A while back I
had a chance to get my hands on a Tom Bihn Braincell laptop case, and I wrote
a review of it here on the Buzz. This was the first Tom Bihn product I had used,
but I was very impressed with the quality of both the design and the material
used. So, armed with that experience, I jumped at the chance to take a look
at one of Tom Bihn's newest offerings called (gotta love this name) "Buzz"!
The Buzz is a new
one-strap, "sling-bag" for laptops and tablets, designed of course
by Tom Bihn. This may not be completely true, but to me it seems targeted towards
students and anyone else who has need for an "easy access" bag, without
the bulk of the briefcase or full backpack styles. It comes in 4 color combos
- Black/Gray/Crimson, Black/Gray/Spruce, Black/Gray/Plum, and just your basic
solid Black/Black. Alright, enough with the talking... in a review of a product
like this, a picture is worth a thousand of words -
Ok so that was
two pictures (worth two thousand words?), but they give the basic view of how
this bag works. It goes on over your head, and the strap rests completely on
the right shoulder, and then goes around the left side of the chest. This gives
a pretty even weight distribution across the back, and is quite comfortable
for carrying. While this is the advertised way of wearing the bag, I also found
it works quite nicely just to swing it onto the left shoulder, and hold the
strap in front with the left hand (see the picture below).
Like I said before,
both methods of carrying are quite comfortable, even with alot of weight in
the bag. I actually found it more comfortable than my backpacks most of the
time. If you aren't used to a sling bag though, the strap across the front can
take a little getting used to. Now lets get down to what you can actually carry
in this thing...
The bag consists
of two main pockets, one for holding a computer/books/and other stuff that size,
while the outside (smaller) pocket is more for your smaller computer and personal
accessories. The picture above does a pretty good job of showing this outside
pocket, even though the zipper flap does not open extremely wide. As you can
see, it contains several built in slots for carrying various small items, including
pens. There is also a nice strap attached to the top, perfect for holding keys.
This pocket really can't hold anything big, but it sure can hold alot of little
things.
The second pocket
is of course the main area for holding the laptop/tablet. It is a divided area,
with lots of padding for protecting the tablet. Outside the main padded area,
there is (supposedly) still plenty of room for carrying a couple text books,
cds, or anything like that. The padding looked pretty good inside, although
I would be hesitant to put a tablet in there without proper screen covering
(which is probably the same as just about any case out there), especially if
you are putting some books in along with it. The divider does do a nice job
of separating the two sections though, so I didn't worry at all about my M1300
being in there with the clip-on cover.
I think the main
pocket is big enough to take just about any Tablet PC upto a 12 inch screen.
I don't have a unit bigger than that to test, but I doubt a 14 inch would fit.
The bag did fit both my M200 and my M1300 fine though, so anything that size
or smaller works well. If you aren't sure if your unit will fit, Tom Bihn does
have a nice "fitlist" for the Buzz on their
web-site. Also, to give you an idea of the bag size, I've taken a few comparison
pictures here -
|
The Buzz with a Fujitsu ST4000
|
|
The Buzz with a Motion Computing M1300
|
The Buzz with a Toshiba M200, CD Jewel case and Cross/Wacom Pen |
There are two more
pockets on the Buzz that I have not mentioned yet. The first is located on the
side, and is simply a spot to slide in a water bottle for easy carrying. The
second is located on the front of the strap, and is built just for cell phones
and Mp3 players. You may have already noticed it in my pictures at the top of
this review, but I've included a close up picture here for a little better size
comparison (that is a Motorola Mpx200 phone) -
This pocket is
an excellent example of how Tom Bihn really does take into account today's "portable
culture" when designing his bags. It is in the perfect spot for using headphones
or a headset with your phone/mp3 player. And even though this pocket is mainly
supposed to be for those type of devices, I've also discovered it makes a very
nice sunglasses holder!
Conclusion
All in all, I was
once again very pleased by the quality of Tom Bihn's products. I addition to
having a very nice name, the Buzz is well designed, and serves its function
well. While it can't hold as much as most full size backpacks, it is holds plenty
for most of my day to day use (unless I'm taking a long trip). I should also
mention that you can spin the Buzz around, so that the main pockets are in front.
This makes for easy loading/unloading without having to take the bag off, a
very nice feature that no full size backpack I know of can match.
When you pull all
this together, it is pretty obvious to see this is a pretty versatile bag. The
build quality is extremely high as well, I expect this bag will last for quite
a few years (even with heavy use). Tom Bihn continues to impress me with his
designs, doing a very good job of taking into account the multiple devices that
many of us carry today. Kudos on a nice job with the Buzz (naming and otherwise)!
Pros:
Well designed, comfortable
High quality materials and build
Holds a wide variety of stuff
Cons:
Slightly expensive ($90)
Too small for tablets over 12 inches
Buzz Meter: 4.5 out of 5
The
Buzz costs $90 (USD) and is available from -
http://www.tombihn.com
