Belkin surprised us at Ausdroid last week with a special delivery of a brand new accessory – not the latest USB power bank or high tech protective case, but a backpack – a rather nice one.
The accessory manufacturer has three new backpacks on sale now at Harvey Norman – the Active Pro Backpack, Active Pro Messenger Bag and Classic Pro Backpack.
The basic model, Classic Pro, retails for a wallet-friendly $69.95 and features dedicated pouches for your laptop and tablet with padding where you need it. It opens up accordion-style with zips that arc over the whole body of the backpack and is an attractive, simple, no-fuss backpack.
The upgraded model, Active Pro, retails for just $10 more at $79.95 and brings a water resistant base, reflective strips that are great for making sure you’re visible by the road or on a bike (and if you’re on a bike, a loop for attaching a light). You’ll find the same features in Active Pro regardless of whether you pick up
All the backpacks feature pleasant grey and black colour schemes with a simple, functional design that does its job and gets out of the way. They offer a seemingly endless array of internal pockets and pouches (some of which are still being discovered) for organising your life on the go and can really go anywhere taking up to 15-inch laptops comfortably.
I received an Active Pro Backpack to take out for a spin, and it has supplanted my usual backpack in under a week. I’m really happy about it! There are some great design decisions on offer like the ability to stand the backpack upright on its own, even when holding a laptop inside.
There’s also compartments everywhere internally for things like phones and chargers (and if you run out of pockets, an internal mesh bag is even included), and an appropriate amount of padding to keep the big ticket items in the backpack secure, and a really simple feature I love – a zip that never gets stuck. I also like the way the wide but narrow shape that sits close to the body (which means I’m less of a menace on public transport). It’s big enough to hold all the stuff I cart to and from work each day with space to spare.
You can find all three of Belkin’s new backpacks at Harvey Norman now.
