Short: 

The LS450 is a lightweight, low-profile, well-designed backpack with many great security features. However, poorly designed asymmetrical straps make it unusable for long periods of wear/travel or for carrying heavy loads.

Long:

I’ll cover the bag’s storage, comfort, cool features, and finally who should buy it.

The LS450 is a fairly spacious bag with ample space for most things you would carry daily. It has three compartments: a main compartment with a laptop sleeve and an RFID blocking zippered wallet pocket, an upper, dual zippered organizational pocket, and a lower single zippered organizational pocket. For someone who knows what they’re doing, it provides perfect organization, however, unlike many north face bags, it lacks a massive secondary pocket, meaning there’s no place to wantonly throw small miscellaneous items for disorganized individuals. It’s also important to note that the organizational pockets expand into the main compartment, which also doesn’t stretch or deform very much, rigidly limiting your carry capacity. 

The LS450 has three massive flaws which make it horrible to carry for long periods of time. First, the straps are asymmetrical. One strap is attached to the base of the bag with a pivoting locking mechanism, which allows the strap to twist and turn relative to the bag when compared to the other strap, which is sewn to the base of the bag like a conventional backpack strap. While walking with heavy loads, the pivoting strap will often dig into your side, making you uncomfortable. Second, the straps are extremely difficult to adjust. Due to Pacsafe’s security features, the strap adjustment system is at the top of your shoulder, as opposed to being at the bottom of the strap where the strap meets the backpack’s bottom. Having the strap adjustment system at the top makes it awkward to loosen and tighten the straps while you are wearing the backpack. It also forces you to tuck any excess strap into the padding to get the excess strap out of your way, an added hassle not present on conventional backpacks with the strap adjuster at the bottom of the shoulder strap. Finally, the straps converge into a single piece at the top of the bag, which sits at the base of your neck, making it impossible to have the bag sit extremely high on your back and further reducing comfort, especially when carrying large loads. 

Those three flaws make the bag extremely uncomfortable and frustrating to use for long periods of time or when carrying heavy loads.

The LS450 boasts many antitheft features, listed on the pacsafe website. These include wire mesh throughout the bag, metal cables integrated into the straps, the aforementioned locking system at the base of one strap, which allows you to lock the backpack around chairs and tables, and lockable zippers. An interesting feature of note not mentioned on their website is that when the main compartment is partially empty, the upper organizational pocket “collapses” into the unused space and the side walls fold in, making the bag lower profile than many other unloaded 25L bags. 

Who should use this: this bag is useful if you have a sit down job and don’t walk around with your backpack for extended periods of time. However for use in school, which is how I used it, or for other tasks with walking and/or heavy loads, it overpriced for the discomfort it causes and should be avoided.