No, it really isn't.
There's a consumable battery in it. Plus you're stuck with the hardware for life. When AirTags 2 with more accurate tracking launch, you're stuck with Targus 1.0 tech.
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Targus Debuts Backpack With Find My Integration
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No, it really isn't.
There's a consumable battery in it. Plus you're stuck with the hardware for life. When AirTags 2 with more accurate tracking launch, you're stuck with Targus 1.0 tech.
This ain't a Balenciaga or Burberry bag. 😄
Do you seriously think thieves are going to take time to remove the tracker from a Targus bag? No. They're going to take the notebook computer and anything valuable then dump the bag.
You know what's easier to remove? The Targus bag.
No thief wants to keep a Targus bag for resale on the black market. Standard SOP is to keep the valuables and dump the bag.
Any good thief is going take the contents and ditch the bag. Which they’d do with a regular backpack with an AirTag, without the $150 price tag
You can easily remove. All you need is a paperclip or SIM tool.
The smarter thieves will just remove the coin battery.
Most people who steal backpacks etc, steal it for the contents. They don’t keep the vessel. (Coming from experience with thieves).
And many of those are not allowed on planes. Can you imagine this going through the X-ray?
"What are those wires and electrical components built into a little box in your bag?"
Oh, nothing, it’s just a find my….
"Stand over there please. We need to conduct a further search…"
I am kinda sure that you'll be able to fit in a 16-incher just fine. I used to carry a 2019 16" in a Dell backpack advertised as "up to 15,6" "just fine and there was even some room to spare.
Air Tags are the most useless thing Apple has ever sold. You can't use it to track something that is stolen because it will alert the thief that there is a tracker on board. And if you walk 20 feet away from your car that you left your backpack in, it will remind you you left it behind every third Thursday when there is a aurora borealis at 12:00 noon, or it will do it every second all day long. Take your pick. So what do these things really do? Nothing useful at all.
I prefer quality over crap. My built-to-order Timbuk2 backpack cost $125, has a lifetime warranty, and is still going strong and looking almost brand-new 15 years after I purchased it. I never go on a trip without it, have stuffed it to the seams, and subjected it to plenty of situations where a $15-$40 backpack would have fallen apart. I'm confident it will easily last another 20 years.
Having said all of that, I don't want this to read as an endorsement for that Targus bag (I wouldn't buy it), nor for the current Timbuk2 bags (as I haven't bought one in 15 years, and therefore have no idea of the company is still making quality products).
I'm a bag addict, so here are some bag makers and their main benefits–IMHO– based on experience...
- Built-to-last forever + generous warranty + great customer service: Red Oxx
- Anti-theft features: Pacsafe
- Form over function: Côte & Ciel (trivia: founders designed the iPod sock and made some Apple Store exclusive MacBook backpacks in the past)
- Function over form + lifetime warranty: Outdoor Research
- Organization + generous warranty: Timbuk2 (plus they offer a cool customization program for several bags)
- Outdoors-centered design + reliability + lifetime warranty: Deuter
- Organization + innovative features: Mystery Ranch
- Blend of interesting colors/materials and functionality + lifetime warranty: Topo Designs
That's a horses for courses thing.
Even if the cheap backpack you buy is a quarter of this price, you have three new opportunities before purchase becomes revenue neutral to change your mind about size, colour, form factor, brand facilites or anything else you can think of.
You can repurpose/sell of course but if your 13" Targus is what you have when you upgrade to a 16" MacBook you're stuffed.
Yes, from a pure finance perspective. But many people derive value from what is less likely to happen with a high quality backpack, duffel, or suitcase...such as blown out zippers or broken buckles making a bag unusable during a trip, poorly sewn seams tearing and dumping your stuff all over an airport security conveyor belt, discomfort from cheaply made straps and suspensions, and adding to the textile waste problem prematurely. And personally, I don't want one of my "new opportunities" to happen when I'm on the road. When traveling, time is at a premium.
As something of a backpack aficionado, I can give you my point of view on this.
Most of the backpacks that sell for under $60 are usually not that great. They don't hold shape, they often don't have double stitching (meaning they will break sooner), aren't rain proof, and offer poor organization options for the stuff you lug around.
Backpacks in the $100-200 price range are usually (but not always) significantly better in these aspects.
Personally, having Find My integration is a nice to have but not that big of a deal, but it does mean that you save $29 because an AirTag is essentially already included, so you don't have to buy one extra.