Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased both the OGIO Gambit 17 and the OGIO Renegade RSS so I could compare them in person. The are nearly identical with respect to the pockets. I noticed three main differences: 1) The Renegade has a tighter weave than the Gambit. I think the Renegade looks nicer (higher quality) when viewed next to the Gambit, but by itself the Gambit still looks nice. Both seem to be good quality and should last a long time, although due to the tighter weave the Renegade might be slightly higher quality. 2) The Gambit does not have as much padding in the laptop compartment compared to the Renegade. I considered this negligible in my comparison, because the Gambit is (IMHO) well-padded-- just less so than the Renegade. Unless you are unusually rough on your belongings, the Gambit's padding should be more than enough. 3) The zipper on the Renegade's laptop compartment only goes down about 20% of the height of the pocket. I have a 13" laptop and because it is fairly small, it does not fill up the entire pocket. I have to reach deep into the pocket to pull my laptop out, which is extremely difficult because it's a narrow pocket and it hardly unzips. The Gambit's design differs in that the pocket unzips all the way to the bottom; you can open the pocket completely. That makes it a breeze to get laptops in and out. Difference #3 was a deal breaker for me. It made my decision to keep the Gambit and return the Renegade an easy one. UPDATE (7/4/15): I've been using this backpack for a couple months now and love it. A few things to note: 1) When packed about 80% full, it fits under the seat of a small airplane (CRJ900). It would probably fit when fully packed. 2) The one thing I dislike about it is that I like to keep my keys, wallet, phone, etc. (i.e. stuff I want quick and easy access to) in the front pocket so I can keep the backpack on one shoulder and swing it around for access. The front pocket goes up a bit higher than on my previous backpacks and it's difficult for me to unzip it while wearing the pack. 3) There are so many pockets in this backpack that it's easy to lose things. On the other hand, it's really easy to keep things organized.