$95.00
I have purchased several Booq bags over the years for my portable computers and generally find their bags to be stylish and of high quality (with the exception of one case I had recently, though Booq kindly exchanged it for me). They released a few new bag styles last year and I selected the 2008 Mamba Sling in black to use with both the MacBook I used to own and the Lenovo ThinkPad T60 provided for my last job by my company. I detest the boring black laptop bags most companies provide with their laptops and wanted something nicer that also didn't scream “I have a laptop computer in here — try to steal me, please!”. The Sling Case doesn’t look like an obvious laptop bag, but carries one with ease and looks good doing it, though it has some negative aspects that aren’t revealed until you use it.
Exterior
The exterior of the bag is 420D polyester with a water-resistant coating. It has a diagonal rib texture to it, but is not rough or obnoxious. I’d used this bag daily to and from work for several weeks and it has shown a little more wear than I’d like with some fuzzy spots and snags here and there, and I’m not rough on my bags at all. There are 4 exterior pockets - one each on the front and back and one zippered pocket on each side. The pockets on the front and back are open with no closure and are nice to slip in things to which you want easy access. The rear pocket can easily fit a folded newspaper or a couple of magazines, and the front one is handy for your cell phone or wallet (though since there’s no zipper, you may want to relocate them if you’re walking through crowds or an area where there are pick-pockets).
The front of the bag
The Booq logo is the letter B styled like the @ symbol and there’s an orange plastic tab on the front of the bag that bears this logo. It’s not too large or exceptionally conspicuous, which I like since I do shy away from products that turn me into a walking billboard for a company with large flashy logos. On my past Booq bags, this logo tab has been made of rubber, and I’m guessing that this switch to plastic is to make sure the tab endures since the rubber ones probably tear off after time.
The back of the bag
The zippered side pockets are useful for small items - I keep my train pass, the Blackberry Curve I carried for work, my headphones, and other miscellanea in these pockets. The pocket on the right side of the bag has 3 sections to divide it up a bit, and the one on the left has one large elastic pocket. I think the pocket on the left is meant to be able to carry a water bottle - I can squeeze a 1/2 liter Poland Springs bottle in there and just barely zip it up. My favorite travel mug or thermos do not fit there, however.
The left pocket
The right pocket
Strap and comfort
The strap is essentially an extension of the bag — there are no clips or connectors to keep it attached to the body of the bag. It uses a plastic buckle clip to hold it together, and some velcro to keep the ends of each strap together. There is some dense padding throughout the strap that works pretty well - it doesn’t dig uncomfortably into my shoulder even when I’m carrying my MacBook or T60, papers, and the virtual plethora of accessories I usually keep with me.
The strap’s adjustment buckle
The strap is fairly easy to adjust, but the adjustment range is limited — there’s only about 6 inches of nylon strap that can be fed through the plastic buckle. I tend to carry the bag bandolier style since I hate it when bags slip off my shoulder and the last thing I want to do is drop my laptop, and the strap length works for me for this carrying style. At 5’3”, I usually have trouble shortening straps on most bags though this isn’t the case with the Mamba Sling. What’s really the issue is the size of the bag itself, but I’ll talk about that more later. Given the strap’s limited adjustment range, I have to think that much taller people will have trouble making it long enough to be comfortable.
Kaitlyn wearing the bag bandolier-style
Interior
The Sling case fits laptops up to 15” according to Booq’s site. You can see all of the dimensions of the bag and its laptop compartment on Booq’s site here.
The interior is red nylon, which is a good color to offset its contents to help locate a specific item. There are multiple pockets on the inside, the most important one being the one that accommodates your laptop. This pocket is the rear-most interior pocket in the bag. Booq’s site describes that this pocket is lined with dense foam on 5 sides (all sides and bottom) to protect your laptop.
The Sling packed with everything I carry, including my MacBook Air in its Incase Neoprene Sleeve
Extras
This bag comes with a small zippered pouch that can be used for accessories. It’s about the size of a pencil case. At first, I didn’t use this case at all, but I’ve since found it to be very handy to carry my USB modem, thumb drives, card reader, and other miscellaneous items. I think it’s a nice extra to have thrown in with the purchase of a bag that costs $100 as it is. Below is a picture of this case with all the stuff I normally pack into it.
In addition to the pouch, the Sling case comes with Booq's Terralinq service — it works using the serial number of your bag. Every new Booq bag now has a unique serial number on a metal tag attached by rivets to the interior.
