Tom Bihn — Trinity Review
Over the years (yes, it’s been several years since we started this blog!), we have reviewed a number of Tom Bihn (TB) bags and consistently see tons of organizational features and top craftsmanship. It’s been a year since the company was sold and the CEO and founder moved on to his next chapter. But we’re happy to see that the quality that TB was known for still remains in place. Today we’re reviewing the Trinity, a shoulder laptop bag and briefcase that also converts to backpack, while still maintaining that level of organization and build quality.
Disclaimer: This bag was provided to us by Tom Bihn as a sample to review. We are grateful for the chance to try out the bag, but as always, our reviews contain our honest opinions based on real usage, including both positives and negatives.
Overview
The Trinity is a shoulder bag first and a backpack second. It comes with a detachable shoulder sling as well as detachable backpack shoulder straps, though you can hide the shoulder straps when not in use without having to detach them. It has 4 main compartments: a clothing compartment, laptop compartment, storage/water bottle compartment, and admin compartment. While the laptop sleeve is a standard U-shaped zipper, the clothing and additional storage compartments are clamshell opening, and the admin compartment is access via a horizontal top-access zipper.
Though the Trinity is listed at 21 L, it packs more like an 18 L bag. The partitions between compartments are padded and take away some internal volume and there is no single space that is large enough to act as a main compartment. TB promotes this bag as a “triple threat of carry-ons” and I would concur that it is a great companion bag for travel. However, it would not be your primary luggage.
If you’re a light packer, you can use this bag for an overnight trip, but it’s probably limited to just one night, e.g., a short business trip. I can comfortably fit everything for work (laptop, charger, notebook, water bottle, mouse, headset, glasses case, and other small items) plus a change of clothes for the office (chinos, shirt, undershirt, socks) and something for sleeping (t-shirt and shorts). I can squeeze my wireless keyboard in there as well, but it’s a bit tight with all the clothes. Unfortunately, there’s no room for shoes.
Overall, the Trinity is excellent for someone in the office and as a work travel companion.
Strengths
- All the organization you’ll need (maybe too much for some people)
- Versatility of different carry options
- Excellent construction
Weaknesses
- Not the most comfortable in backpack configuration
- Hefty price tag ($425)
Organizational Features
One of the key markers of TB bags is the vast amount of organizational features they offer in most of their bags. The Trinity boasts the same.
- Clothing compartment — The compartment along the back panel is empty except for a couple removable compression straps that can be used to keep clothing in place. It’s not very deep so you can’t fit many layers of clothing, but still enough for an overnighter or for the gym.
- Laptop compartment — The next compartment is the laptop sleeve. It’s not padded along the bottom, and contains two large elastic pouches, which you can use as the laptop sleeve. The zipper of this compartment only goes a couple inches down the sides, which I’m not a fan of. I have to pull my laptop (a 14" Thinkpad) out nearly straight up and down to make sure it passes through easily. The sleeve can accommodate up to 16" laptops, so I imagine with a 16" machine, this might become even more of an issue.
- Water bottle compartment — The water bottle holder is internal and oriented such that the bottle is upright if you’re using the shoulder bag or briefcase orientation. If you use it as a backpack, the water bottle will be horizontal, so you have to be certain that it doesn’t leak. One of my biggest wishes would be to have another water bottle holder oriented for the backpack configuration. The bottle holder itself is pretty massive and can fit a 1L Nalgene bottle. But with a bottle that large, you’ll have difficulty closing the zipper if the other compartments are filled. There’s also plenty of space in the compartment outside of the water bottle holder for other items. I can keep my notebook, laptop charger, or glasses cases in there as well.
- Admin compartment — The front-most compartment contains a keychain leash, two pen holders, and two ~4.5 x 4.5 inch pockets. This is where I can stash all my small items, e.g., writing utensils, airpods, lip balm, tissues, wallet, etc.
- Additional front compartments — On both sides of the admin compartment are two additional compartments with vertical zips (when oriented as a briefcase or shoulder bag. These are large and devoid of any additional internal features. They are both the height of the whole bag and one is 6 inches across while the other is 8 inches across. I keep electronics in the larger one like my head sets and wireless mouse, and snacks in the smaller one (granola bar and the obligatory pack of M&Ms). Just note that these compartments don’t have dedicated volume. So if you put bulky items in, they will press against the laptop compartment and admin compartment.
Additional Features
- Detachable shoulder straps — They can be detached on one side and tucked into the back panel of the bag, or completely removed if you know you’re not going to use them. They attach at the top of the backpack via gated rings and at the bottom with side-release buckles. One minor nuisance with the design is that the webbing loop on the backpack straps that attach to the gated rings is not at the very edge of the strap. It’s about an inch in from the edge of the straps. The end of the straps tend to get folded easily so you may need to flatten them out after you put the backpack on.
