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113 of 113 persons found the following review helpful.
Best Backpack I've Ever Owned
By Alex Lovejoy
I started out buying backpacks in 1980 when I went off to college, and O how they've chagned. The Maxxum is, by far, the best, most well designed pack I've ever owned. I use my pack as a combining Laptop / Camera Gear / Writing Implements / Journal / Day pack / Grocery hauler, and this bag always seems to end up with room to spare. There are SO a good deal of pockets, compartments, pouches and nifty places to put things in this bag, I've in truth forgotten where I put things, thinking I'd left something at home, only to find it was just in one of the pockets I'd forgotten about.
CONSTRUCTION - tough, comfortable, practical, easy to use
FIT / WEAR - comfortable for long periods of time, distributes weight well, makes carrying more stuff a lot easier.
>>>ADDED NOTE - Another reviewer complained of pilling on the back of their shirt from extended use of his pack. I can't speak to the fabric from which their costume was made, but I may say that after over two years of every-day heavy use, including to and from work, hauling groceries up and down a hiking trail, and occasional day trips, etc., I've had no experience of pilling or any kind of harm or wear to any of my clothes.
WHERE TO KEEP YOUR STUFF
1) LAPTOP COMPARTMENT - 2 zippers - The compartment nearest to your back houses both an internal "pouch" that secures your laptop (with click-lock strap) and an open sleeve with a great deal of room for papers and notebooks. Being competent to keep both my laptop and galore paper notebooks in this one compartment is very handy for me. Some of my packs in the past had "laptop only" compartments that made this impossible. Good design here, for me, keeping the PC safe while keeping similar sized gear handy.
2) MAIN COMPARTMENT - 2 zippers - the compartment with the greatest volume is in the middle of the bag. I may put a couple of little journals, some business envelopes, a pack of wet-naps (to clean up 5 year old), my 35mm sized camera, AC Adapter, mouse, MP3 player,and lunch in here and have room to spare. It's an aweinspiring main storage area that's shaped in a way that gives you flexiblity not only in terms of how much stuff to carry but how you choose to orient it inside the compartment.
3) QUICK ACCESS TOP POUCH - 1 zipper - near the main grab handle on top is a small, red lined pouch that holds ... MP3 player, CD player, wallet, keys ... stuff you want quick access to near the top of the bag. FINALLY somebody lined a quick-access pouch with something other than black, making fumbling for black bits of tech toy goodness a lot posing no difficulty to do. And the velcro strapped inner pocket for MP3 player or cell phone is great for protecting same if keys are in the pouch.
4) QUICK ACCESS LARGE COMPARTMENT (Kangaroo Pouch) - no zipper - I've never before had a bag that featured an "open" compartment with no zippers that was this large. Between the main compartment in the middle and the organizer compartment on the front, there's an open topped compartment that I find AWESOME for tucking my camera into when I'm shooting and walking a lot. No need to unzip or re-zip amidst shooting, just tuck the camera into this open topped area and I'm good to go, and capable to grab it again just as speedily when the need arizes. If I hit dirt, rain or long periods with no need to shoot, I may always put it back in the main zippered storage area. Really great idea. When not in photographer mode, this pouch is handy for anything you want quick access to (folded hat, apples, extra water bottles, you name it.
5) ORGANIZER COMPARTMENT - 1 zipper - The front pouch is a reasonably typical organizer pouch with inner pockets for cell phones, pens, etc. Within the main compartment are a) littler red-lined zippered area for loose bits (big sufficient to hold a fist full of pens and pencils), b) pouches for littler items (cell, pens, etc.) and c) a more prominent main area tall and wide sufficient to hold business envelopes turned either direction, and regarding an inch to 2 inches deep, depending on how you determine to stuff it.
6) QUAD Water Pockets - the combining of 2 zippered side pockets for water AND 2 net pockets comes in rather handy. LOTS Of water or a combining of water and gear ... it works great. I keep spare PC batteries in one zipped size pocket and my address book and a little notebook in the other.
7) STRAPS and BACK - well padded, easy to adjust, comfortable to wear ... awesome. Chest strap and thumb pulls on shoulder straps are a plus, though one of the thumb pull rings cracked on me, but the tab is still utile for tightening.
On a particularly busy day, I not long back had the following in this bag:
15+" laptop, 2 8.5x11" notebooks, 8.5x11" envelope with pile of receipts, 2 leather diary books, 2 wetnap envelopes (about business envelope sized), AC adapter for laptop (big, bulky thing, tucked in a zippered water pocket), warm wool hat, 35mm sized digital camera with biggish lens, 10+ pens/pencils/hi-liters, wallet, keys, MP3 player, voice recorder, USB cords (3) (I forgot to mention 2 inner zipper pockets for same in the Laptop and 1 other compartment), Zagat guide, thumb drive, bottle of water and cell phone ... and there was a great deal of open space to spare. The bag was HEAVY with gear, but it felt light on my back, carried easily, felt good ... it was great.
TRIM - I've never seen a company trim their bags with so much style as Swissgear does. Sure, I recognise there will be folks who don't be grateful for their style of trim, but I love it. Like outstanding icing on great cake.
POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS - the netting on the side water pockets is somewhat susceptible (though not overly so) to harm from sharp metal objects like sure types of keys. If you keep smoothe sided things in these pockets, you'll be fine. These netted pockets are NOT squirrel proof, nevertheless 
One one fine day in the park, a particularly plucky squirrel decisive to nibble through the netting and steal a bit of cooky while we sat no more than 5 feet away. Clearly Wenger will have to post warnings. OK, possibly not.
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent Student Laptop Backpack
By Joel Dauteuil
Well made and roomier than I expected. I would highly commend as a student laptop backpack - mainly because it may accomodate laptop with accesories and a good deal of books/notebooks, etc. And, very comfortable to wear for extended periods.
Pros:
- well made
- good zippers - that's important
- solid brand - I've owned a good deal of Wenger productions and they last
- nice support/suspension for laptop protection
- same kind of help neoprene "hammock" inside for your mp3 player and likewise has a hole at the top to feed through your headset/remote - very nice
- very comfortable back padding and strap system
- good institution pockets
- water bottle side pockets - a ought to for mobile phone.
Cons:
- not one thing significant
- the fabric is thick but I would have preferent a thicker bottom layer in case you have to put it down someplace wet.
- as I mentioned, I think this is better suitable for students or for a weekend laptop bag. In my opinion, I wouldn't go into the office with it - my original choice in that respect proceeds to be the Samsonite "Business Casual" Executive Backpack. All around outstanding bag - you can't go wrong (with either of these).
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
Swiss Gear Maxxum Notebook Computer Backpack
By G. Blanston
Great backpack, computer is suspended in a pocket in the middle of the pack, not versus your back. BUT it is too little for my 15.4" laptop. Be sure to try before you buy.
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