LOJEL Cubo Small Review

The LOJEL Cubo Small is hardside luggage with a secondary compartment. That doesn’t sound all too special, considering plenty of other hardside luggage also have one. That said, the Cubo Small sets itself apart by having a nifty magnetic trap door leading to its main compartment, letting you access your bulkier gear without necessitating a bigger secondary compartment.

It’s, by far, our favorite feature of this bag, but there’s more to go through, such as how well it rolls, how well-built it is, and how it packs. So, without further ado, let’s dive in.

External Components

Like most hardside luggage we test, the LOJEL Cubo Small has a polycarbonate shell. It’s 50% recycled and 50% new, so the environmentally conscious can take some refuge in the fact that it’s not all made from scratch. Durability-wise, polycarbonate is robust enough to maintain its structure but also flexible enough to shrug off bumps and prolonged pressure from being under other luggage. Among this material’s weaknesses are, of course, scratches. Two weeks of testing have already left our sample with two or three visible marks that stand out against the Stone Blue colorway we’re using. We fully expect more to crop up over prolonged use; it’s just an inherent flaw of polycarbonate luggage.

Say you’re already into the whole polycarbonate construction and its pros and cons, but do you dig the looks? We do. The Cubo Small leans into its plasticky construction by going all-in on ridges and molded accents. Yet, we don’t think it’s tacky; just industrial enough to pass as professional and casual. The friendly and pastel-like colorways certainly help achieve the latter, and there are more than a handful to choose from at the time of writing.

The zippers are unbranded but lockable via the built-in TSA-approved lock. Nubs on the zipper pulls fit into the corresponding slots on the lock. What makes it TSA-approved? There’s a keyhole where TSA agents can use their special universal key to unlock it if they deem it necessary. By the way, the zippers also have rings that allow you to put an additional lock, in case you want to be extra secure (it’ll need to be TSA-approved, too, though).

LOJEL is surprisingly specific about the Cubo Small’s wheels, calling them elastomer non-hydrolyzing wheels. That’s a bunch of jargon, which, put in layman’s terms, are rubberized wheels that are resistant to humidity. To be honest, there doesn’t seem to be anything too special about these wheels. There are four sets, each with a pair of wheels, giving the Cubo Small the freedom to move in any lateral direction (sorry, no levitation here, folks).

On the top and right side of the Cubo Small are grab handles for carrying the bag by hand. They’re not padded and made entirely of hard plastic, so you wouldn’t want to use them for prolonged periods. That’s fine by us, though, since we mostly used them for carrying the bag up flights of stairs or when we needed to stow it somewhere like overhead bins or trunks. Thoughtfully, LOJEL put four feet opposite the right-side handle to keep the bag’s left surface from scraping the ground. It’s tiny touches like these that separate brands that care from the ones that don’t.

That said, we do wish there were a handle or grab point of some sort at the bottom, as it would’ve helped in certain situations. For example, if we needed to pull the bag out, but only its bottom side was facing us, a bottom handle would’ve been appreciated. Other luggage have one, but the Cubo Small only has molded indents which don’t really fulfill the role 100%.

The telescoping handle has three height adjustment options (not counting fully retracted). It’s not the most we’ve seen on a piece of luggage, but considering there are those with two, it’s relatively generous. Finding the ideal one should be fairly easy, and the action is pretty smooth, too. At the top is the lock release, and the handle itself is triangular in profile to fit your hands comfortably. All in all, it’s a conventionally designed handle, if not a bit generic.

Lastly, there is a QR code located just below the telescoping handle. You can register the serial number on LOJEL’s website to get access to better after-sales support. Crucially, this makes warranty claims much easier, so we recommend using it, just in case, though it isn’t mandatory to make your warranty valid.

Fit Notes

The telescoping handle’s three height adjustments are fairly concentrated close together, and our tester found the middle adjustment ideal for lateral rolling. However, we recommend going for the full height adjustment to pull the bag at an angle. In case you’re wondering, the full-height adjustment measures 40.2 inches (102 cm) from the floor.

As for the wheels, they roll quite smoothly thanks to the rubber lining, which dampens most of the minute imperfections on the surfaces we’ve come across. The most challenging of these was a graveled parking lot. And while the rubber lining didn’t stand a chance against a rocky and loose terrain like that, we’re happy to report that the wheels also didn’t jam and still rolled relatively well all the way to the hotel lobby.

Inside The Carry On Luggage

The Cubo Small may be one of the few pieces of luggage that doesn’t have “expandable” in its name despite having the feature, so let’s shine a light on that first. See that zipper track running down the middle? That’s not the main compartment zipper; it’s the expansion system. Its base capacity of 37 liters expands to 42 liters in case you need extra space for souvenirs or have simply given up on packing used clothing efficiently. Mind you, this makes the Cubo Small larger, thus affecting carry on compliance. Additionally, this softens the structure in the middle in a sort of accordion-like effect, so just keep that in mind.

Up at the front is the tech compartment accessed via a drop-in hatch. Gussets at the sides stop the front from fully folding down, and there are mesh pockets at the back and a zippered drop pocket at the front. There isn’t a dedicated sleeve for a laptop, and you basically have to let it free float in the middle. For this reason, we opted to store our 13-inch MacBook in a separate laptop sleeve to help it fit more snuggly and securely inside. A bare 16-inch MacBook Pro also fits, but your mileage may vary if you also use a padded sleeve or a thick casing.

A secondary compartment on hardside luggage is uncommon, but it’s not unique to the Cubo Small. What is unique is the magnetic trap door inside, which provides quick access to the main compartment. Pull the small tab, and you can reach inside for whatever gear you’ve stored near the top. We suggest keeping your toiletry bag there just in case the TSA agents want to check it, and you never know when you’ll need to freshen up anyway. This is a fairly novel feature, but one which we appreciate since it’s convenient and doesn’t add more external space that could impact carry on compliance.

So, how do you access the main compartment? Parallel to the front compartment’s zipper track is another set of zippers that opens up the main compartment by detaching the gussets. Once opened, this presents you with a unified bucket space, which, unlike the split-type we’re more used to, is arguably easier to pack. And make no mistake, you can pack a lot of gear in here.

Fully packed, we could fit about five to six days’ worth of clothing. That’s two large packing cubes of clothing, two large toiletry bags (for wedding-related reasons), and a rolled-up hoodie. That’s perfectly in line with what we’d expect from a 37-or-so-liter luggage. However, if we really try our best and employ every packing trick in the book, such as compression cubes, rolling, and going travel-sized for a lot of our gear, then we can push that up to two weeks.

At the sides are zippered pockets for storing small bits of toiletry or clothing accessories, such as socks and gloves. They mostly stay out of the way in case you want to maximize the available packing space for your organizers and packing cubes. Interestingly, the entire liner is removable, which is very useful for washing it once it gets dirty over time. Additionally, if you aren’t utilizing packing cubes, there is also a hold-down strap that you can use to cinch all your gear and clothing.