Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Maxxum Backpack for 15" Laptop
Comment: This is a great backpack, very well-built. We used it as carry-on for a trip to Hawaii. It has lots of room for everything. Had it filled to the max, and it was heavy; but once on, it was easy to pack, and it protected the laptop(15 1/4 inch widescreen) well. One reviewer complained about the long straps, but there are places to tuck and tie them out of the way.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Bag for Students/Travel
Comment: This bag is a lifesaver for students like me who have to carry laptops, heavy books, notebooks, mp3 players, pens/pencils/highlighters, wallets, keys and so many other things just to get through a day.
On an average day I have a laptop with ac adapter (big and bulky), two usb cords, Ethernet cable (for those places with low wireless signals), external hard drive (WD passport of course) in just the compartment for the laptop! Usually I have 5-7 books, minimum 10 lbs worth, and 2-3 notebooks in the main compartment. Add wallets, mp3, cell phone, keys, pens etc, and on average I can't even lift the bag. But there's always room for more!
But once it's on my shoulders I can hardly tell it weighs so much! It's easy to trek to and across campus. This bag has some rigid structure so it stays upright when it's set down and the thick fabric can hold up to heavy rain/snow with no leaks or damage to whats inside. The outside pocket is great for quick access, especially on rainy days it's great for umbrellas and jackets.
This pack is a necessity for any students who find themselves overloaded with everything they need just to get through one day. It holds a ton of stuff without looking too bulky and it feels light once its on.
(On a lighter note, my campus of 30,000+ students it seems that one out of three people either uses this bag or another SwissGear like the Pegasus: PEGASUS from SwissGear by Wenger Computer Backpack. That to me shows how wonderful these bags are.)
I also use this pack for travel. It's great for buses, trains, and airplanes. I'm not sure how well it would do for hiking and camping but I'm sure it would hold up. Amazingly it usually fits under the seat in airplanes (as long as it's not completely stuffed full).
My only complaint is that my 15.4" laptop won't fit in the laptop sleeve with the extended life battery on. I doubt a 17" laptop would fit in there either. But it still fits in the laptop compartment fine, and without the extended battery, it fits snugly in the sleeve.
At the Amazon price this bag is a must. I usually destroy a $20 bag a year but after over a year this bag still looks brand new! At $50 it's a steal!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fits my Dell 17" just fine
Comment: Awesome bag! My Dell Inspiron 17" fits in the computer pocket, but outside of the pouch that the laptop is supposed to fit in, which suits me just fine since I found the bag for $30 (50% off) at Office Max (they're on sale now, Saturday 5-24 is the last day I think!).
I didn't want to pay 2x as much for one that will fit my laptop in the special pocket...no big deal to me really. There's pockets galore, and it seems to be very well made. Highly recommended!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great!
Comment: This backpack is amazing! My boyfriend has the red and I have the blue. They are sturdy, hold everything we need for class, work, and light travel needs. Lots of pockets. Nice to look at. Not hard on my back and I'm really petite. Heavy duty enough for him and he's big and carries all type of equipment and books. We love our backpacks!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best Backpack I've Ever Owned
Comment: I began 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 combination Laptop / Camera Gear / Writing Implements / Journal / Day pack, and this bag always seems to end up with room to spare. There are SO many pockets, compartments, pouches and nifty places to put things in this bag, I've actually 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.
WHERE TO KEEP YOUR STUFF
1) LAPTOP COMPARTMENT - 2 zippers - The compartment closest to your back houses both an internal "pouch" that secures your laptop (with click-lock strap) and plenty of room for papers and notebooks. Being able to keep both my laptop and some 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 largest volume compartment is in the middle of the bag. I can put a couple of small journals, some business envelopes, a pack of wet-naps (to clean up 5 year old), my 35mm sized camera and lots more in here and have room to spare. It's an awesome 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 someone lined it with something other than black, making fumbling for black bits of tech toy goodness a lot easier 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 - 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 between shooting, just tuck the camera into this open topped area and I'm good to go, and able to grab it again just as quickly when the need arizes. If I hit dirt, rain or long periods with no need to shoot, I can always put it back in the main zippered storage area. Really great idea.
5) ORGANIZER COMPARTMENT - 1 zipper - The front pouch is a fairly typical organizer pouch with inner pockets for cell phones, pens, etc. Within the main zipper are a) inner red zippered area for loose bits (big enough to hold a fist full of pens and pencils), b) pouches for smaller items (cell, pens, etc.) and c) a larger main area tall and wide enough to hold business envelopes turned either direction, and about an inch to 2 inches deep, depending on how you decide to stuff it.
6) QUAD Water Pockets - the combination of 2 zippered side pockets for water AND 2 net pockets comes in quite handy. LOTS Of water or a combination of water and gear ... it works great.
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 useful for tightening.
On a particularly busy day, I recently had the following in this bag:
15+" laptop, 2 8.5x11" notebooks, 8.5x11" envelope with pile of receipts, 2 leather journal 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 plenty 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 know there will be folks who don't appreciate their style of trim, but I love it. Like great icing on great cake.
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