Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a solid backpack with lots of room and compartments. The first compartment has several little dividers to hold your pens, post-it notes, business cards, phone, external drives, power cords, etc. The second compartment is not as deep or wide as the other pockets but goes down the whole length of the backpack. The third compartment is h-u-g-e! It's deep and wide and about 3-4" at the bottom and will hold a ton of books, folders, and notebooks. The rear compartment has a padded area for the laptop, a shallow pocket and another huge area that's as big as the 3rd compartment. Finally, in between the 3rd and 4th compartments is a mini-pocket that can hold a phone, iPod, ear buds, and other small items. This thing can hold a lot! On each side of the backpack is a mesh pocket with elastic top. It will hold a 20 oz. bottle of water. Drink containers larger than a 20 oz. water bottle will probably not fit. Now, let's talk about padding. The front compartment is padded, the handle is padded, the shoulder straps are very well padded and the areas that will be pressing against your shoulder blades and lower back are thickly padded, too. Overall, this is a great backpack and not too "basic". It's lightweight and strong. However, I have a 17" laptop (screen size). When I actually measured the body, it is 16 1/2". It can barely fit into the backpack without a lot of effort. And at the very top of the bag, where the corners of the laptop are, the laptop is clearly pushing the limits of the fabric so now those areas of my laptop are at risk for damage if dropped and the bag probably won't last more than a year before those areas completely wear through. And that is why I had to give this a 4-star rating. :-( If you have a 15" laptop and a lot of gear to carry, then this backpack is great and would be worth all 5 stars!!!