The Good: A modern, streamlined bag offering excellent protection for your Mac.
The Bad: Shoulder straps sit a little wide and tend to slide off slightly at times.
The Bottom Line: Built with premium materials, the LE Bag Pro is a durable, good looking bag packed with great features and protection.
On any given day, I’ll have in my bag: my MacBook Air, a power brick, my iPad Air, a small notebook, one or more external drives and a few smaller accessories. Despite the MacBook Air being light, things quickly add up and I find myself lugging around a hefty load.
I certainly can use the exercise, but it’s important that I have a good, comfortable bag to help me bear the weight and protect my precious gear. Therefore, when Be.ez sent me the LE Bag Pro a while back, I was more than eager to put it through the rigours of my daily commute.
Design & Build
The LE Bag Pro has a shell-like design with two side flaps (fixed with velcro) which help compress the bag and maintain its streamlined shape. It’s crafted with premium materials; the outer fabric, durable ballistic nylon (1682D) and the inner fabric, finer 210D nylon, both with double polyurethane backing and lining.
It also has several pockets made with neoprene and jersey lining as opposed to the normal flimsy fabric most other bags use. This not only looks and feels good, but has the added benefit of providing that little bit extra protection your gear deserves.
Seen here are the neoprene pockets as well as the fine mesh pocket.
Given the LE Bag Pro’s design, it isn’t the roomiest of bags, but it does offer ample storage and organisation. The front section has the aforementioned neoprene pockets and three zipped pockets; a larger one in nylon near the base of the bag and 2 smaller mesh pockets.
In the rear, you have a separate compartment for your Mac. This compartment is extremely well padded and has a velcro flap to secure your Mac in place. Furthermore, it’s slightly raised of the bottom of the bag for added protection when placing the bag on the ground. You’ll also find two large mesh pockets for your documents or notepads and if you look hard enough, you may just discover the hidden pocket too — but I won’t tell you where since that would just defeat the purpose, right?
The separate compartment for the Mac offers great protection.
Storage compartments aren’t restricted to the inside of the bag though. On the outside are 3 additional zipped pockets. One quick access pocket lined with soft fabric, ideal for you phone or keys and two small, very discreet pockets on the inside of the side flaps.
Be.ez have strived to provide you with the best most durable bag you could get and that’s patent in the LE Bag Pro. For instance, many other bags offer a rain cover or a stowaway handle, and the LE Bag Pro is no different. What is different however are the special zippers that Be.ez used. With a soft rubber coating and no zipper pull, the risk of an uncomfortable poking in the back is minimal.
The rain cover and special zipper keeping it neatly and comfortably tucked away.
Comfort
No two bodies are alike, so comfort can be a very subjective thing. Personally however, in terms of comfort, I found the LE Bag Pro to be a mixed bag (pardon the pun) of good and bad.
The Good: The air channel down the middle helped keep me cool these hot summer days and the padding in the back, along with it’s thick, well padded shoulder straps helped dampen the heavy load — making prolonged use not only bearable, but comfortable.
The Bad: Given that the shoulder straps are spaced relatively wide apart, the absence of a chest strap to hold them in place meant that at times they would slide slightly off, forcing me to re-position them again. A very minor nuisance in an otherwise very comfortable bag.
Metal buckle for added durability. Also seen if the small pocket inside the side flap.
Issues
I was hard-pressed to find faults with the LE Bag Pro, but in using it daily for the past couple of months, two things stuck out:
- The two side flaps that help keep the bag streamlined can also hinder it’s usability. In order to have unobstructed access to the bag, I have to release the velcro that holds the flaps in place. It’s a small nuisance, and one that I’m grown accustomed too. My other initial concern with the velcro on the side flaps was that clothing would get caught in the velcro hooks, but that has yet to have happened these past few months.
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The absence of individual pockets for pens. While one of the neoprene pockets serve the purpose just fine, I would have preferred to have dedicated organisation for my pens and pencils
Verdict
Premium craftsmanship, quality materials, modern look and excellent protection & comfort make the LE Bag Pro a no-brainer. If you’re looking for a great bag for your gear and don’t have that much bulk, then I highly recommend this bag.
Just like the Snugg, my wife tried to make off with this bag too — but a man’s got to put his foot down and say no when it comes to something this good!
