Customer Reviews

JanSport Antics Series Firewire Computer Backpack

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The quality of construction is excellent, it's just that the straps are unbelievably short. I've had Jansports before, and never once have I seen this. At full length, the backpack was quite tight around my shoulders. The straps on my other Jansport (Samba Trans) are about TWICE as long! How and why Jansport could do this is beyond me - 8 more inches of strap and I'd love this bag - too bad they don't post strap length specs on their site eh? If you a small man, a kid, or a girl, you may still be interested, so let me give you a breakdown that you probably won't find anywhere else:

The "shockshield" laptop sleeve: so called advanced laptop protection, the shockshield amounts to a hard shock absorber thing in the bottom of the laptop sleeve. So make sure if you ever drop your bag w/ lappie, make sure you drop it straight down so it lands right side up - otherwise the shock shield won't help you much. The padding on the front of the sleeve is maybe 3/16 inch - quite thin. The padding on the back of the bag, which is the back of the sleeve as well, is thicker and more adequate. My 15.4" Dell Studio stuck out about 3 inches at the top of the sleeve, thus leaving the entire edge with no padding at all. The strap on the sleeve is good - you can tighten it up all you want. I think it would provide adequate protection, but I wouldn't go so far as to say 'advanced'.

I had a Jansport pack which I dragged all over the world for 12 years. It finally needed some serious repairs, and I sent it in. Apparently they no longer repaired that model, and sent me a Firewire instead.

First, the pack is made for midgets. It is simply not long enough for my back. I'm 6' and don't have unusual proportions, so this is kind of disturbing.

Second, the weird laptop pocket in the main compartment is an incredible design flaw. The rigid support at the bottom is about two inches above the bottom of the backpack, so if you load the pack, whatever you put in can't ride against your lower back, and effectively pulls the backpack into a curve so you feel the very straight, rather uncomfortable stays at the bottom of the laptop pocket, and the top of the shoulder straps.

It's simply not an acceptable pack for day to day use as it's designed.

I bought this backpack when I wanted to have a new bag for my laptop. I got a good JanSport Backpack for my niece a few month ago and she liked that one, so I chose JanSport again. It's out of question that JanSport is generally a good brand.
But this particular backpack is really poorly made. The texture is made by some cheap materials, and definitely looks not as good as the picture shown on the website. There are not many compartments in the bag with poor paddings, and the space is not as big as that was described at all. Nevertheless, the laptop sleeve is too wide for my 15' widescreen notebook. So I bought another backpack of Swissgear this weekend when I saw it on sale with only one third price of this JanSport. And the quality of my new bag is Much Much Much BETTER than this one.
Don't buy this backpack!

I have an XPS GEN 2 Inspiron which is 15.5" long. I had an older version of this backpack that the XPS would just fit into snugly but, alas, the zipper teeth eventually broke off. I was concerned that this backpack might be too small and after first slipping the laptop in... it didn't. But I discovered that theres a removable cushion liner at the bottom of the laptop slot (attached with Velcro), removing that gave me an extra half an inch and voila, the laptop fits (albeit snugly again). The laptop isn't completely unprotected at the bottom, there's a hard plastic shell there as well and the snug fit keeps the laptop from sliding around. 15.5" is max though...those with a larger laptop (say the newer 16" wide Dell XPS latops) will probably want to seek another backpack.

Ok, first there's a design flaw. Annoyingly, the computer pouch bottom doesn't stop at the padding which sits against your back. There's about an inch deep hole where your notebook can slip down beyond the padding and poke you in the back until you want to pull your hair out. I solved this problem by stuffing a flour sack towel into the crevice and now it's fine.

Positives: I'm a 5'3" female and this is the first backpack that has ever fit me. The shoulder straps are small and higher up than I've had before. No more back pain! Though I understand the tall reviewers here would have problems. I have no idea how the pack would fit comfortably on them.

The Firewire Backpack is designed really well with tough material, it's not super huge like a hiker's pack, but bigger than the average book bag with enough room for my books, lunch, jacket, 15 inch Mactop and about anything else I need. I don't think they cheapened out on the fabric zipper pulls, but added one less to each set of zippers so it would look less busy.

I love the aesthetics as well. Clean and simple without a lot of fuss. I'm 34-years-old and don't want to be carrying around something that makes me look like I'm trying to be 20. So for me, this is an ideal backpack. Just remember to stuff a tea towel into the computer pouch!

I've owned Jansport backpacks in the past, and while this is a decent enough bag, it's definitely not up to past quality. The material is thinner, the zippers are not as heavy-duty. And what's the deal, Jansport? Did you run out of zipper pulls? Half the zippers are missing them (despite what the picture shows)! Cheap!

On the plus side, there are plenty of internal and external pockets, my large laptop fits without a fight, and it's well-padded.

It's really a perfect bag for students. My friends and I bought 3 of it. You can carry your notebook with you because the bag has a cushion in the bottom of the bag, and you may also carry as many books as you wan. Great choice!

Works well, readily adaptable to lots of moving around. Recommended for service, quality and satisfaction.