Review Taipan Slimcase M – Notebook Messenger Bag
The Taipan Slimcase M is a small and light messenger bag designed for a 15 inch Macbook Pro. It is exquisite to handle due to its simple design and the high-quality material used to create it. Also, it is very practical as the pocket for the laptop is very well-protected so as to prevent accidental damage to the notebook. Interested? Then read on...
Design
The relatively light bag (about 812 gramms) has a simple and rather sportive appeal. As the bag has no bright-colored design logos, it also goes well with a suit. For example, Booq's logo can only be found on the zips and the shoulder strap.
Black and green are the main colors used for the bag. However, when the bag is closed, the green seams are the only colorful lining which can be seen. The inside of the cover is made of the same green material which, under closer observation, has a structure similar to that of a honeycomb.
High-quality Materials
Booq used 840D polyester (a very resistant material), with a water-repellent coating, for the outside of the bag. According to the manufacturer, "high performance YKK" travelling zips (with a metal finish) were used for the front and the laptop pocket of the bag. From the results of our practical test, we can confirm that these zips are reliable and we could find no wear and tear.
Worksmanship
The worksmanship of our test sample was decent. Only the numerous protruding green seams could be considered a possible minor point of criticism. The seams themselves are very neatly stiched into the bag and they give an impression of durability. So, to conclude, the laptop's worksmanship seems to be overall good.
Features
The shoulder bag offers enough room for a 15 inch Macbook Pro notebook, power supply, other cables and documents. However, with an additional big digital camera, the space in the bag becomes restricted and the bag has ugly protruding bumps.
The Taipan Slimcase can be carried with the hand grip or the shoulder strap, both of which are not cushioned that much. The shoulder strap can be easily detached from one side by pulling it away from the Velcro strip, and, thus, can be easily stored. The strap can also be compelety removed, however, this would require the user to pull the shoulder strap out of the loop on the other side of the shoulder strap.
So, both the grips can be quickly hidden for optical comfort (the hand grip can be hidden in a compartment specifically designed for it).
The compartments
The most important compartment is also definitely the most cushioned part of the bag. Thanks to the plushy material used on the inside of the bag, any laptops stored there are well-protected against scratches and other annoying damages. This is an especially useful feature for laptops with a glossy surface (such as the white MacBook). The cushioning on the bottom of the laptop also protects the laptop from hard bumps when the bag is put down.
The document compartment can be found on the backside of the laptop compartment. However, this compartment is rather small for A4 papers due to the placement of the zip. This portion of the laptop bag is also rather open from above, so one should avoid putting any valuable documents in it when it is raining.
The main compartment in front of the notebook pocket is intended for the storage of cables and other things. However, due to the opening of the second compartment.
The front part is divided in the middle by many different pockets for official cards, pens, keys and etc.
On the front there is another zipped compartment for small stuff which has to be stored quickly. Thanks to the zip, the user can also store cables in this pocket as it will be protected from light rain.
Bag lost? Terralinq can help
Each of the bags from Booq have an extra feature from Terralinq. This extra feature is actually a metal plate which has the serial number of the bag printed on it. The buyer can register himself/herself on terralinq.com, so that, in case somebody finds the bag and notifies Terralinq, Terralinq will in turn notify the owner. This feature is helpful if the bag has been forgotten somewhere. However, this feature does not protect the user against theft.
Comfort
The carry comfort of the Taipan Slimcase is very good even when the bag is fully loaded. The shoulder strap has a positionable padding which distributes the weight of the bag slightly and does not distort the clothes as much. However, when we tested it for a long time we found that the padding was not enough and that the strap kept twisting by itself slightly. However, many competing products offer no shoulder padding and their strap twists far more than this one.
Both the handles are comfortable to use, despite the fact that they are not cushioned.
Rain test
In our artifical rain test, we put the messenger bag under the shower for a few minutes, and washed it thoroughly. This experiment was supposed to determine the effects of an intense rainstorm.
Basically, only two compartments (the front and the notebook pocket) of the bag have a water-repellant coating. However, in our test, even the contents of the notebook pocket got wet. The YKK zips did protect the compartments from water from the top of the bag, but the water still managed to trickle in from the other compartments and the bottom of the bag (which already had a bit of water stored in them).
Therefore, the user should shield the bag from heavy rain so as to prevent the precious laptop and other documents inside from water. However, light rainfall should not be able to penetrate the bag's well-planned defenses against water.
We let the bag dry out in the sun for a while and then examined it carefully. The material used had not been spoilt and still looked new. However, the notebook compartment did take a long time to dry due to it's plush padding.
Even the YKK zips did not show any signs of wear or tear, or rust. However, the metal-coated ring in the front of the laptop showed signs of rust.
Verdict
The Taipan Slimcase M from Booq is a good messenger bag, which has decent worksmanship, for 15 inch notebooks, such as the MacBook Pro.
The design is simple, and can fit well with many different outfits.
The laptop transported in the bag, is very well-protected by the bag. The only time when the user should exercise extreme caution is when it is raining very hard, as, in general, the bags from Booq have very limited water-repellant capabilities.
In one word, the Taipan Slimcase M is: recommendable.
The Taipan Slimcase M from Booq is currently available at, for example, Onlinestore von Booq for $79.95.