Backpack review after 6 months

[Morphior]

(Can't post a review on LTTStore because I don't have an account there and the token from the email is expired)

 

I have traveled with this backpack a lot already and it's a treat.

• I went from Germany to Madrid for four days (plus a laptop bag for under the seat in the airplane) and then directly from there to Denmark for another six days and it fit all my clothing and tech (the laptop bag was just for random stuff I wanted under the seat).

• Then I went to Cyprus for two weeks and again, this bag and my laptop bag were all I took, no checked bag at all.

• And then I went to Houston, TX for two days – on that trip I traveled with the backpack and my camera bag. This is what I'm going to do going forward – backpack for clothing/other bulky stuff and camera bag for under the airplane seat.

 

I'm very impressed by the backpack. The pockets are very well thought out, both the layout and the sizes. The only thing that's annoying is the water bottle pocket – it doesn't fit my 64 oz bottle and the fact that there's no water bottle holder on the outside is a real bummer. But the tech pockets and the Compartment of Holding are amazing.

 

My current EDC:

• I always keep a USB power bank with a USB-C cable in the outside side pocket.

• A small airplane-approved clear plastic bag with toiletries is in the zippable inside pocket in the Compartment of Holding.

• My 14" laptop resides in the largest of the tech sleeves because that one's the easiest to slide things in and out of.

• I keep a notebook and my ultimate physics formula collection book in the sleeve that's meant for a handheld device.

• My ebook reader goes in the middle sleeve because I have a separate sleeve for it and it gets caught on the smooth screen-protecting fabric in the smaller sleeve. I keep my most important documents in the passport pocket because I always keep the bag close to me anyway.

• And now let's come to the front door pocket thing. It's just amazing. Obviously it holds the screwdriver (along with lots of extra bits) but there's lots of other random bits and pieces in there.

• As I said, I have the 64 oz bottle which doesn't fit it the water bottle holder so it just lives in the Compartment of Holding.

• This means the water bottle pocket is available so I bought a tiny little 3-plug extension cord with 3 USB ports and a very short cable which fits comfortably in that pocket. The amount of times I have used that thing is staggering and it's always with me.

• Sunglasses are in the sunglasses pocket, so no surprises there.

• My all-in-one USB C dongle lives in one of the pockets in the tech compartment, along with my pencil case and my calculator.

 

As you can see, there's space for everything and I just checked last weekend that with all this stuff in place I was able to fit clothing for at least five days without a problem.  Also, the shoulder straps are very comfortable over a long time. However, one thing is that there's no waist strap which is a concern when you're wearing the backpack for a long time. Also, the chest strap is starting to fail on me (the stretchy rubber in the strap is fraying and rubber strands are coming out of the strap itself).

 

I'll give the backpack four stars, the reason for not being five stars along with the chest strap issue and waist strap missing mainly being the missing water bottle holder on the outside that can take the 64 oz bottle. I have thought about buying one of those Molle water bottle holders on Amazon and somehow attaching it on the outside. It might interfere with the zippers though and it's not gonna be very sturdy I guess, so I haven't bothered doing it yet. If I can make it work though, the inside would be able to take up even more stuff which is honestly insane.

[Hellreaver]

On 5/3/2023 at 4:42 PM, Morphior said:

(Can't post a review on LTTStore because I don't have an account there and the token from the email is expired)

 

I have traveled with this backpack a lot already and it's a treat.

• I went from Germany to Madrid for four days (plus a laptop bag for under the seat in the airplane) and then directly from there to Denmark for another six days and it fit all my clothing and tech (the laptop bag was just for random stuff I wanted under the seat).

• Then I went to Cyprus for two weeks and again, this bag and my laptop bag were all I took, no checked bag at all.

• And then I went to Houston, TX for two days – on that trip I traveled with the backpack and my camera bag. This is what I'm going to do going forward – backpack for clothing/other bulky stuff and camera bag for under the airplane seat.

 

I'm very impressed by the backpack. The pockets are very well thought out, both the layout and the sizes. The only thing that's annoying is the water bottle pocket – it doesn't fit my 64 oz bottle and the fact that there's no water bottle holder on the outside is a real bummer. But the tech pockets and the Compartment of Holding are amazing.

 

My current EDC:

• I always keep a USB power bank with a USB-C cable in the outside side pocket.

• A small airplane-approved clear plastic bag with toiletries is in the zippable inside pocket in the Compartment of Holding.

• My 14" laptop resides in the largest of the tech sleeves because that one's the easiest to slide things in and out of.

• I keep a notebook and my ultimate physics formula collection book in the sleeve that's meant for a handheld device.

