The Ultimate Review of the North Face Borealis Backpack

The North Face Borealis Backpack

There are two types of North Face Borealis. There’s this one which is the new version that North Face released a few years back and then there’s also the North Face Borealis classic, which is the original one that they release many many moons ago.

 

Because when they made the new version a lot of the specifications a lot of it, it’s very similar. There’s not that much between the two bags, may be aesthetically there’s different places where different things have been put but they’ll still a quite high demand for the classic. So they continue to make the two side-by-side so you got the Legacy version and you’ve got this new version.

 

Colors wise you’ll be able to see that there are a lot of different colors for these bags. They really are great for different colors. Some of the colors are more generic. You’ll find that there are unisex colors. If you want to call them that blacks Gray’s Browns and then there are some other colors that are probably more you could say maybe towards masculine or more towards a feminine eye.

 

 

I chose this North Face Borealis myself because I wanted to be seeing this isn’t a gray bag. I wanted to make sure when I’m out on business that people can see me. I wanted to make sure that if a lot of colleagues know that I have this bag, it really does stand out.

 

There are lots and lots of different colors the material around the bag.  There’s lots of different blends of different materials. It ranges from a 210 D Cordura through to a 200 D. Nylon. A 340 D ripstop polyester and a 600D ripstop polyester as well, but they’ve been very clever and how they’ve done it the bag comes in at just over a kilogram.

 

They’ve put they’ve been very clever with it. Actually, they’ve been very clever. So where you get those stress points a lot where the stitching is at the top here where this grab handle is which is bomb-proof all around the bag. They’ve been very clever in making sure that the stress points have got the tough material and then the other sections which don’t really take as much of a beating.

 

 

The is a 600D ripstop polyester is it does take some beating. Especially when you’re going through security at airports are there for a reason but they can be a bit of a nightmare. Sometimes she will take a bit of a tour around the outside of the bag then we’ll have a look at the inside and then last will I’ll have a look at the suspension system. It’s fairly standard.

 

So starting on the side, we’ve got two water bottles sashes. Personally for me. I find this really useful. I’m left-handed. So I take my rucksack off swing it round to go for the bottle a lot of rucksacks a lot of backpacks on the opposite side and are designed mainly to be used by people that are right-handed and then on this side the something different on there. So it’s really great that there’s one on both sides. Also useful because you’ve got that modularity as well for the rucksacks where you’ve got them just on one side the other side might have some attachments or maybe just something different on this side. It means that with a lot of straps for the compression, if you’ve got something that you want to put in there, you can fit a 2 liter container in here. Stretchy material on the side this elastic you can hopefully you can see that there’s a help me in my face hell of a lot of room.

 

 

So if you had a two liter bottle and you wanted to put it in there cinch it tight. It’ll mean that that it doesn’t rattle around. Maybe not so good in an urban environment. But if you’re out and about in the countryside and you’ve got something in there, I’ve put walking poles in here. It stops them from moving around. I’ve also on days when I’ve been out into the countryside and I wanted to make sure that my tripod keep safe the small tripod that I’ve got fits perfectly and you cinch it around and make sure that that’s nice and tight.

 

Cinch straps one on each side has you generally expect you can also release them with the buckles have been clever with these as well so when it pulls the bag instead of putting pulling the bag zipper Zips to then pull it back and you still got this front section that can move around. It pulls the whole front section back so that when it’s empty you can keep it nice and tight against yourself, but also when it’s full it will keep everything in there nice and secure.

 

 

Bungee cord on the front you can put stuff in I’ve used that in the past when I’ve got a spare jacket or something. I’ve gotten somewhere where I didn’t realize it was going to be so hot. I can take that off and drop it in there never really use these I guess I could put a carabiner on there if I was out walking I could plug Carabiner and a drink maybe but it’s.

 

North Face really has gone the extra mile for protection on this the fleece lining and he is really nice plush. The pocket is a good 15 centimeters wide, which that’s about 6 inches 7 inches, you can put your hand right in there. So your glasses in there, you’re not going to worry about your glasses getting scratched and put your keys in there. I’ve been as well because it’s the pocket on the front. That’s the easiest one to get to if you take your shoulder strap up swing it round you can open that and you can get to it straight away. Not a double zipper getting back to that left-handed kind of thing. When I open it. It’ll open up that way and the stuff might fall out left right handed person might open it that way and the stuff stays in.

