets. Strike one.

The second thing I notice is that the accessory pockets are placed on the far side of the interior pocket. Again, this should be nearer to the body and ideally in the outermost pocket. Simply standing up with the bag over my shoulder reveals this clear design flaw. My accessory pockets contain a 3 X 5 Leather Rope Case (also from Levenger) that is pretty full of index cards, a Moleskine ruled pocket notebook, a brush, a pen, a pencil, a highlighter, and an eraser. When I stand with the bag over my shoulder and move the flap to get access to my items, the weight of them on the outside of the pocket makes the pocket collapse on itself. This means it is near impossible to interact with this bag without looking at it. My litmus test for a bag is how fast I can get to whatever it is I need at any given time. (My Wenger bag fails this test miserably.) For a messenger bag in particular, this is crucial, and this bag returns blue instead of pink.

Laptop-y-ness
I am giving special attention to this particular aspect of the bag since it bills itself specifically as a laptop messenger. For me and many others, laptop does not mean just the computer. If you are anything like me, then you need a variety of plugs, accessories, adapters, and other kit to work effectively with your laptop. The bare minimum requirement is to carry a power cable. There is no good place to store anything other than the computer itself with this bag. If I decide to keep this bag, I will end up purchasing a gear bag (likely of the WaterField variety) to lug around my kit. Not the kind of solution I expect to land on with Levenger.

Conclusion

In the end, the issue of reviewing this bag becomes whether you value form or function. If it’s the form and style that you are after, then save yourself $50 and buy the regular messenger bag. If you value function, then skip the Bomber Jacket Laptop Messenger. The gorgeous materials and craftsmanship save this bag a 2/5 rating. From my perspective, this bag should be sold as a messenger bag with a note that it is large enough to hold a laptop computer. But a Laptop Messenger it is definitely not.

$248 | MORE INFO

500 euros | MORE INFO

It’s rugged, roomy, lockable and $725 dollars. The Rimowa Attache’ meets the rigorous demands of business travelers wanting to live the spy lifestyle and who have expense accounts with a few extra zeros. The styling is sleek and clean, especially for an aluminum attache’.

$725 | MORE INFO

Built NY offers a pretty unique suite of neoprene products from bottle holders to messenger cases. Part of this collection includes various sizes of hip laptop sleeves and bags. While I haven’t had a chance to be hands-on with the laptop bags, I have seen some of their other products up-close and the neoprene is light, duarable and cushioned - all of which make for easy and care-free hauling of your gear. Price is on par with other higher-end, stylish bags (sleeves in the $30 range and portfolios near $80) and sizes to accommodate most portables - including 17″ machines. And don’t be afraid of the color choices, they have more subtle tones if you feel the dots and stripes are too feminine.

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Sleeves | MORE INFO

Incase is now on Twitter. You can follow them at goincase, I’m sure there will be a lot of activity there around July 11 and the lead-up to the iPhone 3G release.

Here’s a small collection of customized Timbuk2 bags from Flickr.