Suitcase Parsing: Smart Baggage Versus Standard Carry-on Baggage
This is holiday travel season, which means we pull out our suitcases and pack up for flight, train, or road trips. Of course, regular luggage gets the job done, but smart luggage can be weighed, skip TSA checkpoints and alert you if it gets lost. I decided to give it a try.
Applicants
This week’s disclosure is going to be a little interesting because it doesn’t compare two specific products, but compares the two product categories based on the features they offer and whether you should invest or jump into those features, plus added complexity. that they represent. Here are our rivals:
- Regular, Regular Luggage : You probably already have a suitcase, or a bag on wheels, or any other piece of luggage that you pack when it’s time to travel and carry it on an airplane, throw it in the back of a car, or ride a wheel. from place to place. The best luggage is well made, affordable because of its durability, and most of us balance cost and quality with how often we actually travel when it comes to deciding how much to spend. Depending on the size and type, you can vary the price, from high-end designer clothing to budget shopping at department stores, but overall, good things do the job, transport your belongings safely, and don’t bankrupt you. process.
- Smart luggage : Smart luggage, like the bags produced by companies such as Bluesmart , Raden , Away and others, usually have several things in common: they all have applications that connect to your luggage via Bluetooth, they all have functions like proximity alarms and distance indicators, all can be weighed, and some can even charge your gadgets or help you stay connected on the go. Raden sent me one of their smart A22 Carry cases , and when I got the opportunity to travel from New York to Miami on a business trip, I decided to take it with me on the trip. My thoughts here will be related specifically to this suitcase, but generalized to a category.
I’ll give you a quick summary: some of the features that smart suitcases offer are actually really useful. The problem is that most smart suitcase companies are doing it right now as part of a brand game, for example, they want to be “Apple of suitcases” or “Uber for luggage,” and they want you to have an idea of the modern sophisticated lifestyle. which is accompanied by the use of their products. This is fine – there is nothing wrong with that – but it is also worth keeping in mind that at the end of the day, the main job of your luggage is to securely hold your belongings as you move from point a to point b. You will need to decide if the features and complexity are worth your price.
Is baggage something that needs to be “destroyed”?
As with many industries that “collapse” in the name of making money by reinventing an existing product, putting “smart” on a label and a chip somewhere inside, you have to ask yourself if the luggage really needs to be flipped and improved. A good, quality suitcase or carry bag can hold anywhere from a few days to two weeks of clothes right under the seat in front of you, and you can easily find them. We even shared some advice from the movers on how to buy the best luggage , and to be honest, none of your favorite rolling luggage options are smart ones. Likewise, pilots and flight attendants don’t buy these things. So who is it specifically for?
For many of us, including frequent and frequent travelers, the added complexity – and added value – of smart suitcases just doesn’t make sense. If you never thought you needed a suitcase as a charging station, or to weigh yourself up and alert you if you have exceeded your airline’s carry-on luggage limit, or even notify you when it gets too far away from you for comfort, then you probably wo n’t need a smart suitcase.
However, if any of this made you raise an eyebrow and think, “Yeah, that might be good,” then read on. Some of them can come in handy even if you don’t expect them.
Smart luggage can offer useful features at a premium price
Most smart luggage options come in both checked and carry-on baggage, and have three important features that make them noteworthy:
- TSA Approved Batteries to Charge Your Devices : Almost every smart luggage option I’ve looked at, including the Raden I’ve traveled with, has the ability to charge your devices on the go, which is especially useful when you’re in a hurry from the airport. to Uber or between airport gates because your flight has changed. The best ones charge by inserting a charging cable into your bag (Raden has a pair of USB ports next to the handle for this and even includes a cable) or let you remove the battery completely and carry it with you while your bag is in your hotel room or sitting in compartment above you during your flight. The removable nature is also useful because even though all of these companies have TSA approved batteries, bags and locks, individual reviewers might be curious about what they are looking at inside your bag.
- Complementary app for flight information, proximity and more : Not all manufacturers include this, but the Raden I tested had a companion app where you could add flight information, track gate and departure times, view times TSA expectations. through and even find out the weather at the destination airport. Likewise, the same app would tell me how far away the bag was at all times, and even gave me a general direction via Bluetooth, which was marginally helpful. If someone steals my bag, I probably won’t be using Bluetooth to track it down, and if it’s carry-on, I must keep it in plain sight at all times. If it is checked baggage, it will be in the hold below me, which I believe will be useful if you are waiting in line to receive baggage or are afraid that your bag will not make it to your flight.
