Drifter Backpack

This is my second and I am very pleased it is still available. The first lasted for 3 years and all zips and straps still servicable after being used every week however the corners had worn through which may have been due to spending 500miles every week in a motorcycle top box. I used this to commute with two laptops, power supplies weekly necessities and tools for IT equipment including books cables sandwiches and it can hold 2 pints of milk in the zip up side pocket which was one of my requirements. It was often stuffed to the seams yet handled very well and was comfortable to carry on my back. It has enough pockets and sections for holding smaller items and the upper zip compartment on the outside extends down to the base of the bag behind the lower compartment and useful for stuffing gloves and hat for winter, the odd cable while headphone case sits above. Well done Targus and please continue to manufacture this bag to the same specifications.

I was looking for a bag big enough to take not just a laptop and cables but also all the kit I need to survive as an "Agile" worker in a world of hot desks and no permanent base. The Targus Drifter lets me lug (all this stuff isn't the lightest) a 15 inch laptop, charger, big bag of cables and connectors, iPad, day book and papers, a bunch of pens, staplers,scissors etc, with room for my lunch, tea bags and insulated mug - all the essentials. Still got room for other stuff, including a MacBook for creative days when the work Windows machine isn't enough. And it looks pretty good too, if a little large compared the original HP bag that came with the laptop, but that could only just take the charger and nothing else. This bag has loads of pockets so I can keep everything organised, still not using some of them! Been using this for a month and it seems up to the usual pretty good manufacturing standards I've come to expect from Targus - this is my third bag (others sold on, not fallen apart). All in all seems like a good choice at a good price if you have a reasonable amount of kit and papers you want to carry around and keep organised.

Nice large practical backpack. There are two zipped pockets on either side, as well as two mesh pockets. The front has a small pouch at the front that I use for headphones. The next pouch is a stationery one, with a zipped portion as well as elastic to hold pencils and pens in place. There are also a variety of smaller pouches for storing other pieces of equipment. The next pouch on the front is a large deep one. Despite the look on the picture that makes it appear to be a single pouch it reaches to the bottom of the bag. I personally use this one for my specialist kit and it fits snugly. The next pouch is the largest one of raw space. It is a wide pocket that reaches to the bottom of the bag. Ample space to keep a lunch box in there. The pouch at the back is split into three. There is a zipped mesh portion, around three inches deep perfect for a wireless mouse. The large portion is split into two, intended for laptops and books. One of the sections has an elastic velcro tab over the top to hold the laptop in place. On the back of the backpack on the bottom (the portion that rests on your back) can be unzipped to allow for further storage. The bag has ample storage, however I give it four stars as the bag often crumples without anything in it. A backpack this well designed I would like to see a solid base and potentially back to keep the structure of the backpack when empty.

Having had a previous targus bag I had struggled to get a replacement trying Swiss and sports brands however these both fell apart very quickly. I purchased this bag hoping to get the same quality of its predecessor and it has not dissapointed, it is rugged and built to handle a decent load while keeping my laptop, tablet and phone safe. It has a massive array of pockets suitable for all my geek needs and some nice internal padding for my items with screens (11" tablet and 7" tablet" It is incredibly well made with zips, handle (containing tensile wire) and straps all being built to last. Good Job Targus for an excellent quality bag at a very reasonable price for the standard which is incredibly high. A+++ on this one, would highly recommend it for anyone who wants decent size and a very hard wearing bag !

This bag was bought for a college student, to replace a much-loved and rapidly disintegrating one. We had the very specific requirement that it had to be able to transport a laptop safely (unlike the previous one, which had led to scratches all over the machine. I had seen another by this manufacturer, and thought that this would be the same. There is a little 'but' in here - it was not the same as the one I saw, and in this one the laptop compartment is in the middle of the bag rather than right at the back. Given that it is also used for transporting art materials all day every day, this necessitated a much greater degree of care in packing than if we only had one side of the laptop to worry about. Having said that, it is a great bag. It is strong (even the top handle is made of wire under the padded coating), and all the handles seem well attached. It has endless pockets, and so much space that if you fill it, there is a real danger that you won't be able to lift it!

This is such a mixed bag it's difficult to know where to start. There are lots of good things about it. The construction is excellent, really well made and my favourite pack over the years in terms of ruggedness. It has many compartments, and it's at this point things go a bit wayward. Internally it seems to have been designed by a committee working remotely. Logically it makes perfect sense, but practically it falls down. It's as large as the swissgear back it replaces, but seems to hold half as much stuff. There is one large compartment, but it is split in two with a divider, this is in addition to the pouch for a laptop. The biggest problem for me though is the number of times I've been stopped in the street by strangers who inform me my bag is open. Times this happened with the Swissgear or any other backpack? Zero. Number of times in the few months I've had this? Too many to remember, perhaps a dozen?? The problem seems to be, if you zip the compartments up at the top, they undo themselves. If you zip them all the way around to the bottom edge, they (probably) stay closed. I'm probably not doing it "right", or Targus didn't test it. One or other. tl;dr: Good quality bag, odd compartmentalisation, zips undo themselves.

Good quality bag. Works well for me as I travel a lot for work

Fantastic bag for the price. I've had this bag a year now and I've only had one problem with it. I wearing it for everything, and have been using it almost everyday. It works well for normal use and travel purposes. It protects my laptop really well and is very comfortable to wear. It also had ample space for clothes and books or whatever you want to store in it. The top pocket is perfect for a little digital camera, which is where I store mine and the pocket at your back is great for storing and external hard drive for your laptop. The only issue I had with it was that the seem on one of the front pockets came out after about 4 or 5 months of use meaning there was a hole between the sip and material but a quick session of sewing meant it was back to being as good as new. Overall a fantastic bag and I would recommend.