• My ebook reader goes in the middle sleeve because I have a separate sleeve for it and it gets caught on the smooth screen-protecting fabric in the smaller sleeve. I keep my most important documents in the passport pocket because I always keep the bag close to me anyway.

• And now let's come to the front door pocket thing. It's just amazing. Obviously it holds the screwdriver (along with lots of extra bits) but there's lots of other random bits and pieces in there.

• As I said, I have the 64 oz bottle which doesn't fit it the water bottle holder so it just lives in the Compartment of Holding.

• This means the water bottle pocket is available so I bought a tiny little 3-plug extension cord with 3 USB ports and a very short cable which fits comfortably in that pocket. The amount of times I have used that thing is staggering and it's always with me.

• Sunglasses are in the sunglasses pocket, so no surprises there.

• My all-in-one USB C dongle lives in one of the pockets in the tech compartment, along with my pencil case and my calculator.

 

As you can see, there's space for everything and I just checked last weekend that with all this stuff in place I was able to fit clothing for at least five days without a problem.  Also, the shoulder straps are very comfortable over a long time. However, one thing is that there's no waist strap which is a concern when you're wearing the backpack for a long time. Also, the chest strap is starting to fail on me (the stretchy rubber in the strap is fraying and rubber strands are coming out of the strap itself).

 

I'll give the backpack four stars, the reason for not being five stars along with the chest strap issue and waist strap missing mainly being the missing water bottle holder on the outside that can take the 64 oz bottle. I have thought about buying one of those Molle water bottle holders on Amazon and somehow attaching it on the outside. It might interfere with the zippers though and it's not gonna be very sturdy I guess, so I haven't bothered doing it yet. If I can make it work though, the inside would be able to take up even more stuff which is honestly insane.

Appreciate the review. In my opinion I'm actually glad it doesn't have a bottle holder on the outside - I find that they're always failing and then I end up losing a bottle. 

 

It's a nice idea to not have to use internal storage for it, and maybe ltt would've found a way to do it better, but that's how I feel. 

 

It's funny you mentioned a molle water bottle holder - I started writing before I read your whole review and I was thinking about mentioning the lack of molle as a joke. 

 

I agree about the backpack not having a waist strap. I have an ILBE, a FILBE and a few other bags with waist straps and they're very, very nice. Makes the bag about 100x more comfortable and secure especially when running or over long periods. Ltt seems like a company that I can actually trust to think of everything, though, so I'd have to assume that they didn't include one for a reason. 

 

And it's really nice to hear that it holds so much. I have an old targus bag that's about the same size and seems to hold about 1/3rd what you mentioned. 

[f222]

I got the backpack at the end of november (so not far from 6 months). 

 

Everything seems to hold up fine so far.

 

At max load I have :

- an hp zbook fury 17 g8 (with the charger) 

- some papers, a notebook and a pencil case

- a gmmk tkl keyboard and a basic mouse

- my lunchbox and a 1.5L bottle of dr pepper

- the ltt screwdriver, a precision screwdriver with bits, a set of torx keys

- some cable ties, thermal paste,... 

- a jerry rig knife

- a corkscrew 

 

With all of that it is quite full but I still have a bit of space if needed. 

 

For the sunglasses pouch, it doesn't fit my pit viper's (but honestly they don't fit anywhere so not too bad) 

 

I don't care about an external bottle holder (my bottles always fall when they are outside the bag). 

 

Not having a waist strap is not an issie for me (I have quite a big cuddle area, aka beer belly) and I always find the waist straps painful (when I can close them...). 

 

My only issue is the front pocket which is a bit too flat for me but I can still put what I need in it. 

 

[Hellreaver]

On 5/8/2023 at 11:09 AM, f222 said:

I got the backpack at the end of november (so not far from 6 months). 

 

Everything seems to hold up fine so far.

 

At max load I have :

- an hp zbook fury 17 g8 (with the charger) 

- some papers, a notebook and a pencil case

- a gmmk tkl keyboard and a basic mouse

- my lunchbox and a 1.5L bottle of dr pepper

- the ltt screwdriver, a precision screwdriver with bits, a set of torx keys

- some cable ties, thermal paste,... 

- a jerry rig knife

- a corkscrew 

 

With all of that it is quite full but I still have a bit of space if needed. 

 

For the sunglasses pouch, it doesn't fit my pit viper's (but honestly they don't fit anywhere so not too bad) 

 

I don't care about an external bottle holder (my bottles always fall when they are outside the bag). 

 

Not having a waist strap is not an issie for me (I have quite a big cuddle area, aka beer belly) and I always find the waist straps painful (when I can close them...). 

 

My only issue is the front pocket which is a bit too flat for me but I can still put what I need in it. 

 

Too bad they don't hold the pit vipers lol. Pit vipers, ltt backpack and a swacket sounds like an alarming outfit.