A few years ago, something weird happened in the travel world. And I’m not talking about that episode with the virus. No, a few years ago, every suitcase everywhere suddenly turned into a hardshell.
Overnight, luggage stores were lined with rows of shiny plastic boxes, in hues ranging from roy to biv, plus all kinds of pastels. Completely gone were the soft-sided suitcases of just the day before, with their flexible fabric that travelers could bend to their will and their last-minute packing additions. “Colorways” launched fad-like loyalty, and I—ever the contrarian—recoiled immediately. My dismissal of hardshell suitcases wasn’t solely reactionary though. I am, after all, a professional traveler. I spent three and a half years as a digital nomad prepandemic and have been a travel editor for a lot longer than that. I am fully committed to carry-on only, and I search for the lightest suitcases I can find so that I can pack extra snacks instead of wasting weight allotments on the bag itself. So as I watched my friends and colleagues succumb to the cult-like religion of Away, July, and other hardshell brands, I dug my feet in. Softside forever!
And then LOJEL happened.
The hardshell suitcase that got smart
The Cubo line comes in cactus green (pictured), orange, pink, gray, black, yellow, red, white, and two blues.
Photo by Billie Cohen
As you can imagine, luggage preferences are a frequent topic of conversation among travel editors. (Here at Afar, we’ve been known to enjoy debating the minutiae of travel so much that we made a name for it, Afarguments. Yeah, we’re not as cool as you might think.)
So I’ve heard a lot about the so-called benefits of hardshell suitcases. But those benefits have long confounded me. In my mind, hard suitcases commit a trifecta of sins: They’re much heavier. They make packing space much more rigid. And worst of all, they all open clamshell-style, meaning that instead of having one flap on top that reveals a single deep packing area, the suitcase flops open like a book, creating two thinner compartments on either side. Despite all of this user-unfriendliness, the trend continues and design innovations have been rare.
But then a colleague suggested I try a hardshell that had a new twist. It was the LOJEL Cubo Small carry-on (LOJEL stands for Let Our Journeys Enrich Life). And, she explained, it could be a game changer for me because it opened like a regular suitcase: a top-loading flap that unzips into one big compartment. Could this be the hardshell that finally converted me? Contrarian to the end, I decided to take the challenge—and over the past few months as I’ve used the suitcase for three domestic trips, ranging from three days to two weeks, I slowly started to come around. I know, even I can’t believe it.
Packing: Top-loading makes all the difference
The top-loading style is the best innovation in hardshell cases since they arrived on the scene, and I don’t know why every company isn’t doing it. The flap of this carry-on unzips all the way around, and it stays connected at the narrow end by the wheels. Traditional suitcases hinge in on the long side (as do the other cases in LOJEL’s Cubo line). I loved this switch, and it might be the smartest thing about the Cubo Small. Thanks to this design, I could open the case even when it was in the tightest of spaces, and I could stuff a lot into it, whether I was using cubes, rolling, or folding. The top-load design also had an unexpected perk I’d never considered before: It gave me the option to load the suitcase while it was standing up, stacking one packing cube on top of another like a library and making sure any smaller items were on top for easy access—and they were incredibly easy to access because of the second smart thing about the design of this suitcase: the dual-purpose laptop pocket.
The laptop pocket has a divider flap that opens into the main compartment even when the rest of the pocket is fully zipped.
Photo by Billie Cohen
I’ve seen many hardshell suitcases that have a laptop pocket in front nowadays, but don’t be fooled—those are very different from what’s going on here and not nearly as useful. The LOJEL difference is that the pocket also opens to the main compartment, thanks to a stiff, zippable fabric divider. What’s more, the top third of that divider is a magnetic flap, so you can pop it open to grab something from inside the main space while most of the divider remains securely zipped closed. I quickly developed the habit of keeping my charger and a granola bar behind the flap so that I could grab them without hassle once I got to the airport gate or lounge.
