I’m happy to splurge on personal technology and buy the most expensive system with the best spec sheet and optional features, but never when it comes to notebook bags and backpacks. The way I see it, a cheap bag holds my laptop just as well as an expensive one. And while the convenience of added pockets or the appeal of a sturdy zipper is not lost on me, I’ve always thought my money is better spent on more RAM or other features that makes the system better. So it’s with that preconception I approach the OGIO Renegade RSS laptop bag, which, if not the top of the line, is near it as evident by its $160 price tag and OGIO’s reputation as your boss’s golf/ laptop/ travel bag brand of choice. At a glance, t’s obvious the OGIO Renegade RSS is a quality item, but is it quality enough to justify its premium price? Read this full laptop backpack review to find out. Build & DesignOGIO got its start with hard-shell and sleek street-bike bags, and that aesthetic carries over to its Renegade RSS backpack.

It comes in one color, black, and sports red and grey accents with very few superfluous design elements, sans the occasional OGIO logo. The exterior is a combination of 840 denier junior ballistic polyester and 600 denier polyester, which basically means it’s as tough as travel luggage or a suit case (the number refers to the number of threads per inch, with higher numbers reflecting higher qualities; junior ballistic is essentially a lighter version of “senior ballistic,” which is found in body armor). So it’s tough, and I don’t expect any rips or tears, even with constant abuse. The stitching is also very tough and none of it is exposed. After two long international trips, one demanding tradeshow lugging approximately 10 pounds of gear, and more than 100 miles biking to and from work, I noticed only the slightest tugs on the strap stitching. I’ve had cheaper bags (like the kind they pass out to reporters at tradeshows) have outright ripped following similar abuse.

The OGIO Renegade features five front-facing and dual zippered compartments, two zippered compartments on each side (four total), and one hard-shell zippered compartment on top reserved primarily for glasses. None of the zippers has yet to stick or break, and they all feature a combination of either extended metal and plastic tabs or tabs with sturdy nylon pulls. The adjustable dual yoke-style shoulder straps also feature an expandable zippered nylon pocket, which OGIO touts for cell phones (though I found it too small for my BlackBerry Curve and 4.3-inch HTC Thunderbolt) as well as an adjustable (vertically and horizontally) clipping sternum strap for extra, and often-times needed, support. Of course, the Renegade is a laptop bag, and as such has a dedicated laptop compartment that OGIO claims can fit most 17-inch notebooks. I don’t doubt it, as I was able to fit a 17-inch MacBook Pro with room to spare, though the stiff compartment is a bit too snug and thin for older notebooks.

Indeed, my work-provided Dell is just under an inch and half thick (it’s also eight years old), and it just barely fits. That said, I also used the compartment for my iPad plus a keyboard case, it was tight enough to keep the jostling to a minimum.lillywhites backpack The laptop compartment has two features that really set it apart from the cheap bags, at least I my view. jet laptop backpack timbuk2 reviewFirst, it’s lined with red screen friendly-fabric with light foam padding, and it features a suspension system that absorbs shock and protects the laptop in the case of accidental bag drops. north face isabella backpack sale philippinesI would not check this laptop-loaded bag with TSA on my next flight, but it might be the first that I would actually expect my laptop to come back in piece thanks to the protection.hf backpack sprayer

The red screen-friendly fabric also lines the hard glasses compartment, making it acceptable for unprotected specs storage, as well as an iPad/tablet/eReader pocket in the second section from the front. The main section is a tad bit small for such a large bag (the glasses compartment juts in from the top and takes up space), and I have just enough room for my gym clothes and sneakers. backpack laos pantipWhen overstuffed, the main compartment warps the tablet pocket, making it difficult to slide in a rigid and flat device.asus streamline laptop backpack 16 Of course, there are various panels, pockets and straps in the other segments, with handy-dandy device icons serving as OGIO’s gear storage suggestions. voyage backpack ouest canadien

At first I had trouble filling them all, but eventually found use and now I don’t know how I ever traveled without my antacids, aspirin, three pens, two smartphones, netbook, mouse, tablet, magazines, Kindle, light change of clothes, DSLR, Snickers candy bar, water bottle, tissues, wallet, glasses, passport, and no fewer than three device chargers; all of which I actually all took on my last flight abroad.When I first saw the GT80 I was intrigued that they managed to stick a mechanical keyboard onto a gaming laptop, but I thought it was a bit large and unwieldy. But when I go into a review I try to set those preconceptions at the door. Am I ever glad I did. MSI has designed a pretty amazing piece of kit here, which is well built, nice to use, and buckle up fast. It really all starts with the keyboard, which is obviously the focal point. No one else has yet managed to squeeze a mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches into a laptop, and the end result is something so unique, but yet so nice to use.

Perhaps I am old school but I have always preferred using a desktop computer over anything, and the GT80 Titan with its desktop keyboard smack on the front just works so well. The trackpad is almost an afterthought but by combining it with the number pad, it is at least in a spot where it is easy to use, and not over top of the keyboard which would make it very awkward. The vertical rotation of it takes a bit of getting used to, but it does work pretty well. Unfortunately it is less useful as a number pad because it is touch based, but it is there when needed. The GT80 Titan is pretty much designed to be used with a mouse though, so the trackpad is really just there when you need it. The display is massive at 18.4-inches, and as our results show it is a nice accurate display when set to sRGB mode. I appreciate the effort MSI put in to the device to offer an accurate mode as well as some other modes which can be easily switched to depending on the application. The pedestrian resolution is a bit of a letdown, mostly because the Titan is fast enough that it could game at a higher resolution than 1080p pretty easily.

The lack of G-SYNC is also disappointing since MSI does offer it on the GT72 now. Most of the time though you are never really near the refresh rate anyway, but since this is one of the most expensive gaming laptops around, it really should be offered with G-SYNC. Broadwell has been slow to arrive in its quad-core form, but I have to say I am impressed. Intel only says it is a couple percentage points quicker than Haswell in IPC, but the new processes opens up the processor to be able to maintain its Turbo frequencies longer, and it ends up outperforming Haswell parts that are up to 500 MHz faster in our benchmarks. It’s almost too bad Broadwell will be so short lived, but we shall see what the rollout of Skylake is. The GTX 980M is undoubtedly the fastest mobile graphics card around, and once you add a second one in SLI you are talking about some serious compute power. This is first and foremost a gaming laptop, and it is heads and tails faster at gaming than any laptop we have ever seen.

It’s not even close. It is also great to see MSI offering upgradability on this laptop both now, and in the future, by leveraging MXM graphics cards which can be swapped out at a later date if the GTX 980Ms start to show their age. And that’s doubly good because the people purchasing the GT80 Titan are really making a big investment. Pricing is pretty steep on the GT80 Titan. I can buy a good Ultrabook for $1000-$1500. The GT80 Titan starts at $2500, and can go all the way up to $3800. The one we received would be at the higher end of that range at around $3400. It’s a big investment, and for that money you get not only the laptop, but some nice perks too like a backpack to carry it in (which is good because it’s so big most backpacks won’t be able to) as well as a mousepad, palm rest, keychain, and some gold key caps you can switch into the keyboard. You of course also get one of the fastest laptops around, and the only one around with a mechanical keyboard. If you are OK with a laptop that really is meant as a desktop replacement, you would be doing yourself a disservice by not checking out the GT80 Titan.