ROG Ranger BP2701 Gaming Backpack Review: A Thoughtful Gaming Backpack

A backpack is a crucial part of travelling and it could be a short journey or a long one. There aren’t many good ones to pick one for gamers to carry their gaming gear and we have rarely seen a good one that lets you do that. ROG is once again venturing into the backpack arena and this year they announced two backpacks for different types of users. But they caught our attention specifically with one. In this ROG Ranger BP2701 Gaming Backpack Review, we are going to share if this is the gear to look out for.

ROG Ranger BP2701 Gaming Backpack

Design and Build

Personally, I have seen some over the top gaming backpacks that only serve as an accessory rather than a functional backpack. The ROG Ranger BP2701 Gaming Backpack isn’t one of them. Not only does the bag keeps the design as bespoke as possible, but it is a lot more functional in many ways than one. In terms of design, it has a nice grey-black colorway going on and it’s shaped in a very cuboidal size, which means its taller and wee bit wider.

While it may seem like the heaviest bag without any things in it, it is surprising that they have kept the weight factor well maintained – light and easy. There are little things about this bag that I deeply appreciate and something I only find in much more expensive bags that does exactly like the ROG Ranger BP2701 Gaming Backpack does.

For one, it has a ROG Reflective area on the front and while it may seem like it’s some aesthetic-thing, in the real world it plays more role than you think. If you plan to wear this bag, and walk on the sidewalk, it acts as a reflection patch for vehicles to know that there is a person walking around. It’s such an underrated safety feature in my opinion as you can only find them in Messenger backpacks.

Secondly, it does come with an extra accessory – and that’s the ROG Keychain, hooked on top of the back, which is neat I’d say. Material wise, you can tell, ASUS didn’t cheap out and only used quality durable material that’s water resistant, so which means your laptop will be safe, even in rain.

Compartments and Accessories

For a bag that looks unified and as if there’s no compartments, it has some strategically placed zippers here and there.

• On the top, the backpack has a quick access compartment where you can store some of your quick access stuff.

• The zip below opens the bigger compartment and instead of having one big space, it’s divided into little compartments within. On one side, you have a netted pouch, and a netted zipper pouch. In the open compartment, it has two bottle holder like spaces. On the back, there’s the slot to keep a laptop, a wider and shorter sleeve and finally three mini pockets.

• On the back of the bag, there is a hidden zipper on the Lumbar padding.

• On the side, it has a quick access zipper to take your laptop out.

• On both the sides, the backpack has two magnetically clipped bottle holders that use Lycra elastic to keep it neat and clean.

Comfort

Comfort is key in a backpack this big, and usually brands tend to cheap out on this, giving the poorest comfort especially in a longer use case scenario. The ROG Ranger BP2701 Gaming Backpack has exceeded my expectations really.

On the back, it has three paddings: two for your shoulder and one for your Lumbar. The other thing you will see is that the straps of the bags are well padded, but this can be a bit subjective as it’s thin and some may like it to be a little wider. Finally, the straps have a chest clip to put the bag in place.

What can it fit?

Now, from our experience of carrying this bag pretty much everywhere, I have managed to lug quite a number of things inside of it without maxing the stress limit. The laptop compartment either holds my ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED or the ROG Strix Scar (which is a review in progress).

Secondly, the little compartment in the front holds my planner and notebook. Thirdly, the mini compartment holds my portable SSD and some other miscellaneous stuff. In the big compartment, you could put a keyboard, headset, and mouse and all that but in my case, I have my camera gear, headphones, my tech kit which has adapter, cables, power bank and sometimes an extra review sample or two for us to do some outdoor shoot. Finally, the bottle-holder-like-compartment is convenient to store things like tote bag and the netted pouch holds the laptop charger, the zipped pouch holds my Walkman.

The quick access compartment that’s hidden within the lumbar support is a genius spot to hold my wallet as it’s easy to access and secure enough to stay inside very well. The one on the top, given that we are slowly moving into an endemic phase, it still holds my business cards, some mask, hand wash and sanitizers, UV protection and so on.

Day-to-day Experience

Just like how I mentioned, the day-to-day experience with the ROG Ranger BP2701 Gaming Backpack is impressive. As someone who has a fast-paced lifestyle and I pretty much have to lug my essentials wherever I go to, the bag does hold all of my essentials to be able to pick up work or play from where I left off.

Carrying the bag at its maximum limit is usually a pain to deal with as it tends to stress your shoulder and dig in. In this case, the strap didn’t lump up in any way nor dig into the shoulder. Tastefully done design. The back support puts the bag in place and when you do move around, it feels like you are one with the bag rather than being an accessory you need to lug around.

There is one cons with the bag which I wished it were a little different. The Velcro strap that’s attached in the bag to put the laptop in place is too high in place, making it harder to strap. It would have been nice to see the bag strap’s Velcro patch stuck onto the first compartment rather than sticking to the entire row of compartment which can stress the strap.

Conclusion

For a brand that’s popular for their Gaming Machines and everything that revolves around it, their venture into Gaming backpack is an interesting one. Despite just making it for the sake of making one, ROG thoughtfully designed and made the ROG Ranger BP2701 Gaming Backpack. Sure, it isn’t a backpack for everyone but if you love the fast-paced lifestyle, living that Digital Nomad life, well then, the ROG Ranger BP2701 Gaming Backpack is surprisingly a good backpack which personally I will use as my daily driver to replace my Crumpler Backpack.

Can you buy it though?

After a long wait, the bag is finally available for purchase on both Shopee and Lazada – for RM 469. So, act fast, there seems to be limited units.

Click here to purchase on Shopee | Click here to purchase on Lazada

Special thanks to ROG Malaysia for sending us the ROG Ranger BP2701 Gaming Backpack for making this review happen.