Everki's Studio Eco will protect your precious laptop, any extra rings you might have lying around (use the secret pocketses), and your pristine copy of Lord of the Rings. Plus any other travel essentials you need to fly in and out of a city in 48 hours or less. It'll also handle itself under less taxing conditions, like going to work at your local office, and it'll probably last longer too. But just a bit longer. Planning to walk to Mordor? It'll survive much of that trip as well.
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Materials
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Storage
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Comfort
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Value
Everki’s Studio Eco 15in expandable laptop backpack wants to be the item you lug your work to and from the office in, with a few tricks left over to let it serve as an overnight bag for air travel. If you’re not hopping on planes for the occasional meeting, the R2,900 price tag might prove to be a little too much to bear.
It’ll also be a tough sell for anyone with a portable gaming laptop since… well, most of those tend to be larger than 15in in size. Don’t try and jam something in that won’t fit, and the Everki should serve you just fine. It’s like most things in life that way.
Built to work
The worst sort of laptop bag is the kind that seems like it will tear on a sharp desk corner. Everki’s Studio Eco is not one of these. Loaded with pockets, pouches, zippers, and padding, the outer textured surface seems rugged enough to take hiking, as if you’ll ever need a MacBook Pro and up to 26 litres of gear out in the bush. It’ll handle that, but you’re the poor schmuck carrying it all.
Still, it’ll survive, though some areas of the stitching are stronger than others. The major weak point, as far as we’re concerned, is the area where the top of the Studio Eco’s straps attach to the main body. It’ll take some force, but the angled attachment also means we could yank the straps free from their moorings. You know, if we felt like it. The bag as a whole should stand up to everyday use for at least a few years. Just don’t… try to tear it apart. Same rules as an iPhone, really.
What’s on the inside
And you’ll want the Studio Eco to last, because Everki has loaded it with more pouches and fittings than you’ll ever need. The main expandable section has a soft padded section for your (up to 15in) laptop, as well as a secondary pouch that’ll fit a fair-sized tablet comfortably. In front of that is enough space for chargers and other bits and pieces or, if you unzip the outer section that keeps the whole bag compressed, an entire change of clothing, including shoes and a small toiletry bag. Toby Shapshak would love it.
The bag’s second main zip conceals lightweight nylon pouches of various shapes and sizes. If you’ve ever wanted to fit most of an office — pens, notebooks, stationery, your various cables, and a computer mouse — into a bag, it’ll mostly go in here. An obligatory netted pouch, suitable for… anything that doesn’t have a pointy bit… faces this section. You could probably tuck a book or a few magazines in here as well.
There are four more outer zips to contend with. Two live on the Studio Eco’s sides and offer security to whichever bottles of fluid you’ve snuck past airport security. Toggles inside these pouched zones will secure your beverage (not an open beer, hopefully) so it won’t tip out as you walk. The front of the bag, under the logo, has a sizeable zipped pocket, perfect for tickets and other travel documents. The last one lives under the bag’s back-pad.
The pad is only attached on two sides, letting you slip it comfortably on a luggage trolley. Behind the bit that cushions your spine is the final zip. Here, you’ll probably hide your money or anything else you’re trying to sneak past the chaps with the metal detector. That’s on you, but that’s where you’ll hide your valuables.
Take a walk
We’d happily wander through airports and boardrooms with the Studio Eco on our backs. The plain black styling suits it to most occasions, though if you’ve used it to transport your running gear, maybe remove them before sitting down with the CEO. The outer material is rugging enough to avoid scuffing while in transit, and the bag is comfortable to wear. The actual comfort level will depend heavily on how much over the 7kg carry-on weight limit you’ve gone, but that’s on you.
One other item arrived with the Everki Studio Eco — one of Everki’s passport holders. It’s basically textured nylon over two stiff boards and a magnetic clasp, but there are enough spaces for your plane tickets and ID, so you don’t need to root around in your doubtless well-stocked backpack to get the uniformed man what he wants. The overall feel is… pretty premium actually, especially the soft inner sections (that you can’t see in the images above).
Everki Studio Eco 15in backpack verdict
If you’re a travel-junkie who mostly leaves home for work reasons, something like the Everki Studio Eco (and the attendant passport holder) would be a suitable companion on most short trips. Even on longer ones, if you’re the type to be paranoid about putting your electronics into your checked bags. But this R3,000 laptop bag will serve equally well as a durable office buddy, especially if you divide your time between multiple locations. It’ll fit most of your office supplies (minus the printer, unless you buy one of those useless mini-things) with ease. And, actually, if you wanted to stick a full-sized printer in, it’ll probably hold a decent compact model. Just expand the storage space. That’s what it’s there for.
