I have the Purdy Neat bag with the laptop pouch and LOVE IT. Its a padded pouch built into the front of bag. It doesn't look like much but the padding is a soft honeycomb that does a very good job protecting it. Only problem with it is anything larger than a 15.4 inch screen really won't fit (I have a Dell Inspiron with the 15.4 inch screen and it barely fits) but it beats the hell out of carrying a third bag. I don't commute so that might change your mind. I don't trust it with the bag smashers because if you dropped something on it just right no amount of padding will protect it. I think if I commuted I would go with the separate laptop bag just because of the convenience and because you can keep a book, ipod, earplugs, whatever in it.