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Hands-on with Skooba Laptop Weekender Bag, a gadgeteer’s travel companion

When we first showed you the Skooba Laptop Weekender Bag, we thought it was the most appropriate bag to help techies travel. The duffle bag fits just enough for a long weekend’s trip while maintaining a classic style. Skooba was kind enough to send us a sample of its latest product, and we sure took it out for a trip over the weekend.

Like most travel bags, the exterior is a water resistant nylon that protects all your gears. Each side of the bag contain zippered compartments to fit all your gadgets, be it tablets, smartphones, or a full sized laptop. The lining is also cushioned to help protect the gadgets as they shift during travel. The two sides pockets can fit tablets, one in particular has a slot that perfectly fits an Apple iPad. The front zipper has slots for smartphones and one other larger gadget, which we found was rightfully sized for the Nexus 7 tablet. The back pocket was just big enough for my 15-inch Macbook.

You can carry the lightweight bag with the grip handle, or attach a removable strap to carry it over the shoulder. A heavily padded shoulder straps help alleviate the fabric from digging into your skin. 

Measuring at 18 x 12 x 11 inches, the Laptop Weekender bag advertises that it fit up to two outfits, a pair of shoes, and a travel-sized set of toiletries along with your gears. Of course, during the summer, you can fit even more. If you don’t plan on packing shoes and wearing just the one you have on, you can fit a lot more since T-shirts and shorts don’t take up much room at all. I was able to fit a skirt, three cotton tops, a makeup bag, and three days of underwear and still had more than half of the inside room left for additional items. 

In our little weekend travel, we experienced a little bit of rain and a bit of car travel. The bag was able to keep both our gadgets and clothes dry, and was comfortable to carry throughout the travel. After a while, the bag naturally becomes too heavy to hold for prolonged periods but the bag is as lightweight as can be. We think the separate compartments are very useful in packing away gadgets neatly, making organization an ease. The main inside section also has some pockets to separately hold toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, and hair products to keep those potentially liquid items away from the clothes. We also found this good for holding power supplies and wires.

Overall, the Skooba bag is extremely helpful for traveling with gears. Instead of worrying about which gadgets to put on top or bottom, especially if you travel by plane, the carry-on bag can help you take laptops out for security checkpoints without delay. The only thing we’d add to this well designed bag is a strap inside the main compartment to hold everything down in case the bag flips over in a car or overhead storage.

The Laptop Weekender Bag is available now and comes in just black with blue outlines for $180.

Natt Garun
Former Digital Trends Contributor
An avid gadgets and Internet culture enthusiast, Natt Garun spends her days bringing you the funniest, coolest, and strangest…
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