The North Face  Router Daypack

Bought this for a carry on for company trips. This thing is just a huge monster for the style. It's too long for the torso. I am 6' tall but this sits from just at the hips to up and over the shoulders with the drop style shoulder straps. I needed it to carry a laptop a tablet charging pack and a spare set of clothes for the just in case. I also wanted this to be an every day office commuter pack for same electronics plus lunch and spare gear. I ended up returning it in exchange for the Surge 2. The Surge was perfect! In short not great for a commuter or carry on with the size but probably great for a car camper. If you want a daypack or a weekend bag for weekend hikes. Go with a top load.

There is a lot to like about the Router. For one, it has a lot of space. Plenty of room to carry around books, work equipment, laptops, etc. However, that might be part of its problem, too. It's too large and cumbersome for a person of even my build: 5'9" 170. I want a pocket on the front or top of the backpack that is deep enough to hold a cell phone, keys, and a wallet. Unfortunately, the pocket in the front of the backpack is too small and the vertically-zipping pockets on the front are too inconvenient to reach for these items. Lastly, the bottom of the laptop sleeve is not sufficiently padded. Frequently, I set my backpack down on my office's tile floor, and I could hear the metal exterior of my laptop clanging on the floor. I am also looking at REI's Quantum backpack which I think would be a better fit for what I am looking for in a backpack. I'm certain, however, that the Router would be a great pack for someone else.

My only complaint is that this pack does not stand up when loaded. I wants to fall forward on its front/face.

I use this backpack to take my stuff to and from everywhere. It holds all my stuff every so easily and the backpack is easy to wear.

a backpack to carry a laptop,ipad,gym clothes, and room for more...... straps placed perfect to keep bag stable. This bag was an upgrade from a 5-11 bag.

This is a good, quality daypack. I have many North Face packs, from technical to many everyday ones; I have about 7-12 of them. I love them so much. I am going to compare this to their "Box Shot" which they do not make anymore, I think this Router replaced Box shot because the design (3 pockets and inside pocket configuration for pencils, etc is almost identifical to Box Shot. A few observations, generally excellent bag but when compared to Box shot the plastic hooks (i.e. key chain, buckles, etc) do not seen as heavy duty as box shot and instead of two water bottle pockets on each side, it only has one, the other is a zippered one slightly smaller, but the Box Shot has two, I use one for sunglasses and the other for water bottle. The other observation is that the tablet holder is a perfect fit JUST for the iPad itself (I also have a smart cover and backing on the iPad, but still a perfect fit and this is where I am not happy because I also keep the iPad in a neoprene case and all together with the neoprene case the iPad w/ neoprene case doe NOT fit in the ipad holder. So the rear pocket will have to hold a laptop in a neoprene case and then my ipad in another neoprene case so they will bounce around a bit but not a big issue as they are protected and assuming a filled pack, it will all be snug so it'll work; the other option is to leave the iPad neoprene case at home and slip it in the individual iPad pocket. Other than these two main observations -- the cheaper plastics and iPad pocket being to "perfect" to only fit the iPad itself with no extra neoprene padding around it, very good bag, but if you were to choose this Router over Box Shot, GO WITH BOX SHOT, you are basically getting the same bag (though Box Shot has no iPad individual pocket and Router's main pocket is roomier than the Box Shot.