- O-rings — Like all TB bags, there are plenty of O-rings for additional modularity and attachments. There are 2 in the clothing compartment, 2 in the water bottle compartment, 2 in the admin compartment, and 2 in each of the front vertical compartments. That’s 10 in total.
- Luggage passthrough — Usable only if the bag is oriented in the briefcase or shoulder bag configurations.
- Grab handles — Dual padded grab handles at the top of the bag (when oriented in the briefcase/shoulder bag configuration). While they feel great, they can sometimes get in the way of the laptop compartment’s zippers (but it’s a super minor nuisance). On both sides of the bag are also simpler grab handles made of webbing.
Construction & Comfort
The Trinity is 10.75 x 16 x 11.4 inches when filled (27 x 41 x 29 cm) and 21 L in volume. It, however, does not pack as efficiently as some other bags of a similar volume, and therefore may not feel like you can fit as much, as mentioned at the beginning of this review. After a few weeks of use, I stopped carrying my wireless keyboard because with too many bulky items (I’m already carrying a laptop and water bottle), the bag feels a bit clunky, though as mentioned at the beginning, it CAN all fit. The Trinity comes in at 2.8 lbs, which is not too heavy considering how many partitions it has.
The exterior is 630D high tenacity ballistic nylon with a 2x2 weave. You can read more into what that means in our post on fabrics, here. The interior of the one I have (Burnt Orange exterior) is 210D Cerylon high tenacity ripstop nylon. Some SKUs are 200D Halcyon/ripstop nylon instead. These are good choices for fabrics, as they are a good balance of durable without getting too heavy. The zippers are all YKK with #10 RC water-repellent coil zipper on the main compartments and #8 RC water-repellent coil zippers on the other pockets. The other hardware are Duraflex, Nexus, and Woojin buckles, and all feel nice and sturdy. I have no concerns about the durability of the Trinity.
The back panel and backpack straps have a thin layer of padding. The padding in the straps only go halfway down, though. For people with larger shoulders, the spot where the padding stops may still be on top of your shoulders (or even before they reach the top of your shoulders). So the shoulder strap padding doesn’t really provide any benefit. I understand that the shoulder straps needed reduced padding to make them packable, but I think they cut down a little too much. Maybe padding three-quarters of the way down the shoulder straps would have been just enough. The back panel has no mesh or airflow channels, which isn’t surprising since this is primarily a briefcase / shoulder bag. So, it’s not the most comfortable bag in backpack mode, but it’s not terrible either, considering there isn’t really enough volume for the bag to get super heavy.
The single strap when in shoulder bag mode has a movable padding which uses the same padding. However, since the pad can slide along the shoulder strap, you can ensure that the padding sits on your shoulder. The pad is also lined with rubber on the bottom so that it doesn’t slide around on your shoulder, which is super clutch.
Additional In-Field Usage
Being a bag with a briefcase mode, the Trinity stands upright on its own pretty well. There are times, depending on how you pack it, where it can fall forward, though. So, don’t stand it on the edge of your desk of chair facing outward. Over my 1.5 months of using the Trinity, I learned that the hard way… a few times.
Lastly, there are a lot of zippers on the Trinity (10 on the exterior). With that many metal zippers jingling around, the bag can be pretty noisy. Adding the paracord zipper pulls that TB provides helps a bit, but you can still hear this bag come from far away. So if you’re ever trying to ninja your way into a meeting that you are late to, make sure you hold down the zippers so they don’t give you away (or just snip them off and add pulls directly onto the sliders).
Summary
The Tom Bihn Trinity is a super organized and durable bag. It is ideal for someone who spends a lot of time in the office and wants to bring that level of organization when they travel too. It offers a lot of versatility, as TB bags often do. It’s not ideal for someone who would want to use it as a backpack primarily and a briefcase/shoulder bag secondarily, or for someone who carries a lot of bulky items in their everyday load.
Features: 4 of 5 — While the Trinity has nothing truly innovative, there are plenty of features and those are well-designed.
Organization: 5 of 5 — It’s hard to get more organization that the plethora of pockets and the admin compartment that the Trinity provides.
Construction: 4 of 5 — The craftsmanship of the Trinity feels top notch, as it always does with TB. The fabrics used are a good balance of durability and weight.
Aesthetics: 3 of 5 — TB bags never aim for being the most beautiful thing out there. They aim for function over form. But the Trinity still has a nice simple look that makes it suitable for a professional or casual setting.
Comfort: 2 of 5 — I supposed you can’t really complain about the padding in briefcase or shoulder bag mode, but the padding on the back panel and backpack shoulder straps are lacking.
Life Integration: 4 of 5 — The Trinity is easy to use and once you get used to how you want to organize the bag, you won’t want to change much. The only thing you’ll need to try out a bit is converting between backpack mode and briefcase/shoulder bag mode.
X-factor: 4 of 5 — TB has a strong group of loyal fans and the Trinity did build up a bit of hype with a pre-order.
