With the Brain Cell inside, fits two large textbooks and a paperback with no stuffing. Probably one more paperback if I stretched it a bit. The weight of the bag in this setup is 22.6 pounds. This is more than I would almost ever carry… usually one book and the laptop.

With that stuff inside, you can easily slip a couple spiral notebooks in the back as well.

It’s pretty fat with all that stuff in it. Ruler to help estimate height / depth.

Want to travel lighter? Just take out the Brain Cell. Whoa, look at all that space! These are the same books that were in the bag in the first picture.

Now that there’s no Brain Cell, I can fit a whopping four giant textbooks in there (I’m a microbiology major; all our books are like that.) Still kept the paperback around, and threw in a 1100-page French dictionary (my minor is in French).

It’s fat with 4 books too. Weighs way more than I’d want to carry around for a day. The moral is that you will get tired long before the bag does!

Here’s a shot showing how much bulk a Brain Cell adds to my laptop (answer: a lot). This is a 14-inch Vostro 1400.

Depth comparison of laptop vs. its Brain Cell. (This is a size 3S Brain Cell, the largest size that would fit in an Ego.)

Obligatory full-frontal shot. The seatbelt buckle has been worth at least double its cost in entertainment value! I just sit there and click it in and out like a happy grinning fool. Downside: it jangles as you walk.

I can fit all the other stuff I would normally take to class in the front, even while it’s artificially loaded with those four giant books: Palm Pilot, TI-89, response "clicker" thing, and some pens. 32-oz Nalgene in the side.