July Luggage Review: Are These Australia’s Best Carry-On Bags?

Since entering the fray in 2018, Australian luggage brand July has sought to give the luggage sector — long dominated by legacy behemoths like Samsonite and Rimowa — a much-needed design-centric overhaul.

A classic ‘challenger brand’ if there ever was one, the team at July boasts of reading over 4,000 reviews of their competitor’s products to identify every flaw and less-than-perfect element they could find in order to bring to life a line of suitcases that foresee, forestall, and surpass their predecessors, raising the bar across the industry.

It’s no small task, especially when a central part of their mission was to offer all of this at a more affordable price point than their aforementioned peers, whose products often cost thousands of dollars a piece and, so far as July is concerned, peddle “over-price goods with a short product lifespan”.

Claiming to have quite literally re-invented the wheel alongside handles, housings, and polycarbonate bodies, July claims to have “democratised unbreakable and lifelong design”. We wanted to put these undeniably bold claims to the test and see whether this industry disruptor is all it’s cracked up to be. And where better place to start than their flagship range of carry-ons?

Short For Time? Here’s Our Favourite

What We’re Looking For

To understand our reviews and rankings you need to understand the criteria against which we’re rating these carry-ons. Here are the main things we’re looking out for when reviewing any suitcase worth its salt:

• Look & Feel: There’s no vanity in admitting that your luggage is ultimately an essential travel accessory. As such, you want it to look as good as you do, complementing your own energy and aesthetic as you move through the airport, city, and sky. Given July’s positioning as an alternative to Samsonite and Rimowa, this is important.
• Quality & Durability: Not only does your carry-on need to hold up for the duration of your journey — being able to withstand the many unavoidable knocks endured at the hands of baggage handlers and turbulent planes — it also needs the durability to go through this pain again and again, year after year.
• Capacity & Features: It’s important to understand how much can these carry-ons actually hold and what kind of trip are they suited for: an overnight stay, a long weekend, or more. Additionally, what special features do they offer that make your pacing and travelling experience that little bit easier?
• Price Point: How much all of this going to set you back is a central consideration before any purchase. If it’s pricier than a competitor, what are the benefits you’re actually getting for the additional spend? If it’s cheaper than an alternative, are you missing out on anything? Is the brand skimping on essential features? Or have they simply gound the Golden Ratio…

Why Trust Us

Put simply, we’ve been reviewing airlines, luggage, and every aspect of the travel industry we can find for over a decade…

Our founder Luc Wiesman has been a committed world traveller for as long as he can remember and our resident Travel Editor Finlay Mead is quickly racking up a long list of business class and economy cabins, hotels, and destinations that he’s experienced and dissected for your pleasure and information.

Most important, however, is that we actually bought all of these bags ourselves and gave them a hands-on test, taking them with us on our various travels to see how they measure up against the rest.

Firm believers in trying before we buy so that consumers can make quick, easy, and savvy purchases, these are our honest, unbiased, and unfiltered views on how July’s carry-ons perform. See images below of Luc modelling the bags like a pro…

Our Hands-On July Review

Best For Infrequent Travellers: July Carry-On Light

Working from their most affordable to their most expensive carry-on, our first port of call is the Carry On Light. Marketed as “the lightest double-wheel suitcase in the world”, the 1.8kg 32-litre bag deploys July’s ‘SilentMove’ technology and a twin-bar handle to provide an affordable point of entry to a premium brand.

Unfortunately, his affordability is both the best and worst thing about this bag. While the pricepoint makes it a good starter option for anyone who’s going away on an overnight stay — or maybe a two-night stay, at a push – this bag would be ideal for jumping on a Jetstar flight given their ungenerous luggage allowance and the bag’s lighter-than-air design.

However, this is really where the benefits end. Overall, this bag certainly isn’t the prettiest we tried out — the textured finish and lightweight design verged on feeling flimsy and cheap rather than utilitarian, while the handle was the least sturdy of the range, wobbling quite a bit as we moved around — and offers a very basic inside space too.

It also lacks the battery pack you’ll see the others boast and the tiny wheels are a little too shaky to make the abg feel like a durable, heavy-duty option. All in all, this is not one for travel snobs used to the luxury look and feel of legacy brands. However, it could be a perfect entry point for the budget-savvy, short-term traveller.

Best For Weekend Warriors: July Carry-On

July’s signature case, the Carry-On is designed to carry the absolute maximum that your airline will allow. Designed with aerospace-grade German polycarbonate, the curved eggshell design is shored up with anodised aluminium bumpers to ensure your possessions are safe and sound no matter how far you fly.

Not only does this also boast four SilentMove wheels and a twin-bar handle, but it’s also the cheapest in July’s range to offer the much-coveted battery pack. With USB and USB-C docks as standard, this feature — which clicks in and out from a bay beneath the handle with surprising ease — has fast become a USP for July that many have flocked to.

