Digital Trends

APC TravelPower Backpack January 26th, 2004 | by Jeff Fila

Usability and Testing

Forget about the power adapter for a minute, the APC TravelPower backpack is one of the best designed, most useful backpacks we've ever used. There are intelligently laid-out pockets everywhere — 24 by our count. The pockets are easy to access and there are several that are made specifically for portable devices. There are also two external pouches for water bottles on each side.

Your laptop fits in a well-protected pocket protected in the main compartment. There are pockets in that compartment for folders, files or papers. This compartment is the one closest to your back and is protected by a thick padding that is both comfortable and functional. It is protected with padding on all six sides and really keeps your laptop safe.

The middle compartment is where your portable devices are stored. There are three mesh pockets made specifically to fit your PDA, wireless phone and the power adapter. Between these pockets are loops designed to manage the charging cables so they are neatly organized.

The front compartment is designed to hold pens, change and smaller items. The removable pouch fits in this section. On the very front is a diagonal zipper pouch with two other pockets.

The backpack is a dark blue tough nylon material and features a carrying handle on the top and two comfortable shoulder straps.

We had no problem fitting any of our devices in the TravelPower backpack. Our desktop-replacement Sony Vaio GRT-250 fit well in the laptop pouch as did the ultra-portable 12-inch Apple Powerbook. Unfortunately, APC does not provide power adapter tips for these particular laptops. In fact, there are no power adapter tips for any Apple laptops.

All phones and PDAs that we tried seem to fit well in the designated pouches also.

We hooked up an IBM T-40 laptop, Motorola i90 wireless phone and a Compaq iPAQ PDA to the travel power adapter. All items fit perfectly in the case and powering and charging them worked great. To select the proper voltage, all you need to do is turn the dial on the power adapter with a coin to match the required setting for your laptop. If you can't find that information, APC provides it for you in a booklet included with the packaging and on their Website. The USB power adapter automatically provides the proper voltage for your portable devices.

Although this is a diagram for a different TravelPower case, you can see how the cables are routed.

Once we were able to get devices that worked with the included adapters, it was great to be able to use only one power cord to charge all devices. The best part about this is being able to charge all of the devices while they are in the bag. Travelers will appreciate this when they want to be packed in the evening to leave early the next morning. There are no messy cables to worry about since the bag provides a path for all wires to all devices, and the power plug slides right through an opening in the zipper to plug into the wall.