Bellroy Melbourne Backpack Compact Review: Can It Daily?

POSITIVES

✓ Compact Design

Has a minimalistic modern look

✓ Fabric

Made from premium water-resistant material

✓ Foldover Entry

Quick to get into

NEGATIVES

✘ Short Shoulder Straps

Rides a bit up on shoulders

✘ Water Bottle Pocket

Narrow and difficult to keep reusable bottles in place

✘ No theft prevention

MagSnap is easy to open discreetly

Purchase Price: $159

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Wanting Something Smaller

I’ve always wanted a Bellroy backpack. They’ve done a good job over the years of building their brand image up through Amazon into one of a premium product that is desirable for working adults who also want something fashionable in their arsenal. I’ve been looking for the perfect daily backpack for years now and when I purchased the Melbourne pack, I found out how very quickly just how close it is to perfection. This is a sleek and compact backpack that I love to use, but also found myself a bit frustrated with.

For a 12L backpack, it’s clear as day that the Melbourne lives up to its namesake as a compact backpack. Made with a recycled woven fabric that is water resistant, the backpack barely reaches the midpoint of my spine. I love the fabric they decided to go with on this bag. When I think of a Bellroy product, whether it be a wallet or a bag, I associate the brand with a premium fabric material. There’s a distinct quality when you feel the nylon with your fingertips. I’ve worn this bag everyday for nearly a year now and it’s held up tremendously well. Dirt and dust don’t stick on here much and it cleans up easily with a wet cloth. The build material and the fabric are probably the best traits of this product for sure. 

The straps do ride a bit high up for a tighter relationship to the body. You’ll definitely feel as if the backpack was an extension of your body frame more so than bigger and looser packs. I have to loosen one strap every time I put on this backpack in order to get my arm through. You could say that the bag is better suited for smaller bodied people, but I do find benefits both from a structural point and a fashion one.  

Packed To The Brim

That’s one major tradeoff for a 12L bag like this as by nature, it’s limited with its storage. However, no matter how much you put into it, it won’t be too heavy on your back. 

There’s not a whole lot of room inside to be able to not pack the Melbourne to the brim, thus making it rather light to wear for prolonged periods of time. I’ve tried maxing out the bag’s limits and at its most bloated, it still is comfortable to wear. That’s one major tradeoff for a 12L bag like this as by nature, it’s limited with its storage. However, no matter how much you put into it, it won’t be too heavy on your back. 

Inside of the Melbourne pack, there’s only two open pockets: one for a laptop, and one for a tablet. As a 12L backpack, the largest laptop I was able to slide in a 13-inch Macbook Pro. It’s a tight fit with a sleeve, but that is absolutely the max size a laptop can be carried in the pouch of this backpack. Tablets with under a 10-inch display should be able to store inside the second pouch comfortably. I’ve been able to add in my 11-inch iPad Pro with the Apple keyboard case into the pouch, albeit a pretty snug fit. On the opposite side, Bellroy gives us a small zippered pocket. I store my Xiaomi Redmi Buds 3 Pro and miscellaneous small items here. I can get about a full finger’s reach of length into the this pocket.      

MagSnap

With a foldover entry connected with a magnetic fastener Bellroy calls MagSnap, the Melbourne has a distinct premium design behind its operation. The MagSnap has a pretty good magnetic pull between the holes and the anchors. It’s strong enough to snap together when within range, but not difficult at all to pull apart. People looking for security should immediately look elsewhere as this is one of the easiest foldover tops to open discreetly. Someone walking behind you can easily open the bag without you knowing. This is further hampered by the complimentary zipper on the left side. This zipper expands the foldover top so that the user has a bigger opening to reach into in order to grab what they need more conveniently. Someone can easily pull that zipper down from behind the wearer and slide a hand inside without being detected as well.   

As much as I love the design of the Melbourne to be an urban pack, I do think it is better suited for suburban use. For example, I commute in a car to my office. My bag is really just for storing my papers and tech to and from the house and office. I do travel and wear a backpack in a city environment and I typically wear something like the Boundary Supply Errant Pack which does a terrific job of hiding zippers as well as providing hidden storage compartments. These are completely different bags and my use cases reflect that. I think Bellroy’s strength is that it has a terrific aesthetic that I feel confident walking into a meeting with business attire on.

Frustrations

I found myself ultimately frustrated with the functionality of the bag in everyday use. I struggle to keep a 21 fl oz water bottle restrained inside the bottle pouch. It is extremely narrow for anything other than a plastic bottle, which isn’t ideal for most situations. It’s hard to store much of anything in that pouch as it is also really shallow in depth. The contents inside the bag will push into the amount of space the pouch has to hold the bottle. I’ve had my bottles fall out of the pouch and get dinged while walking because it’s just so shallow.

I also find the quick access pocket on the left side of the bag to be ridiculously tight and a bit difficult to get into while wearing. This is definitely one of those bags that you have to sling around forward to access this quick pouch. Due to the compact size of the backpack, I could not for the life of me reach it with my opposite hand to unzip and grab what I needed. There’s a tiny two pouch divider in there that I use to separate my keycard with daily useful things like chapsticks and tissues. 

Who Should Buy This?

I do like the Melbourne quite a lot. Its main selling point is that the bag has a remarkably simple yet stylish appearance. I think the rolltop MagSnap design gives off a bit of a Peak Design Everyday-lite vibe. I actually like that styling a lot. I just don’t think that the bag functionally handles the most basic of tasks efficiently enough to be useful to most people. I’ve cut down on my everyday carry materials to the bare essentials which consists of my laptop, a tablet, and a Peak Design Field Pouch that carries my cables and charging bricks. That’s basically it.

Even with that light load, I still find it a bit cumbersome to store and retrieve things from the Melbourne. It actually might be too compact. That’s ironic because I really love the size and look from the outside of the bag while carrying it. I guess compromises will always destroy the ideology of compact products at the end of the day. This was so close to being the perfect minimalist urban backpack, but fundamental design flaws ultimately makes this a niche buy.   

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