Philips DVD player case- cool mini laptop bag
I recently mentioned that I thought cases made for carrying portable DVD players would work fine for carrying UMPCs around and today I dropped by Target to check them out. I had the idea that it would be nice to have a small case to carry the Fujitsu P1610 along with a few accessories and avoid carrying my backpack everywhere. Sometimes you just want to go small so off to Target I went to look at the cases for DVD players. I found one that fit the P1610 perfectly so here’s a look at the Philips DVD player case I picked up for $25. Read on after the jump for my impressions of this cheap case.
The Philips case looks like a little laptop case so it’s perfect for carrying a little laptop like the Fujitsu P1610. It’s constructed of black and gray ballistic nylon and the main compartment is nice and padded and provides sufficient protection for the Fuji. The first thing I noticed on the case was all the plastic rings for clipping the various straps that are included with the Philips. Remember, it’s really a DVD player case and these straps can be fitted so the bag can be hung from the back of a car seat. I don’t need that for the P1610 so I pitched all of the straps save the main shoulder strap.
There are only two compartments in this little case, the main one for housing the Fuji and a zippered compartment on the front of the bag. This front compartment has a big mesh pocket and two clear pockets that look like they’re designed for carrying cell phones but they are perfect for small accessories. The clear plastic allows me to see what’s in the pocket which is handy. The main compartment has a big Velcro strap at the back of the "laptop" area which is designed to hold a DVD player in while the screen is open but this is not much use to me. Fortunately it is totally flat so it doesn’t get in the way. The P1610 fits perfectly in this compartment and can be stored here with either the standard or the extended battery which is nice. I carry the extra battery in the very bottom of the front compartment so I have the extra one with me at all times. The main compartment also has a good number of little flat pockets, no doubt to hold DVDs but perfect for other items that are fairly flat. I keep the Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard here along with my business card holder and a flat laser pointer I use a lot.
As small as the Philips case is I’m amazed at all of the stuff I can easily fit in here without making it too bulky. I have the Fujitsu P1610, Stowaway BT Mouse, Stowaway BT keyboard, well, it’s easier just showing you the bag loaded and also a pic of all the gear I carry in there:
All of this stuff really did come out of this little bag! I’m pretty happy with this little case which is the perfect size to carry the little Tablet PC with me. To look professional during my work day I slide the Philips bag into the Vaja messenger bag and I’m stylin’. This provides me with room for work files that I encounter during the day yet lets me just slide the Philips bag out of the Vaja to carry by itself. Pretty nice setup, if you ask me.
Personally i think that the point of a UMPC is to be quickly accessable when ever and where ever you are. The problem with laptops in general is the fact that you need to:
Put the bag down;
Open the bag;
Take out your power adapter (assuming that your cheap like me and don’t want to fork out £90 on an extended battery);
Take out your mouse (unless you are a great fan of the touch pad);
Take out your laptop;
Plug in the periferals;
Boot up the laptop (or take it out of hibernation/Standby);
Close the bag (to stop the rest of your stuff from tipping out or getting pinched when your in a public place);
By which time any quick note taking or adding a new contact into outlook is made pointless.
UMPC’s naturally have less things to prepare (or will do when the 8 hour battery/fuel cells come out). But if you place it in a laptop bag then you still need to:
Put the bag down;
Open the bag;
Take out your UMPC;
Take UMPC out of standy (We are using a future umpc here with a long battery life so naturally everyone uses the standby mode instead of shutting it down);
Which is ok but how many of you people are really really lazy to the point that you haven’t jotted something down because it meant rumaging through your bag for that notepad you alway’s carry around and the pen that alway’s manages to hide itself under several small items also kept in your bag. C’mon, don’t be shy, put your hand up… I thought so
… Noone is brave enough to admit it but i know you exist.
What i think we need is a bag that protects the device from bumps and scrapes but has a flap on the front that flips open to show the screen part of the UMPC and the various button holes. This is just like what we had for the Tablet but with one subtle difference. the tablet was never going to be able to fit to your belt. But as umpc’s get smaller we might be able to fit them to the side of our hip or place them in our pockets and be rid of the PDA’s forever… mwa ha ha (evil laugh)… Lets face it, if you want a pda now you normally go for a smart phone.
The down side to this is that the device won’t be able to flip/rotate/break dance/fold into a swan, or anything else thats distinguishes the umpc as a origami type product so in order to type out those long emails on the flip out foldy-rotaty keyboard you would still need to take the product out of the bag. However we can be assureed by the products out so far that the common form of an origami/umpc device in it’s closed position will be that of a small slate with the screen exposed in thae majority of cases (no pun intended). I’m sure umpc accessory manufactures can come up with a uniform style case to fit the requirements of lazy people world wide that would suite the majority of umpc’s.
Good points JR. Fujitsu actually makes a bump case much like you describe that lets you access the screen and all buttons. I don’t have one, though.
I’ve both both the Fujitsu tablet mode case and the convertible case. I love the tablet case, but it is such an incredibly tight fit that you need to take out any SD cards before you slide it out (and it will damage your PC Card ejector tab if you aren’t extremely careful every time). Problem is, I’m not that thrilled about the convertible bump case, because it’s a bit bulkier and generally not as easy to use as the tablet case. So risk and all, I’m using the tablet mode case in conjunction with a very nifty Lowepro Stealth backpack.
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interesting — I can see a whole new style trend coming with the new netbooks