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Overview of the Minaal 2.0 Carry-on Bag

Look great while dominating the world with this versatile, commuter friendly one-bag! The Minaal 2.0 Carry-on bag stands out from the crowd with its stylish, minimalistic outer shell, and tech-savvy organization. The carry-on friendly dimensions, easy clamshell style packing, and a unique laptop/tablet sleeve make this an ideal one-bag for world travel.

Cost: $299
Capacity: 35 liters
Dimensions: 21.6″ x 13.7″ x 7.8″
Style: Clamshell
Weight: 3.12 lbs.
Laptop: >15”

Buy From Minaal

Not too big, not too small. The Minaal 2.0 has that perfect, sweet-spot 35 liter bag size. While large enough to carry enough equipment for even the most geared-out tech head, this bag isn’t too big or bulky. Excellent interior organization with mesh 3D pockets work great with the opposite larger clamshell opening. The Minaal 2.0 has some small quirks, but overall it’s a fantastic bag, at albeit, a not so fantastic price.

Materials, colors, and sizes

Minaal managed to make this bag significantly lighter than similar bags by starting with great materials and design. The main exterior fabric is a custom-made 600 denier nylon. It’s significantly thinner and lighter than similar bags (Aer Travel Pack 2 @ 3.7lbs uses 1680D), while still being very durable. They utilize a thicker 1000D material on the bottom of the bag, where it gets a majority of the abuse.

The quality of material and attention to detail of the accessories don’t cease to amaze me.  The backpack straps and back panel of the bag are made out of a thick, durable foam. The buckles are all durable plastic, while the lockable YKK zippers, and compression buckles are metal. Minaal uses metal, lockable YKK #10 zippers on the main compartment, and a smaller metal zipper on the rest of the pockets.

Exterior components

Exterior pockets

While the laptop/lablet sleeve area offers some further interior space. The Minaal 2.0 doesn’t offer as much exterior space as similar one-bags, such as the Aer Travel Pack 2. The brunt of the small-stuff organization on this bag is left up to two medium-sized pockets on the top/front of the bag. The pockets are relatively large, and only offer one additional zippered mesh interior pocket. If you are a gadget-head, you will probably need to use additional organizers with this pack.

Backpack straps

I’m a fan of stowaway straps, and the Minaal 2.0 has some great ones. There is something about being able to tuck those things away that really makes the bag look nice. It’s a breeze in airport security, and you can use the shoulder strap, or side handles much more easily.

They did a great job of making the straps uber comfortable, while not super bulky. They also included some ingenious features you won’t see on similar bags. The chest-strap has a separate buckle, to clip it out of the way when it’s not in use. The straps have nifty magnetic load balancing buckles, which do a great job keeping the pack high and close to your back, for a more comfortable fit.

Carry handles

The carry handles of the Minaal 2.0 are sturdy and comfortable. The side handle is in the middle-ish of the bag, which could affect the angle the bag is held. The balance of the load is largely based on the weight on the pack contents, a slightly unbalanced load won’t affect the side carry too much.

Compression straps

Hazzah! Finally a company figured out how to place the compression straps out of the way, while still functioning great. This was a major point of contention on the Aer Travel Pack 2, where the bulky compression straps get in the way of opening the bag. And while I must admit they don’t function quite as well as the Travel Pack (see comparison post here), their convertibility is exceptional.

The straps on each side of the bag have aluminum hooks which can attach to two cinch points. One point is out of the way of the zipper, the other more secure point, is over the zipper. This gives you an option to have the bag have some compression, without blocking access to the main pouch! If you want added compression, simply switch the cinch strap to the other one.

Waterproof cover

The lighter fabric on the Minaal 2.0 looks great, but does not offer your gear much protection from the elements. They solved this problem by offering a 100% rain proof option, the rain cover! Located in a separate pocket on the bottom of the back, the ultralight rain cover unfolds to cover the entire pack. A bungee strap located along the edge of the cover helps form it fit the pack perfectly. A small clip keeps the cover in place, but can be removed if not needed. If you are going somewhere dry, you can save almost 2.5 oz by leaving the Minaal 2.0 rain cover at home!

A note on price

The Minaal 2.0 runs on the higher end of the one-bag travel bag spectrum. And while I firmly believe it is a good investment to spend a little extra to get a great bag, you need to get your money’s worth. There is no question the Minaal 2.0 is a great bag, but is it worth the steep price tag?

