Part 1 (this post): Luggage pass-through, new grab handle, some visual comparisons
Part 2: The new shoulder straps
Part 3: How two models of 13" laptops fit
I've been having reviewer's block, turning around different ways to review the new Synik and discarding each approach nearly as soon as I thought of it. One thing I've learned from grad school (and from writing in fanfic exchanges) is that having a deadline usually helps me push past writer's block, so I decided to treat tomorrow as a deadline since the official information pages for the Syniks will go live tomorrow. (Here's the timeline in a post from Darcy about the Syniks.)
Since the light is fading and I won't be able to take many more good photos today, I'm making this post Part 1 of my review and I'll continue with Part 2 tomorrow afternoon. Now, on to the review!
The Synik 22: Not a bag for everyone, but maybe a bag for you
When I first read the description of the Syniks, my immediate response was "Wow! At first glance it looks like you all took every single request for changes to the Synapse and incorporated all of them in one bag." And my understanding is that that's almost what they did--they didn't include the requests that they decided just weren't practical for this bag, but I think they incorporated every request that they could. That means some people will be very happy with these new bags, and others will be saying "but I like the Synapses just fine as they are, I didn't need these changes." I agree with both those viewpoints: I'm glad the Synapses are sticking around unchanged, but now that I've seen the Syniks I agree that they have their good points too, so I'm glad I get a chance to use both.
The luggage pass-through and other ways of attaching to rolling luggage
The luggage pass-through is the new feature I was most interested in. I don't use my rolling luggage very much these days because I've found I really prefer wearing my luggage as a backpack rather than dragging rolling luggage through airports, but sometimes I do still use it and it would be nice to have a pass-through feature. Unfortunately it turns out my suitcases have especially wide handles, so the pass-through feature doesn't work for me. All you fellow Briggs & Riley fans out there, their Outsider handle is too wide to work with the Synik's pass-through. In order to make the Synik pass-through area fit wide handles like the B&R ones, they'd have had to make the Syniks much wider and that would just look weird and probably not fit anyone's back well.
However, I tried out using the Gatekeeper waist belt to attach the backpack to my rolling luggage handle (like Darcy described in this post) and that worked great! The waist-belt-turned-strap also fits nicely into the smaller horizontal pocket on the front of the bag if one doesn't want to reattach it as a waist belt when it's not in use as a luggage strap.
I also realized that if I were worried about the strap sliding off the backpack (which I'm generally not worried about, but @G42 did mention that it could slide off in certain circumstances depending on the shape of the things in the backpack) I could run the strap through the little straps on the shoulder straps, the ones that the sternum straps slide up and down on. That was way too many uses of the word "strap" in one sentence, wasn't it? :)
Photo: Synik 22 attached to Briggs & Riley Transcend rolling luggage using the Gatekeeper waist strap, with detailed view of how it can run behind the sternum strap's adjustment straps
The new grab handle
I really like the new grab handle! I understand that it's not intended for carrying the bag for long distances (that's what the shoulder straps are for, after all) but it seems much more comfortable to me than a webbing loop like most backpacks, including the Synapses, have. My only concern was whether it would also work well for hanging the backpack on a hook, but I tried it out and that seems to work just fine. One caveat: if you need to hang a backpack from a hook that's flush to the wall, the webbing loop of the Synapses might work better than the new grab handle on the Syniks because the new grab handle is slightly farther forward on the bag.
Photo: Synik 22 in Nebulous Grey hanging next to Synapse 19 in Aubergine
Visual comparison of S19, SN22, S25
I had to use the flash on the side view photo because the black back and side panels on the S19 and SN22 kept disappearing into the shadows, making both bags look slimmer than they really are. For these photos each backpack had a couch pillow stuffed into the main compartment, and the front pockets were mostly left empty.
Synapse 19 in Aubergine, Synik 22 in Nebulous Grey, Synapse 25 in Black Halcyon
What to expect in tomorrow's review
Tomorrow I plan to pack the Synik as though I were going on a trip, and compare that to a few other bags (probably the S19 and S25, but I'll see what seems to make the most sense to compare tomorrow).
@TorontoSS, I haven't forgotten that I offered to compare the weight of the Synik 22 with the weight of the Synapse 25, but I realized that I can't make a very good comparison because my S25 is Halcyon vs the SN22's 525 Ballistic. However, I believe that the official weights of the Syniks will be available on the product pages tomorrow.
What other questions would anyone like me to try to answer in Part 2 of my review?
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Originally Posted by aedifica
好的朋友
