emustyle: Thanks for your thoughts on the Farpoint. I am leaning towards it now since I still do some hopping on buses and trains. It does make sense that the laptop compartment will not pose a big problem due to the backpack and hip strap, and devices are getting smaller by the day!

hachkc: Thanks for your thoughts on the strap. I thought that the backpack strap on the eBags looked a bit lacking, but was puzzled by the thousands of reviews on their website. I don't think I'll be able to tolerate an uncomfortable strap since I'm so comfortable with the one on my Voyageur (that said, I carry a very heavy Kanken around with a laptop and water bottle, so maybe my tolerance is higher than I thought)