Customer Reviews Osprey Hikelite 26

This is the perfect pack for a solid (10miles plus) day pack. Plenty of capacity, useful pockets and the built in rain cover make a big difference for those unplanned rain showers. Best of all, this pack keeps your back cool. The slim design is nice too.

This is by far the best backpack I've ever owned. The suspension system is perfect for ventilation, the material is lightweight and durable, the front pocket and side straps are awesome too. I use it every day for college and have taken it on day several day hikes (has reservoir pocket). I will definitely be buying another one!

High quality bag pack, durable materials, comfort during long hiking sessions. Very light and easy to use bag.

I've had this bag for well over a year now and it's still going strong after everything I've put it through. It's my go to carry-on, everyday, school, ski, hike and, for longer rides, it's my mountain bike bag too. I originally bought it because I could strap a ski on either side but its proven to be capable of so much more. Not a day goes by where I don't reach for it. I can't say enough good things about this backpack!

Love this backpack! On a 4 months backpacking trip now, 1 month left and the backpack has been amazing! Goes on every airliner as a personal item, so no extra fees.

Overall the backpack is great. I've done a lot of research prior to selecting this one. It's highly rate. Unfortunately, the hip buckle was broken on the day I was going to use it for a hike. I'm not sure how it happened. I just put it in the trunk of the car and when I took it out it was broken. We did pack a few things in the trunk. But the quality should be durable enough. I'm quite disappointed at the quality of the buckle. I've only have this backpack less than 2 weeks. I hike every weekend, and frequently long hikes >20km a day. It's difficult without buckling the bag at the hip. It says that their product is a lifetime warranty. But I've contacted Osprey customer service a week ago to seek help and have not heard back. Highly disappointed..

Great pack for day hikes, very happy with it.

I took this pack on a few day hikes and love it so far. The side straps were great not only for the compression but also for clipping water bottles to secure them. I wish there were more internal pockets but get that the simple design maximizes storage space and also keeps the pack light. The rain cover seems to be big for the pack size but did its job well with mud splashes and with waterfalls. I wasn't sure how much to trust the front shove pocket but ended up finding it convenient for stuffing in a jacket and grabbing it again easily when the temperature changed.

I am a huge fan of hiking, in this is a great product for one day hiking. It is very light and very confortable. Any hydration bladder works on it. I think the best accesorie is the pole atatchments. It has a mesh between the bag and the suspension that makes very fresh and not sweaty.

I'm really happy with my purchase because this backpack fit my needs for traveling! At first I was hesitant to get this backpack because it was just 1 large pouch with 1 small open pouch and 1 small zipper pouch. Most travel bags have 3 different pouches and a bunch of pockets to organize your stuff. So I was worried that just throwing all my stuff into one big pouch would make it difficult for me to stay organized but I just used travel pouches to keep certain items together. I was so happy with how much stuff I could fit into this 27L bag! I used to travel with a 22L bag and wanted to upgrade my pack so I could fit more stuff with me. I also really liked how rigid the frame of the backpack is and it will stand up on its own without any items in it. The two outer pockets for water bottles are HUGE, which I absolutely just love. I usually carry a 32 oz hydro flask with me and would always throw it in my backpack which would take up a good amount of space. But with this pack I can place it in a side pocket and save room. I also like that there's a secure strap to the side of the pouch so I don't have to just rely on the elastic of the pocket to keep my hydro flask locked in. The biggest con to me as another review mentioned is the amount of pilling due to the air vent. I loved the idea of the air vent and did feel that it kept my back cool. However whenever I wear any cotton shirts or jackets, the air vent will pick up blobs of cotton. I ultimately decided to keep this bag because I loved how much it could carry and how comfortable it was, but I did notice that I had to be more careful about what clothing I wear with my pack because I'm worried about the pilling.

