Targus Drifter II Laptop Backpack, Black/Gray – Backpack for Men for Business and Travel, Durable Water-Resistant Material, Fits up to 17" Laptops (TSB239US)

This is a great backpack for its longevity, quality build, size, and design. -Build/Longevity: I have owned this backpack for three years. In those three years I have used this backpack everyday to go to and from school (five days a week with a laptop and books in it), for hiking, and for travel. I travel a lot and use budget airlines, which means carry-on and no checked luggage (to save money). This thing has survived the clothes, toiletries, books, electronics, and the rigors of air travel (being stuffed under seats, in the overhead, in trunks, out in the woods, etc.). -Size/Design: I own a 17.3 inch laptop (Vaio VPCF2290x) and it fits with room to spare. The pockets are great for storing many different types of things: books, clothes, groceries, tools, etc. -Quality: I have put this backpack through its paces and it has never let me down. Heavy loads, outdoors (hiking, beach, etc.), planes, and so on. This thing laughs at 5 liters of liquid (I had to carry groceries in this). -Comfort: the pads on the back are a nice touch and the straps don't dig into your shoulders even when fully loaded. -Self-Repair: After three years you would expect things to experience some wear and tear. There are only three parts of this backpack that have experienced significant wear and tear and it was negligible on it doing its job. I have included pictures: the plastic part of the handle broke in two; part of the seam came undone on one of the straps; It came apart where two parts are joined on one of the straps. It was an easy repair job: needle and thread. Overall this is a very durable backpack and I would highly recommend it.

After 17 years of daily use, mostly in a marine environment, it was time to replace my trusty Targus Drifter II laptop backpack. I couldn’t be happier to find an exact replacement here on Amazon. Sturdy would be an understatement in describing this backpack. It has so many pockets, you will probably forget a few of them. Thick padding on the back and shoulder straps make it extremely comfortable. The computer pocket is nicely padded and is a full pocket, not just a padded divider like in most packs. The padded hidden pocket at the small of the back is perfect for your most valued items. I doubt a thief could access it while worn. A plush lined pocket at the top of the back is great for delicate items. I keep a hard drive, flash drives, and card readers in mine. The reinforced carry handle is bullet proof. I’ve had handles tear off in days on other backpacks. This one is vinyl covered aircraft cable and never failed. I hope to retire in less than 17 years and not need another laptop bag or I would buy another one for backup. I highly recommend this pack and that you get one before they are gone. From their website, I don’t believe Targus makes the Drifter II anymore. This maybe the last backpack you need. I know it will be mine

Almost 3 years ago I bought this backpack for my everyday college use, demanding that it stow a 17" laptop, change of clothes, umbrella, textbooks, water bottle, and other everyday items, along with being able to convert into a spacious carry on for flights and be cheap (I was on a college freshman's work budget after all lol). I can tell you its well worth the money! Three years of abuse from several cross country flights, day hiking trips, countless road trips, numerous rain storms I've gotten caught in while in the middle of campus, and just overall wear and tear from someone who uses items and tends to demand they withstand quite a bit of abuse. Almost 3 years later and the abuse shows: 1) one of the shoulder straps has had a piece come loose but its purely cosmetic, the integrity of the strap is still there 2) somewhere along the way I lost the outermost pockets zipper pull, I remember it just pulling free one day admittedly though after over a year of wear and tear 3) I'm a college senior....I've carried up to four textbooks comfortably all day across campus with this backpack plus my 17" laptop....it was heavy but the padding on the straps kept it comfortable for me every time. I bring up textbooks and campus because I've been caught in plenty of rainstorms there, between slight drizzles to downpours...and I can tell you that my laptop and books survived each time without getting wet even when the bag itself was completely soaked and had water pooling on top of it. Those storms and hours spent exposed to the sun and heat, either on my back or in my car have caused the bag to fade significantly though, so if that matters to you know that it will happen. 4) The mesh side pockets have tears where they have gotten caught on snags under airplane seats and door jams of classrooms. This is a great product that is in my opinion very well made for its middle of the road price point (in a time where goods are either affordable and cheaply made or costly and well made). If you buy it, you wont have to worry about treating it with kid gloves like some other bags. I definitely have gotten my investment back and in 3 more years (or longer) when this bag eventually breaks, if they still sell them I'll be buying an exact copy to replace my ol' faithful one :)

