When I picked up a new laptop this year, I had a strict set of requirements for a new laptop bag. I wanted something that matched the portability of my new Yoga 2 Pro, something that was different from the standard run of the mill bags, and something that fit the laptop perfectly. Surprisingly trying to find a laptop bag that fit an ultrabook was a lot harder than I thought, most manufactures ignore the laptop thickness and just size by the screen size. I did run across a company called WaterField that makes a wide variety of bags, including bags to fit my laptop. Today I’m going to take a look at their VertiGo Travel Bag and a Sleevecase to keep my Yoga 2 Pro nice and safe.
Product Name: WaterField VertiGo and Sleevecase
Review Sample Provided by: WaterField
Written by: Wes
Pictures by: Wes
Specifications
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VertiGo Travel Bag |
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Size |
Small: 8.5" x 11" x 3.5", 1.2 lbs. Medium: 11" x 13" x 3.5", 1.45 lbs. Large" 11" x 15" x 3.5", 1.55 lbs. |
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Colors available |
Blue Celeste Lead Taxi Green Suede Black Leather Orange Leather Kiwi Leather Muzetto Brown leather Nubock Leather Peruvian Leather |
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PC Laptop SleeveCase |
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Size |
Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro tested, but is available in countless other sizes to fit most laptops |
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Orientation |
Available in Horizontal and Vertical |
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Trim Colors |
Lead Indium Black Leather Brown Leather |
PC Laptop Sleevecase
What I went with to protect the Yoga 2 Pro is actually two products from WaterField. The first is the Sleevecase and the other is the VirtiGo. In this section I’m going to take a close look at the Sleevecase, a laptop pouch design to work on its own or inside of the VirtiGo.
When ordering the Sleevecase you have a variety of options to tune the Sleevecase specifically to what you need. First you have to select what device you plan on using it with or if they don’t have your specific device you can also pick from different sizes. Once you lock that down you can pick from one of three colors for the bottom of the Sleevecase. For mine I went with brown leather but you can also get back leather and Lead Indium. You can decide if you want your laptop to slide in horizontal or vertical, they recommend vertical as it will make your laptop feel lighter when carrying it around, this is the direction I went as well. From there you have the option to add a flap as well as a shoulder strap for carrying.
As I mentioned before, you could go with the standard design or add a flap. For mine I went simple and skipped out on the flap. That means I ended up with this inch+ wide strap that covers the end of the Sleevecase to make sure my laptop doesn’t come out. They covered the back side in Velcro, and on the end they added a small tab to make pulling the Velcro apart easier. This is also where you will find the WaterField logo, beyond this they keep the Sleevecase really clean and free of unneeded logos.
On the back of the Sleevecase you get a pouch that you can put a few small accessories in if you are carrying just this case around. For me my charger fit in this perfectly, but it is a little tight so if your charger is a little larger you might run into issues.
All in all the Sleevecase is a basic sleeve for your laptop, but it has more padding and protection than most other laptop bags. Add to that the leather base to prevent holes from turning up after years of use I have a feeling the Sleevecase will outlive this laptop and maybe my next.
VertiGo Travel Bag
To go with the Sleevecase I went with the VertiGo Travel Bag. WaterField makes a wide variety of shoulder bags ranging in price from $89 all the way up to $355. The VertiGo is the cheapest shoulder bag that they carry that supports laptops larger than the Macbook air. By going with the VertiGo I was able to keep the price down while still getting the styling that I really liked from the WaterField bags. It also matches my Sleevecase with its vertical orientation. The outside of the bag is constructed out of ballistic nylon with an accent strip across the front that is available in a whole list of colors and a few different materials. Our sample has nubock leather, if I had to do it again I might lean towards the muzetto brown leather or the orange to match my laptop. Anyhow the nubock still looks great and it breaks up the nylon with a little style.
