Exspect 13-inch Mibag - TechRadar UK

The Exspect 13-inch Mibag isn't overpriced, but for £35 we expected something stronger and better organised.

It fails to do anything special, and in our opinion, parts of the design are poorly executed.

This kind of messenger bag design is popular with students but fades in appeal beyond this age group. Why? For the simple reason that it's an uncomfortably shaped bag to cart about!

Slung over a shoulder, you find that it wears against your thigh and bumps along as you walk.

Huge capacity

It also offers far more capacity than most of us could ever use.

While that might potentially be a good thing if you need to take 50 things with you when you leave home in the morning, the internal and external pouches are poorly stitched and lack folds or pockets to fix items in place. As a result, everything kind of sloshes around inside the pockets.

The carry strap is unattractive. There's a carry handle on top of the bag, which gets rid of this problem, but why bother carrying a messenger bag like a briefcase? That looks even more unsightly. Get yourself a briefcase instead.

Some nice touches

The bag is not a total loss, though. The flap on the front has strong catches and a sensible pouch (this flap can be exchanged for the different colour flap, costing £10).

An iPod pouch and eyelet for the cable is another plus. But the saving grace is a removable inner sleeve with neat little sliding handles.

It's decently padded, and after a few days we just used this as a briefcase and did away with the rest of the bag - shame it's not sold separately. The material throughout is neoprene, which, while splash-proof, gets very hot in direct sunlight.

With so many options out there for laptop bags it's hard to recommend this one. Try Crumpler for funkier bags and Brenthaven for stronger ones.