Review: Brenthaven Metrolite notebook bag

Brenthaven is proud of its bags, and with good reason. It began as a maker of bags for backpackers, and the travel-hard ethos has remained now that it's moved into computer carriers. The company's bags tend to be functional, without much consideration of how you're going to look carrying them on the street.

The Metrolite is the company's attempt to remedy that, with a pleasant brushed black exterior and a slimline profile. But the Metrolite should still keep your computer safe – in fact, the company says that a sharp drop won't hurt a notebook, as long as it's wrapped up properly in the Metrolite. We tried it with a drop of a couple of feet, and it did work, with no visible damage at all, and a perfectly functioning computer afterwards.

The thinness of the bag does mean that inside the main section there's only room for the notebook (the version we looked at can take a 12in to 15.4in notebook, with sprung holders inside to cradle the smaller models). But there is a pocket on one side for documents, and a pouch on the other for a charger and a couple of other small acccessories.

Like all of the company's cases, the Metrolite comes with a lifetime guarantee, meaning it shouldn't fall apart on you, and although we didn't destruction-test the bag, it seemed very sturdy indeed. Even though £60 might seem a lot compared with budget notebook bags, they won't keep your notebook as safely as the Brenthaven Metrolite.