My daughter in college chose this backpack for school this year, but it is one of the few that looks nice and neat enough for me to consider using professionally. The fabric is nice looking, easy to clean, it’s slim, and the pockets are very neat and don’t really bulge when filled. It has a laptop pocket inside, which easily fits her 13-15" slim laptop. (I can’t remember the exact size.) Plus, it’s inexpensive but really doesn’t look it.
My 6th grade daughter also chose the same back pack, and even with all the crap she crams in it, it still manages to look very neat and put together. It really does not look like something you’d get from IKEA (except for the tags).
I’ve found the Outdoor Gear Lab website to be very useful for researching things like this. They’ve recently done two comparisons you may find helpful.
I’ll second that we are way past the point of expecting to carry a briefcase to work. Maybe when the most we were expected to carry were papers to review or get signed. But, unless you or your company will allow for one of the premier business laptops that are light and fast then, you are stuck with some heavy thing.
Last job, the laptop was so heavy with the power brick my shoulder would pinch with the laptop bag. So, all the people that had this laptop had backpacks.
I’m also glad that this thread popped up as I am also looking for a more professional looking backpack. The one that can convert between sling and shoulder might be ideal.
I have this Tortuga Air that I bought for travel, but I find it pretty great in all circumstances.
It’s a clamshell design, so it opens like luggage across a seam (as opposed to a top-closing regular backpack), so workflows for getting things in and out of it are a little different than a traditional backpack, but I find that it’s generally a neater, more organized way of packing things. One of the interior halves is separated by a zippered mesh divider, so it’s great for keeping clothes/shoes away from other things.
And it looks good. To my eye (warning: I do not work in the fashion/style industry) roller cases look 100 times less professional than a sleek backpack. People in suits wheeling luggage behind them on long aluminum poles looks silly enough to warrant a chapter in Gulliver’s Travels.