Pelican 1495cc2 Finished with customized foam and laptop

This case is amazing. I no longer worry about dropping my laptop or worry about the case getting wet. While I admitted to a friend that it could be a little too industrial looking for some people, he responded, “I think it’s perfect. A case like that says that what is inside of it, is more important than what it looks like on the outside. And besides you can throw it across the parking lot and not worry about it.”

And he’s right. While I expected to have the security that my laptop was safe from fall or drop damage, it is actually far more reassuring than I could have imagined. In fact the case is so hardcore when fully loaded with what feels like an entire portable office, that I worry more about damaging things I might “bump” with it, than my case or the contents.

The lid organizer is perfect (I’ve had other cases and bags with lot’s of pockets and specialized sections/dividers that turned out to be useless) but the lid organizer for the 1495 seems like it was designed by someone who intended to use it. Though I don’t really keep my cell phone inside the case (I have a hard enough time keeping up with phone calls without hiding the phone in a nearly sound proof case). The big pocket holds more than enough notebooks, magazines, catalogs, and flyers (too much really as my case is starting to weigh too much!).

For general use some people might find the case a bit on the heavy side, but it is not that heavy empty, and depending on what you put in it you may not think it is heavy at all.

I still use my extra-thin laptop sleeve for business meetings where I am not presenting and do not need any extra collateral materials to hand-out. But the problem with sleeves is you can’t carry your power supply with you, so you are limited to the three hours or whatever battery life your laptop has.

I am also going to post a step-by-step on how I “cut” the foam. It was hard to decide how to best fit the laptop in the case, but it was also half the fun. I’ll discuss my logic and why the power transformer is in the lid organizer pocket in that article.

Anyway, even if you don’t need hardcore the crush-dust-water protection of a Pelican case, the industrial style and subconscious sense of importance you’ll get from carrying a hip industrial case like this makes it an awesome laptop or briefcase.