OspreyUnisex Nebula Backpack (pack of 1)

Ahead of a trip abroad last summer, I spent quite a lot of time reading reviews of backpacks such as this and visited approximately six different retailers to have a look at what it was on offer. I finally went for the Osprey and I’ve never regretted it for a minute. It is fantastically capacious, flexible, lightweight, easy to carry, and attractive! For the whole of the trip, I would take it out every day, packed with a range of clothing, camera, gear, food and drink sufficient to get me through the next 12 or 18 hours and it did the job each and every day, with the three large main compartment, meaning that I never had to mix things such as expensive camera gear and messy food and drink. There was a place for everything and I never ran out of space.

It has every pocket I need for work stuff, laptop, food and clothes and the durability and comfort needed to hike to work- fantastic!! Easy to access pockets, and good airway design at the back during summer. Love it

Excellent qualityPlenty of room

Spent weeks looking for good backpack which looked smart, held my work stuff and them my gym gear (trainers, water bottle, t-shirt etc) with space for a book as well. Very comfortable and compact, the clips aren’t an issue as long you spend 5 seconds undoing them so I wouldn’t worry about those reviews. Couldn’t recommend this highly enough. Also, great for a weekend away and not feeling like you have a massive backpack.

I wanted to replace my North Face Miwok from the 1990s. Still going strong but scruffy.Since then there’s been a trend for bottle holders on the side of backpacks.I wanted the option to continue to put them at the rear, (as in the Miwok).The new Nebula has lots of space in the stretchy rear pocket and can do this. Which is good.But that fabric is linked to top two compression straps, which run across all the big zips.So the clips must always be done up for the mesh pocket, but undone when accessing the compartments, ruining the convenience of having zips.My Miwok doesn’t have such high straps and I’ve never felt the need for them. But on the Nebula they are central to the functioning of the backpack in every way. So you’ll have to get used to them.You can partially access compartments by undoing one clip, so that will be my approach most of the time.The laptop compartment ends short of the bottom of the bag, so your computer won’t hit the ground when you put the pack down.But none of the bases of the other compartments are padded, so be gentle, otherwise things could get dented or cracked. I would have them all padded.White or light colours have no place on the straps of a rucksack because grease and grime build up over time.Yet this has a couple of white chevron strips right where you grab them. I wonder what they will look like in a couple of years, grey I imagine.There’s also white foam under black mesh in the straps and back panel. I hope the mesh masks the dirt.The rest of the bag is nicely dark blue so should hide it.The grab loop is not visible in the catalogue pictures, but it is there, thankfully.It is attached to the rear of the bag, so juts out horizontally, not upwards. It makes the top profile cleaner and maybe less likely to catch when stuffed into a luggage rack. Not that that’s ever been a problem on the Miwok.Bags this size for this use don’t need a waist belt. I never use it on my Miwok. Thanks to Osprey for making this one removable.The slim outer pocket with the pen holders goes all the way to the bottom of the bag.It’s too deep for the smaller things it seems to be designed for. They’ll get lost way down there. The compartment zips go less than half way down too, because of those bottle holders on the side, making deep access difficult.And if you stuff it full, the outer mesh pocket then loses a lot of its capacity.You could loosen the top compression straps to loosen the mesh (see how those two straps are central to everything?)Or, since the mesh is stretchy, you can simply ram things in. But will it last 20 years if you do that? Probably not.The zips don’t catch and work well.It has lots of capacity, I dropped a shoe box in the main compartment no problem, and easily as much as the Miwok.But it is narrower and taller (and therefore deeper) and looks better than the Miwok as a result, especially if you don’t use the side bottle pockets.These side pockets, so essential on modern backpacks, stop the zips going more than two thirds of the way down the rucksack, hindering access to the depths of the two main compartments. Certainly compared to the Miwok, which doesn’t have them.But it’s a trade-off isn’t it?Overall the bag is very high quality. It think it will do the many things I want it to: from my bike commute to trips to the beach, to day walks.I recommend it.

Good storage space. Fits my 15.6 laptop. Lots of pockets. Fits my waterbottle on the side snug. Straps are comfy lots of air. Does get a little sweatty on lower back but nothing like my old backpack. Not 100 percent waterproof so got a raincover for it. Overall the bag doesn't weigh much.

Was reluctant to buy this based on price but now see why you get what you pay for. Bag is extremely comfy and high quality. Was able to use this as my carry on bag to bring my entire luggage for a 5 day holiday - would recommend!

Absolutely fantastic bag. Plenty of space for a trip to see my friends in New York. Used some packing cubes for my cloths and everything fit nicely. Used the front compartment for things I needed to get out at security (steam deck, liquids and power bank) and made the whole thing super convenient. Was used on an economy lite flight with Virgin Atlantic without any issue.