Inside, the case boasts a significantly more complex and well-thought-out interior featuring a heavy-duty Y-strap compression system for keeping your stuff firmly in place during your journey and making sure you can compartmentalize your stuff for easy access and unpacking. In this instance, the battery pack doesn’t impinge on the inside space either, maximising capacity.

While the aluminium panels may get scuffed up easily, they offer a level of protection that the Light model does not and, with the help of a secure zip system, will keep your stuff safer for longer. If you’re looking for a premium case but don’t have the money to hand for a full-blown luxury upgrade, this is a stellar choice.

Best For Business Travellers: July Carry-On Pro

Perhaps the most exciting model in July’s range if you’re travelling for business is the Carry-On Pro. In July’s own words, this is “where style meets function”. It comes in a typically wide range of beautiful colours, allowing you to flex your personality as much as you’re comfortable with and includes a range of helpful features.

Including but not limited to Y-strap compression, stain-resistant lining, a hidden laundry bag and the aforementioned power bank that comes as standard on most of July’s cases, it’s actually the external laptop pocket that marks this one out from the rest and makes it a no-brainer for the business traveller.

Crafted from apparently ‘crush-proof’ German polycarbonate, the external pocket is protected from both the outside and within, where two padded inner pockets provide ample space for a laptop with up to a 15″ inch screen and perhaps a hard drive, sleeve, or notebook alongside it. Effectively, this allows a business traveller to do away with their backpack or satchel, streamlining everything into their carry-on. Big win.

The main drawback of this is that you lose a fair chunk of internal packing space to accommodate both the laptop pocket and the battery pack. Bear in mind this is in a case that’s already a smidge slimmer than the Classic case… However, you do gain a single-combination lock for that added level of security on top of your zip system and the whole package feels pretty premium all-round.

Best Overall: July Carry-On Trunk

Inspired by the 70s but remodelled for the future, July’s Carry-On Trunk takes an absolutely classic design and imbues it with all the mod-cons you could ever want in a carry-on. Sure, it’s significantly pricier and heavier than any of its cheaper counterparts, but we reckon it might just be worth it.

This very good-looking case has enough room for around three days of clothes — Our founder Luc flew with it for a business trip from Sydney to Melbourne, so can attest to this himself — and couples the flare that comes alongside colourful detailing with the security and durability provided by two attache style locks that are both very easy to use and hugely secure.

Feeling much more heavy-duty than the other models — other than the handle which still had a little more give and wobble than we’d like — the trunk is as well equipped for big things on the inside as it is on its smooth, stylish exterior: as well as the Y-strap compression system there are several internal zips for compartmentalizing and easy containment and you only lose a little space to the battery pack.

The wheels on this one are absolutely seamless and the SilentMove tech lives up to its name for the first time. Given the weight of the case, this easy movement is absolutely essential and ensures that the trunk is still our favourite case from the range, capable of giving through the airport for your next business trip or holiday with speed, style, efficiency, and as much heavy-duty flare as you want.

Personalisation, Warranties, and Batteries

Before we give you our final verdict on July’s range of carry-on cases, we just wanted to flag a couple of points that apply to the whole range rather than individual cases…

Personalisation: Increasingly trendy in the travel industry and far beyond, personalisation is a core part of July’s offer. Available on all the cases we’ve covered, you can choose from a massive range of fonts, styles, and colours for your personalisation as well as where on the case it appears (top or side). This is well worth doing as another way of making your baggage identifiable and secure. However, it doesn’t come cheap…

Warranty: Evert July product comes with “unmatched” warranty commitments. If you experience any manufacturing fault whatsoever, July will repair or replace your product free of charge. This warranty is lifetime-long.

Batteries: While all of July’s battery packs have been fully tested and safety-proved by the necessary regulatory bodies and we’ve no reason to doubt their integrity, we always feel obliged to mention that batteries and electric devices can sometimes react strangely, sometimes violently, when taken aboard a plane. You’ve been warned.

The Bottom Line

If you have the budget, the Carry-On Trunk is the far-and-away winner out of all the cases we tried. Sexy, sturdy, and secure it ticks all the boxes when it comes to finding a case that’s perfect for a few days away, whatever your plans or passions.

However, the Carry-On Pro offers some nifty features that business travellers will love and the Carry-On Classic is a perfect baseline option for casual travellers. The only one we’d recommend avoiding is the Carry-On Light as it feels a little flimsy. Compared to competitor products in the same price range though, it still holds up well.

Do they provide a worthy challenge to the likes of Rimowa or Samsonite? Luc said this is “a bit like comparing an apple with a bus”. Ultimately, a brand like Rimowa is in a league of its own, offering a shamelessly luxury item and a suitably eye-watering price point.

July can’t compete with them in terms of luxury, but they undoubtedly offer a very high-quality product at a much more accessible price point, and that’s a big win for travellers everywhere.