Atlas Packs Athlete vs Patagonia Black Hole Mini MLC 26L Travel Pack

Important: Choose the Adventure or Athlete hip belt – otherwise you will have literally no padding on your hips. I don’t recommend using the bag without a hipbelt either. The Adventure belt is more comfortable as it provides two layers of foam padding and a wider webbing and buckle – it’s also bigger and bulkier.

The pocket doesn’t cover the entire size of the pack, which gives your laptop some cushion in case of an accidental drop. The pocket is padded, but I just don’t like that the pack is frameless because all of the structure of the pack will come from the laptop, which puts unnecessary stress on the computer. The Black Hole MLC is a backpack/side carry bag, with side handles. So trying to make it comfortable in both settings is tricky

On the other side of the open compartment, there are two smaller zippered pockets—nice for toiletries or cables, etc. These zippered pockets are attached to another large zippered pocket that would hold items you want to keep separate from the rest of the cargo, like a dress shirt or travel towel. All in all, the pack has about 45l of storage, which is why it is the Maximum Legal Carry-on. There is no water bottle holder on the MLC, but there are several gear loops along the outside so you could clip a water bottle to that