 

YKK zippers, they’ve all got a little bit of cord on there and a nice little thing that you can grip on. So if you are wearing gloves, you can grab hold of that and you can pull it open really easy. You can also pull it at the top pull it down. It just pops straight open YKK zippers as you all know, excellent zippers, they’ll never get stuck.

 

 

Back to North Face using their intelligence with this bag, the fleece-lined bag that what the fleece lined pocket also has a lining that means that whatever’s in here is got the fleece lining plus this extra line to make sure that whatever is in here isn’t going to damage that and vice. A lot of bags have a pocket on the front, but the pocket on the front is still there. You can move it. You can feel it moving around North Face of going that extra mile to make sure that’s not there. You can also see from the stitching, that it’s really good high quality stitching.

 

In the front itself at the very front, you’ve got a quite a large section that you can chuck a lot of stuff into I carry all of my cables and things like that for my laptop in a dry bag just to make sure that it’s it’s all together, but it’s also not going to get wet if I got caught out in the rain, but I’ve put a jacket in there before now.

 

Then on the front, you’ve got a section that you can you can put you can organize stuff in. You’ve got two pockets that are mesh so you can see what’s in there. Couple of pockets that are these were little bit deeper. Even some of the bigger mobile phones that we’ve got nowadays you can fit your tablets, whatever they call them. You can fit that in there push it in. You’re not going to have to worry that it’s going to get scratched and anything on the inside.

 

Moving back a little bit further another really nice padded. So whatever’s in the front, there’s an extra layer of padding between the two compartments that fits more cables SD cards that sort of stuff in there, but this is all padded again. So if you have got your keys in there. When you plug just take a knock if you’ve got a tablet in here and it’s facing forward, which would be the best way because there’s your fleece lining, you’re not going to get any impact. You’re going to get less impact and you cannot can have to worry on scratching

 

My 8 inch tablet just fits in from the side if this wasn’t in its in its case that would fit in perfectly. So that’s a gauge on the width of your tablet this perfect. You can fit your iPad’s in there, depth wise they got that’s the eight inches and the still but much on top of it fits in perfectly. And again with that fleece lining whatever you put in there. You’re going to know it’s not going to get scratched. There’s a section you can put pens and if it’s something large that you want to put in there you can you can again pass it through that to make it a little bit more secure and then you’ve got another fleece lined pocket. This one goes all the way down to the bottom the same depth of this one.

 

 

Moving on to the back again, it has YKK zippers different size YKK zippers these those nice big fat meaty ones pull it down pull straight open in that instance. You can see how quickly you can get into the bag. Again, padding between the different sections, lots of nice padding. This is where the 28 liters comes in. There’s a lot that you can fit in here. I’ve had three or four two liter bottles in here. That was very hot day. We need a lot to drink. I’ve had on occasions where I’ve gone to crunching. I’ve not known how hot is before. I’ve gone or realize that it’s a lot colder than I thought you can put in three or four different coats in to hear different layers, and they all fit in. Plus with your straps and you compression straps when it’s all in one thing, this backpack is perfect for carrying on a plane it fits under the seat fits and under the seat in front of you and it fits under the storage above so you having difficult as what you’re worried about this fitting, it fits and you can take this on carry on.

 

Again, more fleece-lining for the laptop pocket this laptop pocket which is a 15 inch laptop pocket. It fits as you’d expect 15-inch laptops or less than that. I have tried to see if I can get a 17 inch laptop in there but it definitely doesn’t fit. It’s abrasion-resistant the material for this is just Space Age.  Inside hook and loop tab so that you can put a hydration system in here, you can probably fit up to a 3 liter hydration system in that easily. Hydration hose comes out the top and fits of the back. I also like the placing of this a lot of again getting back to that left-handed right-handed or you be enabled it’s just a choice you then have the choice that you can use it the way that you want to it comes out the back and then you can decide which side is it goes down and you’ve got some little Hoops there that you can you can attach it to find that a lot of bags it comes out.

