I recently received a Tom Bihn Brain Cell bag for my TC1000 Tablet PC. I knew
Tom Bihn bags had a very good reputation, but I was curious as to how well this
bag would work for not only convertible, but slate Tablet PCs as well. The bag
I got was a size 5 bag, the size they recommend for the TC1000 as well as many
other Tablet PC models (Fujitsu ST4000, Acer C100 and C110 series, & Toshiba
3500 to name a few). They have 4 different sizes to fit everything from the
10" Tablet PC screens, to 17" screens of large Apple Laptops.
My initial impression upon receiving the bag was that it is very solidly built.
Lots of padding, as well as solid board on either side of the bag to keep from
bending. On the front is has a pocket the full length of the bag (figure 1),
seemingly to hold papers, magazines, and other such items. Given that I don't
carry much paper with me anymore, this pocket was pretty much useless to me.
I did try and see how many magazines I could fit in though, and was able to
get 4 or 5 medium size magazines in it.
Figure 1 -
The back of the bag (figure 2) has several snap buttons on it, to allow the
Brain Cell to be attached to other Tom Bihn bags. They make a variety of different
bags the Brain Cell can fit in, but I did not test any of those out. However,
it does look to me like it would be really nice to have the Brain Cell providing
the padding for your laptop bag. Plus, the ability to snap it in and out lets
you take your Tablet PC with you places you don't want to take your whole bag.
Check out the Tom Bihn web-site for more
information on the other bags.
Figure 2 -
The inside of the Brain Cell is very well padded to protect the Tablet PC.
You can see this well in figure 3, as it shows my TC1000 inside the bag. The
padding is quite thick, it makes you feel very safe about having a rather expensive
piece of technology inside it. At one point not long after receiving the Brain
Cell, I dropped my TC1000 in the bag about 4 feet onto a hard floor. Opening
up the bag, you could not tell that I had dropped it at all. This made me feel
very good about this bag, as if I had not have had it I likely would have a
broken TC1000 right now.
Figure 3 -
Figure 4 below was taken from the Tom Bihn site, and it shows some of that
padding very well -
Of course, all the padding in the world won't help you much if your bag doesn't
fit your device well. This is not the case at all with the Brain Cell however.
The TC1000 slides in nicely, as does the ST4000. My Motion M1300 also fits,
but it is a bit tighter fit than the others.
To close the bag the top of it has two velcro flaps that fold over each other
on top of the Tablet PC. I was a little concerned at first at the fact that
it uses velcro, but it actually has a very strong grip. I did a little "stress
test" with it, and turned the bag upside down with a Tablet PC in it. The
top flaps did not so much as even budge, and the Tablet PC stayed safely inside.
Of course this strong of a grip is a little harder to open, but the Brain Cell
has a small silver tab (see figure 5) on one of the flaps to help get it open
easier.
Figure 5 -
Overall, this is a very nice bag and I now use it on a daily basis to carry
my Tablet PC around with me. The Brain Cell allows you to attach a shoulder strap
to it, but I have not done that as the handles it already has works nicely for
me. It also fits very nicely into the laptop bag I already had. It does not
snap in like it can on some of the other Tom Bihn bags, but it still stays in
nicely. However, most of the time I carry the Brain Cell on its own, no extra
bag required here.
At $50 the Brain Cell is not extremely cheap, but this is very common these
days for good bags. If you are looking for a nice slim bag that you can use
to take your Tablet PC to meetings, as well as one you can use for longer trips,
the Brain Cell is definitely worth looking at. Nice job Tom & Company!
Pros: Lots of padding, Very versatile
Cons: None
Buzz Meter: 4.5 out of 5
The Brain Cell bag costs $50 and is available from Tom Bihn
Bags at -
http://www.tombihn.com
