Clive : Worker

Pros Adjustable laptop "sleeve". HUGE amounts o' room!
Cons No cell phone holder (are we back to this again?). Looks could be cooler.
Retail Price : $89.00

Clive : Worker Backpack Review

Clive makes great bags. They are comfortable and have good looks. The Worker is no exception but two aspects of this backpack really stand out; the laptop compartment and the sheer amount of room in this backpack.

Construction:
The sample we had was gray nylon. I would guess around 600D, give or take a D or two. As all Clive bags are, it’s well made and has a padded back for comfort. There is a waist strap which was good, but no sternum strap.

Protection:
Ah yes. The laptop compartment has a first for us. We’ve seen ALOT of bags in out time but we have never seen an adjustable laptop “sleeve”. It’s built into the compartment and is made out of lined neoprene for softness. Velcro holds the straps in place as well as the laptop. we test with a Powerbook G4 and it adjusted to fit nicely. I think with a little more finessing on our part we could have had the perfect fit. It’s really ingenious and seems to work well overall. It does take some practice to adjust but once there we didn’t have to re-do it ay all. By the way, that was aspect #1 I mentioned up top.

Organizational Features:
There are to main compartments that make up the bag, the front compartment that has dividers built in (which, by the way, I like) and the laptop compartment with that snazzy adjustable sleeve. In front there is another small pocket to hold a CD player (yes, it has a headphone port), and other stuff. There is a matching PDA case that either velcros inside of the front pocket or could be attached to the shoulder strap. On the very outside front there is another little pocket for more storage. On either side of the backpack are these pod like compartments that are cavernous. Let me say this bag can hold it all. I get allot of e-mail from students asking what bag would be good for them for carrying a laptop and books. This is it. Most other backpacks are not designed to carry an advanced calculus book, a book on art history from 1800 to present, and a laptop, and an AC adaptor...you get the picture. You could pack some stuff in here. So much that you would not be able to carry it. Hey... no cellphone holder! I put everything in here including our pet frog (not really).

Comfort:
I wore it on one shoulder mostly packed with crap and it did well. Clive’s real good at this.

Aesthetics:
The bag isn’t going to win any awards in the looks department. I like the bags color that Clive had before. You know those retro Space 1999 colors. Sweeet. This is a gunmetal gray and looks kinda techie. It does not look like a laptop backpack so bug off thieves!

So...what do I think? Tons o’ room! A great backpack for you school/college goers. decent protection and good comfort. The dividers are nice as is the PDS case.

Review Rating

AVERAGE SCORE 7.7
Construction 7.5
Comfort 8.0
Organizational Features 8.0
Protection (with a sleeve) 7.5
Aesthetics 7.5