 

On the top – really good stitching. Everything’s reinforced. There isn’t a box stitch on this because it goes inside the bag. So when it’s inside the bag the material doesn’t go through and it’s not box stitched inside. But what it is stitched is you’ve got double treble stitch in there to make sure that it’s on tight, but the grab handle itself has got some webbing on the top and then underneath the use the same phone that they use in the suspension system. They also use the same mesh material on there. So if you’re worried about grabbing it when you’ve got wet hands. If you got that hands moving weird, it’s not it’s not going to fall out. It’s really good grab handle. You can put a lot in this bag and I’ve never gone to this bag with a lot in it a lot of weight in it and lifted it up and thought “that’s not gonna hold it”. I’ve never thought that.

 

The back panel uses the Flex vent system. You got this really nice plush padding. And then on top of that there’s invented mesh which is there to help to Wick away any moisture as you come down the middle the spine section. There’s quite a large gap if you can see this, I mean, that’s a good one half centimeters, maybe half an inch. You can get nice cool air in there and also when you get down to the mid lumbar section, this bit goes across my shoulders and then my lats. You’ve just got some more side bits so that when the air is coming through it can move away on the sections that will probably be the most hottest and when we think about sweating a lot of videos, it’s genuine the lower back.

 

Wear this backpack, it fits really. Well, you can change the length of the straps you can change its got a sternum strap which you can cinch tighter if you want to make sure it’s it’s not moving around have a good day. I’ve not got the compression straps on the side. So it’s moving around a little bit but it fits really well. The straps are contoured to the shoulders so they come. Okay. I’m a little bit tired. We can report they come around the shoulders onto the chest and then they diverted around so that they go underneath your armpits. Which again is it just it’s just comfortable when you’ve got it on, you know, you’ve got it on you feel that it’s there, but it’s not it’s not a hindrance to movements nuts again, not so much in the new Urban environment.

 

But when you’re out and about you doing a bit of all your climbing or. It’s doesn’t feel like it’s stopping any range of movement at all when you get into the middle to feel the pinch. But yeah, it’s good for that sternum strap uses the their own little sternum strap. It’s got a whistle on there if you need it.

 

It’s also got a lot bunch of bit at the back as well so that when you are moving around. Again, it doesn’t pig doesn’t restrict any movement at all sternum straps themselves run these little rails. So depending on your height depending on your build you can move those around to make sure that it’s in the best position this stiff and that’s a good thing. Put the rules so loose enough that I find sometimes that I’ve got them in the wrong position if my wife’s been wearing this and it rides a little higher over a breast if she’s been wearing and then I put it on and I’ve not noticed that it’s changed after a bit of walking after a little bit of a little bit of moving round.

 

It will move itself into the position that fits best. I don’t know where North Face designed it to do that if they did, well done North Face. If they didn’t it’s just a cracking bag waist strap waist strap is functional.  It’s not a padded waist strap. It’s doesn’t really take much of the weight off as you can see right just above my belt in the in the small of my back, which is perfect height so you can adjust that.

 

Shoulder pads use the same phone the phone that’s in the back of the shoulder strap. Sorry, they use the same phone that’s in their bit of a North Face style over substance thing. Is it bit of a show-off you think it probably is but if you can see here, there’s like a meshing and that meshing shows you the construction of the foam pads underneath the shirt that are built into the shoulder strap. Like that do I go around saying? Hey check out what’s in my shoulder straps. No, do I worry that this material isn’t as strong as the other material that’s on there? Yeah a little bit. I’m going to be taking this into the field and you know doing some gangster stuff probably not but on a bag that I want to make sure that I can keep it as long as possible.

 

Overall, I trust that when I felt this bag that the stuff that was in it the material everything that holds us back together is good quality material. They would have stopped me from sub before buying it. Strange things that last little bits couple of Loops that you can put stuff on to you’ve got if he did have that hydration bladder in there and you’ve got the tube that comes over you can put that in and you can put it on your side.

 

What else can I say? Nothing – just buy one, you can find them here on Amazon at great prices!

 

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