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> Review :: Proporta Gadget Bag, Rating 4 out of 5
omega2008
post Mar 2 2007, 05:50 PM
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Phone: Cingular 8525
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Proporta Gadget Bag

By Proporta

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Rating Legend

1 star: Find something else; save your money
2 star: Below average; not recommended
3 star: Average; performs as advertised but not inspiring
4 star: Good; worth the money
5 star: Great; best of its kind on the market

Reviewed By: Omega2008
March 3, 2007




If you are like me, you may have tired or are trying to converge to on device that does it all. In my quest to this I have found that converged devices are great….but they lack many things. For one the digital camera on my 8525 just doesn't cut it for high resolution pictures or pictures that I take that require more settings than what the 8525 can offer. I love listening to music and the 8525 is a great multimedia device but it's also my phone, I don't like draining my battery to listen to music for a long period of time. I prefer my Samsung MP3 player for that. What I am getting at is that I prefer to use a specific device for a specific purpose when I am going to demand a lot of use from it. So the problem arrives….how am I going to carry all this stuff when I travel? Well the folks at Proporta.com have come up with a bag that carries multiple gadgets in separate smaller bags that detach. So I got my hands on one and put it to the test to see if it can pass the following tests: Usability, Design, Functionality, and Durability.




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Initial Thoughts:

When the bag arrived I took it out of its blister type packaging and looked over it carefully. My first thought was that I wish there were a smaller pocket for an MP3 player since the two smaller ones on the outside looked too big for that, but when I opened up the main compartment…BAM! There is was! I pouch for and MP3 player, awesome!

The bag looks to be designed to carry a multitude of gadgets. The main compartment, without any doubt, is used to carry a portable DVD player. However I can think of many other things that this could carry. For example, I can see carrying a UMPC, external hard drive or optical drive, business card scanner, heck you could even put Proporta's USB Mobile Device Charger or APC's Universal Power Pack. There is even a strap to secure power cables and or sync cables. The two smaller compartments are great for digital cameras, Bluetooth headsets, PDAs, cell phones, etc. There is also a carrying strap that is adjustable to fit you perfectly.

Usability:

So now its time to put this bag to the test, is it really usable? Will I want to use it when the opportunity arrives? Well to answer those questions I packed up my gear (Cingular 8525, Olympus Sylus 800 camera, Samsung Y-Z5 MP3 player, some USB cables a powered USB hub and my Jawbone Bluetooth headset. I went over my grandmother's house to stay a couple of days to put it to the test. The best thing about this bag is that every smaller bag as well as the main compartment bag has a small rubberized hole to run cables thru. So you can keep your MP3 player in the bag and listen to your music, great when your on a plane or on a bus traveling to somewhere. However the best thing about this feature is that if you have a mobile power pack like Proporta's, or APC's, you can actually charge your devices while on the go, how great is that! You can be listening to your MP3 player while it's charging in the bag, or you can charge another device. I really like this feature. I used it a lot on the trip to and from my grandmother's home. With the powered USB hub, I was able to charge several devices at one time, while it was in the bag! Amazing and oh so useful! Its nice to be able to just lay my bag on a nightstand, plug up the USB hub and all my devices charge at once. These rubberized ports also are useful for running out headphones or any other cable you may need. I find this bag very useful for my purposes.




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Design:

In my opinion this bag was designed very well for its purpose. It's design makes it very easy to charge multiple devices within the bag. Or with a portable power supply charge one or two devices while on the go. This makes the bag very versitle and as stated before, very usable indeed. The bag is made out of a tough external materal sorta like cordora and all internal compartments are lined with a soft felt that protects your devices from scratches and reduces movment within the bag. They provide you with a convienent carring strap as well. I think that the colors could have been a little better with more contrast in the stitching but that's not a deal breaker here, at least not for me. The modular design of this bag made it easy to take my MP3 player or my Bluetooh GPS with me when I needed it without taking the entire bag.



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Functionaly:


Proporta's Gadget Bag has proven that it is useful and has good design but is it functional? Well that depends on you. If you need to carry multiple devices and want to be able to charge them on the go or all in one place at work or home or where ever there a power outlet. The ablity to detach sections of the bag to take a gadget with you while leaving it at home and having a access port on the bag to charge it or to string your headphones thru to listen to your music, then this bag is definently for you. It will be very functional for you. However if you do not carry multiple devices then this bag will not be functional for you and probably won't serve you to well. So if you need a bag like this then yes this bag is functional for the purpose it was desgined for and I highly recommend it.



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I really enjoyed using this bag, I have found many uses for it and its ablity to be versatile is its greatest asset. I would love to see a bigger bag from proporta that is the same as this but as a laptop bag and with more compartments. The modular design is a great idea and I think they should in corporate it in to other bag designs.


Technical Specs:

This bag can be bought by itself or with the Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger.

Proporta Gadget Bag

Proporta Gadget Bag /w USB Mobile Device Charger


Gadget Bag: 27cm x 22cm x 7cm (10.6" x 8.7" x 2.8")
Bag (without front pockets): 27cm x 22cm x 4cm (10.6" x 8.7" x 1.6")
Front Pocket: 14cm x 20cm x 3cm (5.5" x 7.9" x 1.2")
Interal Compartment: 13.5cm x 10.5cm x 3cm (5.3" x 4.1" x 1.2")


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