8 Best Anti-Theft Backpacks of 2026, Reviewed

Twenty-nine liters and a padded 15.6-inch laptop sleeve in a bag that weighs 1.2 pounds — that ratio is the argument for the MATEIN. It takes a laptop, a change of clothes, a charger pouch, and lunch without turning into a duffel on your back, and it costs less than the premium picks here.

The hidden pocket sitting flat against your back is the security that matters day to day: phone, transit card, and wallet ride where your body covers them and where a hand cannot slip in without you feeling it. Add the luggage pass-through on the back panel and this is the bag that goes from the train to the overhead bin without a rethink. If your commute is the main event and travel is occasional, this is the one.

Be clear about what you are not getting. There are no locking zippers and no RFID lining, so the anti-theft claim rests on that hidden pocket and on how you wear the bag. The shoulder straps also loosen on their own over a long day, and a tug now and then keeps the load where you set it. Both are things you notice on a walking-heavy afternoon rather than in the store.

The laptop sleeve is the reason to start here: 17.3 inches, the largest device capacity in this group. A full-size gaming or workstation notebook that the 15.6-inch bags will not close around fits, and around it sits a 30-liter body with nine compartments and a front pocket that swallows a pair of shoes.

Security is a TSA lock in a zinc alloy body, paired with waterproof YKK zippers — the lock is the bag’s identity rather than an add-on. A USB 3.0 port runs a cable from a power bank inside to a phone outside, and the Oxford shell handles rain without soaking through.

The cost of that hardware is weight: 2.8 pounds empty, and you feel it on a platform with the bag full. The zippers need a firm hand too, smooth on a light load and stubborn when the bag is stuffed. We think it is the right bag for someone whose laptop is the reason they carry a backpack, and the wrong one for a light day out.

The front pocket is lined with a metal-composite fabric that keeps the cards you store there from being read wirelessly, and that is the practical shape of RFID protection: the passport card and the credit card you do not use daily live in that pocket and stay unreadable. It is one of two bags here with shielding and the only one that pairs it with a 15.6-inch sleeve, which is why it is our pick for a work trip.

The wide top opening is the feature we did not expect to care about and now do. The bag lays open like a small duffel, so you pack it standing up instead of mining for a charger. Nine pockets, a padded tablet sleeve next to the laptop one, and a luggage strap that slides over a suitcase handle cover the workday and the flight both, and it goes under the seat in front of you.

The top zipper is the weak spot: it can stick when the bag is packed to its 20-liter limit, and the track can separate under a full load. Keep the weight reasonable and the zip behaves. That caveat is the distance between this bag and the top of our list, not a reason to skip it.

The main compartment opens along the panel that sits against your spine, so the bag has to come off your back before anyone can get into it — including you. Against a crowded metro that does more than most locks, because there is nothing to reach.

It is a 13-inch-device bag at 1.4 pounds, with two zippered side pockets that hold a bottle or sunglasses and a shell of water-resistant nylon with faux-leather trim. Six pockets and three compartments sort a wallet, a phone, a charger, and a light layer, and the straps adjust for a single-shoulder carry when you want the bag in front of you instead.

What makes this backpack purse worth carrying is how little it looks like a travel bag: handbag lines instead of daypack bulk, and 872 cubic inches that hold a day’s gear and not much more. The trade is the opening — sliding a 13-inch laptop in takes some aim — which is the price of a compartment that closes against your back.

The Mancro ships with a combination lock that clamps the double zipper pulls of the main compartment together, so a hand in a crowd cannot get at the laptop and the passport pocket. It is a real lock on one of the least expensive bags here, and that is the reason it made the list.

Around the lock: 30 liters, ten pockets and compartments, an S-curve padded strap, a water-resistant polyester shell, and an 18-inch height that puts it in carry-on territory and under an airplane seat. It reads smaller in person than the volume suggests, because the capacity comes from depth rather than height — think of it as packing wide, not tall.

A USB port runs a cable from a power bank inside to the outside of the bag, and the padded back makes a full commute comfortable. Where it gives ground is refinement: the polyester, the straps, and the slider hardware are workmanlike rather than nice to touch. Nothing here feels precious, which suits a bag you will set on the floor.

We point at this one when someone wants a lock and a laptop sleeve and does not want to spend much: the lock, the 30 liters, and the padded back are the whole offer, and for a lot of buyers that is the whole job. One thing to plan for — the lock adds a step every time you reach for your laptop, so if you open the bag a dozen times a day, a hidden-pocket design like the MATEIN’s will annoy you less.

At 1.23 pounds, the CHERUTY is the one we carry when the day is mostly walking. It holds what a purse holds, opens only against your back, and looks like a handbag rather than a daypack.

The back-facing main zipper is the whole security system — no lock, no shielded pocket — and it works because the opening is pinned between the bag and your spine for as long as you are wearing it. The nylon body is 13.7 inches wide and just under 15 inches tall, with side pockets that take a small bottle and a pair of sunglasses.

Pack it like a handbag, not like a laptop bag: wallet, phone, keys, a light layer, and a little room left over. What it gives up in capacity it returns in how little it asks of you — no bulk to swing through a turnstile, nothing that looks worth taking.

Fourteen pockets in a bag 5.5 inches deep is the WENIG’s opening argument, and it is a fair one: two main compartments, nine inner pockets, two side pockets, and a hidden pocket on the back, all in a 20-liter body that stays slim against your spine.

The security package is a fixed password lock on the main compartment, metal zippers, that hidden back pocket, and a USB port with a headphone jack. The laptop sleeve takes a 15.6-inch machine, and the shell is water-resistant Oxford cloth with mesh shoulder straps.

The lock is where we hesitate. It is fixed rather than resettable, it secures the main compartment and nothing else, and it can jam — a lock that sticks is worse than no lock, because it locks you out of your own bag. Test it the day the bag arrives, before you trust it with a passport.

What is left is a well-organized 20-liter bag for a light commute or a short trip at the bottom of the price range here. Put the things you cannot lose in the hidden back pocket, which stays reachable whatever the main lock does, and treat the rest as a good day bag with a lock on it.