Able Carry Daily Plus Review

We like the Able Carry Daily Backpack for its comfortable harness system and capacity to handle your everyday carry gear. Built with the modern worker in mind, Able Carry includes just enough organization to make it easy to find your gear in a package you won’t mind toting on your commute or as a personal item bag on the plane.

So, naturally, we think it’s interesting when brands add a “plus” to the name of a bag we already like. What sets this apart from the original? Looking at the two backpacks side by side, it’s not easy to spot much difference beyond the X-Pac material, although that is also a fabric option for the Daily Backpack. We’ve even got the same colorway!
Luckily, we’re here to tell you that Able Carry has made several additions to this new iteration, some significant and some not. Is your interest piqued now, too? Great! Let’s take a closer look.

External Components

The Able Carry Daily Plus sample we’re testing uses durable and waterproof X-Pac Fabric as the primary material. That is not to say the bag is waterproof, just the fabric, so don’t go full turtle power and take this bad boy swimming. If you’re rocking the Olive colorway like we are, you may feel like you’ve gained a turtle shell with this egg-shaped backpack, though it’s more of a suggestion than an outright shout, and it’s mitigated if you opt for the Black colorway instead. Since you’re not a reptile, you may also want to head for cover if you’re caught in a torrential downpour or pick up the optional Rain Cover, though the fabric and AquaGuard zipper should be able to withstand light to steady rain.

Speaking of zippers, Able Carry uses YKK zippers throughout the Daily Carry Plus. The front two compartments sport reverse coil zippers concealed with fabric welts for a sleek look and water resistance, and the main compartment zipper is an AquaGuard style to repel water. They all include Hypalon loops for easy grabbing, which we appreciate.

One carry handle on the bag is lightly padded and large enough that your fingers aren’t crowded if you need to carry it this way for an extended period. The satiny webbing continues down the bag with a series of loops that angle toward the back panel. A similar parade of webbing loops run from where the shoulder straps end, under the bottom of the bag, to peek out the front and return on the other side.

While all these loops provide various attachment points where you can clip a carabiner to carry hand sanitizer, a packable travel jacket, or towel, they also provide structure to the bag, preventing it from sagging down from the weight of the contents.

Another arrow-like set of loops juts out from the left side of the bag. It includes a Hypalon tab with the Able Carry brand name on it. The design isn’t just for looks; the loops accept a U-lock, so you can secure your bag to a fixed object if needed. There’s a second Hypalon loop with the brand name on the right shoulder strap, and that’s about it for branding.

The Daily Plus has nicely padded shoulder straps that are quite comfortable thanks to the closed-cell foam. They have mesh on the undersides for breathability, and the straps end at the same satiny webbing as the carry handle. They’re adjustable with Duraflex slides and include elastic strap keepers—yay!

The shoulder straps also include a sternum strap. It’s moveable and removable, which is good since you may not need it if you’re not carrying a lot. A fabric welt conceals the webbing to attach it on each side. Underneath are a series of loops where you can connect each side of the strap to find the perfect position for you. The right-hand side includes a longer strap with an elastic keeper, and the one on the left is shorter yet includes a piece of elastic running underneath the webbing for a more flexible fit. It attaches via a magnetic Woojin buckle, which works most of the time, yet occasionally pops apart.

The back panel includes the same padded mesh as the shoulder straps. There are five patches of padding with an air channel in the middle for maximum breathability. The panel shapes also give off turtle vibes, though it’s so comfortable you should embrace your inner reptile and enjoy it.

The frame sheet gives the back some structure, though you can remove it if it’s too much for you. We think the flexible foam hits the right note, so we leave it in.

Fit Notes

As with the Able Carry Daily Backpack, we like the look of the Daily Plus. From the fabric welts to the webbing loops, it has a sleek, polished look we appreciate. Depending on which colorway you go for, it can blend in various places other than a five-star restaurant. Although, what travel daypack is swanky enough for that?

This bag lets us feel like we can conquer anything, even if it’s only the airport. It’s a great daily driver and travel companion. We’re testing it on a multiday, multistate road trip, and it passed with flying colors as a way to bring along all of our work and entertainment.

