Originally Posted by Andean

I have two laptop bags - a Crumpler (large, nylon, robust, waterproof) and a Kenneth Cole expandable (smaller, leather, black, slick). They both fit a Thinkpad T410s with ease, and take a book, a pad (A4), some papers and hard drive/mouse/presenter/ mains adaptor essentials. The Crumpler holds more, is better protected, but unless you can find a black/dark one, not very professional looking. The KC bag looks a lot like a briefcase/satchel, but is less padded than the Crumpler and padding is solely around the laptop compartment (Crumpler used to do two lines, one with a padded front compartment and one with solely laptop padding, I have the more padded version). In general the more padded/rigid, the less stuff you will fit in the same size bag. So if you are reasonably careful, I think getting a bag with just some padding around the laptop is best, the other stuff you cram in may also add to the protection/rigidity.