How to Ensure Your Laptop Doesn't Break in Your Backpack

While most backpacks have a slot designed to hold laptops and other devices, most people misuse the protection a backpack can offer. As heavy and sturdy a laptop may seem, it is still a delicate machine with sophisticated parts that are highly sensitive to their environment.

It can be incredibly devastating, not just emotionally but financially, to pull out your laptop and find that it has been damaged in transit. Laptops, after all, are incredibly expensive pieces of equipment used for both work and recreation. 

Some of the most common types of damage caused by a backpack to a laptop are: cracked screens, dented body, weather damage, and destroyed hard drives.  

To prevent such damage from happening to your laptop while it’s in your backpack, here are some tips and tricks: 

1. Don’t overload your backpack 

Overloading your backpack is one of the easiest ways to damage your laptop. An overloaded backpack can cause your laptop to bend, crack, or flex in permanently damaging ways. Make sure there is ample space for your laptop before you put it in any bag. 

It also helps to make sure that the other parts of your backpack are organised and secured to protect your laptop (and your bag) from things that can damage it, such as the jutting corners of hardbound books or metal drink flasks. 

As a final precaution, always remember to secure your laptop properly in its sleeve, and to zip up your bag before you start moving.  

2. Stay out of inclement weather 

It is important to note that weather-resistant is not the same as weather-proof. If it’s raining heavily, the weather-resistance of your backpack might just reach the limits, and you could end up with the contents soaked beyond repair. 

That doesn’t apply to precipitation alone. Laptops are more likely to suffer under intense heat as they can from water. Heat can cause swelling and various forms of damage in the parts of a laptop, affecting its performance or longevity.  

3. Ask yourself if you trust your water container 

While some bags have separate areas for drink containers, most bags don’t. Hydration is important, but you have to ask yourself if you trust your drink container enough not to leak to keep in the same compartment as your laptop. 

Water and fluid damage are nearly irreparable, often resulting in having to replace a whole unit rather than just repairs. Make sure that if you keep a drink container with your laptop, it should be reliable and will remain sealed. 

4. Apply basic laptop care techniques 

Having a basic knowledge of the parts of a laptop can go a long way to making it last longer. For example, most laptops have a Solid State Drive, which can make it more resistant to shaking damage. However, a laptop with a mechanical hard drive is incredibly susceptible to shaking, even when it’s turned off. 

It is also important to make sure that your laptop is turned off in transit, it can cause short circuits and worsen shaking damage. 

Conclusion 

It might surprise you to know that a lot of the techniques you put into caring for your laptop go into protecting your backpack as well. Appropriately loading it will prevent your backpack from bursting at the seams. Protecting it from the elements will also protect your laptop from the weather. By using a reliable drink container, you are not only protecting your laptop from damage but your bag as well. 

While neither can last forever, both your laptop and backpack can last a long time with the proper care and maintenance. 

For more information on backpacks that can fit laptops, send us a message at Vintage Leather. We have a wide range of options in Australia for anyone looking for an upgrade from their current bag!