Booq Taipan Shock
Taipan Shock inside
I’ve recently been sent another product for a Geek Test, and this time it’s the ‘Booq Taipan Shock‘ bag. It’s a lightweight laptop backpack designed to carry any MacBook or PCs up to 16.4 inches. First impressions – it looks really nice; The design is very pleasing to the eye, and it feels well made, durable, and of a high quality.
Once you start to open it up, you can see 5 compartments.
The front pocket is just about big enough for a 7 inch tablet (although it’s rather accessible for something that valuable… I’ll come back to that…).
Inside, there is the laptop pocket which goes against your back. It’s well padded and looks like it would provide a good amount of protection to any computer in there. Then there’s the main compartment, which has a mesh pocket on one side, and there are a few other zipped pockets and some pen holder pockets, so you’re not short of spaces to squirrel away your stuff!
Back on the outside, there are 2 side pockets, which can be zipped totally shut, but are a little too small to take a decent sized bottle which is a bit irritating.
The pack is weights in at 962g, so pretty lightweight, and is easy and comfortable to wear. It also has a sternum strap for added stability, and is water-repellent, so not going to totally soak the contents at the first sign of rain.
One final nice little addition is their Terralinq ‘lost and found’ system. Every bag has a unique serial number on the back. So if you ever lose your bag and some kind soul wants to get it back to you, they just need to go onto a website, punch in the the number and some contact details, and you and your bag can be reunited. Terralinq is a lovely idea, even if it does rather rely on the kindness of strangers, but at least it gives some chance of getting your bag back!
Generally, the Booq Taipan Shock is a really nicely styled, well build, practical bag… There is one issue I have though, but it’s not specific to the this backpack…
Ever since seeing the excellent Riutbag at The Gadget Show this year, I don’t understand why anyone makes backpacks with zips on the outside anymore (not this sort of urban commuter bag anyway)… The idea of zips on the outside so they’re ‘accessible’ now seems so silly to me, as they only people they’re ‘accessible’ to is everyone but the person wearing the bag… Sarah Giblin’s ingeniously simple solution to this with the Riutbag has rather ruined every other backpack for me now…
Link to the Booq Taipan Shock on Amazon
