What to look for in perfect rolling laptop bags becomes especially important when you've just become fed up with lugging around a big laptop - in its big laptop bag - all over the place. Face it; carrying something exceeding maybe 20 pounds or more around on your shoulder can get old fairly quickly.
Given the above, what then should you look for when going shopping for something like a rolling laptop bag? I mean besides its price tag, of course, which oftentimes shouldn't be the lone deciding factor. In the end, after all, if the thing doesn't suit your needs what's the point in caring how much it costs?
In rolling laptop bags especially, high quality will definitely come at a price premium. But with bags like these, you tend to get what you pay for, and nothing's more embarrassing than watching the wheels come off your discount store-bought bag when you're wheeling your gear up to a hoped-for new client, for example. First off, take a look at those wheels and make sure they're either metal or heavy-duty plastic reinforced.
The next thing to look at when it comes to a rolling laptop bag is the handle, which should be extendable and preferably made of aluminum. The better construction bags do indeed have handles made of that worthy metal for a couple of reasons. For one, aluminum is light in weight and one thing you want to avoid is pulling around excess amounts of it.
Perhaps the most attractive aspect of having a handle made of that metal is that it's both strong and flexible at the same time. In other words, it can take a beating and not break or snap off in your hands, which can be of great utility to all those road warrior airline travelers out there. Good rolling laptop bag handles feature a button on the handle which, when depressed, allows you to pull the handle out and upwards. Make sure it's of sufficient length to ensure you're not hunching over to pull it around.
That same handle should be fully collapsible back down into the bag covering, which is needed when the laptop bag has to go up and into one of those aircraft overhead storage bins. Make sure the bag, though, comes with a separate compartment in it so that the laptop is separated from all the junk that'll find its way into it over time.
As far as protective materials in a rolling laptop bag goes, always check to make sure it comes with sufficient padding so that the laptop computer survives a drop down onto the ground. Cheap bags skimp on this feature, by the way. Also, check for dedicated storage pockets and compartments for all those supplies every computer user needs.
If you're a road warrior and find yourself spending more time in airports and aircraft than in your own home or office, you should be looking at rolling laptop bags as an alternative to the shoulder-carried laptop bag. Good bags can make it easy to carry not only your computer but all the peripherals and supplies like CD/DVD discs and USB memory sticks and the like, all without breaking your collarbone.
One thing to keep in mind is that by definition these bags are going to be heavier than traditional shoulder laptop bags, so if lifting and then stowing bags like the ones we've been discussing will be a problem for you perhaps you should look at other alternatives. For those who don't mind, though, rolling laptop bags can make a lot of sense. Just make sure you take your laptop with you when you go to shop for one to make sure it can comfortably fit into your hoped-for new bag.
What to Look For in Rolling Laptop Bags