ALPAKA Metro Backpack Review
Quality and Style Over Quantity
Purchase Price: $99.00
If you’re looking for a compact and minimalistic urban backpack, look no further than the ALPAKA Metro Backpack. Marketed as a commuter-oriented bag for minimalists, I bought into the clean aesthetics the Australian bagmaker was selling and daily carried the 12L version of their bag for nearly 5 months now. For a backpack that has a vibe that fits perfectly with the overpriced social media-driven marketing of many products nowadays, I surprisingly found the Metro to be great value. With that said, would I buy this bag all over again knowing what I know now carrying it for almost half a year?
12L Capacity
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Let’s get this out of the way, the 12L of this backpack is really tight. Measuring at 16.5”x9.8”x6.1” the pebble-like oval shape of the form factor really limits the things you can squeeze into the bag. Part of what makes this bag look so attractive on the outside is due to the round shape it’s constructed in though so I can’t complain too much about this. While the company says you can fit a 14-inch MacBook Pro into the laptop slot (which you absolutely can), it’s essentially a perfect fit with a thin laptop sleeve wrapped around it that doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room. Speaking of the laptop slot, it’s located inside the main zippered compartment of the bag. There’s no concealed back zipper slot or any special storage space dedicated to a laptop on this design. Compact bags usually are designed this way and that means the laptop will take a decent chunk of the interior storage that the Metro offers. Fortunately it does a great job of tucking it away using a terrifically stitched honeycomb mesh pocket that has the inner lined with a soft touch material to protect the computing device.
Build Quality
I’m very pleased with all of the interior materials used by ALPAKA for the Metro. Everything is just well put together and exudes a high level of quality even if the materials themselves don’t always feel premium. For example, the brand ALPAKA uses a recycled fabric they call AXOFLUX that is weatherproof and PFAS-free. No chemicals that risk human and environmental health. That sounds great on paper, but the 300D level of AXOFLUX used on the Metro actually does a pretty decent job of enduring the elements. Water isn’t absorbed onto the outer material and is easily able to be wiped off the exterior surface. It also has held up rather well from scratches that you may encounter scraping against a door or shelf while out somewhere. While the black colorway I sport does pick up white markings during everyday use, it does clean off pretty easily. I’d say the durability of the Metro is on par with some of the more premium popular backpack brands on the market.
Storage Zones
For storage in the main compartment, Alpaka has a grand total of 6 pockets to organize all of your goods. There are pouches sized for laptop power bricks, as well as small notebooks and water bottles. A zippered mesh compartment is also located in the main area that can comfortably house headphones and smaller objects in place. All in all I did find the compartments to be adequate in housing modern tech accessories while keeping everything neat and organized.
Aside from the main storage, there’s one more storage area that’s accessible for users to quickly pull items they may use more frequently. This vertical access pocket has two pouches that’s wide enough to house a couple of small gaming handhelds. It’s an interesting proportion because it’s too narrow for a tablet, but a little too much space for a smartphone to slot in here. I bring this up because gravity will come into play with these pouches as since they are vertical access oriented, that means the items will shift to the down and right towards the zipper when in transit. I haven’t had anything fall out when unzipping the bag in its normal position thanks to a slight additional residue material past the receiving zipper line that acts as a buffer or lip for items. Still, items that don’t occupy all of the real estate on these pouches will move around when worn. The Metro really wants you to open this storage area slung sideways over your shoulder.
A Much Bigger Brother
ALPAKA sells a Metro Pro version that has a 24L capacity
ALPAKA also slots in two pen holders in between the pouches in this vertical access pocket. They are really deep. A regular pen without a pocket clip will sink past the surface and you’ll have to push it out through the material on the bottom side. This makes carrying EDC compact pens a bit troublesome to pull out quickly at times. It’s not a big deal, but it is kind of interesting to consider why they would have such deep pen slots.
This wouldn’t be an EDC urban bag if it didn’t have a key clip somewhere on the bag. This is also located in the vertical access pocket and while the strap isn’t retractable, it gives wearer’s a decent amount of length when pulling this out. The strap is sewn near the bottom of the bag and requires the zipper to be fully open to access this. I would have preferred it to be at the top part of this compartment as people pulling their keys out to either unlock a car, or tap their badge onto a scanner usually want to push this action through quickly and move on. If the strap is near the top of the bag, the wearer won’t need to open the zipper all the way down and risk items stored in this area dislodging and falling out of the bag. With that said, I really like the magnet mechanism ALPAKA chose to implement for this key clip. The actual clip itself is capable of magnetically disconnecting from the strap. That means it's basically a key chain that you can keep in your pocket if needed and magnetically clip back onto the backpack for safekeeping after. It’s a strong connection that just works well. I just wish I could slip it out without needing to unzip the entire pocket to pull it out.
Almost Perfect
My other pet peeve is the absence of a bottle pocket on the outside of the bag. I get that it’s a compact design and that one of the pouches inside the main compartment can technically hold the bottle, but I surmise a lot of people have similar daily uses like me where it's a slight nuisance to have to pull the backpack around your body and open it up to take a sip of water before resealing the zipper to encase the bottle back in. A little thing like that even comes up when I get out of my car and I pause to open the backpack up to throw the bottle inside before getting out. On bags with a pouch that’s instantly accessible, storing the bottle becomes a second nature motion that can be accomplished seamlessly.
The 12L capacity can only hold so much
Finally, let’s talk about comfort. No matter how good a bag is, you won’t wear it if it isn’t comfortable that you can lug around all day. The straps are pretty comfortable on my shoulders. The padding isn’t overly padded, but it does have enough cushioning to ease off some of the carrying weight especially around the upper part. The same can be said about the back support of the Metro as the backpack gives enough hard padding to support my back. Since the bag is so compact, it’s inevitable that the weight will centralize around a certain part of the wearer’s back depending on how they adjust their straps. It certainly isn’t an uncomfortable carry, but I’ve worn bags that made me feel less strained after a long day.
The ALPAKA Metro Backpack is a really strong contender in the compact bag space. This thing is built with quality behind it and everything from the handle to the stitching of every compartment feels like it was worth the money I paid for it. It doesn’t truly have any shortcomings of notability– just operational efficiency choices that could have been better suited for wearers. Still, if you’re looking for a bag with a small footprint, that also looks as nice as it was put together, the ALPAKA Metro is a terrific option.
Alex
With nearly a decade under his belt running his video production team, and countless hours traveling the country to report on pop culture events during his tenure as a contributor for AXS Examiner, Alex has relied on a lot of gadgets over the years. That still hasn’t satiated his need to get his hands on the newest and greatest the world has to offer!