When deadlines loom and midnight oil burns, TMR editors rely on their trusty laptops to polish new site features and dig up the latest home entertainment news. Our portable processing partners also serve as a lifeline when reporting from the field and help cure midday boredom with time wasting surfing to uncover all that is meaningless yet annoyingly addictive.
Our laptops aren't bulletproof or even capable of surviving a hard knock. There's no magical shield protecting them if dropped and no armored bodyguard carrying them across an expo floor while hoards of sweaty enthusiasts swing their elbows to and fro. An imaginary bubble won't appear to buffer them against the bottom of a seat when nasty turbulence jostles a plane about. And as I personally learned this past E3, stepping on one is a surefire way to crack a screen like shattering a piece of peanut brittle.
Whether through divine intervention or some abstract wave of good fortune, Brenthaven was kind enough to provide one of their new laptop cases for evaluation. The Duo 15" immediately impressed with a solid construction I would come to learn was fabricated using military grade Ballistic Nylon. It sounds cool and certainly exudes a protective image. Loose glassware would survive if dropped to the floor while nestled within the confines of this case.
The DUO case provides two large compartments, each of which can easily store a laptop, as well as two secondary smaller compartments ideal for filing away various trinkets and paraphernalia. The smaller compartments have nets, writing instrument holders and various pouches. All together there is more space than I would ever conceive needing yet I'd rather know there's always more space available as opposed to not enough.
One of the larger compartments features Brenthaven's patented CORE protection system. The entire compartment is heavily padded with bowed panels on the end that expand and contract to fit the contour of a laptop placed within. They work in a similar fashion to rubber bands. When a rubber band is stretched and then pushed in at its middle, the natural reaction is for the band to become taught and try to snap back to its natural shape. The CORE pads work in the same manner by applying pressure to the laptop as they try to snap back. Combined with heavily padded flaps at the top, laptops stored with CORE are safe and secure - even when the bag is violently shaken.
There's more to Brenthaven's bag than military fabrics and snazzy padding. The shoulder strap is shaped like a crescent moon with its tips sawed off. This odd configuration is the perfect ergonomic fit for shoulders, a must when hauling around a nearly 10 pound piece of equipment for hours on end. A pair of handles brought together form a thick, durable single handle with slip-free grip that is arguably the most comfortable handle I've ever held on a piece of luggage. And for all the times I can never find a zipper on a briefcase, the DUO's zippers are so big and obtrusive there's no missing them when fiddling about in the dark.
If the DUO 15" sounds like the perfect laptop case that's because it is. With perfection comes a price to pay and owning one of these travel marvels will set back laptop owners a cool $149 MSRP. While the price is intimidating, Brenthaven's latest answer to protecting our prized electronic notebooks is an easy answer for the laptop owning man who can never figure out what to tell his wife to buy him for birthdays or holidays.