I hadn’t even really overpacked here. The hard outer shell could still close without a problem, but the laptop sleeve became useless because the divider couldn’t zip and stay flat.
Photo by Billie Cohen
The one drawback here, though, is that you can’t stuff a lot into the main compartment because it’ll prevent the divider from closing flat. And if the divider doesn’t lay flat, then you can’t fit anything into the thin laptop sleeve. On two out of three trips, I couldn’t fit my MacBook Air in there at all; and on the third I could only fit it if I took it out of the neoprene case I always keep it in.
There is a compression strap in the main compartment to help with this, but it’s made of nonstretch nylon, and it’s anchored to the bottom of the suitcase in odd places so that it doesn’t quite fit around everything. It wasn’t long enough to strap around my extra clothes when the suitcase was expanded (and barely long enough when it wasn’t), and I was so stumped on how to cinch it that I had to ask a PR person to send me a video. I’m hoping that the next iteration of the carry-on has an elastic, x-shaped compression system or web. Another recommendation: Internal zippers with larger and different-colored pull tabs; the ones between the laptop pocket and the main compartment are just black strings, and they’re hard to find and grab.
Surprisingly spacious
My cousin made me personalized packing cubes for my birthday. They fit well into the Cubo Small’s 37-liter capacity (42 when expanded).
Photo by Billie Cohen
The carry-on is only available in international size (20.9” x 14” x 9.8”), which is a little smaller than the standard carry-on (usually about 22” x 14” x 9”). I get why LOJEL chose that size; international airlines often require smaller carry-ons, and this way, the Cubo works on both domestic and overseas flights. The Cubo does have an expansion zipper, bringing the depth to 11 inches, but that will make it too thick to qualify as cabin luggage on some domestic or international flights, so check before you fly. It weighs 7.5 pounds when empty, which is a lot to begin with (my current softside weighs about 5 pounds) and made the whole thing quite heavy when full, especially if I also had my laptop in there.
All that said, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I could fit into it. The compartment is nice and deep, worked well with packing cubes on one trip and with rolled clothes on another, and it suited my needs for a short weekend getaway.
Rolls like a dream and looks pretty cool too
The Cubo Small has eight wheels (two per corner) and rolls like a dream, seemingly frictionless. I put in no effort to drag it across everything from airport carpet to New York City streets. In a few funny/scary moments, though, the smooth wheels led to the suitcase taking off on its own. On the Brightline train from West Palm Beach to Miami, for example, it rolled out of the luggage stand area from the train movement, and I had to watch it on any floor that had a slight incline.
As for materials, according to LOJEL’s website, the outer shell is made with a 50 percent recycled polycarbonate. The interior lining (which is removable and washable) is a 50 percent recycled polyester blend that’s dyed using a process that consumes 80 percent less water than traditional dyeing processes. The handle telescopes smoothly, and the main zippers can click into a TSA-approved lock by the handle well if you choose.
The price tag of $330 is in line with other brands of similar size and features (Away’s expandable Carry-On Flex is $325; Monos’s Expandable Carry-On Pro is $345), and it comes in a variety of colors. I was given the Cactus, a dark olive green, for this review. I’m not a loud-color kind of person, so this worked well for me. It’s bright enough to stand out on the carousel if I do have to check it, and dark enough to hide small scuffs (and they mostly came off with Clorox wipes).
The verdict
If any hardshell suitcase could convert me, it’s the LOJEL Cubo Small. The top-flap opening is really smart and makes packing simple (and kind of fun), while the exoskeleton provides the perks of protection and easy cleaning.
I think the added weight of the hardshell and the smaller international-style size means I likely won’t be using this bag for anything more than a long weekend (whereas I rely on my regular-size, softside carry-on for all my trips, even long ones). But the top-flap design is so helpful that I’d be happy to add it to my collection—if only to show other hardcase users what’s possible. Ugh, I really do sound like a convert.
→ Buy now: LOJEL Cubo Small carry-on, $330, us.lojel.com
