Pros on the Convertabrief
- Fits big laptops with room to spare
- So. Many. Pockets. You won’t believe it till you see it
- Easy to convert from back pack to briefcase, straps hidden away in their own pouch.
- Actually feels comfortable as a backpack for long periods of time – Eagle Creek nailed it here.
Cons on the Convertabrief
- No cons here – this is excellently done.
The Eagle Creek Convertabrief
So, we’ve all seen this before, right? There’s a briefcase with some straps on it, and some marketing firm wants us to believe it’s a backpack, too. Here in Colorful Colorado, we actually use backpacks. A lot. I mean, it’s totally not weird to just randomly see people walking around town with big ol’ travel packs. You can take one to Starbucks and no one bats an eye. It’s just a thing here. So when the good folks at Eagle Creek wanted to send the Eagle Creek Convertabrief over… I was a bit skeptical. Typically, this design never works – it’s better one way of the other.
This time I was dead wrong, and happy to admit it. The Eagle Creek Convertabrief looks sharp and snazzy with or without the included shoulder strap (it’s got a bulletproof carry handle, so you can carry it just like an oldschool briefcase – but awesomer. Is that a word?). I don’t usually do so, though, as the shoulder strap is actually really comfortable. Eagle Creek’s been making travel items for some time now, so needless to say they know how to make a good strap. I’ve got a fairly heavy laptop (it’s a “ruggedized” model with an extended battery – basically an over engineered paperweight), and that along with an assortment of pens/pencils, some sunglasses, a couple energy bars, a phone, usually a folder of sensitive documents, and an iPad – let’s just say it gets a bit heavy. The Eagle Creek Convertabrief manages to carry all that without causing shoulder discomfort. I was really surprised that it was actually comfortable as a backpack, too – the straps are hidden away in a sort of pouch/sleeve on the back, and attach to a couple of securely fashioned triangular pieces of plastic at the bottom very easily. It’s not a chintzy set up – the plastic rings and stitching are all heavy duty, and have stood up to all sorts of abuse the likes of which only frequent travelers experience. I don’t know what it is about airports, but they are hard on bags. Seriously.
When you first open up the Convertabrief, you’ll be amazed by how many pockets you have available. I guess the only drawback to the bag is that all too frequently when I was first testing the bag I would lose items in it. Seriously – I’d have to check through like 10 pockets to find it. There are pockets for just about everything you can think of, and certainly for everything I listed above. Eagle Creek even included an RFID blocker in a pocket so that your cards/passports can’t be scanned. The main pocket for the laptop not only has a sleeve, but also a document pocket so that you’re work docs don’t get trashed while going from point A to B. Yeah, I know, we’re a tech-y society, but sometimes you just need some real signatures on real paper.
Overall, the Eagle Creek Convertabrief is certainly a smart choice for any savvy business traveler. It’s easy to convert it between it’s three carry options, and it has ample space for even the biggest laptops – in my case a 15 inch with an extended handle fit, but a 17 inch laptop without a handle also fit in it like a dream. It’s got more pockets than I know what to do with, and even has a pocket shaped like my sunglasses so I don’t scratch them up on my keys again (hate it when that happens). It’s rugged construction will stand up to constant abuse, and is offered at a competitive price point considering it’s feature set. Not a fan of black for a laptop bag like everyone else on the planet? Head on over to eaglecreek.com or amazon.com/eaglecreek – they’ve got you covered. It’s offered in a gray color as well.
