In Review - The Belroy Transit Workpack Pro v2
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A few months ago I updated my go-to travel and daily use backpack to the Belroy Transit Workpack Pro 28L (specifically the black color option), after using it for a few months I wanted to write a brief review of it as a product with some of my paper cuts in a hope to provide insight for others looking to purchase the backpack!
Prior to this I was using a fairly larger backpack from peak, I think it was this 45L Travel Backpack, and I was looking to find a backpack that was slightly smaller but would still be useful for using as a secondary carry on travel bag.
In addition to using it while traveling, I also use it infrequently when commuting to work and back (when I do go into the office).
Paper Cuts:
There's a few smaller pain points / paper cuts that I've found with the Belroy backpack, some of these may matter for you but some may not!
All of these are very minor complaints about the backpack - I still use it as my go-to backpack anyway!
Water Bottle Pouch
The water bottle storage in the backpack is a zipper pouch on the side - because its a zipper pouch you're fairly limited in the size of water bottle that you can carry in the backpack. I usually carry a 40oz Hydroflask or a 46oz Nalgene - both of which can't fit within the side pouch (even without zipping it up partially).
In addition to the smaller size - I've found that the zipper on that pouch seems to stick quite frequently for me and it takes a bit of effort to fully open or close it - however this might just be an issue with my specific backpack vs all backpacks.
Laptop Sleeve
The laptop enclosure has a nice separate small pouch for things like a kindle or phone, however there's some weird gaps on either side of the laptop pouch that allow for things to go into the main compartment of the backpack.
This isn't really that much of an issue (the gaps are about the size of an Airpods case), but it does make me think that I might loose something between the gaps from the laptop compartment into the main compartment.
Small Front Compartment
The small front compartment is generally pretty nice - I feel like it could use a few more organizational slots, but generally it's nice to hold on to a few pens/pencils, and a small notebook or passport. However the glasses compartment in that pouch has a zipper that runs the opposite way as the zipper for the compartment - which feels weird to me. It usually means that I need to fully open the small front compartment in order to access the glasses section.
I usually now just leave that glasses compartment fully unzipped to make it easier to access on the go.
General Shape
My final pain point with the bag is that it can't easily stand on it's own. The bottom of the bag curves away (maybe to make it more ergonomic?), but this means that it's near impossible to have it sit on it's bottom without leaning against a wall.
Summary
The above issues are definitely minor inconveniences rather than major pain points. I still use the backpack almost daily and I'm enjoying it compared to my previous backpack - but I wish that they'd polish up some of these issues to improve upon it even more!