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Best Buy Cabin Bags

by Kate Shipp
Only the most durable and easiest to manoeuvre cabin bags earn our Best Buy recommendation. Read on to discover the best hand luggage that topped our rigorous lab tests.

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Your cabin bag is like a travel partner when you go away on a trip. It spends so much time with you that the wrong choice can be a major annoyance at best and a serious inconvenience at worst.

When you buy a cabin bag you need to be sure that not only is it lightweight and comfortable to carry around, but also strong and durable enough to withstand all the bumps and scrapes your trip might throw at it. A Best Buy cabin bag will ensure your case's contents are kept safe and dry, and that you won't end up sore from dragging it around a busy airport.

  • Our test lab compresses years of wear-and-tear into a month of testing so that when you purchase a Best Buy cabin bag you can be sure it will last
  • Our testing uncovers the cabin bags that could ruin your plans for a stress free holiday by breaking open mid-flight or failing to fit in the overhead lockers
  • We even perform our own no-holds-barred 'chuck test' to ensure that any cabin bag you buy is ready for the real world

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How we uncover the best cabin bag

Every cabin bag we review first has to pass through our state-of-the-art, purpose-built luggage test lab. It's there that a team of qualified scientists spend weeks putting each piece of baggage through its paces. They don't go easy on them either - in fact we have to buy two of each model we test as we frequently end up pushing them to breaking point.

Out of the dozens of individual tests carried out, these are some of the highlights:

  • Impact resistance: Each case is repeatedly pummeled with a weighted metal impactor to ensure it can withstand being punctured or crushed
  • Zip strength: The main zip on every bag is open and closed 100 times to make sure it doesn't snag or break

Cabin bag reviews you can trust

Which? is independent – we work for you, the consumer, so you can be sure that our product recommendations are influenced only by our test results. We're not influenced by third parties and we don't accept freebies from product manufacturers or retailers. We buy all the products that we test ourselves, so our advice helps you to make the right choice first time and avoid costly mistakes.

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