When I own a MacBook Air, this leather bag will be its home

Having the sexiest laptop in your possession, it’s only fitting that one get a equally uber-cool bag. And in general, there should be a law against putting a $2000 work of art in a $20 black laptop bag. After looking through hundreds of bags from around the world, I’ve settled on what I believe to be the best mix of form, function, and beauty – “the Orbino Arista featuring handstained mahogany leather”:http://www.orbino.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=257 (pictured at right).

In the resources below I have included links to many of the sites I looked through in the quest to find my ultimate MacBook Air laptop bag. They should give you a good starting point for finding the bag that you love most.

It should go without saying, but I will anyway – as with anything fashionable, women have a much larger selection of cool, stylish and funky MacBook Air cases than men.

Here are some typical, safe, laptop bag alternatives if fashion isn’t a concern: “uggghh”:http://www.buy.com/prod/case-logic-15-4-slimline-laptop-case-nylon-black-case-logic-15-4/q/loc/16234/202778691.html, “‘khaki pants and sneakers'”:http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?type=product&id=1218011398693, “death by extreme black-neoprene boredom”:http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=564380.

h3. Resources

[updated 2009.03.19] – added Kenakai.com to the list

h4. “Orbino.com”:http://www.orbino.com/ – look no further than Orbino for stunning leather cases for iPods, laptops, handbags, etc.

• “Arista landing page”:http://www.orbino.com/store/index.php?cPath=30_128

h4. “kolobags.com”:http://www.kolobags.com/home.php?cat=36 has an incredible selection of men’s laptop bags.

• “knomo by kolobag”:http://www.kolobags.com/product.php?productid=918 is my second favorite. It’s a very stylish choice, though not sized especially for the Air.

• “knomo picture – tan”:http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/knomo-bungo-oil-tan

h4. “Waterfield Bags”:http://www.sfbags.com/ has a large selection of different styles, all look very high quality.

• “Waterfield HardCase”:http://www.sfbags.com/products/hardcase/hardcase.htm

• “Waterfield HardCase review”:http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1381

• “Waterfield Vertigo”:http://www.sfbags.com/products/vertigo/vertigo.htm

• “Waterfield SleeveCase review”:http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1280

h4. “Tom Bihn”:http://www.tombihn.com/page/001/CTGY/MACBOOKAIR has a small selection of bags for the Air, most are technically complex.

• “Ristretto Messenger is a fav”:http://www.tombihn.com/page/001/PROD/MACBOOKAIR/TB0223

h4. “Built NY”:http://www.builtny.com/showPage.php?pageID=1518 has some fun cases fashioned from neoprene, if you’re into that sort of thing.

h4. “MacCase.com”:http://mac-case.com/MacCase13.html carries a whole bunch of stylish cases for the Air.

h4. “Mobile Edge”:http://www.mobileedge.com/ offers a huge selection of well made bags, Unfortunately the ones for men are more on the safe side of fashion, though the women’s cases are cute.

• “Mobile Edge men’s laptop bags”:http://www.mobileedge.com/mens-laptop-bags

• “Mobile Edge Paris bag”:http://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Edge-Paris-Backpack-Microfiber/dp/B000B54H6C/ – very European

h4. “LaptopStuff”:http://www.laptopstuff.co.uk/ has a nice selection of funky and hip bags and cases.

h4. “Case-Mate.com”:http://www.case-mate.com/laptop/MacBook-Air-Cases offers mainly sleeves for the Air.

h4. “Brenthaven”:http://www.brenthaven.com/ has some interesting styles, including several which are airport-scanner friendly.

h4. “Timbuk2”:http://www.timbuk2.com/tb2/products/laptop/ offers a solid line of tough, durable bags and cases though mostly of the messenger-style. If you really want something special, try their Build Your Own Bag wizard.

h4. “IGIO.com”:http://www.ogio.com/products.php?category=30 leans towards the boring side, but their Brain Bucket Mini (in color Wasabe) is ok.

• “Brain Bucket mini in multicolors”:http://www.amazon.com/Ogio-OGIO-Brain-Bucket-Mini/dp/B000FHE9K0

h4. Only sleeves

• “Kenakai.com”:http://www.kenakai.com/ has some fabulously rich sleeves for MacBooks, unfortunately not MacBook Air specific.

• “Wrappers”:http://wrappers.typepad.com/ has fun sleeves for different things.

h4. Aggregators, blogs, etc.

• “BizRate.com”:http://www.bizrate.com/computer-bags/ is a store aggregator. They list products from elsewhere.

• “squidoo.com computerbags”:http://www.squidoo.com/computerbags is small page with important goodies (for women).

• “Six Cool Sleeves for the MacBook Air”:http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/hughes/22543