GoRuck Radio Ruck vs North Face Recon

I used to travel with a Farpoint 40 and it was fully packed out most of the time. The straps are very comfortable but there was no escaping the weight and size. Not only was the weight (the bag itself is nearly 1.5KG on its own if I remember right) just too much, but the size just made me feel a bit vulnerable, in that I looked like a tourist still

Switched to the North Face Recon. It's perfect. Fits close to the body on crowded trains/planes, but plenty of room if you need to stuff it. Sturdy easy pull zippers

I just got myself a north face recon that I’m really happy with. Had for about a week. Holds my 13” mba with plenty of room to spare. Edit: ps the laptop compartment has security but the rest doesn’t

Next up is the front compartment, where there’s more granular organization. From front to back, there are two mesh pockets, two liner pockets and a pen pocket, a wide zippered pocket, and a tablet pocket at the very back—a nice variety to have for different tech accessories. The compartment doesn’t extend all the way to the bottom of the bag. This is a good thing because it balances out the usable space between the different compartments, and we don’t have to fish too deeply in case something falls in

At the bottom of the Recon is a pair of accessory straps. These straps accomplish two things: First is to serve as compression straps. Tightening them brings the bottom portion of the front down, so much so that it cleverly hides the Recon logo in the process. The second is as a means for hanging off bulky items such as a travel tripod, a yoga mat, a pair of dirty football cleats—whatever your extracurricular activities need