Tom Bihn

SRP / SP:	$50 / $50
Requirements:	None
What’s Hot:	Maybe the most protective sleeve I’ve ever tried
What’s Not:	Not the most svelte bag

I found it. I found my desert island laptop bag. Now, most of you have probably never thought about what bag or sleeve you’d take with you if you could only have one on a desert island, but when you have as many passing through your doors as I do, you start to think about it. Why does Tom Bihn’s Brain Cell bag warrant such praise? The Brain Cell has versatility, working as both a sleeve and a bag, and the design is sure to keep out any sand and tough enough to crack coconuts on.

On the versatility front, the Brain Cell can be more than a sleeve for tossing in a larger bag. Two handles are positioned on the top for use as a handbag or briefcase, and there are D-ring-like attachments on either end for an optional shoulder strap. Depending on what you want, the Brain Cell can go in a larger bag, be carried by hand, or go as a shoulder or messenger bag. There is also a slit on the exterior of the bag (as you can see in the photo) for files, papers, etc.

One of the areas where the bag surprised me is in the design of the opening on the top. The Brain Cell has a rigid design (which I’ll discuss later), that allows for more than a simple flap. The top is reminiscent of the top of a cereal box, with two flaps both covering the opening and attached by velcro between them. For many users, this is nothing but design decadence, but like I said, this is my desert island bag and I need to keep the sand out. Other dust and spilled liquids will also meet their match here.

As for busting open those coconut shells, Tom Bihn describes the bag thus: “Cradled in 8mm thick soft foam padding, your laptop hangs suspended in a 4mm hard corrugated plastic insert that protects from the front, back, and bottom. The sides are protected by dense cross-linked closed-cell polyethylene foam.” It may be hard to imagine what this all adds up to, but let me tell you, you can safely relive your youth and kick your encased laptop down the street if you so wish. In more practical terms, if you refrequently put a lot of books or files in your bag with your laptop, a rigid shell like the Brain Cell could be of great help in preventing any inadvertent crushing.

The downside of all this protection and versatility is that this bag takes up some real estate and isn’t the lightest case around. If you need something light and small for tossing into a bag, this probably isn’t thecase for you, but if protection is the highest priority or you plan to use the Brain Cell on its own, you can’t get much better.

Filed under: Reviews