Neat and tidy, but too tight a fit

I've owned a Pakuma laptop backpack in the past. The first lasted ages, so I bought the same again when it finally fell apart. The replacement didn't last long at all, so I was a bit worried that maybe the quality of this sleeve wouldn't be too good - but it seems reasonably well built. There are no obvious stitching problems or obvious design weak points. I must've just got unlucky with that second laptop bag! The padding is also good and very similar to the padding style in the Pakuma backpacks.

It looks better IMHO in real life than in the pictures - there's a sort of brown hue in the pictures, but the one I got was black and olive green. It's pretty smart.

I'd have given it five stars if it had one or two better finishing touches. For example, there's a great big pocket for paper or other thin objects, which you can see from the picture - the thin green vertical line just to the right of the big olive stripe marks the edge of the pocket, which extends to the left for the full width and height of the sleeve. But that's it - there are no divisions or other pockets and the real problem is that there is no kind of closure to the big external pocket. Without velcro or some other kind of fastening, there's a risk of stuff falling out, especially if the laptop has been taken out of the sleeve. So it loses a star on the details.

It also loses a star on the fit. My 2011 15" MBP *just* fits inside, if I really push it in firmly. There's a slightly padded lip inside the zip that pulls over the edge of the laptop and stops the zip scratching it. At one edge, this fits OK, but at the other edge, it doesn't really fit well at all - you really have to tug quite hard and keep pushing at the laptop to get it properly in place. Just a couple of mm extra height would have made all the difference, without being enough to cause the laptop to slide around.

If you have any kind of case on your laptop, forget it. There's no way it'll fit. I got one of those sticky plastic films to protect the case and it fits with that, but I'm always worried that I'll catch the film edge and pull it away while wrestling the laptop into the sleeve.

All in all then, it's decent enough and probably pretty similar in fit and finish to any other sleeve. I bought it on the basis of price versus design and features and it more or less does the job, so I'm happy enough, but I do wish the fit was a bit more loose.