HP Artist Edition Messenger Case product reviews

This bag was mainly bought for the purpose of lugging my laptop for daily travel between home, work and three different university campuses, as well as the occasional trip to the parent's place back home (where there are prying family eyes and nothing is sacred) - packing power adapters, external HDD, mouse, and such - as well as textbooks, visual diaries, the odd half-finished circuit-board or two, and maybe my lunch if my flatmate decided to make me a sandwich ...

I shall start with The Good.
Style: The style of the Artist Edition Messenger Case makes it perfect as the casual holder and protector for all that is dear to me, while rushing between classes or wandering around town before work. The soft canvas material means that it doesn't -look- like a laptop carry case, so there's less of the "Hmm... Wonder what that's worth?" paranoia I normally feel when carrying around my precious in a glaringly obvious laptop case.

Compartments: There are plenty of pockets in this case, some better than others. I was particularly fond of the open pocket on the back (resting against my hip) for all those little things like iPod, cellphone and keys, which I am constantly pulling out and don't want to have to rifle through a pocket for. There is another zippered pocket inside the "lid" of the case which I found useful for lippy, glasses case, etc that I didn't want to be getting in the way while I'm looking for a pen/book/tech-gadget/etc. My tiny gripe is that this pocket is upside down, so if it's left unzippered even a little bit, things fall out. The other pockets are pretty much standard for a basic notebook case.

Strap Strength: The shoulder strength is fantastic. I can swing this thing around in circles loaded full with textbooks and it won't even place a strain on the handle. And have done so - several times.

It also matches the "Artist Edition" laptop quite nicely, if you're into co-ordinating things like me, and my laptop is pretty much an accessory in and of itself.

The Bad.
Space: While there's certainly "enough" space for some things, I definitely had to cut back on what I was carrying around. No hard-drive, no paints, I'm now quite well-acquainted with my touchpad due to leaving the mouse behind, and stopping off home to switch textbooks got so annoying that I just started leaving them behind. In a way, this is a good thing - you'll see why.

Handles: There is ONLY the shoulder strap. This isn't so bad - the bag keeps it's minimalistic, casual lines, but it does mean that if I want to pick it up just to move it somewhere, it's harder to lift. Maybe a discreet, smaller handle would be a nice addition on the top-back of the case so as not to ruin the style.

And forget about closing this bag properly if it's too full. The bag closes with a little leather tab which slides through a small leather slot. It just slides out if the case is too full or in a bit of wind, and is almost impossible to close with one hand. A nice metal clip or snap-button would have been nice. This also means there is ZERO security so don't let it out of your sight.

The Ugly.
Pain-Factor: Remember how I mentioned that the limited space is (in a way) a good thing? This is why. The way the shoulder strap is designed, there is NO padding at all. It cuts into the shoulder, and all the weight is placed onto the muscle at the top of one shoulder. Not healthy. Even swapping this bag between shoulders several times a day, it still hurts after a couple of hours - or less.

Laptop Protection: For a laptop case, the protection of my precious in this case is rather terrible. The padding around the case is soft and less than a centimetre thick. My baby hasn't been damaged inside this case YET, but I can see it happening. I tend to pack the nice hardback textbooks against my laptop help prevent damage from the bag twisting or things banging against it. Even the bag knocking against my hip worries me because the padding is so thin.

All in all, a great laptop case if it's only carrying a light laptop (which the Artist Edition Laptop this is made for was designed to be), and only for short periods of time - but add too much weight or carry too long, and you'll probably wish you hadn't.