Osprey Farpoint 40 review: a real rucksack in cabin-bag form, and the fee that comes with it

Verdict

What it is

Generations and listings

There are two Farpoint 40s in circulation. Osprey’s current page gives the figures above, a 16-inch laptop sleeve and an adjustable torso. Retail listings that date from the earlier generation describe a 15-inch sleeve, a harness that zips away behind a panel and two front mesh pockets. We use Osprey’s current figures, and mark the stowaway harness and the bottle pocket as needing a check, because they come from the earlier generation’s listing. Before buying, check which generation and which size the listing you land on describes.

Carrying: why a harness matters

Most cabin backpacks are rectangles with two straps. That is fine for 5 kg from the tube to the gate. At 10 kg, walked from a station to a hotel across a city, the weight sits on your shoulders and the straps dig. The Farpoint’s adjustable torso lets you set the back length to yours, and the padded hip belt takes much of the load onto your hips, which is how a hiking pack carries 15 kg all day. Osprey’s 7 to 16 kg load range is the honest statement of what it is designed for: a full cabin allowance and more.

The cost is the 1.48 kg. The harness and hip belt are what make it carry well, and they are also what make it weigh three times as much as a light cabin bag. On a 10 kg allowance you give up about a seventh of it to the bag.

Packing: the suitcase opening

The main compartment opens on a zip that runs round the front, so the bag lies flat and opens like a case. That is the practical difference from a top-loading rucksack: you can see and reach everything, pack in layers with cubes, and find a shirt without unpacking the rest. The zips lock, which is reassuring in a hostel or a shared room. The laptop sleeve is padded and, on the current generation, takes most laptops up to 16 inches.

Airlines: never free, sometimes tight

At 55 × 35 × 23 cm the Farpoint is over every free under-seat size on UK budget airlines, which top out at 45 × 36 × 20 on easyJet. So you pay or you are on a ticket that includes a cabin bag:

• Ryanair: Priority adds a 55 × 40 × 20 cm bag of up to 10 kg. The Farpoint is 3 cm deeper, so pack it short of full.
• Wizz Air: Priority’s trolley size is 55 × 40 × 23 cm. It fits as it is.
• easyJet: the large cabin bag is 56 × 45 × 25 cm, added to the booking or with easyJet Plus. It fits with room.
• Jet2: one item up to 10 kg and 56 × 45 × 25 cm is standard. It fits.
• TUI: one item up to 10 kg and 55 × 40 × 20 cm. As with Ryanair, watch the depth.

A soft bag is measured as packed. Pull the compression straps in and leave some slack in the main compartment, and the 3 cm matters less; stuffed to the zips, the bag is 23 cm deep and the sizer will say so.

Materials and guarantee

Recycled 210D nylon is light for a bag this size, and the 420D base takes the scraping. Osprey’s All Mighty Guarantee repairs any damage or defect, for any reason, on any Osprey product of any age. Over ten years of trips, that guarantee is worth more than any feature on the bag, and no other bag in our travel coverage matches it.

Who should buy it

• Four nights or longer with hand luggage only, paying for a full-size cabin bag anyway.
• Anyone who walks rather than wheels — from station to hotel, across a city, onto a ferry.
• Jet2 and easyJet large-bag passengers, whose 56 × 45 × 25 cm allowance takes it with room.
• Buyers who want one bag for a decade, backed by Osprey’s guarantee.

Who should not

• Free-allowance flyers. It never fits the free under-seat size.
• A night or two away. 1.48 kg empty is too much bag; a 20-to-24-litre backpack is lighter and free.
• Anyone who will stuff it to the zips on Ryanair or TUI. At 23 cm deep it must be packed short.

Sources