- Weight Sensors : While not all smart suitcase manufacturers include this, they should. The bag I was traveling with had a weight sensor, which was not particularly useful since I was flying with carry-on luggage. Let the sensor calibrate itself while the bag is empty, then lift the bag when it is full and the sensor will tell you how much it weighs. This is especially useful if you are checking a bag and you are concerned that this is more than your airline’s weight limit. I would definitely like to see more than just “smart” baggage.
All of these features were fun to use and surprisingly useful. I sat at the gate and charged my phone straight from my bag and didn’t have to use the battery that was in my backpack at all. It’s a minor convenience, of course, since I had an external package anyway, but it’s nice to just plug the cable into my phone while I wait, without having to dig another thing out while I waited for my flight.
The companion app was fun, but obviously not a necessity – in the past, we were all perfectly able to travel without apps for our bags, and while Raden’s app tries to be useful and adds some really useful features, it isn’t. everything that I could not find elsewhere or without which I lived. However, the weight sensor has proven to be surprisingly useful. Since I was carrying my bag I didn’t need to weigh, but if I was flying overseas it would be great to know how heavy my things were before I had to put them on the scales at the airport and have someone ask me to rebalance my bags.
Other manufacturers are either already or are planning to add features such as a tiny screen to replace airline barcode tags, a proximity alarm that sounds when you press a button on the screen in case you get lost or can’t see your bag at a pick-up point luggage. , or bags with locks that can only be unlocked if someone has the TSA key or you use the app to unlock them. (The latter actually sounds like a bad idea.)
The real bottom line, however, is that all of these features, even the most useful ones, come at extra cost. Depending on the bag, you get hundreds of extra dollars. A regular plain carry-on that will fit on overhead will usually cost around $ 100 or so, depending on the brand and brand. On the other hand, the Raden I was carrying costs closer to $ 300 . The larger version, The Check, costs $ 400 . A set with carry-on baggage (carry-on and overhead size) and check (checked bag size) costs $ 600 . If your jaw just dropped, I can’t blame you.
Traveling with smart luggage has practical advantages, but also disadvantages
So all of these features are useful and interesting, but you also have to consider the real travel experience. Personally, my A22 Carry ride was great. In my bag, my phone was charging while I waited for boarding or waited for Uber to pick me up. While the fact that the app was iOS-only was annoying (Android reportedly would be out by the end of the month), I used my iPad when I wanted to check my bag’s weight, play around with proximity detection, or check the battery level. …
But I ran into one problem that you probably expect: a slightly confusing TSA validator. On the way home, one inspector who had checked my bag through an X-ray machine put it aside for an “additional check.” I waited for this inspection, which consisted of them opening my bag, rubbing a few dabs of test paper around the battery compartment, opening it to see what it really was, and eventually sent me on my way. This could have been my mistake – I had my charging cables tied into tight loops next to the battery (so for an X-ray machine it had to look like a black box with a coiled wire around it) – and no one gave me a solid solution. time about this (the interlocutors who spoke to me were very nice and understanding when I explained that this is just a battery).
Of course, not everyone has had a similar experience. Nutt Haroun wrote a famous article in TheNextWeb about how her smart baggage nearly got her out of flight, or at least almost missed it. I had no desire to repeat this experience, although I used a completely different clever suitcase. In the end, I didn’t have any major problems, but you should know – this is the limit, and although TSA knows about these bags, has approved their design and construction, and should not be surprised when they see them, politics is one thing, people are another working in an endless line of vacationers. Be kind, patient, arrive at the airport early and know your rights .
Verdict: The technology is there, and it is useful, but the price is not for everyone
So where does this leave us? Well, this smart technology is here, and it’s not going anywhere. You certainly don’t have to buy the most up-to-date products like Bluesmart and Raden, but if you love the features these bags have to offer and have the money to spend, then by all means go. for this. Of course, you can opt for some of these features by adding a Bluetooth tracker like a tile tracker to your bag and an external removable battery to your carry-on, with which you can charge while sitting at the gate. Still, it’s nice to have all of these useful features neatly integrated into a sturdy, well-folded suitcase like the Raden I’ve traveled with.
That said, if you’re not crazy about the price tag, no one can blame you. $ 300 is a lot of money for carry-on luggage, even if it’s a sturdy four-wheeled smart suitcase. I love the Raden, which I’ve tested a lot, but at home I still have a standard carry-on bag that I’ll probably continue to throw in the back of cars and roll around freely without fear of my investment. But the great thing is that almost every company like this launches their expensive, luxury models first, and then they will introduce budget versions in the future, or other manufacturers will introduce more affordable products, perhaps with one or two of them. the best features you can afford. Watch this.
In the meantime, I can happily say that I loved my experience – and I bet you would love it too if you had such an experience. Keep this in mind when shopping for luggage for your next big vacation, but don’t use the word smart as an excuse to increase your budget.