The new Sexy:Targus Miami Messenger CityGear Laptop Case

Targus CityGear Messenger Laptop Case

As I already posted I purchased a new laptop last weekend, a Toshiba Satellite, which was lovely, shiny and pretty. And while I did have a laptop before the old laptop was a 15.5" Acer Aspire which barely lasted me two years, well when I bought the Aspire I also bought a laptop case so that I could carry it around to various job sites and better handle my responsibilities. The problem is my Toshiba is a 17.3" laptop yup thats right a good 1.8" inches larger than my old laptop, so when I attempted to place my laptop in the case it wasn't happening. and it makes absolutely no sense to attempt to use a laptop case that won't fit your laptop. So needless to say I went shopping for a new one.

First things first it seems that 17.3 laptops don't get a lot of love in the case department, looking at Best Buy's site(I have a reward zone card because we tend to buy a lot of electronics as a company and hey why not get bonuses for it) MOST of the cases 17" and over(which is funny the largest screen size I have seen Best Buy sell is 17.3 thus why not just say 17.3", it's not like a 17" won't fit in there) were on the ugly side, not only that but they were pretty expensive. Looking at the site best buy offered 4 two of the messenger bag/briefcase style and two of the Backpack style, now to some who know me it would probably seem like a no brainer that I would go for the backpack, I used to gladly carry one for years. NO, I am trying to get away from that so no more backpacks yes I still love carry lots of things with me and tend to be "king of pockets" but I don't want to have a back pack on my back anymore. So in essence those were out.
The two messenger bag style offered on the site were pretty unimpressive, one looked basically like a sleeve which wasn't going to work for me, pretty much no pockets, and the other had a few pockets but it was more like a suit jacket than a coat, they were more for show than for use. I tend to travel with a lot of items: a receipt book, passport drive(s), thumb drives, Sharpies, CD's, Cell Phones, screw drivers, box cutters, wire strippers, and a few other items that a good techie should always have handy. So if you're not giving me pockets, really no way I can lug all that stuff around with me, not without tearing the fabric in the pockets of my pants or wearing some humongous tool belt. Thing is sometimes when you go IN to a store you see a few items that either haven't made it on to the site yet or else just didn't get listed correctly.

Front flap opened

Now to be fair TECHNICALLY the Targus messenger bag is a 17" version so it should be considered too small for my laptop, but come on whats .3 inches right, so while in the store buying another item I decided to check out the laptop cases. I was already going to be in the computer section(I was looking for a passport drive) and just like on the site the 17 and above section was pretty sparse, they had a few that weren't on the site but not many. The Targus one caught my eye because it was similar to my old one, had nice pockets and was roomy. I don't know the neoprene sleeves haven't really made my socks roll up and down yet, so while for price concerns I did look at them it wasn't like "Oh my God, Neoprene I just have to have it" for me at the moment I prefer nylon leave the neoprene for my can and bottle holders.

The work station zipped open

The CityGear Miami messenger bag is pretty wide open it even has a zip down front area(they call it a work station) that allows me to easily access whatever I have stored. So those sharpies, receipt books, screw drivers, etc can be sat in there nicely and I don't have to worry about trying to pull them out while fighting to get past the edge of the bag. The mesh versus pouch areas are pretty even so I don't have to worry about is this a webbing or a pocket item. It's pretty roomy they have a demo on the tag showing everything from PDA's to spare mice(for those of us who need more than just a touchpad) in the work station area, I hope to never get that bad but I do tend to travel with a lot of miscellaneous items. Yes that is a Mesh area at the bottom on the inside of the zip out flap, like I said I'm the king of pockets so the extra compartments really will come in handy. There are quite a few zippered areas, you of course have the standard back compartment where you can either store your charger or you can store like a book, magazine or other large flat item. There is a little Velcro divider in the man laptop compartment that is supposedly adjustable so that if you decided to get all this bag without having a laptop that requires it you could "shring the bag" a little so that it isn't flopping around. They show a file folder in the front compartment, I guess that's if you don't want to put your charger up there. I tested mine and the power brick fit in both the back flap and that little front compartment quite comfortably. So I have no worries about it become bulky.

The back pocket

I guess I probably should have taken a photo with the laptop IN the bag but I didn't think about it at the time, maybe later. As you can see below it's a nice and cushy nylon interior and personally I like it, so if you decide you want to have the big screen laptop and need a way to carry it Targus gets my vote, if you aren't in a hurry like I was(while this is not my work laptop I will need to do some tasks for work on it, and I prefer not to have everything dangling) you may want to shop around at other sites to see if you can find it cheaper than the $50 price point I got at Best Buy but again I was in a hurry and it fit my needs. now if you prefer the back pack or sleeve style they have those too, best buy just didn't have ANY in the 17" range in store. And I did check, all of the back pack styles were more expensive then the messenger bags and the sleeves tended to be cheaper from what I saw, but again there were no 17 inch sleeves, and the 17 inch back packs were all $70+ and I was already balking at the 50 bucks (54.61 with tax) so while it would have given me even more pockets(yaaay) it would have required another leg be paid out in the deal (boo) and I just wasn't prepared to pony that money up right then.

Top down view into the inside

I hope this helps anybody in the market for a nice laptop case, any questions please feel free to ask, if you would like more images of the product just ask, this is the digital age we all have camera phones so pics are the easiest guilty pleasure to provide now. This is not a sponsored review by the way, I linked you to the Best Buy page for the item and provided an affiliate amazon link for it. This is one of those got a new toy and want to share posts I often do.

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