"Hands-On" Laptop Case Reviews

McKlein I Series West Loop Leather Expandable Double Compartment Laptop Case / Briefcase  

Review Score: 9 out of 10 (Excellent)

Pros:  Packed with pockets and smart features, feels great, likely to wear well with a little care.

Cons:  So many pockets could make it confusing to find things, bag has some heavy company branding in spots.

Bottom Line:  A terrific offering that is offers style and lots of solid functionality and features. A great choice.

The Full Review

The first thing we noticed when opening the box for McKlein I Series West Loop Leather Expandable Double Compartment Laptop Case / Briefcase was that the case arrived sheathed in a cloth bag.  This told us that McKlein cares about how their product would arrive, which we took as a good sign.

The outside of the bag sports a large zippered pocket, with nylon lining inside.  Clearly a great place to keep items that you want to retrieve quickly and frequently.  That same zippered pocket is on the outer side of another large pocket that does not have a zipper.  And although this pocket is also sizeable, the fact that it does not close lends us to believe that if after a few uses it may sag a bit and slightly reduce the stylish appearance of the bag.  However, the reason it is crafted this way is because the bottom of this pocket can be unzipped, and then the bag can be threaded through the telescoping handle from a piece of rolling luggage. This makes it very easy to attach this bag to your luggage and tote it around without having to carry it in your hands or on your shoulder.  A nice feature indeed for travelers.

On the opposite side of the bag, there is a small zippered pocket (smaller than the one on the other side, but by no means tiny) that also can be accessed very easily.  This small pocket is on the outer side of an even larger pocket, that has a continuous zipper in an upside down "U" shape.  When unzipped, it opens completely on three sides to reveal a pocket with lots of cool features such as:  a business card holder, three pen slots, a padded phone/mp3 player pocket, several other miscellaneous pockets, and a metal secure hook to attach keys or other hanging items.  It appears very smart that this bag offers all of these conveniences in a very easy-to-access pocket on the side of the bag. 

Moving to the top of the bag, we find three zippers, two of which allow access to a different section of the bag.

The first zippered compartment is clearly the section for the laptop itself, as both sides of the compartment include padding and a nice-feeling fleece-like material.  The padding feels fairly substantial and protective.  The bottom of this compartment is lined all the way across with thick padding, offering solid protection to the laptop in a key place (i.e. where the case will be set down on hard surfaces).  Given the size of this pocket, it should easily hold laptops of all sizes (except perhaps 17").  Our only issue with the laptop compartment is that it does not offer any type of mechanism for securing the laptop within the compartment (such as velcro straps).  Without this feature, smaller laptops could bounce around a bit more than we'd like.  However, aside from this, the compartment seems as though it offers solid protection to most notebooks.  Also, as this is a top-loading bag, it makes it easy to get your laptop in and out of the bag (a key feature when going through airport security!)

The second zippered enclosure, which is also accessible from the top, is a spacious compartment that is divided into three sections by built-in dividers (very similar to an accordian-style folder system).  This feature makes it easy to keep various documents, folders, etc. in their own place.  A nice accessory for anyone carrying lots of documents and folders.

The remaining top zipper, when unzipped, does not reveal an additional compartment, but instead allows the bag to expand what appears to be another 1" - 1 1/2".  This allows you to fit more in your case as needed.  Its a nice feature given that the bag can stay smaller and tighter when carrying less, but expand as needed for bigger loads.

The handles are well constructed, padded at the top, and well stitched into the bag.  It would take a lot of heavy loads, over a long period, to likely pull these loose.  In addition to the handles, this case comes equipped with a shoulder strap, which features significant padding where the strap rests on your shoulder.  The only negative with the strap is that there is a big McKlein rubber logo on the top of the padded area, that must appear whenever using the shoulder strap.  Although the logo is all black, like the strap itself, it still sticks out a bit.  But aside from this aesthetic issue, the strap is made of seat-belt type material (very strong) and has some heavy-duty hardware to connect it to the bag. Of course the strap is also adjustable.  One other interesting feature to note, is that the loops on the bag that attach to the shoulder strap are connected to diagnolly-opposing sections of the bag (vs. being symmetrically placed in the same spot on both sides of the bag).  This allows for the weight to be more evenly distributed, which is especially important when carrying a heavier load.

The zippers appear well stitched to the bag, and each offers nice, polished ends for easy grabbing (also branded with the company's "M" logo).

This bag is unisex, but women looking for more style might consider other women's fashion computer bags if "the look" of the bag is the main consideration.

Overall, we were impressed with this bag. McKlein has clearly put a lot of thought into the important things to have in a laptop bag, such as a thickly-padded laptop compartment, lots of easy-to-access pockets, and much more.  A very solid offering, and we recommend the McKlein I Series West Loop Leather Expandable Double Compartment Laptop Case / Briefcase.

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