Traveling with an 18.4 inch laptop

I mentioned before that I am looking for a way to improve on our traveling setup. We went with an 18.4 inch laptop to give us a mobile work area that also doubles as our mobile gaming rig. Our Toshiba Qosmio does a great job of both of those tasks. The size makes for a great mobile office, but when you’re lugging it from flight to flight it can be cumbersome. The biggest issue I have is on todays packed flights you sometimes end up having to check your carry on. With my current bag my laptop sits right on the front with little to no padding. I’m sure most of you have seen how bags get treated when getting pulled off of an airplane, with my laptop sitting right on the outside of the bag I have no doubt that it wouldn’t hold up to the abuse. Because of that I have decided to go with a smaller briefcase style bag to carry my laptop in that can be used as a personal item when flying, leaving out carryon bag to be used for other equipment and clothing.