Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I wear my sling bag over my left shoulder, so when it was time to replace my Outdoor Master sling with something else, I was looking for zips I could access when I swing the bag around to the front as well as good water bottle pockets and a phone pocket that fits my big phone. This bag does all of those things. It's lightweight, has some decent interior sectioning for things like pens and smaller items, and, most importantly, I can position the double zippers on the main compartment so they point up toward me when I slide the bag around to the front. The phone pocket on the strap of the bag is huge; it took me a bit of time to get used to how big and clunky it really feels. The look of the pocket with my phone in it is a bit dorky. But I guess I am used to that now that I've been wearing it for a couple of weeks. Fears of heart cancer aside (j/k), it's actually a convenient place in which to carry our external brain packs (phone). It also has a place where I can quickly clip a key on a carabiner so I don't have to root around in the back portion for my car key or house key on short trips. This bag has water bottle mesh on both sides, and they fit my preferred insulated mug (contigo) and a small water bottle (both 16 oz) -- or my travel umbrella. The zipper down the middle front seems like it would be convenient, but I've only found that small items fit in there (lip protectant, hair ties, pen, etc.) when the bag is full. The open pocket behind that is great for quick access, but since it doesn't zip, it's possible for smaller items to fall out of it. The main compartment is fairly roomy, but the only electronic device I can fit into it with my wallet and eyeglasses case and chargers in the bag is a Kindle Paperwhite. The bag doesn't have a hidden security pocket on the back like my last bag, but the design is such that anyone trying to unzip your bag and grab stuff would have a hard time doing so. The double zippers on the main compartment could probably take a very small padlock, if need be. The downsides to the bag are the lack of internal organization and not very direct access to the few pockets that exist in the main section because the water bottle mesh sewn onto the sides hampers having a larger zipper for that compartment. It only opens a little ways, so you have to dig a bit to find things by feel. There aren't any pen holders, a feature I find essential, because a woman without a Sharpie is a woman ill-prepared. There are two mesh pockets that hold pens, sort of, and a large pocket in the portion to the front, and a larger device pocket in the back. I guess if you have any real valuables, you could just stuff them in the very bottom of the bag, where nobody (even you!) could get to them without serious intention. As with many bags these days, the key fob seems like an afterthought. It's in an inconvenient place and interferes with the small inner pockets of the large compartment. I actually re-sewed the key fob into the dead space at the very top of the big compartment. That way my keys hang down the back of the compartment from the very top of the inside, and don't get in the way of anything else. I suppose the way the clip strap works on the back you could add on a rolled up jacket or tee-shirt, tightening the strap down with enough pressure. I can see using that open pocket and the strap that goes over it for such a use on a day trip. The back strap is convertible left or right, so right handers can use the bag as well. I am considering buying a backup version in a different color, just to have another one around. It's looking like it will be a good bag for basic daily use. I can't fit my ipad or chromebook or any larger devices in it, and it's hard to fit a journal or any paper bigger than say 5x7 in it, but It's not often that I need to be carrying those things around in this bag. Tl:dr: Good, small bag that works well for left-handed folks and people who don't need to carry large devices