The exterior of the bag has a quick access front pocket just above the leather accent, a cell phone pocket on the right side, and on the back there is a pocket that is large enough to fit paperwork or a magazine. The one area that I would have loved to see improved on is the bottom of the bag. Although the ballistic nylon is more than strong enough to hold up to anything, I would have loved to see a leather area on the bottom of the bag like the Sleevecase has. It would add a little more styling to the bag overall.
Inside the VertiGo is lined with a silky orange lining, the bright color actually seems to light up the inside of the bag making it easier to see down inside slightly. Along the front WaterField added small pouches for you to put business cards, pens, and even your credit cards for when you are traveling. The larger two pouches are actually big enough to drop in your phone or a wireless mouse. The rest of the interior is HUGE, especially for my laptop, so even with the Sleevecase inside you still have room to drop in other items. There is a small strap inside with a hook on the end of it, I assume this is for hooking your keys up somewhere that someone can’t snatch from your pocket. The only thing that you should keep in mind with the VertiGo Travel Bag is that the interior does not have padding so you will need to pair it with a Sleevecase if you plan on putting your laptop inside. Otherwise the bag is extremely well constructed and has a lot of room for carrying things when traveling.
Performance
For testing I put both the VertiGo and the Sleevecase to use in my everyday activities. On top of that when we went on vacation this spring the bag and sleeve really came in handy. I found that in my every day use the Sleevecase was actually more than enough for me. I was able to fit my charging cable into the back pouch and go on my way without having to worry about my laptop getting damaged. When traveling the VertiGo bag made it easy to carry my laptop with us along with both of our tablets, chargers, and things that I would normally have in my pocket like keys and credit cards. This made it easy to toss the bag in a locker when we didn’t need it without having to pull things out of our pockets and show everyone what we were putting in the locker. Another really nice part about the VertiGo bag was the magazine pouch on the back side. When I travel I always print out conformations and tickets and take them with us, the magazine pouch was the perfect place to keep these things. The bag stayed with us when going in to check into a hotel and everything was easy to get into.
So how well did the Sleevecase fit the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro? Well when I first requested the bag from WaterField they didn’t have an option for the laptop, so the first Sleevecace they sent was a little big. After figuring things out the second case they sent fit perfectly. You can see both the original and the final bag below. Typically I wouldn’t even bother showing the original, but I really wanted to point out that WaterField made sure to fine tune everything to fit my laptop specifically. So if you don’t see your model listed, contact them. I bet they can still get you figured out. Speaking of how things fit. The Sleevecase still had a lot of room around it in the VertiGo, so if you are on vacation like I was you could still fit in a few souvenirs on top of your laptop and other important items.
Overall and Final Verdict
When I set out to find a bag my biggest goal was to find a bag that didn’t take up more space than needed while still being able to bring along a few basic things. Honestly in the end the Sleevecase handled that role for me. The VertiGo Travel Bag ended up being too big for my everyday use, but it found a lot of use when traveling due to its extra capacity.
Where both bags really stood out was with their build quality though. WaterField obviously puts a lot of care when making their bags. This is obvious if you start reading around their website, each bag design was created for a specific purpose. Even more importantly they stand behind their products with a lifetime warranty and a 30 day Guarantee as well. I doubt seriously that I will have to worry about shipping the Sleevecase or the VertiGo back for repairs though considering their build quality.
The other thing that I was really impressed with WaterField with is their small production run mindset that lets them make nearly custom bags to fit so many products. The Sleevecase for example has 16 sizes listed but if you put in your laptop model they will make one to fit it. Add to that the option to select orientation, three trim colors, a shoulder strap, and the flap. That doesn’t even count all of the MacBook models or all of the other devise. The VertiGo is similar, you can get it in 11 colors and three different sizes, that is 33 different models. The downside of course is the price. For a custom sleeve the Sleevecase is actually an amazing value, but when paired up with the VertiGo bag things do add up. That’s not to say that you aren’t getting a good product for that price though.
