I also plan on backpacking for 6 months through Asia and needed a new bag that would be allowed as carry-on because who wants to pay these checked bag fees, especially as a backpacker in South-East Asia where you'll often take the plane. Skip to review or read: Short rant but people in this community are first of all really helpful but I feel as if there's this obsession around minimalism and packing as light as possible but the obsession should be around the adventure you're going on, not the backpack you're taking with you. Yes if you just invested in that separate sold hip belt and then combine it with your branded pouches you could squeeze out some extra space out your backpack but it's not that deep bro. If you really think it's the backpack that prevents you from having your greatest adventure then I have news for you, you'll never be satisfied as your endless search for perfection is what really prevents you from enjoying the moment, nature and in the end be happy. Almost done but one last thing, there's not a lot of reviews that detail long term trips in remote areas, I understand the digital nomads who want space for their tech but you can easily do laundry if you are in a city or touristic place, so yes ,you pack for 3-5 days with your Merino wool and say that you're able to live a whole week out of it but what will your double laptop pocket do for you when you're going for a 15 day trek through Nepal or when you go backpacking in Patagonia, that's what I want to know, can I one bag this. And God bless the privilege called money that people in this community have to be able to look for days which bag suits their travels the most but spending $400 on a bag, trying out 10 different brands, is ridiculous, you could have traveled for a year with the amount you've spend on your "perfect" setup. Review Still like everyone else I went down the rabbit hole for a week, learning about YKK zippers, 1680D Cordura,.... and just couldn't decide which bag to buy, I started of thinking low cost, maybe a TOPO 40l as they're often on sale or even a Osprey farpoint 40l (I live in Europe and Tomtoc only ships to the States), then I started looking at the premium bags like the Tortuga pro 40l, Aer travel pack 3, Peak Design 30l-45l, I think I've scrolled down the packhacker backpack rankings a 100 times but there was something weird about the Eagle Creek 40l. Packhacker only had a review of an old model and I was confused when not finding it on the Eagle Creek site and seeing a different bag being sold under the same name but then I came across your post and understood that it's a newly released model. part 1 Answer from GuardUnlucky122 on reddit.com