As I wrote in an earlier post this week, I have been resisting moving away from my old TimBuk2 messenger bag to the newer one that I had bought a few years ago. You get so used to the comfiness of a familiar carry bag with all the pouches and stuff inside it that it is really hard to get the courage to change even though the old one has small rips and all of that in it... character, so to speak!

But, the day has come... and that was because my old XMG laptop finally keeled over hard, and I needed to move to the new bag as the Gigabyte Aorus replacement didn't fit in the laptop compartment of the old bag. So, new bag it is...

Now, from the outside, the new bag isn't noticeably larger than the old bag... in fact, I don't think it is at all... but the construction of the laptop compartment is different, thus giving it more space.

There is a little nagging worry... the old bag was made be the original TimBuk2 team, and this one is by the new team after it was bought out... so, the question is whether or not they kept the same quality construction and materials, or if they bought the name and not the care to craftmanship... that remains to be seen.

The strap is held on by solid plastic hooks with metal clips... and the locking mechanism does seem to be more secure than the old one. That was a little annoyance that sometimes, the strap would unlock and drop to full extension... usually when I was laden down with a suitcase and violins, trying to board a plane or something. But this might just be due to the newness of the bag and that might change as wear and tear sets in.

There is also a weird strap at the back... I honestly have no idea what that is for... it is vecro-ed into place in the middle and stitched into place on the sides. A complete mystery... the old one had an external pouch there, which was really useful for small bits of travel documents and that sort of thing that needed easy access.

The laptop compartment at the back is split into two sections, with the larger section for the laptop and the smaller compartment able to hold my large e-reader. My current larger laptop fits well in this bag as there is extra space above the zip, whereas the older one had the zip at the top of the compartment.

At the front, the main compartment is secured by metal hooks instead of the clips that were on the old bag... I'm still a bit up in the air as to whether or not this will be good... I liked the clips and they felt really secure and easy to tighten by pulling tightly on the strap, but these hooks will have set locations where they can anchor so the fit will be less strong.

Behind the clips is a quick access pouch that is secured by a vertical zip... designed to reach into with your left hand when the bag is slung on the left hand side... exactly the same as the old bag. I normally store a large battery and charging cable there for easy access.

The front part of the main compartment has a small front pouch sitting just outside the main section with an extra full sized section behind it (inside the main compartment). On the old bag, the full section was at the back of the bag, which I had always worried about it poking and exerting pressure on the laptop/e-reader behind... so, I'm happy that this part is sitting at the front now.

The old bag had many little pockets in this area, some open and others secured by zips... these would be great for organisation to put little items in... and I do really miss those. In fact, I would give up the whole full sized inner sleeve in exchange for the multiple mini pockets instead.

But... the mini pockets are now at the back... but none are secured by zips except for the half length one at the back. I think I will be securing my travel documents in that section, as I want as much flatness against the e-reader as possible!

Some these smaller pockets are impossible to get your hand into (the ones in the middle...), anything in them will need to poke out the top (like pens/pencils) or be pushed up from below (meaning that you can't access them easily... which also does mean that they will be pretty secure from motion!).

The main compartment is quite spacious... but the big part that was missing from the old bag is the netting on the sides. I would use those to hold computer mice or a Flipper Zero...

So, all in all, a decent bag... if different to my old one. I will have to find new niches and nooks for my gear... but it does seem like it will work, albeit differently.

That said, I do have another bag on the way via a Kickstarter campaign. That is due to arrive later this year... so, it will be a good chance to see which one will be my travel carry bag!

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