I don’t do a lot of traveling for business, but when I do I’m sort of caught without proper luggage. It turns into an interesting dance of duffel bags and briefcases trying to figure out the best way to get the clothes and the computer properly ready to carry on the airplane. For MIX09 this year, I decided enough was enough.

I did some research and informal Twitter polls, looking at what people liked and balancing that with cost. In the end, here’s what I came up with:

Brookstone XpressCheck 21” Ballistic Computer Traveler

This carry-on sized bag has a reasonable amount of space for clothes, but the cool bit is the front. There’s a zip-open pocket with a mini-briefcase that’s padded and perfectly holds your laptop and charger

• when you get to your destination, zip it out and carry it with you, no separate computer bag needed. There are pockets on the top for easy access to stuff like your boarding pass and your quart-bag of liquids, and it has all the regular stuff you’d expect in a carry-on bag (extendible handle, wheels, handles on two sides, etc.)

I looked at a bunch of carry-on bags (Da Kine, Victorinox, etc.) and this seemed to be the best all-around carry-on with a specific focus on the computer. Granted, you’ll get a little less clothing space here, but the zip-out computer bag and such really is cool.

fūl Backpack 5093 BP

While walking around at MIX, I wanted to have my laptop with me, but I was going to need more space than the little zip-out thing that came with the XpressCheck bag - gotta have somewhere to put your swag bag so you’re not carting that around, right?

To that end, I got some recommendations for various backpacks (lots of folks like the Spire series) but I didn’t want to spend another $200 on a backpack. This $30 model I found at Costco has all the same stuff - a padded area for your computer, looooots of pockets, fully adjustable straps… it was perfect. I wore that thing for three days with no problems at all. If you’re looking for a computer backpack, definitely check it out.