 |
The last time I went on the road and loaded up my computer bag, portage had reached a ridiculous level. The Targus case I've had for years is nice--it's served me well--but it's small and somewhat heavy. Pack a modem, a Zip drive, a pager, a notebook surge suppressor, several magazines, a travel toolkit, cables, disks, and the other miscellaneous junk that orbits a laptop, and the Targus grows to astronomical proportions. Its bulging sides make it unwieldy to stow and carry. When I travel, I have to lug a second soft briefcase just to accommodate everything.
 Kensington, which seems intent these days on expanding into "sporty" accessories, has answered the call of wired travelers everywhere with the Sky Runner, a roomy, well thought-out and lightweight computer case. The Sky Runner has oodles of pockets for all the gear above, plus a cell phone pocket, pen and business card holders, a key clip and a padded leather grip on the handle. The case has 1,168 cubic inches of storage capacity and weighs 2.4 lbs. Your laptop goes into a padded middle compartment with space on either side for extra batteries, file folders and magazines. Two outer pockets are designed for a Zip drive, external floppy, modem, PDA, or similar hardware. The "organizer" on the other side has the cell phone pocket and a zipper pocket for tickets, passport, corporate trade secrets or whatever else you don't want to lose track off. It would've been nice to have one or two extra non-zip pockets on the outside. I use such an outside pocket on my current case to store tickets and boarding passes for quick access. One of the things I really like about the Sky Runner is that it's top loading. A case that unzips completely in half will do so when it's loaded and you partially unzip it to get something out (and foolishly hold onto one of the handles as you do so). The single zipper access to the three main compartments give you access to most of the case's contents without having to unzip different pockets rummaging around for stuff. Everything has a logical place. Once you fill the Sky Runner, it's ungodly heavy, but the load is well-balanced and the removable shoulder strap is sturdy and comfortable. The quality of the components and construction seem top-flight and likely to last long after your laptop has become chip jewelry. At $80, the Sky Runner is twice as expensive as the basic Targus case, but then again, comparable larger cases are usually over a hundred dollars. So, if your travel tech includes more than just a laptop and cables, and you want a high-capacity computer case at a mid-level price, you might want to give the Sky Runner a heft. - Gareth Branwyn [9/23/97] |
