Oct 29 2008
Tom Bihn adds laptop bags for new 15-inch MacBook Pros to their catalog
I am a huge Tom Bihn fan. This is a company that listens to its customers and makes some great products. I cannot recommend them highly enough.
Today, Tom Bihn announced sizes of their Checkpoint Flyer checkpoint friendly laptop briefcase and Brain Cell laptop case specifically for the new 15-inch MacBook Pro.
If you’re not familiar with the Checkpoint Flyer Briefcase, watch the video embedded here. It is the first airport security “checkpoint friendly” bag designed specifically for Mac laptops.
The Brain Cell is a laptop sleeve designed to be used alone or clipped securely inside a variety of Tom Bihn bags. Brain Cell compatibility in a Tom Bihn bag means that you will not just have your laptop held securely during transit, it also means if you buy a new laptop of a different size, you need only update the Brain Cell to make it fit in your bag!
The Checkpoint Flyer sells for USD$220 USD (including laptop insert). The Brain Cell (Size 4Z) sells for USD$60. Both are available for pre-order from the Tom Bihn website and ship by late November.
Note:
I was very excited when I found out I was going to get to review the next generation 
Many of the features that impressed me about 
The business end of the ID is its laptop compartment which is located under the pocketed flap (unlike the Tom Bihn Super Ego) and provides ample room for a notebook the size of a 15″ MacBook Pro or smaller, some books, maybe a Wacom tablet and even a light jacket.
The back of the ID has an additional open-top pocket that is great for flat items like magazine, books or papers, or anything you want to be able to get at quickly.
One beef I had with the old ID design was the way in which Tom Bihn incorporated support for the Brain Cell. At that time, the Brain Cell attached via metal snaps, which was very handy when you wanted to pop it in and out. But it meant that if you didn’t buy the Brain Cell, you had two snaps inside your messenger bag waiting to scratch the dickens out of your laptop. Well, since then, the Brain Cell has changed and, with it, the way it connects to Tom Bihn’s various bags. Though I highly, highly, highly recommend getting a Brain Cell or some sort of laptop sleeve, if you do decide to forgo that extra line of defense, the ID is much less abrasive to laptops “going commando” in its main compartment since the Annex clips used to attach the Brain Cell are removable.
One new feature of the ID Messenger Bag is something Tom Bihn calls the Q-AM or “Quick-Adjust Messenger” strap. I’m a big believer in giving things names that immediately tell you what they do and why you need them. For this reason, I call this strap the Starbucks Strap. Have you ever driven to Starbucks, realized you couldn’t leave your laptop in the car unattended while you went in and got your over-priced specialty coffee? That meant that you had to bring the bag into the coffee shop, which, is no big deal until you actually get your coffee and you have to customize it over at the cream and sweetener table. Because, as you reach over to get the carafe of half-and-half off the back shelf of the table, your messenger bag slides from behind your back, swings around and smacks your grande decaf half-soy, half-low fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino off the table and across the room. The Q-AM strap prevents this kind of tragedy. It effectively secures the messenger bag to your back by connecting one more point on the bag to the shoulder strap perpendicularly under your arm. It’s hard to explain, but after you use it, it will be harder to explain why other bags don’t have this feature. I’m told that this will also keep your bag on your back while you ride your bike like one of those guys who deliver documents downtown. Sure… I guess… 
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