Different testers find the fit easy to adjust and comfortable, so we’re fairly confident that most people will find the Able Carry Daily Plus a comfortable carry.

What can you carry? Glad you asked! Let’s jump inside.

Inside The Pack

Inside the pack is where the “plus” in Daily Plus comes into play. While the Daily Backpack has two compartments—a front section and a main area—the Daily Plus has three!

Let’s start with the front compartment, which opens with a vertical zipper. Instead of simply open space, the Daily Plus has two pockets for additional organization. The top one zips up, and the bottom is a stretchy slip pocket. Both open from the side—the right side along the zipper, to be exact. It’s nice to contain essential tiny gear in the zipper pocket, and we’ve been tossing AirPods in the stretchy pouch. It’s so large that they don’t fall out when you unzip the front compartment.

There’s also a key clip, though it’s on a thinner and longer leash than the Daily Backpack. This clip is a gatekeeper style, and it works well for holding any key you want to clip. There’s extra space not taken up by pockets here, so go ahead and toss in a small toiletry pouch or anything else you want to access without going into the main compartment.

In addition to the front pocket, there’s now an internal water bottle pocket. A second vertical zipper on the right side, hidden behind a second fabric welt, opens to reveal a large travel water bottle pocket that easily swallows a Hydro Flask Bottle 21 ounce and has room for a larger bottle.

While it shares space with the main compartment, it’s still easy to wedge in a bottle up to 1L in size when the bag is packed full of books and snacks for a road trip. The ability to zip it closed means you don’t have to worry about losing it on the Millenium Falcon after crashing it on a “smuggler’s run” or, you know, on a turbulent flight on a traditional airplane. Of course, you should use a water bottle you trust not to leak here. We poured some water in to test it (of course we did!), and while it mostly stays put in the bottle pocket, some moisture can seep through the seams if you don’t notice it right away and clean it up quickly.

Lastly, turn the bag around to the back panel, and you’ll find a quick access zip pocket at the top that’s great for holding your phone and wallet. It’s deep enough to carry what you need, yet not so large that your hand gets stuck trying to pull things out. We like that it’s secure against our backs to prevent theft—at least while wearing the backpack—and this one also has a top fabric flap concealing it.

Now to the main event, the main compartment! It opens in a horseshoe shape around the top of the bag with an AquaGuard zipper. We like the added protection since this is the only zipper on the bag not protected by a fabric welt.

There is a hidden horizontal zipper at the top of the back panel. You can open it to remove the frame sheet if you are inclined, though there’s another reason to unzip this pocket—a hidden pocket secured by hook-and-loop fastener. Use it to stash extra cash, cards you’re not using, or an AirTag or other tracker. It’s not large enough for a passport, though there are plenty of additional pockets where you could pack that.

Below this pocket is a firmly-padded laptop sleeve that fits a 16-inch Macbook Pro. It has a nice false bottom, although we never recommend tossing your backpack around when carrying expensive equipment!

Two stretchy pockets in front of the laptop sleeve each have a pen slot on both sides. That, conceivably, means you can carry four pens, pencils, or other similarly shaped gear, though they stack on top of each other, so it can be tricky to insert one behind another. The slots are pretty long to accommodate an Apple Pencil or other stylus, so be sure to hook any cap over the edge to keep it from sliding down. If it does, no worries; it’s easy enough to push up from the bottom.

The pocket adjacent to the laptop sleeve is taller, so you can slide an e-reader or tablet here. A keyboard also fits, though it sticks out the top. The front pocket is shorter, so this is a good spot for bulky wall chargers, USB hubs, or battery banks.

Or you can toss them in a large zipper pocket along the front panel. This pocket runs adjacent to the exterior of the internal bottle pocket, and it’s a great place for snacks, toiletries, or other gear you haven’t found a spot for elsewhere.

Even when you load up all this organization, there’s still plenty of space for additional gear, whether books and a Nintendo Switch for entertainment, the tech pouches you need throughout the day as a digital nomad, or a couple of packing cubes for an overnight trip.

The organizational features help the Able Carry Daily Plus adapt to what you need, so you can use your everyday carry bag when traveling. With durable materials and a lifetime guarantee on workmanship, we think you’ll be happy to do so.