Solo Rival Backpack (review)

When we got the chance to review the Solo Rival Backpack, I was pretty excited. I haven’t been excited about a backpack since elementary school when I had a Batman backpack. (I was thrilled to show it off to all my friends and family.) And of course, as I went to high school and college I just stuck to the normal Jansport backpacks. But now, I finally have another backpack I can show off to my friends, family and colleagues. It is a really good backpack where I can fit almost everything I need.

Design

Its main body is made of polyester with reflective strips, hardshell side pockets, straps, and much more. The backpack has 7.25 main compartments ranging in sizes to fit a small notebook to a 17.3-inch laptop and everything in between. And some of these have more pockets within them to hold pens, pencils, and other pint-sized accessories you may need.

The back is padded for your protection as well as protection for your laptop from the everyday rigors of walking around or just moving around with the backpack on. There are also dividers for the tablet area so you can place other things in there such as legal pad paper or another tablet.

The back padding is silver with a black mesh net and the S stitching for the Solo name tag. One of the compartments has a headphone opening so you can listen to music as you go about your business. The tabs on the zippers aren’t those flimsy looking tabs but are actually very sturdy and reliant. At the ends of the tab, it has a slight forty-five degrees so your fingers do not slip when you zip up the backpack.

Usage

I have been using the Solo Rival Backpack for the better part of three weeks going into four. And I have to say I like what Solo has produced. I am able to carry almost everything.

Here’s what I’m carrying on most days:

17-inch laptop
10.1-inch tablet
Tool bag
Couple pens
Three legal pads
2 small notebooks
2 external hard drives
A couple of network cables,
Water bottle
Zero Lemon heavy duty external battery
Mp3 player
Collapsible spoon, fork, knife combo

This bag can carry a lot.

I do recommend not going overboard on trying to fit everything in there. It will fit but it will weigh a ton. After a couple days straight of this setup, I felt like I was carrying 100 pounds of items. So I decided to lighten the load by removing my laptop and just going with my tablet. (I only bring the laptop when necessary.)

Hardshell Side Pockets

The hardshell side pockets have saved me more than a few times while I have worn this backpack. Those random times where you hit your backpack on a corner of a desk or try to take a quick cut as you pass through a door and bang your backpack on the door frame. It saved my external hard drive quite a bit. However, I’m not saying that your hard drive won’t be affected if you were to hit it full force. It is meant for just those accidental times when you were careless and banged your items against something.

The handle on top of the backpack is very sturdy. When I had everything in there I thought it would collapse or rip, but it held. Zipper tabs are nice and big so it does not feel or look cheap. Straps are useful for when you want to limit how many items you want to put in there, or to just simply keep the contents of the backpack tied down. And two straps on the chest help to keep the backpack from falling off of you.

Some Issues

The Solo Rival Backpack is great but not perfect. There are some flaws that are a bit annoying. The zipper teeth have come undone when they were closed, the first time it happened my backpack was full so I took that as my fault. The other times it happened it was barely half full and the teeth still came undone. One of the locations which scared me was the hardshell pockets on the sides where I keep my external hard drive. Luckily for me, I caught it before I put on the backpack. This issue has happened quite a bit so it is annoying.

Another zipper issue I found is that the zipper snags on the fabric inside the backpack. I would have to use both hands and force the zipper free. This has not occurred too many times but enough that it has caught my attention. I will have to keep an eye on that just to make sure it does not fray any kind of stitching inside the backpack and have it tear something.

Solo Rival Backpack Final Reaction

This is a good buy for anyone looking for a new backpack for work, travel, convention, or any event. Perhaps a gift to someone who is always carrying multiple items. The Solo Rival Backpack is a multipurpose backpack.

If you are interested in buying the Solo Rival Backpack or any of their other fine products you can do it here.