You go to a registration page on Booq’s site to enter your contact information and the serial number of your bag. If you lose your bag, anyone who finds it is directed to visit the terralinq site (www.terralinq.com). The welcome page there has a ‘Report’ link for them to click. After this, it gets a little weird. When I tried to report a bag missing as I finalized this review, clicking Report on that page brings me to Booq’s standard Contact Customer Service page, and “report found bag” or anything similar isn’t even an option in the Type of Inquiry drop down list. I’m sure anyone who finds a bag will figure out what to do here, but it’s disappointing that it’s not more obvious and that someone who finds your bag won’t get any special messaging in return saying, “Thanks for reporting a lost bag — its owner has been sent a message and we’ll let you know as soon as we hear back from them” or anything similar.
While I appreciate this free service, I do think that directing someone who finds your bag to go to a website instead of a calling a toll-free number is a little odd. Unless whoever finds your bag has immediate access to the internet via a smartphone (or you happen to leave it in an office environment where people are already at their computers), there could be a delay before that person even gets a chance to notify the Terralinq service of the found bag. But I’m sure that providing a number would cause this service to no longer be free. Though I have to think there’s a cost-effective way to add a phone option to this service - what if it’s a number where the finder can punch in the ID tag number of the found bag and then leave a voicemail that would be saved as an mp3 and emailed to you? It doesn’t need to be a number staffed with live operators. Given how prevalent cell phones are nowadays (I don’t even think I know anyone now who doesn’t have a cell phone), I’d prefer this option over directing someone to the web.
Using the bag
While I really like the style and look of the bag, it's not entirely practical for the way I like to carry my computer and affiliated gear. When I wear a bag bandolier-style, I like to be able to open it up easily during my commute to get out my computer or a book or something, but the zipper on the Sling is placed in such a way that it makes it very difficult to the open the bag while you're wearing it. As you can see in the pictures below, it wraps around the rear of the bag at the top where the bag rests against your hip, and you have to push it away from you awkwardly to free up enough room to open and close the zipper. This is quite a pain and really detracts from the bag's appeal for me, enough so that I don't really use it much anymore at all and I think it will see the bright lights of eBay soon. However, if you are the type of person who doesn't get anything out of their bag while you're on the go, only needing to open it when you're not wearing the bag, this will probably not be an issue for you. Otherwise, be prepared for some maneuvering and cursing.
Reaching for the zipper — a PITA to open!
In terms of pockets, the Sling does not have a key clip, which I miss. It has some pen slots, but they are fairly deep and if you put in a pen that doesn't have a clip to attach it to the front of the slot, it will slide down pretty far and will be a pain to remove. There's only one zippered pocket inside, which isn't quite enough for me since I like to separate my small items distinctly (e.g., lip gloss stays separate from thumb drive - don't ask me why). And there's no handle on the top of the bag to help you lift it when the shoulder strap is not practical - this is one omission that really gets on my nerves.
Capacity-wise, I can fit my laptop, several folders and magazines, and all of my peripheral gear with no problem. I can’t speak to any textbooks and binders since I don’t regularly carry those anymore, but I’d estimate the Sling Pack can carry one regular textbook and a 1” binder along with some folders and your computer. Of course, if you skip the laptop, you could fit a large textbook into that pocket instead.
One last issue - the Sling is big bag. It is 14.5 inches long and when the top of the bag is at my waist, the bottom of the case is almost at the top of my knees. Again, I'm 5'3", so I'm prone to problems like this, but this is the worst I've ever experienced with a computer bag. And, the bag weighs in at 3 lbs. empty, exactly the same amount as my current laptop, a MacBook Air, weighs. With my computer and everything I take to work (lunch, thermos, a book, laptop AC adapter, pouch of various electronic accessories, wallet, cell phone, and various girl-things) my bag drags my shoulder down quite a bit. With my backpack, this isn't a trial at all, but it's definitely enough to make my shoulder sore when carrying the Sling case.
The bag overwhelms petite frames
Conclusion
As I've mentioned, the Mamba Sling is a nice-looking bag that is far more attractive than the drab and generic computer cases that are standard company issue at most firms and it’s pretty roomy inside. It’s also big overall, the shoulder strap has a limited range of adjustability, it has no handle on the top nor a key clip or more than 1 zippered pocket on the inside, and the big deal-breaker: a zipper that's placed such that it's a significant pain in the ass to open the bag when you're carrying it. I’d recommend the Sling Bag only if you really like the styling despite the bag’s many issues.
Thanks to Kaitlyn for modeling the Sling bag for this review!
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