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Savant Pack
Cost: $329
Capacity: 20 liters
Dimensions: 18″ x 11.5″ x 7.5″ (46 x 29.2 x 19 cm)
Style: Top loading
Weight: 2.3 lbs (1.05 kg)
Laptop: 17” Laptop
Materials: Mandarin 840 Ballistic Nylon; DWR treated; YKK Zips
Origin: Made in Vietnam
Duration Pack
Cost: $315
Capacity: 18 liters
Dimensions: 17″ x 11″ x 8“ (43.2 x 27.9 x 20.3 cm)
Style: Top loading
Weight: 2.1 lbs (0.97 kg)
Laptop: 17” Laptop
Materials: Mandarin 840 Ballistic Nylon; DWR treated; YKK Zips
Origin: Made in Vietnam
Panda Pack
Cost: $395
Capacity: 25 liters
Dimensions: 17.5″ x 11.5″ x 8″ (44.5 x 29.2 x 20.3 cm)
Style: Panel Opening
Weight: 2.7 lbs (1.22 kg)
Laptop: 17” Laptop Dedicated Pocket
Materials: Mandarin 840 Ballistic Nylon; DWR treated; YKK Zips
Origin: Made in Vietnam
Pioneer Carry Introduction
A few months back, I took the Pioneer Carry Panda Pack on a personal-item flight to Las Vegas. After that trip, I liked the bag so much that I wanted to try out Pioneer Carry’s smaller personal-item bags as well.
After testing these bags, I can safely say each has their own benefits. But which one does it best? Let’s explore a side-by-side comparison between three packs by Pioneer Carry: the Duration, the Savant, and the Panda Pack.
Dimensions
Each of these bags is designed to be used as a personal item, with measurements that all fall well within the common 18 by 14 by 8 dimensions for many budget airlines.
I’ve already covered all the detailed specs at the very start of this post, but here’s a general overview.. The Duration is the smallest at 18 liters, the Savant comes in at 20 liters, and we round things off with the Panda Pack at 25 liters.
To confirm their sizes, I placed all of them in my personal-item sizer box, and they fit with no issues, provided they’re packed normally and not bulging.
Pioneer Carry Packs: Materials
All three of these packs use the same material, and it’s one of my favorites on a travel backpack. This material isn’t overly heavy, but it’s strong and extremely durable.
They feature an extremely high quality 840D ballistic nylon that’s thick yet soft, with a finish that’s not overly shiny. It also has a water-resistant coating to help protect your gear.
This makes all three of these packs a solid choice for travel, in and even out of the plane.
Hardware
The hardware on these Pioneer Carry packs really stands out. They use thicker nylon-tooth Vislon zippers, which are generally more durable and more resistant to water than typical coil zippers.
They can be less flexible around tight corners, but in this design, they work great, smoothly sliding around the round corners on the top of each pack. These zippers won’t be breaking any time soon.
Security
The custom zipper pulls here are large and visually appealing, but they don’t offer a “locking” design.
The double zipper pulls on the main compartment can easily be secured together if you want to lock them with a small padlock, but there’s not much security beyond that.
For the single front pocket and laptop zippers on some of the packs, there is usually a fabric pull loop you can attach a lock to if you need extra security.
Still, these packs are light on security, and you can expect to have to bring your own locks (such as the Nite-Ize Micro Lock) and security improvements if that’s something you’re overly concerned with.
External Components
Now let’s compare the external components across the Panda Pack, the Savant, and the Duration.
The overall style on these packs is quite similar. All three have a lay-flat main compartment, plus a separate laptop compartment in the back with similar carry systems.
The most noticeable difference is the design and number of the front organizational pockets—along with, of course, the variation in capacity at 18, 20, or 25 liters respectively.
Top Organizational Pockets
Both the Panda Pack and the Duration Pack feature a double front-pocket design. These front pockets have their own volume, so whatever you store here won’t compete for space with the main compartment.
In terms of size, they’re close, although the Panda’s pockets are slightly larger overall.
One difference is the zipper orientation, as the Panda has a top zipper for both pockets, while the Duration’s pockets zip from the front.
Functionally, it’s not a huge difference, but I’ve found that the Panda’s top-zipper orientation makes it a bit easier to use all the pocket space. The Savant differs from these two packs, with a much larger focus on the front pocket.
Front Organization: Savant vs Duration
When you look at the Savant from the side, the front pocket occupies most of the bag’s capacity, while the main compartment is thinner. This design choice is great if you need to store larger, bulkier gear like a big tech pouch or camera pouch, or if you want to stash a pair of shoes inside that front pocket.
The pocket design even tapers so that it’s fatter at the bottom, perfect for placing shoes with the toes pointing up. It also has four divider sleeves for smaller items.
The Duration, in contrast, doesn’t offer one big compartment. Instead, you’ll find that it has two smaller, separate zip pockets on the front. This is perfect if you want more separation and organization for smaller items and pouches.
As for the Panda Pack, it’s similar to the Duration in terms of overall organizational style, just with larger pockets and divider sleeves inside each front pocket. Plus, you also get two additional side pockets, which can be used for water bottles or extra gear storage.
Pioneer Carry System
Across all three bags, the shoulder straps, back padding, and luggage pass-through sleeves are largely the same.
The styles vary slightly depending on the capacity of the bag, but it’s essentially the same comfortable system.
Laptop Compartment
All three packs also feature extremely similar laptop compartments that can hold up to a 17-inch laptop. These compartments have very thick padding on the back, along with a good foam pad on the pack side.
The two smaller bags, the Duration and Savant, include a tablet sleeve inside the laptop area, while the Panda Pack’s tablet sleeve is inside the main compartment rather than in the laptop area.
None of these laptop compartments employ a full false bottom, but the thick bottom padding should protect from minor bumps and drops.
Interior Design & Organization
Looking inside, all three backpacks have fully opening zippers that let you pack either from the top like a regular daypack or lay the bag flat and pack it like a small suitcase.
The largest differences between these packs are again going to come down to the size and slight design differences between each pack.
Interior Volume
As the largest option at 25 liters, the Panda Pack has enough space for a decent-sized packing cube and can handle a weekend trip or longer if you pack light.
In contrast to the Panda Pack, we have the Duration and the Savant. While both are 18 and 20 liters respectively, the Duration’s interior volume is actually deeper in the main compartment because the Savant’s volume is largely in that big front pocket.
There are slight differences in the interior pockets as well. The Panda Pack and Savant each have two small zippered pockets on the inside lid, while the Duration has one.
Additionally, the Panda and Duration feature a tablet sleeve inside the main compartment, but the Savant does not. In the end, though, these are small details that don’t drastically change how the bags function.
Pioneer Carry: Duration vs Savant vs Panda Packs
So which pack is the pack you need to pick? Tongue twister aside, the Pioneer Carry Panda Pack 25L is large enough to work as your only bag for short business trips or longer weekends if you pack light, thanks to its ample internal and external organization.
The Savant 20L and Duration 18L are both personal-item-size backpacks that pair nicely with a larger suitcase or function as daypacks at your destination.
They’re similar in capacity but differ in organizing style. The Savant’s single large front pocket is ideal for chunkier items like camera gear or shoes, while the Duration’s two separate front pockets are better for smaller accessories that need to stay neatly divided.
Each pack has its own strengths and weaknesses, but it doesn’t come down to quality. All of these three packs are built with quality materials, and don’t suffer in that aspect. It all just depends on your own personal packing style.
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