Best Hard-Shell Carry-On Luggage From Consumer Reports' Tests

The popularity of hard-shell luggage has grown in recent years, thanks in part to marketing by premium brands such as Away and Rimowa. Typically made of high-tech plastic, hard-shell bags are a good option for protecting your valuables. Some models expand in the middle like soft-sided luggage, offering added flexibility when you need more space. (We’ve also evaluated soft-sided weekender bags and travel backpacks in our Outside the Labs reviews program.)

In Consumer Reports’ tests, we put small, hard-shell carry-on bags—basic models—from numerous brands through 31 different evaluations of use, durability, ergonomics, safety, and other aspects of ownership.

To gauge durability, for instance, we filled each bag with fabric until its total weight was almost 18 pounds, and then wheeled it along an obstacle-studded conveyor belt for the equivalent of 30-plus miles. We had a machine lift those loaded bags by their handles 5,000 times. We dropped them more than 3 feet onto hard flooring after storing them at summer and winter temperatures—potentially tough on hard plastic. We left the bags, zipped, in a sprinkler-induced downpour to see what would seep through their zipper fabric. We inflated a large air bladder inside to check how the seams held up. We loaded almost 225 pounds on top and to the side to gauge each bag’s resilience at the bottom of a cargo pile. And we swung a nasty-looking, 17-pound pointed metal hammer twice at each carry-on to see what would happen if, say, the bag accidentally fell from a plane’s overhead compartment onto an armrest. 

We weren’t fixated only on the bags’ strength. We also considered ergonomics: how convenient each hard-shell carry-on was to open, pack, and close, and how well various pockets, flaps, closures, and locks worked. We examined how easy it was for men and women of different sizes to grab handles and straps, and to carry and pull. We checked how stable each bag was when rolled or pulled up steps and over sidewalks, curbs, cobblestones, and dirt roads. Some of the hard-shell carry-on luggage models in our tests have the ability to expand in the middle using designs involving zippers and rip-stop fabric; we checked how much roomier those bags became when expanded. 

And we evaluated manufacturing quality, volume claims, and safety.