Eagle Creek Gear Warrior XE 4-Wheel Carry-On Luggage Review

Toughness is one of the key strengths of the Eagle Creek Gear Warrior XE 4-Wheel Carry-On Luggage. From its abrasion-resistant fabric and off-road-looking wheels to the robust-feeling handle, it looks ready for any adventure you can throw at it.

However, Eagle Creek may have gone one step too far. How? The main zipper is too stiff, which really slows down access. That said, it’s not the only flaw, nor are the pros mentioned above the only ones—let’s take a closer look.

External Components

The Gear Warrior XE’s most striking visual feature has to be the multiple lash points around it. There are two rows of daisy chains, slits in the Hypalon-like corner garnishing, plus multiple handles that you can also use to hang gear. They all give the Gear Warrior XE a workhorse-like vibe that makes you want to saddle it with yoga mats, tripods, and dirty hiking shoes. Do we think it looks good? Nope, not our style. However, we respect Eagle Creek’s utilitarian approach because we know some users will absolutely find it useful.

At the very least, the Gear Warrior XE is built as tough as it looks. The 600-denier polyester dobby might make some apprehensive since that material is more associated with casual clothing. However, this fabric feels fairly abrasion-resistant, and it’s made it through a handful of airports unscathed. Eagle Creek also made it a point to put a Hypalon kickplate between the rear wheels since they figure you may kick the bag a lot when pulling it around.

As mentioned, there are multiple carry handles around the Gear Warrior XE, excluding the telescoping one. The two at the front are useful for sliding the bag across your bed while packing, though not ideal for carrying due to their awkward positioning. Meanwhile, the side handles are your typical suitcase-style handles, though they’re not centered, throwing off the weight balance a bit. However, they get the job done in a pinch. Notably, only the top handle has padding, so you may want to defer to this one instead of the other handles for prolonged carrying.

The Gear Warrior XE has four wheels, one on each corner. The wheels look beefy and sturdy, matching the bag’s overall tough theme. However, shaking the bag makes them audibly rattle, something we rarely see with other spinner luggage. It’s a shame since it undermines the wheels’ offroad-y looks, making them seem toy-like instead. Nonetheless, the wheels roll smoothly, and it’s not like they’ve fallen off after our two weeks of testing, so we’ll still consider it a pass.

The opposite is true for the Gear Warrior XE’s telescoping handle. It’s quite beefy in its construction, though the materials are probably not anything too crazy (Eagle Creek doesn’t specify, but we suspect it’s aluminum). More importantly, there’s noticeably very little wiggle even when the handle’s fully extended, and it produces an authoritative click whenever you lock it in one of the four heights available.

Fully retracted, a zippered hatch protects the telescoping handle. We understand the idea of shielding a vital component of spinner luggage, whether from rain, dirt, or impacts. In practice, though, this feature feels wholly unnecessary, as the hatch only gets in the way whenever we extend the handle. Plus, we’ve yet to see other carry on luggage with broken handles; being retractable seems more than enough.

Lastly, the back side of the Gear Warrior XE includes ancient technology for those who’ve adopted smart tracker technology: an ID window. Thankfully, they included a paper slip, so you only have to write down your contact info in case the bag gets lost and, hopefully, found. In all seriousness, we still recommend utilizing this feature even if you are using a smart tracker, as glanceable info is timeless.

Fit Notes

The telescoping handle generously offers four levels of height adjustment. We found the second-highest adjustment most suited for those with shorter frames, as it comfortably allowed us to pull the bag along on four wheels or tilt it on two. As already implied, we mostly skipped using the hatch since zipping and unzipping it felt too tedious.

A smooth spinner? Yes, we can still consider the Gear Warrior XE to be one, though only just. Unfortunately, with all four wheels rattling, there’s an unavoidable impact on how the bag rolls. You’re less likely to notice it if you’re rolling along cobblestone streets or across the tarmac, but it’s definitely audible on carpets and tiled flooring.

Inside The Carry On Luggage

A key advantage of soft-sided luggage over hard-sided cases is secondary pockets. We’ve tested a lot of them with entirely separate compartments dedicated to storing gear you may want to access in a pinch. Curiously, though, the Gear Warrior XE only has a relatively small side pocket.

Yes, despite the many lash points, straps, and creases that are tempting to investigate, there’s only one secondary pocket to discover. On the one hand, this comes off as stingy for those who need to store bulky items like a laptop, tablet, or high-capacity power bank. But if you’re already traveling with a sling or a daypack that takes care of that, a small pocket like this is wholly sufficient when you just want to throw in a pack of gum, a slim wallet, or even your smartphone.

Unfortunately, one of the compression straps slightly blocks access to this pocket. It’s not a big deal, but this issue is more apparent with the main compartment, where two of them block its opening unless you unclip them. All of that said, the compression strap isn’t the only thing getting in the way of access.

No, what really slows down access is the main compartment’s zipper. On paper, things look good. They’re beefy and YKK-branded, so jamming or breaking shouldn’t be an issue (and they’re not). However, they’re very stiff to unzip to the point that we somewhat dread having to unpack. And in case you’re wondering—no, it didn’t break in and get smoother after our two weeks of testing.

Okay, but once you’re past all that, the Gear Warrior XE presents you with a fairly standard interior layout. There’s nothing too crazy. There’s an open bucket space on the left where the bulk of your clothing and gear will go, while the left has two mesh pockets and a laptop sleeve. Other luggage would have a smaller bucket space beneath those mesh pockets, though a laptop sleeve is a handy alternative.

Nitpicks? The laptop sleeve’s hook-and-loop latch is slightly in the way of the top mesh pocket’s zipper. Bigger issues? With how tough it is to unzip the main compartment’s zipper, you’ll want to think twice before you store your laptop here in case you need it in a pinch.

In terms of capacity, we could fit about five to seven days’ worth of clothing in the main bucket space by using packing cubes. If you don’t have them, there are hold-down straps and handy side pockets for small pieces of toiletry. The main compartment’s opening partially obscures the section near the floor, and we used that cavity to store a pair of shoes. Overall, packing is quite easy, even with the telescoping handle assembly being totally exposed here.

The base capacity is listed at 40 liters, though the bag’s tag says 45. Either way, you can still expand the compartment by opening a secondary zipper track that runs parallel to the main compartment’s zipper outside. This grants an additional 10 liters of capacity, which is quite generous. Remember to cinch the compression straps if you use this feature to keep the bag’s weight as centered as possible.