 This Product
The North Face Recon | |||||
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| Awards |  Best Value for a Great Laptop Backpack |  Best for High Capacity | Best Laptop Backpack on a Tight Budget | ||
| Price | $98.95 at Backcountry Compare at 4 sellers | $40 List $25.19 at Amazon | $119.00 at Backcountry | $99.00 at REI Compare at 5 sellers | $40 List $21.99 at Amazon |
Overall Score  |
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| Star Rating | |||||
| Bottom Line | Large volume, top-notch organization, good structure, and a massive laptop compartment ensure this pack is well-loved by travelers and daily commuters | A pack with a lot of storage capacity and enough pockets for all kinds of tech and accessories | This cavernous pack also passes as a daypack for hiking, featuring few internal pockets but high versatility | A pack that can withstand wet and windy weather with plenty of storage capacity for the daily essentials | An inexpensive and versatile backpack with unique features and a touch of style |
| Rating Categories | The North Face Recon | Yorepek Travel Extr... | Patagonia Refugio D... | The North Face Bore... | Matein Travel |
| Laptop Protection (30%) | |||||
| Comfort and Fit (20%) | |||||
| Storage (20%) | |||||
| Ease of Use (20%) | |||||
| Versatility (10%) | |||||
| Specs | The North Face Recon | Yorepek Travel Extr... | Patagonia Refugio D... | The North Face Bore... | Matein Travel |
| Compatible Laptop Size | 16" | 17" | 15" | 15" | 15.6" |
| Volume | 30 L | 50 L | 30 L | 28 L | 28 L |
| Number of Compartments | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Number of Large Pockets | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Number of Small Pockets | 7 | 4 | 1, plus 3 on removable tech caddy | 9 | 2 |
| External Side Pockets | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| External Water Bottle Holder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Additional Features | Key clip, removable webbing hip belt, sternum strap, reflective material, daisy chains | Key clip | Key clip | Key clip, removable webbing hip belt, sternum strap, reflective material | Key clip |
| Weight | 2.5 lb | 2.2 lb | 1.7 lb | 2.0 lb | 1.7 lb |
| Dimensions | 19.5" x 13.0" x 7.0" | 18.0" x 13.5" x 6.5" | 19.0" x 12.0" x 7.0" | 19.5" x 12.0" x 6.5" | 18.0" x 12.0" x 7.8" |
The 30-liter Recon is made of 210D ripstop polyester treated with PVC-free DWR coating. With three storage compartments, two water bottle pockets, a mesh pouch, and a micro-fleece-lined small pocket, it easily fits large, 16-inch laptops while keeping your small items organized.
The laptop compartment of The North Face Recon is tall and spacious, spanning the full 19-inch torso length. While we had no issues sliding our 15-inch Macbook and 15-inch Microsoft Surface Pro into this pack, it has plenty of room to spare, is rated to fit up to 16-inch laptops, and could easily accommodate wide computers.
Daul-direction zippers can be tucked under small arches of webbing on either side of the opening, allowing you to sort of “lock” this compartment during travel. The backside of this compartment is lined with soft material, while the back panel is both padded and filled with a rigid protective material that help to keep your laptop safer. A thin layer of padding separates this compartment from the main compartment and lines the bottom of the bag — though there's no suspension strap to keep your laptop from bottoming out.
Made of burly, ripstop 210D (300D, for certain colors) polyester with strongly reinforced stitching, corners, and components, the Recon is designed to keep your laptop protected for a long time. However, when it comes to water protection, this isn't the bag we'd recommend in a downpour. The fabric comes treated with a PVC-free DWR (durable water resistant) coating, which helps in light precipitation.
But in our shower test, the zipper and very small interior flap proved to be no match for the spray, allowing the interior to quickly take on water. On a drizzly day exploring the corners of Prague's parks, the Recon stayed dry inside, but when subjected to 30 seconds of moderate garden hose spray, water pooled at the bottom of the pack — right where our laptop would sit.
If you've been searching for a laptop backpack with a longer torso, The North Face Recon is for you. This bag has 19.5 inches of torso length. And with its stiff back panel, weight is more evenly distributed against your spine, making long days that much more comfortable.
The strategically placed back padding is thick and fits well on all our testers. The only downside to this design is that the unpadded center strip digs into our spines when we're bent forward on a bike. Unless you're an avid bike commuter or someone with a rather protruding spine, we think you'll find this bag comfortable to wear.
A removable webbing hip belt would provide lateral stability while biking (if you don't mind that back panel!), but it's not weight-bearing to help with heavy loads on commutes or day hikes. The shoulder straps are well-padded and flexible without being too thick or stiff, giving them both comfort and convenience. While The North Face also offers this bag in a very similar-looking women's version, our female testers never felt this unisex bag was a poor fit. A fully adjustable sternum strap slides easily up and down on rails, or can be removed completely if you prefer your backpack without.
With 30 liters of storage space and a cavernous main compartment, the Recon feels large. It packs well, even for our main tester, a self-identified chronic over-packer. With lots of pockets, plenty of room, and extra external attachment points, we never felt like we had to leave things behind with the Recon in tow.
While many laptop backpacks claim they can stand upright, many fall short of that claim. The TNF Recon actually does a solid job standing upright under all but the most imbalanced loads.
The rigid back panel and large, flat bottom help it fill up in a more balanced way without even trying and we're rather impressed at how easily it stays upright even as we dug through it to find specific items. Straps along the bottom of the pack let you minimize its surface area when you're not carrying as much stuff, helping the Recon to be stable under diverse loads.
Both the laptop compartment and the main compartment are each a single large space with dual-direction zippers running far down both sides of the bag — great for both right and left-handed users. The ability of this bag to stand upright makes it easy to balance on top of a roller bag heading to your next destination.
The third compartment is just 10 inches deep, holding small belongings at the top of the bag. This dual-zippered space has tons of small organizational pockets, including a tablet sleeve, a zippered pouch with a key clip, a pen holder, and several smaller slip pockets.
A surprisingly large, microfleece-lined zippered pocket is tucked almost out of sight above the top of the external back mesh pocket, easily fitting a pair of sunglasses in a case, a large smartphone, and a snack. The external stretch pocket swallows up extra layers or a travel pillow in transit, while double daisy chains down either side give plenty of room to clip a hat or other oddly shaped extras.
Two water bottle pockets adorn the sides of the bag, made of durable, unstretching material with an elastic panel to accommodate larger containers. They're not the easiest to access because of this design, but they fit all the one-liter bottles we use on a regular basis and keep contents secure, even when running through an airport or sliding the bag under a train seat.
Given the color options and overall design of the Recon, it has a far more sporty aesthetic than any laptop bag we'd want to bring while wearing a suit or striding confidently into a board room. It's great for casual uses and commutes, though, and comes in enough color combinations to match most people's styles.
The laptop compartment has a velcro loop and a water hose hole at the top to be compatible with a hydration reservoir you might be fond of carrying on a hike. The sternum strap also has an emergency whistle built in and there are numerous reflective loops — on the shoulder straps, sides of the bag, and near the buckles of the bottom adjuster straps — that can help you to be seen in low light.
The Recon isn't the cheapest laptop backpack out there. Yet it presents itself as a high-value item in terms of quality protection in most everyday and travel scenarios, good capacity and organization to keep you moving efficiently, and a high level of comfort and stability through long days over many miles. If you're someone who needs an effective, high-functioning laptop bag and the Recon fits your aesthetic, we think you'll be pleased with the performance you get for your money.
