A case of style for your laptop and accessories

Technofile: Whenever one is faced with having to cart around a laptop, there are two options: opt for the bog-standard Targus case which looks about as stylish as a fashion show set in outer Mongolia and screams "steal me", or hunt around for something a little less "off the peg".

Surveying the market, there are a bewildering number of options for laptop bags, which suggests that this is a hotly contested area. So I decided to narrow it down to the ones I consider among the most stylish and practical.

First up is the sleek Hardpacks, sold by Comuta.co.uk. The Hardpack comes in five shapes, the Swift, Urban, Tekno, Fuse and Mini. As the name suggests, these are tough, hard-case backpacks, but good looking and designed from the ground up to protect your precious portable digital devices. In fact, you will find that the carbon fibre finish of the Swift will even turn a few heads.

Normal backpacks rarely have the padding to cushion a laptop from the odd knock, but these bags were designed by Bob Haro, the founder of BMX Freestyle and no stranger to the odd spill. Their hard-shell constructions of polycarbonate with semi-rigid padded backs are complemented by a strong, weather-resistant zip. The bags have headphone cable outlets and pouches for iPods, and the usual pockets and panels.

For a complete change of gear you could do worse than look at the range of bags from knomo. These bags would not look out of place on a Milan catwalk, and yet they are designed for the modern, urban professional in mind.

The collection includes laptop bags for both men and women - though they would probably suit the latter more - in a variety of styles and colours to complement your outfit, whatever it is - something which is of little interest to scruffy geeks like myself but caught my wife's eye straight away.

Even though the range looks more like luxury goods luggage, the clean-cut designs conceal features including a handy bundle bag for cables, a removable pocket and, bizarrely, a tracking system.

The knomo tracker is a non-removable and visible tag. The owner registers his or her contact details against the bag's unique tracker code on the knomo website, www.knomobags.com. In the event of the bag being lost and recovered, a 24-hour call centre will help the owner to be reunited with his bag. The Tomsk briefcase/messenger bag in leather, with inner pockets for PDA, iPod, mobile and stationery, and separate pocket for documents, costs 223, which gives you a flavour of the marque.

Not to be outdone is good old Samsonite (see www.samsonite.com/ie). Its 800 Series Xylem business cases look like the kind of thing James Bond would carry around. The soft, flexible aluminium-like corners offer protection and a fairly distinctive look. The Avior features a handy back pocket to confound pickpockets at airports and train stations. And unusually for a laptop backpack, it has a combination lock and features and can expand to accommodate more contents.

However, if you want the ultimate in customisation and safety for your laptop, you would do well to look at Dr Bott's TiCase (Drbott.com). This adapted Samsonite case will hold most laptops, including Apple's Titanium PowerBooks, in ultimate comfort and style. In particular the TiCase matches the sleek Apple elegance with an Aluminium shell and two inches of styrofoam to provide the necessary protection. Matching cut-outs hold the power supply, power cable, spare battery, accessories and even your iPod.

You can also use the case on the go. Just lift off the lid, press gently on the rear corners of the laptop and it will be lifted by telescopic feet, raising the the rear of the laptop so that the natural decline of your knees is properly balanced and the PowerBook comes to a level rest at desk height. Pretty ingenious.

Also in the vein of the trendier bag is the range recently brought out by the Computer Luggage Company (www.coluco.com). These are deliberately designed not to look like your average imitation leather laptop bag, useful both for style and for anti-theft. All their bags carry something called TechAir protection, a fancy way of saying the laptop is surrounded by a layer of air-filled cells to disperse any impacts.

Did someone say Nike? CLC's AirBags come with a number of features, including handy "M-Ports" to allow you to thread through leads from MP3 players, mobile phone holders, security pouches and key clips.

The bag names are quite funky too - Tigra, Electra, Geo and Azura sound like Japanese manga characters.

Lastly, "geek-chic" fans will enjoy the range from an Australian firm with a sense of humour, Crumpler (crumplereurope.com). Crumpler bags are tough. And they look tough.

They sport DuPont-made Cordura Plus fabric, huge zips , rip-stop lining, and industrial webbing. They are also all waterproof.

If you are looking for a bag to protect a laptop but don't want one with hard casing, Crumpler is the one to go for. The bags also come in quite an array of shapes and sizes - from the enormous Bees Knees to the diminutive Nad Sac - I said they had a sense of humour.