AER TP4 28L plus hip belt Initial Thoughts
TP4 28L (cordura) arrived yesterday. I transferred things from my well-used Nomatic 20L bag, and have been carrying the bag around a bit. I have not traveled for real with it yet, so this is a few preview items:
Hip belt. Fits me nicely and helps out. It was challenging to figure out how to unclip the metal hinge (push it "up", *then* squeeze the plastic, all with one hand, small fingers would make it easier), but once I did that - and understood the hinge goes on top (from zooming pics on Aer's website) - things were fine and the belt has a slight curve to match hips.
The strap lifters are very nice and noticeably help with a load. They're not "carry 100 lbs" nice, but for a medium-sized computer travel backpack, they are a solid upgrade over most bags.
Admin area. Yeah...wish it was a bit more. I carry pouches for tech gear, but I like to stuff some frequently-used things in an easy-to-access admin area. They indeed downsized it too far.
Sunglasses holder. Stretch fabric pouch is just big enough for a couple pair of glasses.
Main section. Spacious. Easy to access.
Laptop pouches. There are effectively two, one will hold (I think) a 16", the other holds a 15" or tablet. I've been walking around with a 15" Mac and 15" PC loaded. Pockets work well and are raised from from the bottom of the pack for protection.
Water bottle holders. Stretch mesh, they seem good quality, easily hold standard 24oz, can stretch to somewhat slim 32oz.
Roller handle strap for sliding onto a roller bag.
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Summary (disclaimer: Initial thoughts, carried around house, haven't used too much):
Pros:
- Well made, everything seems high quality.
- Lifters and theoretically-removable hip belt are a nice addition.
- Light weight for it's size.
- Three well-placed handles.
- I like the magnetic sternum strap.
- There are some hooks for external cord attachment if you need them. Will experiment with what might work best there.
- (biggie!) Carries very nicely on my back, good support and padding system.
Cons:
- Admin area is indeed too small, even for us "pouchers", and it didn't have to be. I don't think I'll return the bag over this, but this is my main gripe at this initial point in time.
- No compression straps on outside, I am concerned that with age the bag might get a bit "floppy" when not fully loaded. I might be able to jury rig some of the outside d-rings and the handles up with velcro to do some minor compression, if necessary. Maybe.
- No RFID blocking pocket. Need to keep passport and chipped cards in their own blocking wallet/case.
- Would be nice if AER offered a properly sized bungie system accessory for attaching things to the outside of the bag. Rather, I'll be trying some random things from Amazon (etc) out and hoping for the best.
- A tad concerned about the velcro attachment of the roller bag strap. To my engineer eye one might guess the strap got a bit floppy during testing and the engineers "solved" the problem by making it velcro to the pack. Velcro, of course, wears out...so, hmm. Not a problem here at the beginning, but it caught my "huh, keep an eye on that" attention.
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Anyways, looking forward to a few trips to see how it actually shakes out. In spite of the "cons" above, I really do like the way it feels on my back when fully loaded...so far.
