Columbia Atlas Explorer II 26L Backpack Review

The Columbia Atlas Explorer II 26L Backpack is a spacious and flexible daypack that can handle just about anything you try to throw at it. Columbia is known for providing well-made products that just work. While this backpack does not offer any extravagant features or crazy functionality, it’s versatile and spacious. With its spacious capacity and minimal degree of organization, you can pack it however works best for you.

This backpack is an excellent option for everyday carry around campus, daily commutes through the city, and even exploring new destinations. Its spacious capacity and flexible organization make it ideal for users from college students carrying laptops and textbooks to travelers wanting all their gear within reach on a long flight. This backpack is compact enough to be a personal item and slide under most seats without issue, and its flexible compartments allow you to utilize each space to suit your specific needs.

External Components

The exterior of the Columbia Atlas Explorer II 26L Backpack is made from 100% polyester and has a structured, tarp-like feel with a rugged texture rather than a soft finish. It uses YKK zippers with reflective material weaved into the zipper pulls and minimal protective flaps over the zipper threads. While functional, these zippers are decently smooth but tend to be a bit louder than standard ones.

The overall design has minimal external features, with no compression straps or attachment points save for one on each shoulder strap. There is a single grab handle on top, which, while sturdy and secure, offers minimal padding and may become somewhat uncomfortable during extended use. The Columbia branding appears on both the front of the pack and one of the shoulder straps, keeping it fairly minimalistic.

The Columbia Atlas Explorer II 26L Backpack has contoured and padded shoulder straps with mesh for added breathability and convenient strap keepers to manage dangling straps. An adjustable sternum strap is built into the straps, though it can be somewhat stiff to adjust. It is also not removable. The sternum strap connects via a plastic buckle and is on a rail system for moderately easy and quick adjustment. While functional, this rail system does not feel particularly secure to the backpack straps themselves, slightly impacting the overall effectiveness of distributing the pack’s weight.

While relatively rigid and sturdy, it does not stand up on its own unless oriented and set up in a specific configuration with gear at the bottom of the pack. The backpack has a structured back panel but lacks any ventilation or breathability system. Due to the polyester material used, this could potentially lead to issues with back sweat depending on the individual user and the climate conditions.

Fit Notes

The Columbia Atlas Explorer II 26L Backpack has a minimalist and simplistic design that blends in nicely rather than standing out and drawing attention. This color variant, City Grey Heather, and other colors, including an all-black version for an even more subtle look, maintain a fairly casual aesthetic. It’s well-suited for students, daily commuters, and even travelers, although it lacks certain travel-specific features like a hip belt or luggage pass-through. The all-black variant’s inconspicuous aesthetic may be suitable for more professional environments, but your mileage may vary.

Inside The Pack

The Columbia Atlas Explorer II 26L Backpack features stretchy mesh water bottle pockets on each side that sit flat against the pack when not in use. These pockets can accommodate various-sized water bottles, from thin bottles to larger ones like a 1L Nalgene or a 32 oz Owala, without any issue. The secure mesh design ensures bottles stay in place, as tested with the Ello Syndicate 20 oz Glass Water Bottle and our 24 oz and 32 oz Owala FreeSips. These pockets also serve as convenient quick-access storage for everyday items like a phone or a wallet when needed.

A spacious quick-access zippered pocket takes up most of the front of the bag, with a vertical zipper for intuitive right-side on-body access. This pocket lacks internal organization but functions more as a space for quick access to essential items.

The front compartment has a fairly short U-shaped opening, though the dual zippers do not go very far down on either side. Inside the front compartment, you will find a fairly minimal organization panel, including a key clip with nylon webbing and a plastic carabiner at the top. Two mesh slip pockets and an additional slip pocket behind one of them provide a nice amount of organization. The mesh material allows for easy visibility of contents, although it is not stretchy. The rest of the compartment works well for general storage and is particularly ideal for organizing pouches and smaller items.

The main compartment of the Columbia Atlas Explorer II 26L Backpack has a U-shaped opening with dual zippers that extend down both sides to each of the water bottle pockets. While this can be slightly inconvenient and annoying when a water bottle blocks the zipper, it could serve as a nice security feature in crowded places, obscuring access to the zippers. The compartment itself is pretty spacious with expandable capacity, though it has minimal organization along the back panel where you’ll find the laptop and tablet sleeves.

The laptop sleeve can fit up to a 15-inch laptop, with some flexibility for 16-inch devices. For example, we could fit a 16-inch MacBook Pro after some slight adjustments to the sides of the pack, though the top corners were somewhat apparent when zipped up. The laptop sleeve features a protective felt lining that extends down to the bottom, providing soft padding for devices.

In front of the laptop sleeve, there’s a slip pocket made from the same interior polyester lining as the rest of the bag. While it lacks any padding or felt lining, it is suitable for tablets, magazines, or other similarly flat items. It can accommodate an 11-inch iPad Pro with a magic keyboard, though the fit is a bit snug. The pocket has little to no stretch, and the dedicated space is ideal for flatter devices and items.

The rest of the main compartment is an open storage area, perfect for packing cubes, tech pouches, or larger items like over-ear headphones, textbooks, or jackets. You can also store smaller items here, but they risk getting jumbled around in transit.

The Columbia Atlas Explorer II 26L Backpack is an excellent everyday carry backpack that prioritizes simplicity and functionality over extraneous features. While it may lack some of the more advanced functionality or organization found in other backpacks, its spacious design and simplistic approach to organization allow for versatile packing options. Thanks to the contoured, padded harness system, its construction is durable and comfortable. The simple aesthetic suits different environments and use cases and provides excellent value for those looking for a straightforward and reliable everyday backpack.