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Flashpacker Guide to Packing a Laptop Backpack With Travel Gadgets

By Kathleen Crislip, About.com

1 of 10

1 - Get a Great Laptop Backpack

Best Laptop Backpack 2006 - Great Flashpacker Backpack From STM

Great Flashpacker Backpacks From STM

Photos courtesy STM
Flashpacker is a new buzzword for student travelers and young at heart backpackers, and one defining characteristic of the breed is gadget hauling. We lug laptops onto chicken buses, haul tattered backpacks bulging with travel tech gadgets into hoity hotels or sketchy hostels, pack cargo pants pockets with world cell phones, and we find the wifi.

Yeah. So, the first step for packing a flashpacker backpack with travel gadgets is finding the right gadget-friendly laptop backpack. We can’t find a perfect specimen, but we get pretty close with this one.

Having just been in Australia, we noticed how the Aussies love the phrase “purpose built” – one Australian company gives meaning to those words with laptop backpacks built by Bondi Beach hangers who needed a camo laptop backpack of their own that was protective, comfy, stylish enough, and very sturdy. Enter STM laptop luggage, purpose built for your flashpacker travel.

Why do we love STM’s Loop laptop backpacks? They’re ergonomic, air conditioned, well padded, well made, water resistant, and they’ve got laptop compartments, sound ports and practical pockets aplenty without featuring excess crapola. A waist strap turns these backpacks into workhorses, but can be completely removed.

STM Small Loop Laptop Backpack

Small Loop has pockets galore and three zippered sections; laptops up to 13" including MacBook Pro.

  • Apparently, STM has stopped making this backpack (drag!) -- try eBay or MacMall.

STM Large Loop Laptop Backpack

If your back can take it, this pack can haul it – holds most 17” monsters.
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Manufacturer’s website

Let's fill this backpack with some fave flashpacker gadgets. Next: best flashpacker laptops 2008, including the lightest ultraportable and smallest PC.

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