Stratos 24

Firstly I’m going to start that nothing gets me more uncomfortable than a sweaty back on my hike! So when a new pack was needed I thought I’d check this out and it works, It really works. Haven’t had a sweaty back on a single hike yet and I’ve been wearing this for countless miles for a few years now. But beyond my sticky back this pack has great attention to detail and excellent build quality. So business as usual for osprey. Plenty of room for my gear for a full days hike. The fantastic frame. Nice padding and all the bells and whistles (literally, it has a whistle) all comes at a cost and that is weight. When it first arrived I was a little concerned but once you’ve fine tuned the pack to your torso the weight is so well distributed that extra weight disappears. The hip belt is comfortable and the ever handy pockets fit my iPhone 8 snuggly tho I would say anyone using a plus may struggle. As for things I’d change, my partner has a tempest and their is a little stretch pocket on her shoulder strap and I’m forever wishing I had that. And I the Velcro flap that covers the back pocket where the center zip goes up to anoyes me. I keep scratching my fingers on the Velcro and it’s tricky to push and pull the zip to it. Apart from thouse two minor gripes this pack is my perfect day bag! If you run hot while hiking that air gap is absolute gold. If not then this may be overkill for you.

I needed an outdoors bag to fit in both my hiking gear and camera gear for my various outings as what I was using was uncomfortable.
I’ve had this two weeks and I’ve used it everyday, I’ve loaded it absolutely full of gear and I’m absolutely amazed at how light and comfortable the bag is, there’s a lot of useful pockets and pouches to fill too! we’ve done plenty of walking and it’s been a really enjoyable and useful purchase.

Appears well made and found it helpful to see my friends pack before ordering. Lots of labels attached to the product except perhaps the most useful which would be a guide to using all the straps and optimising fit

Wanted a smallish pack for a day on the hills and maybe the occasional TAB.

Fit: Filled it to the brim with 16kg of rice for a test run (more yomping with shuffles) and no complaints so handles weight well. M\L is a tad tall for me at 5’10 but I’m ok with it. Sternum strap makes the shoulder straps fit nicely without being constrictive.

AirSpeed System: I love storming up the hills generating lots of heat but when wearing my previous TNF pack or 5.11 military one it always seems to leave me wet. Mesh trampoline type structure lets my top layer breathe to its full potential and has made a vast difference to me. People spend a lot on technical shells so why waste money by trapping it.

Features: 24L is the perfect capacity for what I wanted and choice of materials mean it’s nice and light. Glove friendly zip pulls are handy in a storm, really handy; love they are used on every pocket unlike other bags out there that mix and match. Most straps tidy up well however do wish they included elastic loops to tidy loose ends. Pack cover (in fashion at the moment) is not something I tend to use, but credit where it's due nice addition and deploys well.

Final Thoughts: Love this pack and would choose AirSpeed design again should I need another size. Only looses a star as I'm a neatness freak and wanted to tidy up straps more.

(This review was left for a previous version of this product.)

I purchased an earlier revision of this pack that developed a fault on the top pocket zipper (a combination of general wear and tear and mishandling on my part).

I thought the pack was beyond repair but after contacting Osprey service via the webform and exchanging some digital photos via email I sent the pack back for repair the quoted modest cost. More remarkably on inspecting the pack the service centre technicians were able to repair the zipper at no charge.

I'm very pleased to be reunited with my pack which has always been light and very comfortable (I am 186cm tall and tall pack).

Such customer service is very rare in our throwaway world.

(This review was left for a previous version of this product.)