Carry On With Porter Case
Written: Feb 03 '04 (Updated Feb 06 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Small enough to carry onboard all the airplanes I've tried.
Cons: Too small to be your only suitcase on most trips.
The Bottom Line: This is an easy-to-travel-with suitcase that excels at carrying valuables; it also doubles as a practical hand truck.
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| pvreditor's Full Review: Porter Case Standard Carry On Case |
(Much of this review is based on the review I wrote for the August 7, 2002 issue of TV Technology magazine, which was subsequently displayed on the Porter Case Web site.)
Porter Case manufactures mostly small, hard-sided luggage with interesting features for travelers in general and features that will really appeal to travelers carrying electronic equipment. If you are traveling with a laptop computer, video camera, still-image camera and other electronic toys, Porter Case is a very good choice to protect and transport your expensive gizmos and all their accessories.
As electronic thingies get smaller, there is a great temptation to take your expensive and delicate toys on the road. Of course, some people need to travel with these things and protecting them is a necessity, not a luxury. Although equipment may be more compact than similar products from five or 10 years ago, smaller does not mean that it is more durable and rugged.
The bottom line is that you have to protect your equipment when traveling, both from the rigors of travel and from prying eyes intent on making what’s yours, theirs. The Porter Case suitcase from the eponymous manufacturer of wheeled carrying cases based in South Bend, Ind., has a convenient and rugged solution for equipment transportation and protection.
Porter Case makes two similarly designed cases: the 1502 Series and the Elite, the latter of which is the smaller of the two. Both are equipped with large wheels and an extendable carrying handle. I own the 1502 Series Photo Plus case, which is a version of the 1502 equipped with customizable interior dividers that make protecting equipment easy. In addition to carrying my necessary electronic doo-dads, I simultaneously use my Porter Case suitcase to carry various items of clothing… especially those things that easily pack around the electronic stuff.
The exterior of the Porter Case 1502 is 22x14x8 inches and is designed to meet airline requirements for carry-on luggage. The available interior space is 21.5x13.5x7 inches and is finished with firm foam padding, flaps, pouches and some conveniently placed fabric. When you see the case, your first impression is that the wheels are on the wrong side. That’s because the extendable handle can be released and realigned to turn a simple wheeled suitcase into a hand truck of considerable capacity.
The exterior is made from pebbled black ABS plastic, with aluminum frames where the two halves of the case mate. Two nicely integrated latches that open and close with a satisfying snap hold the case shut, and a thumbwheel combination lock attempts to give some security to the contents. A padded handle formed with two heavy telescoping pipes can be extended from the body to provide a sturdy grip for rolling or lifting the case. There is a more traditional carrying handle on the same side as the latches and lock.
Pinching two yellow spring-loaded catches together lets you extend the handle. Once extended, two gray catches fasten the handle to the body of the case.
This is where it gets weird: By releasing the gray catches, the handle pivots away from the case and ultimately latches into metal notches by the wheels, turning the rather ordinary-looking suitcase into a hand truck. Somebody stayed up really late at night thinking of this design.
The Porter Case 1502 Photo Plus shipped with 15 removable dividers that use hook-and-loop fasteners to form compartments of just about any shape and variety.
I took the Photo Plus on a couple of airline trips, packing it with several electronic items such as a laptop computer, assorted external drives for the computer, a digital camera and a little audio cassette recorder. There were plenty of pouches for the necessary cables, disks, batteries, chargers and miscellaneous doodads, with space left over for some socks and small clothing items. I packed these around my electronic items to provide additional padding, although the case’s interior is already well-padded. I figured that you can’t get enough cushioning for stuff like this.
I wouldn’t call the interior capacious, but it is certainly capable of holding the items I put into it, with room to spare. Any consumer-sized video camcorder will fit easily and the hook-and-loop dividers make it easy to create partitions to hold precious items in their own compartments. The completely adjustable interior dividers provided ample padding and support for my electronics. In fact, there were so many dividers that I left about half of them home.
Since I was going to be on the road for a couple of weeks, I had to take along a variety of other luggage. The transformation of the Porter Case 1502 from simple suitcase into a hand truck was greeted with stares, smiles and envious acknowledgement from my fellow travelers. My stuff piled easily onto the hand truck and it trundled smoothly with its large, rubber wheels. But the best part was quickly folding the handle into the case, ending with a small suitcase that slid easily into overhead bins on each of the several varieties of aircraft on my trips. In addition, the suitcase is sturdy and tall enough that I used it as a seat when I was stuck in a long line.
I didn’t get anywhere near the hand-truck limit of the Porter Case 1502, which is rated at 200 pounds of carrying capacity. You get all this carrying capacity and the admiration of your fellow travelers, too. Traveling with the 1502 made taking expensive electronics on a trip much easier and I almost didn’t mind that 90-minute wait to get through the check-in line and airport security.
Recommended:
Yes
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