I had a look around at some of the other netbook bags, and this one stood out as most convenient for several reasons.
1. SPACEY:
I have a few essential items I always carry around with me; an A5 copy of the Quran, a thick wallet, some random sheets of paper from here and there, a ballpoint pen and board marker, a bunch of keys, and of course, my 10.1inch netbook (and ASUS 1005ha). I'm glad to say that all of these essentials fit nicely into this bag which means I don't have to carry a fat rucksack around or have bulging trouser pockets. However, any more items and I will be pushing its capacity. Sure I could fit the charger in if I removed one of the other items (or squeeze it in very uncomfortably in addition to all the other items), but with the long life of my ASUS battery, I don't need to carry it around.
The potential downside is that when the bag gets really full, the magnetic closing machanism doesn't help, as the closing flap won't be able to reach the magnets. But that's an issue if you're thinking of overloading this bag, which is not what it was made for. Still, I may have preferred a velcro closing mechanism as it's far easier to open and close without having to line up the flap with the magnets as is the case currently.
Also, one of my concerns prior to purchase was what most men dread with these cute bags; will it look like a 'man-purse'? Fortunately, this bag is big and sturdy enough to avoid that.
I also preferred the navy colour over the khaki colour that's also available due to the fact you can wear more or less anything with it. It's neat enough to go with smartwear, and stylish enough to go with a jeans and t-shirt. Or maybe that's just my sense of fashion...
2. LOOKS:
This bag doesn't look too snazzy and actually looks rather neatly average (in a nice way), but that's exactly what's good about it. I was going to go for the Belkin Messenger bag which looks better, but the problem is it looks way too much like a laptop bag/a bag carrying something valuable, and walking around with that on you 24/7 is not a good idea. This bag can easily pass of as 'just another bag'...my friends couldn't notice it was a netbook bag until I told them. Still, the design could have been made to look more fashionable if the outer material was more from fabric (over the padding) as found on most other stylish shoulder bags as opposed to this one which looks like its merely padding.
3. SECURE:
After all, the point of the netbook bag is ultimately to keep your lovely gadget secure and this does that well. The main compartment has two partitions; My ASUS fits in very snugly into its compartment (perhaps a bit too snugly? although I'm not sure that's a bad thing.). the other partition has tiny pockets for pens and other little things, but I just stuff my wallet and Quran copy into there and it fits OK. The front compartment is also spacey, spacey enough to fit a bunch of keys. And the rear pocket is very thin, and is only good enough for cards, papers, etc. All the compartments are zipped, so nothing's should fall out.
There's a video on youtube showing what fits into this bag, but I cant remember the link...if you search it you may find it...it is useful.
Overall, I'm glad with this purchase; the bag does its job well although doesn't go as far as being a 'wow' 5-stars.