This bag has tons of different pockets that can hold virtually anything you might need to lug along with your laptop. A few very minor quibbles so far, bearing in mind that I've just received the bag and haven't tried putting it through its paces yet: - If your laptop is smaller than 17 inches, the 17 inch model of the bag may turn out to be a bit too large. My 14.5 inch machine slides down pretty far, and almost gets lost in the bag. Perhaps the 16-inch model might be a bit better, but an inch wouldn't make that much difference. So if you have a smaller laptop, this one might be overkill. - There's not a perfect place to keep the essential bulky corded items (power and mouse). There's plenty of *room* for it, but the smaller zipper compartments would be very lumpy with the cord brick, and if I keep them in the larger main compartments (the one with the laptop or the other main one), the cords etc. will fall to the bottom and I'd have to stick my whole arm in there to get at them. There is a smallish mesh zipper compartment at the top of the laptop section, which just holds the cord and mouse, though I'm concerned that this will not hold up long term. - There are metal grommets in several places on the front of the nag. When I first noticed them I thought they were for ventilation or something. Nope, they don't appear to do anything beyond being decorative. No harm, it just looked a little odd. - There's a key clip inside one of the smaller compartments. Which is nice, but there's no additional length to the clip, it's right against the seam. So you can't fish out and use your keys without detaching them. My older bag had the key clip attached by a ribbon - still not long enough to *use* the keys, but I could at least retrieve them and have a bit more room to do the detaching. With this bag, you have to open the zipper and stick your hand inside. - On my old bag, the webbing straps you can use to adjust the strap length had plastic finger loops at the ends - easier to grasp when tightening the bag while it is on your back. This one has the webbing, but the loop is just a loop of webbing. A bit more trouble to stick fingers in for a better grasp. - The straps themselves are a little stiff-feeling. They might be a bit irritating for some people especially those who will be loading the bag down with a lot of books, and hauling it through airports or while walking longer distances. I'm tall and broad-shouldered so they seem OK for me, but then I'm going to be using this for car commuting. - The very front has a zipper that leads to a narrow and surprisingly deep compartment. If you have large hands, your hand will just barely fit inside there. I'm not entirely sure would that compartment would be good for, storage-wise, because things could get lost down there. Glasses, perhaps, though there's a nice fleece-lined pocket at the top between the two large compartments that would better for those. The good: This thing will hold everything you could possibly need unless you're lugging entire sets of the Encyclopedia Brittanica. The second large compartment (the one without the laptop sleeve) seems like it could hold a 5-6 inch stack of stuff - certainly enough to handle a full day at college or a change of clothes if you're traveling. There's a fold-down flap that helps hold that space open. Side compartments should hold smallish bottles of water, there are even zipper compartments that might hold a small umbrella. Same problem as that narrow front zipper compartment though: don't put anything in there that might drop down and be hard to retrieve. The padding feels pretty good across the back. There's a nifty "hidden" zipper compartment along the back padding which could hold some small things. I wouldn't suggest putting things like glasses in there (the pressure of the bag might break them), but for emergency cash or even a small wallet, it would to nicely. The front zipper area looks to be just the right size for an iPad or other tablet. I haven't tried this yet - I don't have an iPad, but my Nook Color fits there nicely.

I bought this bag a little over a year ago now (as a work bag so it gets a lot of use) and there is enough wear and tear (more tear than wear) that I now need to replace it. If I knew how to sew or knew someone that could I could no doubt get my bag repaired with ease and use it for several more years but I don’t so that’s not an option for me. I don’t want to get too long winded with this review but I’ll try and hit all the main points. #1 Large freaking bag. Tons of usable space. Great use of mini inner pockets (usually at the top of main pockets) to take advantage of those wasted upper areas that usually just holds air. Best combination of laptop compartment, main compartment, front compartments that I’ve found in any bag thus far. #2 Comfortable to carry. Good straps (although that’s where the ‘tear’ eventually took place). The elastic actually really helps to keep them from ‘digging’ into your shoulders. The handle is tough and well anchored. I have used the handle to move my bag around, fully loaded, and for over a year it’s held nicely, just a little cracking in the plastic. For future improvements on this I’d suggest going to a more malleable rubber with cable reinforcement or a sturdier metal handle. #3 It looks good. At the least it is not an ugly bag. #4 My only con is the middle pocket. The pocket between the main compartment and the front ‘pen’ pocket. I’ve found this pocket to be fairly worthless since it directly competes for the space used by the main compartment. It would almost serve better to cut the material out between the two pockets and use the zipper as a smaller access for the main compartment…or just do what I have and not use it. Either way. I guess if you want to add to the con pile I’ll talk about the wear and tear. So, on my bag the stitching on the shoulder straps is giving up the goose. The fabric is fine and if I can find someone that knows how to do it I’ll see if they’ll stitch this bad boy up again. One of the metal eye hole grommets has popped out, big deal. The picture of the circle of melt is due to a stovetop accident….don’t ask. It didn’t go all the way through and that was about 2 months after I got the back so it’s still plenty sturdy. All that said, I took some pictures to try and give a good idea of all the freaking pockets this bag has and some idea of where the wear and tear is likely to occur over time. Oh, and one picture to the Drifter II next to the Oakley Kitchen Sink and all the stuff I put in each to compare. I ultimately sent the Oakley back and ordered another Drifter II. Enjoy!

