A friend and I both bought our 17" laptop computers around the same time. Actually, I had just ordered mine from Dell when she walked in with her new HP computer. It's a good thing I had ordered mine already, the new laptops with the wide screens are way cool.

Since my friend was in the store when she bought her laptop, she also saw that there were cool laptop bags available, so she bought one. I'm not sure why that idea didn't cross my mind, because I did buy the laptop with the idea of taking it with me when I traveled, but I guess since I had an old college book bag I thought I could just use that to carry it around in.

I wanted that new women's laptop bag even more after I went on a trip and brought my new computer with me. There were just a few too many things missing when using a regular book bag to carry the laptop around.

First - it was not protected very well. I had to make my own laptop bag cushions by putting my extra clothes around the laptop because I didn't want my water bottle and other items to scratch it - or worse yet, leak on it. This made it a little hard to take the laptop in and out of the bag when I wanted to use it on the plane. At that point, I thought maybe a laptop sleeve would come in handy.

Even though my friend had a cool laptop bag, I soon discovered that it was also more functional than a regular book backpack. Of course, I had to do a lot of research before I settled on my first laptop bag, and since I wanted a really cool laptop bag there were a lot of things to consider. If you're looking for a laptop bag - in particular a women's laptop bag, here are a few things to keep in mind when selecting and purchasing your cool laptop bag online:

** Your shopping will go much faster if you first decide what kind of womens laptop bag you want. Then you will have it narrowed down a little when you begin to look through all of the available womens laptop bags.

The choices you will be presented with are whether you want a messenger laptop bag (which usually means it is carried on the shoulder); a backpack type bag - or do you need a rolling laptop bag. Depending on your strength and ability to carry a load on your back, you might want to consider a rolling laptop bag; a 17' laptop like mine, which weighs 9.2 pounds, might get a little heavy in a backpack.

**Hard sided laptop cases versus soft sided laptop bags: If you're going to use your new women's laptop bag to carry your laptop to meetings, it's a good idea to keep the tone down a little, and maybe consider a less colorful hard sided case. These types of laptop bags will make it look more like a briefcase and help you stand out as being more professional.

** Does Weight Matter? Be sure to check weight of the bag when empty. I revealed that my laptop weight over 9 pounds, and the women's laptop bag that I almost bought weighed a little over 3 pounds. That's a lot of extra weight to carry around for just a cool laptop carry bag. I decided instead to choose a lightweight womens laptop bag, over the heaver leather bag (mostly because I wouldn't be taking it to meetings, just hauling it from the airport to the hotel room). However, this new colorful lightweight pink laptop bag still had enough protection for my laptop, as well as extra space for my accessories, like a water bottle, munchies, and a few extra clothes - just in case.