Originally Posted by
el_silver
thank you all, this has been very helpful
to answer the question ... "why wheels?"
The laptop that i carry for business is quite heavy (by necessity), making my briefcase heavy. I think that long airport treks with both a heavy briefcase and a heavy shoulder strap carry-on would be too much.
If you go non-wheeled, a backpack with hip strap as well as the usual shoulder straps should be a lot more comfortable than a bag with a single shoulder strap.
There is no way to get a lighter and smaller laptop (that can fit into your carryon bag)? Seems like your constraints (heavy laptop, large size dressy clothes) will make it more difficult to travel carryon-only, despite the desirability of doing so. The inside of a 22" wheeled rollaboard really is not that big (especially due to the intrusion of the wheel hardware).
See if you can borrow bags of different sizes and forms to check to see whether you can get your stuff into them.