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The big debate between my friend and I when we ordered our new laptops was - what brand, and how big? It's funny, we both bought them around the same time, but I ordered mine online and she purchased hers directly from a store. We both ended up with a 17" laptop computer with most of the same options included.

Even though I bought the laptop with the idea of taking it with me when I traveled, the one thing I did not consider was buying a special laptop bag. I figured I would just put it in my old college book bag and call it good. But she had a really cool laptop bag, and I just couldn't get it out of my mind.

On my first trip away with my new computer, I discovered a few flaws in using a regular book bag to carry the laptop around. This made me want a new women's laptop bag even more!

First - it was not protected very well. I had to make my own laptop bag cushions by putting my extra clothes around the laptop because I didn't want my water bottle and other items to scratch it - or worse yet, leak on it. This made it a little hard to take the laptop in and out of the bag when I wanted to use it on the plane. At that point, I thought maybe a laptop sleeve would come in handy.

I soon found out that even though my friend had a cool laptop bag, it was also a lot more functional than my regular book backpack. Of course, I had to do a lot of research before I settled on my first laptop bag, and since I wanted a really cool laptop bag there were a lot of things to consider. If you're looking for a laptop bag - in particular a women's laptop bag, here are a few things to keep in mind when selecting and purchasing your cool laptop bag online:

** What to consider first - As you start to look through the available womens laptop bags, you will find that there are a lot of choices. So you need to first decide what kind of womens laptop bag you want. This will make your shopping go much faster.

Decide if you want a backpack type bag, or a messenger laptop bag (which usually means it is carried on the shoulder). Do you need a rolling laptop bag? - If you have a 17' laptop like mine, which weighs 9.3 pounds, it might get a little heavy in a backpack. Depending on your strength and ability to carry that load on your back, you might want to consider a rolling laptop bag.

**Soft sided laptop bags vs. hard sided laptop cases: There are a lot of cool women's laptop bags out there, but if you're going to use your laptop bag to carry your laptop to meetings, you might want to keep the tone down a little, and consider a hard sided case. This will make it look more like a briefcase and help you stand out as being more professional.

**It's Important to Consider Total Weight: Be aware of how much the bag weighs when empty, then add on the weight of your laptop. My laptop is over 9 pounds, which is why I reconsidered buying the women's laptop bag that weighed just under 3 pounds. That's a lot of extra weight to carry around for just a laptop carry bag. For me, the better option was the lightweight womens laptop bag, over the nicer leather bag. It just made more sense. I would basically be using it to tote my stuff from the airport to the hotel room. I'm happy to report that my new lightweight pink laptop bag has enough protection for my laptop, as well as enough space for my accessories, extra clothes a water bottle and a few important snack items. It's nice to stand out from the crowd with a cool womens laptop bag!