So I bought this bag to replace a NF Wasatch that was way past its prime (but still functional and usable, after all it's a NF). Anyways the difference between the 2 bags are like night and day. The shoulder and waist straps help evenly distribute the weight and you feel like you have 75% less weight than you are actually carrying. To see if it REALLY was better at distributing weight than my trusty wasatch, I loaded both bags with a 30 lbs. dumbbell each. The wasatch could hold the weight but in doing so was making my back hunch over. With the solaris however, I felt none of this and I could maintain good posture. I could lean back making an almost 70 degree arch with my back and not fall backward, whereas with the wasatch I could only lean back maybe 30 degrees at most and had to stop or I would have fell on my ***. That being said, this bag is much larger than any bag I have owned, but not so big as to prevent you from using it all the time. My only complaint is the flimsy trampoline divider on the bottom. Why the hell didn't they use a zipper for that? Did they intend for people to use this bag only for packing clothing (which the trampoline divider works well for). I ended up just disconnecting it and using it as a single large compartment. This seems like a good bag for a student with a lot of things to carry and carry in style. But the waist straps and compression straps may get in the way of constant zippering and unzipping. The construction seems very solid so far. Also this thing just plain looks cool and futuristic. Cave black is awesome!