We’ve seen a lot of PowerBook bags over the years here at the PBZone: probably about 50 to 75 or so from dozens of manufacturers over the last 8 years we’ve been publishing. Some have been awful (think straps snapping, laptop crashing to the ground) and some have been truly astounding one-of-a-kinds (think handmade leather bag that retailed for a couple of house payments). Since we only have one or two Apple laptops at a time, we can only use one or two bags ourselves in our daily routine. And one of the items we use with our 15″ PowerBook is the original Booq Vyper sleeve, which we reviewed here a couple of years ago. If you read that review, you’ll see that we were big fans of the Vyper because it’s a simple, protective, sleek sleeve that can be used with almost any other bag, including those not really designed for computers.

Now, for a moment of obvious disclosure for those that didn’t notice the Booq ads on the site: we’re proud to have Booq on board as a longtime supporter of PBZone.

Anyway, Booq took the Vyper and sent it to play major league baseball, because they’ve introduced a steroided-up larger version that transforms the Vyper from a sleeve to a stand-alone case that shares the same sleek, molded ballistic nylon construction, as seen below:

As usual, Booq’s bags are all about attention to detail. From big advances like the new Booq-exclusive TerraLinq service, which allows you to register your bag’s unique serial number online in case of loss or theft to almost-unnoticed small touches like the pattern of the grip on the underside of the shoulder pad.

We like the reliable, oversized zippers, the thick, durable ballistic nylon, the quality of the stitches throughout the bag’s construction, and the trademark Booq “b’s” placed throughout the bag. There’s enough room in this bag to carry plenty of other things, whereas the original Vyper sleeve needed something else to carry it around in.

Booq has cleverly designed the Vyper exo system. If you have a 13″ MacBook, you get the exo M and use a Vyper sleeve inside to fit your machine perfectly. The 15″ MacBook Pro or other 15″ machines fit in the exo M without a sleeve. The larger size exo, the XL, fits a 15″ machine with a sleeve, or a 17″ machine without, so they cover the full range of laptops with just two models.

We don’t mean to be too cliched (okay, well, maybe we do), but with Booq bags, you get what you pay for. This bag isn’t exactly the cheapest way to carry your PowerBook or MacBook around. So, yes, it’s a bit spendy at just shy of $200 for the bag itself and a bit more for the “system” which includes a Vyper sleeve and iPod case, but the calculation here is the quality of the style and protection of your valuable machine, at 1/7th to 1/10th what you paid for the machine itself.

So mark us down as a fan of the Vyper exo from Booq. We use the Vyper sleeve everyday with our old 15″ aluminum PowerBook and we’re looking forward to using the Vyper’s big brother, the exo, with our MacBook Pro.

Filed under: Reviews