WaterField Designs Trigo Laptop Backpack Review

What makes a quality daypack? That depends on the user, but most people will look for quality materials, good design, and aesthetics. WaterField Designs products tend to have all that in spades, so we were excited to get our hands on the Trigo Laptop Backpack to see if it lived up to expectations. Quality materials? Check. Good design? Check. Aesthetically-pleasing? Check. And since we took it on a 4-day business trip to Florida, living the rough life of working remotely poolside at a resort hotel, we were able to answer another question: Can it live up to the rigors of remote work and travel? Check and check.

However, quality comes at a cost, and the WaterField Designs Trigo Laptop Backpack is not a budget bag. Is it worth the price point? We think so, but you’ll have to keep reading to figure out if you agree.

External Components

The ​​WaterField Designs Trigo Laptop Backpack is made with ECOPAK™ material from Challenge Sailcloth. It has a ripstop design and a slightly crunchy feel, but the ballistic nylon bottom and nylon liner give it good structure, so it has no issue standing next to you as you work without collapsing or tipping over.

It’s also quite water-resistant and pretty easy to wipe clean, which we had to test for ourselves after getting sunscreen on the bag while carrying it to and from the pool and sitting poolside. Most everything came off, though some spots took a little more effort than others.

There’s leather on the carry handle and at the bottom front of the bag, where you’ll find a large patch stating that WaterField Designs is made in San Francisco. Made in the USA is always a good selling point, so we’re not surprised to see the brand hyping that up, and we’re happy it’s in such a small font, debossed on the leather for minimalist aesthetics. If you want to know, it’s there, but someone 5 feet behind you isn’t likely to notice.

The bottom of the bag itself is made with ballistic nylon for durability. We set our bag poolside and carried it against a damp body multiple times without any water getting to the gear inside, so we’re happy with the fabric choice.

That water resistance is also beefed up by the YKK AquaGuard zippers, with a PU coating to keep water out. They work well, and the custom metal WaterField Designs pulls are easy to grab and pull open and closed, even around corners. They don’t open accidentally, either, which is great considering the wide opening of the main compartment. It allows you to open the bag partway to grab something without worrying about it falling open.

The harness system is simple yet effective. It has wide shoulder straps with minimal padding covered in breathable mesh. The back panel has slightly more padding and features the same breathable mesh, with the bottom section acting as a luggage pass-through. It allows the bag to sit vertically on your rolling carry-on luggage and fits easily over most handles. We carried it this way through the airport and hotel just for convenience, not because the harness system is uncomfortable.

Fit Notes

Despite the minimal setup, the harness system gets the job done. It’s not stiff or overpowering, but you don’t feel your laptop pressing up against your back, either. Even though they’re wide, the shoulder straps don’t dig into your neck or shoulders as you carry the bag, and the mesh is comfortable on bare skin, too. While this isn’t something we regularly test, we can also confidently say that the back panel dries pretty quickly if it gets wet from your swimsuit.

Aesthetics are top-notch, too. Whether you get it in Slate like our sample or go for Navy or Black, the look is clean and simple, making it a bag that you can take to the office, carry around town, and on trips without feeling out of place. It feels a bit overdressed for poolside, but we’ll take that over a bag that looks too casual elsewhere. Besides, we didn’t have space in our carry-on for a more appropriate-looking pool bag, and all the water-resistant materials actually made this laptop bag a better option for working remotely, anyway.

Inside The Backpack

All the aesthetics in the world aren’t enough if a laptop bag doesn’t have the right organization for you, so we’re happy to say we found the layout of the WaterField Designs Trigo Laptop Backpack easy to use.

First up is the top pocket. It’s the right size for quick-access gear like your phone, wallet, and passport, keeping them within reach at the airport or coffee shop. It even has two zipper pulls, so you can open it from either end or in the middle. The pocket is lined with soft fleece to protect your screens and also includes two large slip pockets. We used ours for AirPods and our hotel key card; they’re generously sized for a minimalist wallet and a passport, though they’re just a bit too shallow to stand a phone upright. That fits easily horizontally in the pocket, as do sunglasses.

The Trigo Laptop Backpack also has two larger front pockets. They open vertically on either side of the front and are layered one on top of the other. There’s plenty of capacity in each thanks to the front gusset—they don’t eat into main compartment space or compete with each other. That allows you to organize gear by category or use case. For our purposes, we kept a small toiletry pouch, tissues, and a battery bank and cord in one, and used the other for sunscreen, sanitizing wipes, and an emergency face mask for the plane (since you never know when you’ll be seated next to someone coughing for the entire flight and want to cover up). Neither pocket includes any organization, but they’re not overly large, so it’s pretty easy to find what you need when you put smaller items inside.

Now, onto the main compartment, which opens very widely. The zipper runs in a horseshoe shape around the entire bag, nearly reaching the bottom on each side. That makes it easy to fill and grab what you need, yet the YKK zipper holds tight enough that it doesn’t fall open.

There is a zippered pocket on the front panel that’s large enough for a wallet and passport once you’ve made it through security and want to tuck it away. It also has a key clip on a leash and enough capacity for all three of those items to fit inside. Next to it are three pen slots, which may be a bit overkill in the digital age, but are nice to have if you like to carry a pen and stylus with you.

The back panel contains a sleeve for a 16-inch laptop with another padded sleeve in front of it that can hold a second large device, whether that’s a tablet or even a second, smaller laptop. A 13-inch MacBook Air fits easily, or you can always use it for a paper notebook or documents if you prefer. The sleeves have a decent false bottom, so we never heard our laptop clunking on the cement when we set the bag down. Both have fleece-lined fronts to protect from scratches, too.

There’s one more feature to mention, and it’s probably our least favorite. It’s an internal water bottle sleeve. It’s very flexible, located very far down the bag, and it works well if you put your bottle in first. However, when you already have gear in the main compartment, or you take it out in the middle of the day and try to put it back, it can be hard to slide it inside. It’s also black and harder to see than the bright goldenrod color of the rest of the liner. How you feel about keeping liquids near your laptop is also a consideration, and it’s just not as easy to access on the go as an external bottle pocket would be. It gives the bag a cleaner look, for sure, but we just don’t find it as user-friendly.

In fact, we ended up rigging another way to hold our bottle through the airport because we found it so inconvenient to try to push it back into our stuffed bag on the return trip. If you put the WaterField Designs Trigo Laptop Backpack over the handle of a spinner suitcase, you can slide the bottle in the space between the two handles, behind the luggage pass-through, since it’s so large. That doesn’t help you in daily use if you’re carrying the bag, but it’s a fun workaround for travel.

Thanks to the ECOPAK™ material, the sides of the bags provide enough structure for the rest of the main compartment. It’s a 24L backpack, after all, so even with a laptop, water bottle, and tech pouch inside, I had space for two books, an extra layer for when the airplane got cold, snacks, and souvenir Crocs I picked up along the way. In daily use, I use it to carry my laptop, tech pouch, glasses, lunch cooler, bottle, and usually an extra layer for the office as well. It’s easy to pack and easy to grab what you need, as long as you remember which side you packed it on.

So, is this the best laptop bag? It’s definitely working its way to the top thanks to the quality materials, straightforward organization, comfort, and structure. The price point can be a little hard to swallow, but if you can swing it, we think you’ll find it a good investment.