Originally Posted by speechguy3
I normally carry a Canon i80 in addition to my Thinkpad R42, and it has worked fairly well... but it's also a bit heavy. I also have a variety of supplies (USB ports, keypads, cables, etc.) that have to go in the bag as well.
First, a cross-reference back to a similar thread from earlier this year:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=410853
I reproduce my post (#17) in the above thread here:
Originally Posted by pshuang
I just picked up a rolling laptop bag from Costco yesterday -- it says Swissgear on it and has the Swiss Army knife logo, but the fine print confirms that it's a no-name company in China using the logo under license.
Nonetheless, it appears to be a well-made bag for the low price of $69.95. (For example, the wheels are set as widely apart as possible; there's a durable-looking plastic stand to keep it from tipping forward; etc.) That price includes a smaller padded laptop tote bag. The combination appears to be perfect for my business travel needs, as I need to carry two laptops, one of which is a very heavy-duty and therefore heavy laptop. The rolling laptop bag is still small enough to qualify as carry-on luggage for domestic travel, but for international travel where some airlines won't permit anything bigger than a briefcase as carry-on luggage, I can put both laptops into the smaller tote bag and check the rolling bag.
We'll see if I still like it after a couple of trips... the real test.
Since the time of that post (March 2005), the case has traveled with me about 70,000 miles and 9 countries, and I'm still quite happy with it -- happy enough that I've bought a second. I like the fact that the bag has a padded compartment for my large-size laptop #1, and I usually put my medium-sized laptop #2 in the padded sleeve-with-shoulder-strap which then goes into an unpadded compartment. The padded compartment is deep enough that I can put some clean folded socks at the bottom for additional cushioning against the significant vibrations resulting from rolling the bag at high speeds over very rough sidewalks, cobblestones, etc. (And you can never have too many pairs of clean dry socks while traveling....) While I have never specifically carried a printer in this case, I have carried a compact LCD projector and its accompanying power and VGA cables plus laptop #2.
Also, despite worrying that I would have to put both laptops into the padded sleeve and check the rolling case on international airlines which might be pickier than US airlines about the size of carry-on bags, I've only had to do that once. Most check-in agents and gate agents have been quite cooperative about letting me take a sizeable 15kg rolling case on board when I explain it contains two laptops needed for my business travel. (My 22" upright luggage which holds my clothing is typically only a little bit heavier than that, at 17kg or so.)