At long last I have a laptop bag worth of holding my PowerBook. Not that there was a whole lot wrong with the Kensington Saddle Bag I’d been using, except that if you drop it you’re as likely as not to fracture your laptop. While the Kensington bag offers padding on the two large sides of the PowerBook, there’s not much underneath and virtually none on the top. In other words, the four thinner edges of your machine are almost wholly unprotected. By contrast, the Brenthaven Pro 15 puts padding around every side of the notebook computer.
Additionally, the Brenthaven is of a much more rugged construction than the Kensington, though I will say that I bought the Kensington Saddle Bag at a going out of business sale for $40 or so and that’s roughly a $100 less than the $149 Brenthaven Pro 15. If price is a big issue, Brenthaven may not be your bag no matter how great their stuff. Of course if you’ve dropped a couple thousand on a PowerBook it seems like the least you could do is to spend a few bucks to protect it as well as you can.
After all, sometimes you have to pay for quality and that’s what Brenthaven is. Made of military grade ballistic nylon that’s “virtually indestructible and self repairing,” I think you’d be hard pressed to find a safer bag for your laptop. At least I couldn’t find one (and indeed some of the ones I did find were downright scary).
Among Brenthaven products, the Pro 15 differs from the Profile 15 in that it offers lots of extra pockets and space to throw your junk. The Profile 15 ($129) has only a couple of pockets and designed mainly to protect your PowerBook or iBook in as light and compact a form factor as possible. I carry lots of junk; I got the Pro 15.
Either way, though, if you’re the market for a laptop bag, Brenthaven’s gear is worth a look.