If you are looking for a backpack that offers utility and ample storage, while also being sturdy and well-made, this is it. I was initially looking at a sleek all-black Swissgear backpack, but upon reading its reviews found that the craftmanship was lacking. This backpack definitely outranks most of the sleeker designs you are finding right now, I assure you. Perhaps it doesn't exactly fit the aesthetic you are going for, but if you are someone like me who values quality and longevity, this is the correct choice. Aesthetics be d*mned, I just want something that is going to LAST. So far, this is living up to that expectation.

Nice backpack and roomy. I had a Targus many many years ago, and decided give a try again. No regrets! It worth the money.

This review is from a student's point of view, not a traveler's. I use the backpack for carrying the following items: 16" laptop incl. a huge power supply brick, a wireless mouse, 2" binder, a couple of notebooks, 1 or 2 textbooks, Ti-89 calculator, 1-liter water bottle, a travel mug, other school supplies, food, and occasionally a retractable umbrella. Here is what you see in most backpacks - a gazillion pockets that extend all the way down to the bottom of the backpack. That means once you fill up the main compartment tightly, most of the other pockets are rendered pretty much useless because the main compartment is pushing everything out. So you end up with everything stacked on the bottom of the backpack, while the top half of the space is completely wasted. Perfect examples of such wasteful designs are the Targus XL, CityGear, and Matrix backpacks. I hated them as soon as I laid eyes on the pocket design. And then there is the Drifter II backpack... with a total of three pockets located up high. The biggest one is right above the main compartment and it's a perfect fit for my Ti-89, wireless mouse, and a mini-stapler. The other two are mesh pockets - one in the laptop compartment and one in the main compartment, both of which are useful. On each side of the backpack there is a tall solid pocket, and another mesh pocket attached to it. On one side I carry my travel mug in the mesh pocket, and on the other side I have a bunch of supplies. The laptop compartment fits my 16" laptop perfectly, as well as some papers, maybe a few letter size manila envelopes. The main compartment holds a 2" D-Ring binder, a couple of notebooks and at least one textbook, and also my 1-liter bottle (the bottle is little wide for the side mesh pockets). My power supply brick goes in the pocket in front of the main compartment. The smaller front-most pocket holds all the smaller school supplies. I haven't seen a laptop backpack that utilizes space more efficiently! One that comes close is SwissGear Synergy backpack http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NONHYY/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_19. It has the same exact pocket placement but it is smaller. Here are all the backpacks I've tried, and found inferior to the Drifter II based on pocket design and space: Carhartt 10032102 Legacy Standard Work Pack, Carhartt Brown Dakine Campus Backpack, 33-Liter eBags eTech 2.0 Macroloader Laptop Backpack (Onyx) eBags TLS Workstation Laptop Backpack - Blue Yonder High Sierra Swerve Backpack Oakley Men's Backpack, Black, One Size OGIO Renegade RSS Day Pack, Large, Black Pindot Samsonite Luggage Tectonic Backpack Swiss Gear Maxxum Notebook Backpack SwissGear SA1923 ScanSmart Backpack SwissGear PEGASUS SwissGear Blue Ibex 17" Computer Backpack SwissGear Synergy SwissGear Travel Gear ScanSmart Backpack Targus Demolition Backpack Designed to Fit up to 17.3-Inch Laptop Targus XL Backpack Designed for 17-Inch Notebooks Targus RG0322 5.4 Matrix Notebook Backpack Targus CityGear Chicago Backpack Case for 16-Inch Notebooks Victorinox Luggage Architecture 3.0 Big Ben 17 Backpack Feb. 2015 Update Bad news. After only a few weeks of using the backpack, its shoulder straps started coming apart. More specifically the stitches where the narrow bottom straps are inserted into the wider top straps came apart. After that the shoulder straps seemed to be holding on, and the rest of the stitches never showed signs of weakening. It seems the weight of the backpack is not well distributed between the various stitches, so one of them was bearing most of the load. I'm currently waiting for a replacement from Targus. Before I had this backpack, I was carrying the same exact load/weight for several years in an old Targus XL model. It seems the newer models are more about flash than function. Now I'm using a SwissGear Synergy backpack which seems to be holding up very well to the same exact weight even though it is smaller. I wish the Drifter could carry the same load other backpacks can. Other than that it is a great backpack.

Úplně bombovej batoh a hlavně prostornej.

Ótima. Foi presente para meu filho, porém a minha, igual a esta, aniversariou 10 anos, linda, firme, forte e atualíssima.

I love it , very spacious and great material

The best bag ever, As expected, gives complete protection to your laptop and other accessories. Lots space & holds on your back firmly.

値段を考えると躊躇しますが 元を十分とるぐらい年数使いました 流石にボロボロになってきたので再度購入しました 一つ目のものは糸のほつれが見られましたが 今回購入したのは問題なかったです 使いやすいバックです