Hi there... long time lurker and relatively new to the TB world. I bought a synapse 25 for my edc last summer and have been really happy with it, but there are times when I feel like it is too big. It really is a huge bag but served me well and most of the time didn't bother me. But whether a 19 would better suit my needs has been weighing on my mind and I finally got one in the color I liked.
One of the things I really loved about my s25 was the water bottle pocket.. bag on hook, just drop the water bottle in and zip it up and go. I realize the s19 is a smaller bag, and my water bottle does fit, but after fighting with it for a few days i realized that the side compartments now meet in the middle, instead of being 3 different panels... Was there a reason for this and does anyone else dislike it as much as I do? My side pockets are not stuffed by a long shot, but stuff regularly drifts off to the sides and gets in the way of the water bottle insertion. It really is starting to make me hate the bag, despite the shorter size being better for me (one problem I had with the 25 was that I had a hard time lifting it over myself to get in the car.. dumb I know but it's so refreshing with the shorter bag I definitely notice!) I don't want to have to use organizers in the side pockets. I was so, so ridiculously happy with the setup of this bag but now it seems like the water bottle pocket is compromised by how much the sides are loaded, which defeats the original design of the bag IMO - that the pockets did not take away from anything else.
I have searched online and in forums but I haven't seen anyone say anything about this so maybe I'm the first to notice, or just extreeemely picky?