CODEOFBELL ANNEX LINER II Sacoche Review

The CODEOFBELL ANNEX LINER II Sacoche is sleek-looking and highly expandable, making it a curious choice as a travel companion. Will the features presented by CODEOFBELL work while exploring a new city, or will they hinder your travel experience? Let’s dive in and find out.

External Components

The front of the bag utilizes X-PAC, and the back is CORDURA®, which adds durability. Although the latter isn’t as water resistant, the combination of ruggedness and weather resistance works well in practice, as the CORDURA® will rest against your body, and the X-PAC will face the elements, whether that’s rain, sunshine, or snow.

The zippers are from YKK, and they operate smoothly. When a bag utilizes YKK zips, we know to expect quality, and that’s no different here. The tracks have a PU coating, which adds additional water resistance. It makes them a bit slower to open, but the added protection is handy.

The plastic hardware and buckles are from Woojin. They’re durable and snappy, and we haven’t had any issues with them in testing.

The sacoche has side compression straps, which hold back the expandable secondary compartment. These straps also allow you to slightly compress the bag, which is handy if you need to make it smaller. We’ll talk more about the expandable pocket later!

There’s a handle on the top of the sacoche’s backside and a small loop under it. These work well for hanging the bag when you aren’t using it and can be used to grab it quickly and hit the ground running if you’re trying to catch the train or realize you’re running late for coffee with that friend from home that you haven’t seen in 20 years. They don’t get in the way when you aren’t using them, but this bag has many straps, so it can look a little messy at times, like a pair of corded headphones after you take them out of your backpack after a week of disuse.

The backside of the pack has attachment loops, which are handy for attaching a carabiner, strap, or the included stabilizer strap, which we’ll discuss later.

Additional attachment loops on the bottom of the sacoche are only usable when the expansion pocket is engaged, as they’re folded under the flap. They’re handy for attaching extra gear, like a packable travel water bottle.

Fit Notes

The strap has a well-padded section with aeration and is comfortable to wear. It doesn’t slide, so you have to adjust the strap sections on either side of the padded area to move it, which can be tedious. Still, we dig how comfortable the strap is, even when you have the sacoche fully packed.

The strap attaches with clips, so you can remove it or add your own. Additionally, we enjoyed using this sacoche as a packing cube or tech pouch inside our travel backpack and daypack in testing. You can remove the strap while it is stowed in your pack and add it back when you get to your destination after unloading the contents into another bag or your hotel room.

There’s a stabilizer strap, too, which makes the carry feel more secure. You can remove it if you don’t want to use it, which we dig. We appreciate it when moving quickly or cycling; however, we don’t use it in most situations.

While there’s no actual back panel on the sacoche, the CORDURA® has enough thickness to be comfortable in most situations. Additionally, the material is thick enough to stop items from poking through and making you uncomfortable.

As mentioned, the harness system has a lot going on between the strap, stabilizer, and top handle. It takes some getting used to, but the system is comfortable once you’ve sorted the learning curve out.

Inside The Sacoche

There’s a semi-hidden back pocket with a magnetic closure. It’s nice to have quick access to your gear, but there isn’t much protection from the elements here, so keep that in mind. There also isn’t much depth here, and any thick item you stow in this pocket will poke into your side while you’re wearing the sacoche. A phone, passport, or minimalist wallet do well here.

The front pocket is the primary expansion area. When stowed away, it’s flat; when expanded, it turns into a large triangular prism. The sling is just 4 liters when this pocket isn’t engaged, and it expands to 8 when you use this and the main compartment expansion feature.

You can access this compartment from the top or bottom, as both offer zippered closures. We don’t quite understand why there’s a lower zipper, and we didn’t find ourselves using it much.

Inside is a large but easy-to-use magnetic key leash. A small pocket pops out from the top of the upper zipper seam, almost like a tongue. It’s an odd shape and size, though handy for small items like AirPods.

The main compartment expands slightly, too, using two snap buttons on the bottom of the sacoche. You don’t get as much space as you do from the secondary compartment; however, this gives you more depth to work with when packing your bag. Because of the expansion, we put larger items here, like a cased Nintendo Switch or over-ear headphones.

The back side of the main compartment has a tablet sleeve that accommodates devices up to 11 inches and secures with a hook-and-loop fastener.

On the front side, two large pockets are suitable for a phone, wallet, or similar-sized device. A smaller pocket between the two holds a pen, pencil, or stylus.

Both compartments are handy and enable you to bring larger gear than you might expect from looking at the unexpanded sacoche. It has a large footprint for 4 liters but is roomy at 8 liters, which we appreciate when traveling. It’s flat enough when not in use to stow well inside your travel bag, whether you’re practicing one bag travel or will be using rolling luggage, and you can use it in either 4L or 8L configurations when you reach your destination.

The sacoche is also comfortable, but we must admit that it takes some time to get used to it. There are a lot of straps and attachment points, extra zippers, and general confusion if you aren’t used to gear from brands like CODEOFBELL. We dig the look but understand it isn’t for everyone. Even if you don’t think it’s for you, the function of this sacoche might make it worth trying!