I am a bit of bag snob I guess. I have had a lot of them over the years, and few of them were even half as good as this bag. The dimensions on the site are no where near right. This is a 21-22L bag at best, if you looked at the raw dimensions it would seem like its a 31-32L which it is most definitely NOT so if you are expecting a large-ish bag, it will not be. I almost returned it at first because of this and I was convinced I needed at least 28L capacity. However, once you see how its laid out, it is extremely ingenious and actually made me realize I didn't need a huge bag ALL of the time. What this bag's layout is, is extremely flexible, and it enables you to carry a large load when needed, and then keep a smaller and tighter profile the rest of the time. What I am able to carry by default I think is impressive. 1. Lenovo T530 laptop (laptop compartment) 2. Amazon Kindle 8.9" (laptop compartment) 3. A couple magazines (laptop compartment) 4. Cellphone up on the back (cellphone compartment) 5. Wireless headphones (stash pocket in front or on top of laptop) 6. Wireless mouse (side pocket or in laptop compartment) 6. Laptop charger (in the main compartment) 7. Packable Site to Sea waterproof cover (main compartment) 8. Package rain paints (bottom compartment) 9. Tylenol and Excedrin (side pocket) 10. Gloves (stash pocket in front) 11. Tissues and such (zipper pocket in front) 12. Umbrella (side pocket and clipped behind strap) 13. Fleece lined rain jacked (rolled up and clipped under the front buckle when not needed) 14. Very large Embark lunch box from Target (this has as a carabiner attachment) main compartment or hanging off the rear vertical strap as needed 15. Various cables and phone charge in the small pockets in the main compartment As you can see, you are able to carry a ton of stuff in this bag for its size and it is incredibly flexible. It is amazing as you can find a place for anything, and you can arrange things to enable extra space when you need to. So for example if it get hot and I don't want to carry a jacket, I can simply roll it and hook it under the front vertical strap. The stash pocket in front has a lip, which keeps it in place, and the strap will securely hold it in place. If I need to carry something large as an extra item in the main compartment, that same strap I can attach my lunchbox with its carabiner to open up the space in the main compartment to transport something large (say some items to work) and then once its there and I can unload it, it can go back into the main compartment. This is actually huge because I realized very rarely do I need a very large bag to travel to and from work. And I have hated the bulk of the larger bags especially when commuting by the train. This bag enables you to carry what you need, but not always have to carry a huge backpack which is 50% full 80% of the time. Again extremely flexible design. So that being said, the bag is extremely comfortable and breathable, and again another fantastic commuter feature is the fact that the straps are held in place with a clever holding mechanism keeping them tucked to the strap itself, so you don't get them flopping around and getting caught on things like the luggage racks on the train. Everything feels high quality, the zippers are nice and smooth, if a little loud, and I very much like the way the chest strap is done. Rather than having plastic running over the bag material fraying it, it uses the same strap material as the rest of the straps on the rear and sides. That seems like a more durable design to me. The larger Griffith park bags are not designed like this one, and to be honest they look like any other backpack and don't seem like they have any differentiating features. This I think is a real gem. I don't know about the durability of Case Logic bags, the warranty is not lifetime but seriously given how well this appears to be made I don't see how you wouldn't get years of use out of this bag. I think my question for a decent commuting bag is finally over.