The base-line bag with no extras, runs $299 USD. This bag however, doesn’t come with the attachable hip belt ($39), the shoulder strap ($49), or the 3 custom packing cubes ($49). All told, the full package will cost you a whopping $436. Definitely something worth considering when looking at this bag.

Water bottle pocket

This is the one blight on an otherwise awesome bag. The pocket is a rather short full fabric sleeve on the side of the bag, with a fold for expansion. A bungee strap is available to strap down larger bottles. This system works, until it doesn’t. Relying on a flimsy bungee strap to hold your water bottle in place is not the best solution. Without the strap, the pocket is next to useless.

Interior components and design

The interior organization consists of a “false bottom” laptop sleeve compartment, and the main clamshell style opening. The laptop sleeve has what Minaal calls a “devise sleeve.” This consists of a floating bungee strap contraption that holds your laptop, and tablet, in place. This design has some good and bad features.

The Laptop Sleeve slash “Devise Nest”

The good news is the compartment has a false bottom. Meaning a seam prevents the laptop from coming anywhere close to the bottom of the bag. The sleeve also holds your laptop about 2” from the edge of the bag on all sides. This prevents damage to your laptop when the bag is set down hard, or dropped. You can literally drop this bag, and the laptop won’t even notice.

The bad news is the sleeve is restrictive in size, and difficult to access. Minaal claims the sleeve can hold up to a 15” laptop. My Toshiba laptop is 15” in width, and has a 15.6” monitor. It fits, but just barely, and I can only put in in from the top. So be forewarned. This bag doesn’t have any wiggle room as far as laptop width is concerned. The sleeve is also sort of medium difficult to access. It’s not hard to access, per se, it’s just not easy. There’s Velcro involved.

Clamshell Opening of Minaal 2.0

This is where the Minaal 2.0 really shines. The bag opens lengthwise into a large clamshell style opening to hold all your goodies. One side of the bag has what are affectionately called 3D pockets, one mesh, and one fabric. These are like packing cubes sewn into your bag. They work great. The other side of the pack is open, with space to store a big pile of gear, or to use the optional packing cubes.

Because this bag doesn’t come with any interior compression straps, you will probably want to use packing cubes. Minaal sells a set of 3 rather smallish packing cubes, which are designed to fit into the bag. But honestly, they are kind of expensive for what they are, and you don’t really need them. Just go with what you have, or buy a cheap set on the internet.

Packing the Minaal 2.0

For this test, we packed a modest amount of clothes and gear for about a week long trip. You can easily use the Minaal 2.0 as a one-bag, it will hold enough gear for indefinite long-term travel. You just have to reduce your stuff, and pack smart. Check out this post for tips on what to bring and how to pack light for one-bag travel.

We packed the Aer Travel Pack 2 and the Minaal 2.0 with the same gear if you want to see the comparison. They are pretty similar packs, and hold about the same amount of gear. But how you pack the bag is slightly different.

Click here for a full packing list of what I packed in the Minaal 2.0

This bag packs amazingly easy. It’s really straightforward if you use cubes, just load them up and put them in the bag. If you don’t use cubes, the larger items such as shirts and pants will store in the open side of the bag. But because there are no interior straps to hold your items, they risk falling each time you open the bag.

The 3D pockets on the opposite end are great for storing smaller items, like socks and underwear. You can fit about 3 rolled t-shirts into the fabric pocket. The mesh pocket is slightly larger, we were able to fit 2 t-shirts, a toiletry bag, and my laptop charger in this one.

Fit, durability, and testing

This bag is comfortable. Minaal did a really good job on these backpack straps. The load balancing buckles allow the bag to hold high and close to your body. This keeps the bag from slouching on your back, and reduces fatigue during long trips. Combine that with the modest 35 liter size and you can easily carry this bag all day without shoulder or back soreness.

Overall summary of the Minaal 2.0 Carry-on Bag

The Minaal 2.0 Carry-on bag is a solid, well organized one-bag, with the sweet spot size of 35 liters. It is a beautiful bag from the outside, with a great clamshell organization on the inside. Interior 3D pockets and packing cubes make packing this bag a breeze, and it holds more than you would think. The minimalistic aesthetic does have some drawbacks, with a lack of smaller organizational compartments. The unique laptop sleeve is very functional, yet slightly difficult to access.

Best features

• Aesthetic, this bag is beautiful
• Awesome interior organization
• Built-in rain cover
• Laptop held away from sides of pack

Worst features

• Lack of small organizational pockets
• Laptop sleeve smallish and hard to access
• Steep price tag
• Water bottle pocket isn’t the best

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