"Great Bag" - Review of DAKINE Terminal Backpack - 2100cu in

This is a great bag for big people with big packing needs. I am 6'2", and I fell like it fits me perfectly. I have had this bag for over 9 months now, and I have only minor complaints. First, the good stuff: - It is very roomy. I use this bag for school, and I regularly pack the following items in this bag every day: 3 heavy books (4000+ pages total), a laptop, bike pump, a thermos, lunch, pens, etc.... With a little creativity, everything fits. - It has neat niche pockets. I never knew how badly I needed a a bag with built in CD storage. Also, the sunglasses pocket is very useful - I always stuff my ipod in there. - All of the other pockets are very well designed. They have enough dividers and zipped compartments to satisfy your OCD impulses, and they fit everything. - The padded laptop compartment is a boon. Once, while biking to school, I bit it on some ice and fell so that the side of the bag slammed into the asphalt. My laptop suffered a direct hit, but still works despite a gnarly dent on the corner. I split the credit for this between Dakine and Apple... Also, the separate compartment allows you to easily pluck out your laptop at the airport without unpacking anything. This compartment is generously proportioned as well. It easily fits my 15" Mac, and since my slip on the ice I have begun to insert my laptop into a separate padded case which adds an extra inch or two to the thickness of the computer. Yep, still fits, albeit a little tight. - The padding on the back and straps is pretty great. I still get sweaty, but at least I am comfortable. The bad stuff: - Due to my daily habit of carrying over 50 lbs in it, the left strap has begun to fray where it meets the body of the backpack. It looks like it will last much longer though... - The CD pocket, cool as it is, is placed so that the zipper does not travel all of the way down the side of the bag. In other words, on a normal front loader you can zip about 300 degrees around the front of the bag - on this one you get maybe 200. This means that you are not able to open the bag as wide as a normal bag. Of course, this only matters if you plan on packing around a ton of crap. I give it 4 of 5 stars - Highly recommended.
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