The North Face Surge

I bought this due to all the high ratings on this site and others. I did not have chance to see it in person before I bought. It is a good, but not great laptop backpack.

It is very comfortable, the best shoulder straps I have ever felt. The backpack is also tall, which may sound like an odd "plus" but I use this when traveling for business and this is the first laptop backpack I have ever had that was tall enough to balance on the top of my rollerboard and could easily grab the top loop on the backpack and simultaneously hold onto the top of the rollerboard handle.

The backpack has a ridiculous amount of storage pockets. So many, that even for a packrat like me, I have no need for half of the pockets this backpack has. Another issue is the zippers for the main pocket don't extend to the bottom of the backpack, the stop about 2/3 of the way down. I really like to open up the whole backpack when loading stuff in/out and I can't do that with this model.

The final issue I have with this is the divider between the laptop section and the main section. It is pretty flimsy and it causes me problem when I have a lot of stuff like papers and books in the main center pocket and I want to put the laptop into is own pocket. If the main pocket is full, I have to tilt the backpack forward to create clearance to slide the laptop in. Probably seems like a nit to most folks but I travel every week for business and I bugs me that I can't get my laptop back into my backpack without having to futz with it.

I bought this as a gift for my little brother (a high school student) who was using a really old Jansport SuperBreak (which was literally falling apart at the seams).

First off, the bag is very organized. Lots of pockets for everything and then some. The powerbrick pocket on the bottom could use more padding but that's just me. I think, he plans on using that pocket for snacks or odd and ends, and instead, storing his powerbrick somewhere more secure. :)

The laptop compartment will be used for his new tablet (that the school will be suppling him with soon). His 15.4" Dell laptop does fit, should he use to travel with that instead.

He's really happy that his humongous zip around binder, text books, track and swim uniforms and such all fit into this bag. All without killing his back.

Also, he loves the multi-toned blue color. The color is bright and cheery. On a plus side, it's very easy to find his bag from the standard color backpacks when piled together.

He has no plans on using any of the straps, so we tucked away the waist belt. And yes, the waist belt does really tuck away. ;)

His only problem are the zippers. Actually, there are no problems with it yet, but he thinks it will break with heavy usage. Like his old backpacks. LOL. Only the time will tell. ;)

In all, the bag gets a 5 out of 5 from him. And from me? I'm looking into buying one for my own!

I love that this bag is big enough to hold my laptop and what I need without being big and bulky. I'm a college professor and carrying my briefcase-style laptop bag around campus was killing my shoulder. But I didn't want a backpack that was just like what my students have. (I'm relatively young for a prof and the students all think I'm one of their peers, so I try to dress professionally to distinguish myself from them.) This works. It's a little sporty (even in black), but that's sort of my style anyway, and it's not so sporty that it seems unprofessional. Plus I love that it has so many pockets to help me keep my gear in order. It has all these little places for all the things I need to teach each class, so I can set up quickly before class and get out of the classroom quickly after class. I think it will also be useful for traveling w/ the laptop, since it has a separate laptop pocket that is easy to access. Overall, this is hands down the best laptop bag I've owned.
Also, it fits my 15" macbook pro, in case anyone else out there is worried about that.

I love this bag. I carry my 13" MacBook everyday, and this bag makes it easy with plenty of room for anything else I might need on a daily basis.

My biggest warning would be if you are the kind of student who wants to pack their bag once for the semester (all your notebooks and texts for Bio, French, and Calc are going to stay in there no matter which day it is while you bring you laptop to campus) this is not the bag for you.

Otherwise, there is plenty of room. The bigger pockets keep me very organized and the little ones hold everything else I need without it flying around my bag. I LOVE the pocket in the bottom designed to carry your laptop's power block/cord. This way it never awkwardly finds its way to digging into my back.

The bag is super comfy and fits really well. I also especially like that the hip and waist accessories easily fold into the bag and out of the way if you don't need them on a daily basis.

Great Bookbag for school! I'm an eleventh grade student at a difficult high school-needless to say, I carry loads of books home. When I noticed the seam on the strap of my old Jansport was ripping, I turned to North Face since I knew many people who were pleased with theirs. I am extremely pleased. The bookbag is noticably more comfortable and padded than my previous one, and on a side note, I love the color! I can definitely feel the difference in quality. The only thing I would change is that it's a pretty heavy bookbag in itself. I believe it weighs almost three pounds without books. I had noticed that a few people had made comments about how the cup-holder side pockets didn't stretch to fit their water bottles. Personally, I have a camelback water bottle and it fits fine, but if you have one of the fatter ones it likely won't fit. The size is great-I was actually worried it might be too big for a school backpack, but it's perfect! Well worth the high price tag!

I bought this bag to use when I travel. I fly a lot. I have flown with it for a month now. It expands enough that I can keep all of my electronic goodies under my plane seat. (15in laptop, iPad, camera, chargers, external batteries, multiple phones for different countries) all of which seem to have their own pocket. I load it up with food and clothes also during travel...however once I get to my destination I can unload everything and tighten the side cargo straps and take this pack around the city with ease...when collapsed this bag has a small profile which is great in crowds. And I'm not knocking over small children when I spin around. Haven't tested it's water resistance skills yet, but it well built and should give me a few years of daily use.

Over all good looking bag, sturdy, lots of pockets. Can be big or small. And this is the best price I could find...

I use the Surge Daypack by The North Face every day and couldn't be more happy! It has a specially pocket right next to my back for my computer. The next pocket has plenty of space for my textbooks and notebooks. In front of that is a great pocket for organizing office stuff it has 3 pen pockets and a larger marker pocket, two pockets that hold flash drives perfectly, a pocket for post-it notes and some other larger pockets behind that, and finally another mesh pocket that I use to hold my house and earbuds case. Now what's super cool is the front pocket. It has enough pouches to individually store my device charging cord, my phone charger, my point and shoot camera, power supply for my computer, network cord, all in their own pocket and just a quick vertical zipper away for being accessed, and no tangled cords! Great for quick access and staying organized.

I bought this pack as a replacement for my company issued backpack which blew a seam. I miss the "checkpoint friendly" feature of my old pack, but the dedicated laptop pocket of the Surge is only slightly less convenient. My Dell E5500 (aka ugly clunky laptop) fits snugly in the pocket, sometimes requiring a little shake to allow the laptop to slide past books or other items in the adjoining pocket. The layout of the other pockets is perfect, although it took a few days of trial and error to find where my numerous technology pieces were most convenient.

The smaller zippers snag occaisionally, but I am hopeful that with some use they will become easier to open/close. The larger zipper is no problem--just grab the pull and...well, pull.

I am a grad student and I bought this backpack because I heard it could hold ALL of my stuff! It definitely doesn't disappoint... It's really good-looking (I got the tungsten gray) and it can literally hold all my books, binders, notebooks, etc.

The only downfall is that the laptop compartment doesn't quite hold my laptop. I have a 15.6" HP widescreen. I assumed since I read a review that it could hold a laptop up to 17", it could hold mine. I think because my HP is a widescreen, it just doesn't fit quite right. However, my laptop does fit in the main compartment, so I just put it in there instead of the laptop compartment. Kind of a bummer, but really not a huge deal.