I purchased this pack through an authorized store this past December. After spending a tremendous amount of time of independent research, I stumbled on this pack by mistake. I found a video showing the features of the pack, the capacity of the loadout and how functional this pack could be to me. I'm a college student, carry a lot of items, and looking for a comfortable pack to shoulder.

What I haul around daily:
1 x G75 18 laptop w/power supply
1 x 2' D ring full binder
3 x 2' textbooks
1 x bag of Stacys Cinnamon chips
2 x engineering scales
1 x Ti-89
1 x Toshiba portable HD
a set of gym clothes w/shoes and various smaller items stored in the other pockets.

I walk everywhere for 8 hours a day on campus, out in the rain everyday and I carry all this very comfortably. My only complaint and I could see why it wouldn't be added is not having a waist strap. Coming from TNF packs I've gotten used to having a waist belt around me but after a week of carrying the Beacon the quality of the pack made me forget such needless things for it. The side pockets are easily accessible with the pack on my back but with my wide shoulders it's awkward to do sometimes. I haven't had any issues with the pack up until the beginning of this May 2013. The main compartment zipper(1 of 2) decided to remove itself and left me with one functional zipper. While this isn't a big concern, I didn't know if the other zipper would fail either. So I called up Everki Customer Service, they walked me through the warranty replacement steps and just as promised I received a brand new Beacon with zero hassle. I've never had an experience so fluid with a company per warranty replacement. I was sold from the start with the product, and now I'm completely sold as a customer and have been recommending this pack to all my circles. I'm a very pleased customer, extremely happy to not have to search for another pack for quite some time and kudos to Everki for treating all customers above the standard.