Review: Everki Fling Light 13” Laptop Sling Pack

Laptop bags come in a variety of price points. There are the $20 “giveaway” bags that you’d be best off just using as lunch containers, or in giving away to casual acquaintances you’re not that fond of. There are the $50 “buy them at your big box electronics stores bags,” and then you move up into the above $99 range, all the way up to $500 and beyond. I’ve even seen a $6000 bag! This last category is very very particular and before buying any of them you’ll want to think long and hard about just what sort of bag you want, need, and can afford. My tendency is to go for the last category whenever I can, but the $50 price point is very interesting, mostly because of the wide range of quality of the bags placed in this spot.

Some of these are little better than the $20 bags, but have some brand logo or another on them that implies that they might be good. Some are surprisingly well thought out and constructed, giving the limitation that this price point has for the quality of materials and manufacture. Can’t do platinum and ostrich skin with a $50 bag. I do find that a few little things, well thought out and not that expensive to do, can turn a ho-hum bag into a very good one.

Everki, with their Fling Light 13” Laptop Sling, was limited by the usual material and manufacturing constraints of the around $50 price point, but made up for it in spending a lot of time on design. They take the top of this range in terms of value and worth by using materials wisely, putting a few useful and innovative twists on it, and just basically doing a very good job thinking about how a person would want to use their bag.

The material is a fairly solid medium weight nylon with just enough padding to do the job. The rubberized mesh compartment on the outside is distinctive and does a good job of holding your assorted immediate access things relatively securely. The cell phone or iPod pouch on the front is secure as well and ready at hand for taking those important calls or changing your audio on the fly.

Final ruling: this is definitely NOT an automatic giveaway bag. I suspect that for 80% of the people with laptops looking for a sling, this will do very well indeed. It’s a keeper. The usual gateway product phenomena—you buy one of these until you can afford or find your perfect bag—probably won’t come into play here. You just might find you don’t want anything more than this, that on its own it is more than adequate for all your needs. And that’s a good thing. More money to spend on other accessories, right? I’m not downselling this. The Everki Fling is a great bag. If you do eventually get yourself one of those expensive, boutique bags, you won’t be embarrassed handing this over to a parent, friend, or sibling. It most certainly will get appreciative reuse!

I recommend the Everki Fling for all price and value conscious buyers, as the euphemism goes. It’s a good product and it gets an 80% in its range. The highest I’d give any others I’ve looked at but not reviewed in this slot would be about 70%, with most coming in much lower. The Fling’s a good, solid, well thought out product and I haven’t seen any other slings at this price point that are even close. If you cherish the “Mac” part of your Macintosh (the Scottish, value conscious side), this bag will not disappoint.