I’ve been a long-time cheerleader for Brenthaven bags**, so much so that, years ago, they put one of my breathless reviews on their hangtags. (At least I think they did. They asked permission. I never saw one.) Anyhoo… as our President likes to remind us: 9/11 changed everything. Traveling has become a hassle at best and air travel frequently veers into something out of a dystopian novel. Planes are getting crammed with more seats and more passengers, the aisles growing so narrow, soon you’ll have to grease your luggage to get it through. My beloved Brenthaven Expandable Topload and my old small suitcase just didn’t fly in a 21st century world. I’d replaced the suitcase a few trips back, and needed to get the right gadget bag to go with it. I found it in the Belkin Sling Bag ($49).

I was hoping to get my Sling Bag sent to me before my recent California trip. UPS showed up about fifteen minutes before I left for the airport. I had to quickly transfer everything from my Brenthaven to the new bag. I have A LOT of stuff — BlackBook and cables, iPhone and cable, Nano and cable, Panasonic recorder and dock, Moleskine cahiers, files, pens, business cards, a book, a magazine, sunglasses — I was concerned it wasn’t all going to fit in this relatively small bag, but it did. There are lots of inside pockets, outside pockets, little cubbies and slots here and there. The bag comes with a zipper case for cables, and my Apple power cables, and USB and cables/docks for everything else fit inside (with some careful cable stuffing). The 15.4″ (or smaller) laptop goes into a plushy slot inside and everything else inside goes in the compartment in front of that. Oh, there’s also a dedicated iPod/phone pocket in one of the outer zipper compartments with a rubber-protected grommet to feed your headphones through. Nifty.

Locked and loaded (oops, bad going-to-the-airport metaphor), I slung the bag over my shoulder and headed into the urban jungle and the unfriendly skies beyond. And it all just worked. My new carry-on luggage rolled down aisles with ease, my Belkin Sling riding securely on top. One great feature for me is that it’s fairly thin. Having arthritic knees, I like to get bulkhead seats for more legroom, but you can’t stow things under the seat in front of you. The Sling Bag is so thin, it fits snuggly under *my* seat, without impinging on the stowage space of the passenger behind me. And if you did have to stow it overhead, it’d fit in places bigger-boned bags could not.

As the name implies, it’s a sling, not a backpack, so like all such bags, your mileage may vary in terms of using this kind of one-strap transport. It probably wouldn’t be comfortable for a long hike home, but for carrying it on your back to/from cabs, buses, trains, through airports, it’s very comfortable. The handle and back are thickly padded and the bag sits fairly securely on your back.

The bag has a lot of nice “premium” features you might not expect in such an inexpensive piece of luggage. It feels well-constructed, has rubber grips on the zippers, the included cable bag, the felting inside, the iPod carrier. This is a really decent and stylish laptop bag for not much more than the price of a leather iPod sleeve. The bag comes in red/black (a.k.a. “jet/cabernet”) or brown/light blue (a.k.a. “chocolate/tourmaline”).

**In all fairness to Brenthaven, I haven’t seen any of their more recent bags. Like the Maytag repairman myth, they put themselves out of a job ’cause their bags are so well-made. Mine looks like it’s brand new even though it’s like eight years old and has traveled many thousands of miles. I’m sure they have leaner, meaner bags fit for the new apocalypto.