Take OFF Luggage Personal Item Suitcase 2.0 Review

Simplicity is the name of the game for the Take OFF Luggage Personal Item Suitcase 2.0. Looking rather Spartan with its all-black polycarbonate exterior and no-nonsense proportions, this luggage won’t have you hunting for fancy features for too long. Yet, its party trick is rather intriguing: removable wheels.

It’s a welcome feature when airline agents are a bit stricter with personal item compliance than usual, and it’s also a boon for those worried about having to replace the wheels after a few years of wear and tear. If either scenario sounds like something you’ve experienced—or you’re simply looking for a best understeat luggage candidate—read on! We’ll take a closer look!

External Components

Looks-wise, the Take OFF Luggage Personal Item Suitcase 2.0 doesn’t stand out, taking on the conventional shape for a carry-on-sized luggage. It does have a few garnishings, such as the glossy reinforced corners and a large, heavily debossed logo off to the side. However, these more or less simply blend into the all-black void that is the colorway we’re testing for this review. If you want a bit more flavor, there are a handful of options to choose from at the time of writing. These include Pink 2.0, Rose Gold 2.0, Blue 2.0, and Red 2.0 (our sample is Black 2.0, in case you were wondering).

You may notice that our sample is already scratched up front. That’s after a particular bus ride where it was shoved and scraped over other luggage. The black colorway does its best to camouflage this damage, but it’s hard not to notice. Fortunately, the polycarbonate body is just the type that can take a lot of punishment like this. It’ll flex, get scratched, and markup, but it will hold up just fine after baggage handlers have their way with it. We are a bit skeptical of the unbranded zippers, but they didn’t break after two weeks of opening and closing the bag, so we’ll give them a pass.

Off to the side, you’ll find the built-in TSA-approved lock. The zippers have metal pulls with tabs that slot into the lock’s notches. Slot them in, and they’ll lock into place until you enter the right three-digit combination. What makes it TSA-approved? Well, there’s a keyhole there that TSA agents can use to open the lock in a pinch in case they need to inspect the bag in an emergency.

There’s a low-profile handle next to the lock and at the top of the bag. Both of these lay flat until you put your hand through and pull. That kind of tightness doesn’t sound very comfortable—and it isn’t—but it’s comfy enough for short periods of carrying. Think lugging the bag into the plane, tossing it into an overhead bin, pulling it out of a trunk—that sort.

The main telescoping handle is also quite plain but functional. There’s a lock release button at the top, which allows you to extend the handle to two heights. The amount of wiggle isn’t noteworthy, neither being particularly solid nor flimsy. It’s a perfectly serviceable handle, if a bit limited on the height adjustment options.

Next up are the four wheels at the bottom. Each rotates independently, so you can pull and push the bag in any lateral direction. That’s par for the course with many rolling luggage. What’s special, though, is how you can detach each of these wheels by pressing the yellow tabs on either side. This is handy for two reasons. First, you can replace these wheels when they eventually wear out or get damaged. You can buy another sets on Take OFF’s website, and there’s even a beefier double-wheeled variant in case you want a more robust set of wheels.

The second reason—and arguably the most beneficial—is that removing the wheels can make the bag more personal item compliant. Shaving off those extra inches might be enough to convince the airline staff that it meets the requirements as a bag that fits under the seat in front of you. Thankfully, Take OFF provides a small drawstring pouch where you can store the wheels. We suggest keeping the pouch in your sling (though airlines will often see this as a secondary personal item and may have you stow it in the bag anyway) or keeping it in an easily accessible corner of the bag so that it’s easy to access the wheels and put them back on after you deplane at your destination.

Fit Notes

Having only two levels of height adjustment makes it easy for us to choose the ideal height for the handle. The middle adjustment is too low, so we settled for full extension. After settling that early on, the rolling smoothness was the only aspect left for us to test, and it was quite suboptimal. Not that the wheels were rattly or flimsy (though they are quite loud compared to others we’ve used); they simply struggled to roll in a straight line. Though it may look like we can pull the bag straight, we can really feel the wheels trying to roll in every which way.

It’s tempting to say that the wheels’ removable nature is to blame, but it could also—potentially—be because of a lack of lubrication impeding them from rotating more freely. Whatever the case, this isn’t the smoothest rolling carry-on luggage we’ve tested.

Inside The Carry On Luggage

We’ll skip ahead and check out the main compartment since there aren’t any external pockets. The entire bag opens in a typical clamshell fashion, splitting into two halves of roughly equal volume. On the right side is your main bucket space for packing your bulkiest clothing. Take OFF has its own vacuum-sealed system to make the most out of this. It works quite well, though we’ll reserve further evaluation since it’s a separate purchase from this bag. Alternatively, you can use packing cubes and pouches to organize clothing.

There’s not much getting in the way of packing the bucket space. The telescoping handle’s assembly does visibly imprint through the liner, but that’s entirely understandable and not an exclusive issue with this bag. It takes some maneuvering and careful stacking of cubes to make the most out of the 30-liter volume, but it’s entirely possible to get a week’s worth of clothing inside.

On the left is another bucket space, but this one is partitioned by a zippered flap, a typical feature on a lot of luggage. What’s unusual is how close the zipper track runs against the liner. It causes jams along the corners, which is really annoying whether you’re trying to pack or unpack. We’re not sure if this is a manufacturing defect since the gap isn’t consistent, but we’re going to call it out since it’s how it is on this sample.

Underneath the cover is another bucket space, though it’s shallower since its zipper track sits lower than the entire half’s top edge. Still, there’s enough depth for bulky items like a pair of shoes, a travel hair dryer, and a toiletry bag. The cover lacks additional pockets, so you may want to use additional organizers like tech kits and pouches.

Additionally, the key thing to remember when packing either bucket space is to make sure your gear doesn’t go over their respective top edges. Otherwise, you may have issues getting the bag closed if the halves interfere with one another, and if the bag puffs out too much, you may have trouble sliding it into that personal item size tester at the gate. That said, the absence of pockets and minimal partitioning affords a lot of room to maneuver, and we’re able to get four to five days’ worth of clothing inside with no issue. Not much gets in the way when you want to pack large items, though bulky sweaters will obviously take up more room. Overall, it’s easy to pack, so long as you don’t overdo it.