Amazon Basics Softside Spinner Suitcase (21 inch) Review

Amazon Basics is a go-to brand for travelers on a budget, and the convenience that comes with it is also a huge merit. What you end up with can be hit or miss, though, since compromising quality is often the key to low prices. And while customer reviews are a helpful tool, we’re here to give you a more in-depth look and hands-on experience.

In this review, we’re taking a look at the Amazon Basics Softside Spinner Suitcase (the 21-inch version). This rolling carry on luggage has four wheels, a telescoping handle, and a fabric exterior—it checks all the fundamental features, so to speak. Coming in at a reasonably tempting $70-or-so price tag, it’s also quite economical. But now, let’s put this bag under our figurative microscope and see how well they’ve assembled those features into a cohesive (or not so cohesive) piece of luggage.

External Components

The main material is a polyester fabric of a non-specific denier. We can hazard a guess based on the product listing saying that the liner is 150-denier, which means that the shell should be of a higher weight. At this point, we would normally say that the shell looks and feels reassuringly robust. However, a close inspection of the seams and corners reveals that the fabric is already showing signs of wear. The weave around the affected areas is puckered and malformed after a short period of use. Regardless of whether this is a result of a manufacturing defect, low-quality materials, or a direct result of our three weeks of testing, it’s not a good sign for this bag’s longevity.

To be clear, the entire bag is still in one piece at the time of writing. At the same time, though, it makes us more conscious whenever we have to slide it around, drop it into a trunk, or accidentally kick it while walking by. Tiny, everyday bumps just mean so much more when you’re starting with a bag already showing signs of wear.

Features are a luxury when you’re at this bag’s price point. That said, we were pleasantly surprised to find three grab handles for us to use. There’s one at the top, one on the right side, and one at the bottom. You shouldn’t take the lattermost for granted, as even more upscale luggage lacks them entirely. These handles are useful for getting the bag in and out of tight spaces (think overhead bins, car trunks, and from underneath seats), and for shuffling the bag across your bed while you’re packing.

Notably missing is a built-in TSA-approved lock, meaning you’ll have to provide your own if you want the bag’s compartment secured. The zippers themselves are unbranded and don’t feel particularly high quality, though they are metal. They work just fine, and none of them have broken during testing.

At the back, you’ll find a built-in slide-out luggage tag. There’s nothing fancy about it, like a QR code people can scan, much less smart tracking features. It’s just a simple paper slip where you write your contact info in case your bag finds its way to a lost and found. Below the tag is a thin strip of plastic furnishing that serves two purposes, whether by design or unintentionally. First, it acts as a kickplate whenever you need to put the bag at an angle before starting to pull. It also acts as a standoff to prevent the fabric itself from scraping when the bag is lying on its back. Either way, it’s still a thin strip of plastic, so we’d go easy on it either way.

There are four independently rotating wheels at the bottom. Each corner only gets one wheel, a departure from the usual paired setups we’ve seen on other luggage. That’s fine, even if it’s a cost-cutting measure. What bothers us more is the noticeable rattle of the wheels when you shake them and the fact that they simply can’t stay straight when you’re pulling the bag. They do that shopping cart quirk where one wheel suddenly spins randomly. Needless to say, it affects how smoothly this bag rolls around.

A third area of clear budget-oriented build quality is the handle. It’s not as beefy as other luggage we’ve tested, being made of a thin metal alloy (we’re guessing aluminum) with a tubular shape. The handle itself is quite plasticky. There is a noticeable amount of play between all of the pieces, so the entire telescoping handle feels very basic, but it’s at least still functional.

Fit Notes

The telescoping handle has two levels of height adjustment. Though full height is a bit too much, it’s perfectly suitable for pulling the bag behind you at an angle. Mind you, regardless of the height adjustment you pick, there’s simply no hiding how wobbly this bag rolls.

As mentioned, the wheels tend to spin randomly, even as we try to pull the bag as straight as possible. Furthermore, even when all four wheels are going in the same direction, there’s still a noticeable wobble in how the bag rolls. Needless to say, this erratic behavior underpinned the entire experience of testing this bag.

Inside The Carry On Luggage

Like a lot of softside luggage, this one comes with a secondary compartment for accessories you might want quick access to. In our case, it’s a 13-inch MacBook, but the front compartment is roomy enough for a 16-inch MacBook Pro if you take the time to shimmy it under the compartment’s overhead space. As you can imagine, it’s a very deep compartment, meaning it will be tricky to reach for small items when they inevitably sink to the bottom.

The main compartment opens clamshell, and the interior layout is conventional. There’s a bucket space on the right, a large zippered compartment on the left, and a small zippered pocket on the bucket space’s left side. All of your clothing goes in the former, while accessories reside in the latter two. Additionally, it has hold-down straps to keep your clothing in place, which is handy, especially if you’re not already using a set of packing cubes to keep them organized.

Despite the bag’s budget-oriented nature, it does come with an expansion system that gives you some breathing space when it’s time to pack. A compression zipper runs parallel to the main compartment’s zippers. It only goes about three of the bag’s four lengths, so it only provides a wedge-shaped expansion on the front side. As a result, this expansion system doesn’t explicitly expand the bucket space itself. Instead, it enlarges the front side to better accommodate any gear you pack over the bucket’s space’s height.

As an aside, the expansion doesn’t seem to significantly increase the bag’s base 31-liter capacity. On the other hand, we often find expansion systems on other bags overkill, providing too much extra space beyond what we need. In other words, the expansion on this bag may be minimal, but it’s also just enough if, like us, you tend to pack an extra one or two souvenir shirts by the end of a trip.