Due to a recent (and somewhat questionable) uniform shift for my service, I needed a black backpack. And, out of all I have; did not have a black one.  This gave me an excuse to pick up a pack I have been eyeballing for a while.  I have the TAD EDC Fast Pack and it has been VERY well made and bombproof.  I got it used off ebay, and it lasted through Iraq and EDC for years.  I wanted to go with something smaller this round, so the Litespeed was the winner.

At $240, it is not cheap... but actually on par price wise with some recent offerings by other manufacturers for USA made packs. The specs can be found on TADs website so I will not reprint them here.  I did not get a pic next to the EDC, but the Litespeed is noticeably narrower, but still has length.  This is good because it puts the waits belt around your waist, not your stomach like a lot of smaller assault size packs.

Here is the porn and my observations:



Here is the outside all buttoned up with the beaver tail in place.  Nice and compact.  There are strap keepers for the many straps on the pack.



Here is the back side with the waist belt attached.  The belt is removable and the belt from the EDC or PS can be put on here as well.  There is no frame sheet in this one, so the rigidity comes from the contents of the pack.



More webbing on the sides.  No side pocket like on the EDC.  You can see the pack compresses very nicely.



Velcro panel.  Zipper leads to small admin pouch.



Close up of handle and hydration port



Shoulder pads are lightly padded and covered in webbing.  I would have liked to have seen horizontal webbing here, but this works as well.



The beaver tail is removable, exposing more webbing, and the pocket to carry long/awkward items strapped to the pack.



With a fleece and laptop inside.



Inside holds a 15.4" MacBook Pro.  I do not think a bigger laptop would fit well.

Overall, this is built like a tank.  It is not light weight, but not overly heavy.  While the bigger pack is called the EDC, the Litespeed really seems like the better size for this task.

I do anticipate that it will be bomber like the rest of the TAD packs, and I will update as time goes on.

It moved.

TAD Gear is great stuff.

Good write-up and congrats on your early Christmas gift.

That patch confused me for a minute... My old battalion is the 501 Geronimo.

great review, its a great pack, i like how you can stow rifles in the tail on the pack

i use mine as a range bag to completely conceal my acr

Yeah, it is the Milspec Monkey Bin Laden death patch.