I have gotten a TON of use out of this pack over the last couple years and I feel like I put it through its paces. I'm a biology student that does field work, I've used this pack as my school bag for the last two years, it's my go-to all weather day hiking pack, my go to foraging pack (I cram a small basket in the bottom to hold more fragile stuff i've picked), and last summer I used it to hike the grand canyon rim-to-rim in a day. In terms of capacity it's perfect for carrying everything you need for a long day of hiking, laptop and books, and anything else like that. I carried a 3L reservoir, food, first aid, socks, and other accessories on the grand canyon hike with room to spare and I never had a sore spot or felt like I was squeezing things in. The way the pack mounts off of your back is awesome especially if you hike in hot weather, wouldn't go back to any other design after that! Now the downside- that small zip pocket in the front- it's convenient because it gives you the ability to separate quick-grab small stuff from the rest of your pack but the photo on the website is SUPER misleading. Anything with any amount of weight placed in that pocket (keys, wallet, sunglass case, snacks, etc) will make that pocket sag down into the pack, and because its not stitched all the way around on the inside, it just kind of hangs inside the pack and gets in the way every time you try to put something back in the main body of the pack. If I have keys in the small pocket for example, the pocket will catch on my laptop every time I try to put it back in the pack. Is it a dealbreaker? No, but if you plan to use this pack a lot it will probably annoy you too. I would still recommend this pack but Osprey might want to take that part of the design back to the drawing board.

This pack is great. I am the kind of hiker that packs for every situation and I have plenty of room. I hike 5 to 8+ miles everyday in every kind of weather. The rain cover is an added plus. It is very comfortable! The only drawback I could list is the wide and not too deep stretchy side water bottle holders. Easily taken care of by using a carabiner to attach it to the straps. I have a Kyte 36 and a Kyte for longer trips but my Hikelite has been going strong over 3 years.

Purchased during a recent sale, I just used the pack for the first time yesterday. Nice size and weight, comfortable to carry, ventilation was just right. I've been using a Stratos 24 from three generations ago, which I absolutely love, but it's just a tad heavy for the day hikes I do in the PNW forests and coastlines. The Hikelight 26 is a very nice alternative, but it's missing the two features of my old Stratos that will keep the Hikelight from being a full replacement: 1) The upper compression strap capture for hiking poles/tools does not actually hold the pole and I had issues with the poles sliding down while I hiked and almost slipping out when I took the pack off. I don't understand why the usual bungee cord keepers that almost all other hiking packs have weren't added. 2) The front shove-it pocket is the same material as the rest of the pack, which makes is less useful and secure as it could be. This pocket was one of the most important features I was looking for, but it simply doesn't work as well as it could. Sure, I stuffed a soft-shell vest in the pocket, but I couldn't do that with my water bottle (a 21oz hydroflask) in the pocket too, or anything else, whereas the stretchy pocket on my older Stratos holds the vest, the water bottle, my windbreaker, and a micro-towel without being overloaded. So, overall, a very nice pack that is comfortable and light, with excellent ventilation, but just short of perfect for me.

This pack is great overall, it is comfortable, lightweight, and well made, no doubt! I really wanted to love this bag, I really did! But it has a serious and basic water bottle issue! The mesh elastic pouches on either side of the exterior of the bag do not securely hold a standard water bottle. I have tried several including a standard 32 oz Nalgene bottle. The issue is that the pockets are not deep enough and do not have enough tightness in the elastic around the upper lip of the pouch to hold the bottle. As a result, the bottles fall out anytime the bag is laid on its side or back. There are compression straps over the side pouches and you might think properly tightened these will secure the bottles but they don't, they seem to be set too low to actually make a difference. If you are never gonna use these pouches for a water bottle, then this may be the bag for you. But if you want easy access to water bottles stored securely in the side mesh pouch and you don't want to worry they are gonna fall out and roll down the hillside, mountainside, off the cliff, or down the street then don't get this bag you will be disappointed.

TL:DR, this is a great (perfect?) bag if you have specifically the right sized back for it to go on (which I don't and neither does my partner). Based on it's design alone, this is the perfect bag for me. Things I love about it: 1. Minimalist, well-shaped, compartments and a shove-it compartment, without unnecessary organizers that add bulk and weight. 2. Excellent suspension. 3. No pockets on the hip webbing (I know some people love these, but I find them unnecessary). 4. Well designed compression straps that allow the bag to zip down to almost nothing. 5. Reasonably stylish. Even though it's a hiking bag, you could use this as a commuter bag if you felt like it. Seriously, I LOVE the design of this bag, and I wish I could wear it. Unfortunately it only comes in one size, and that size WAY too small for me. I'm 5'11" and athletic-ish, broad shouldered/chested. The back length of this bag is just way too short for me. So I tried giving it to my partner to see if it would fit her. She's 5'1", also athletic-ish. It's too long for her. She can walk around in it comfortably, but if she does any hiking that involves scrambling, it rides up and hits the back of her head. Osprey, if you're reading this, please take this excellent design and offer it with multiple back lengths. I wanna buy this bag. For real.

This pack is far better for everyday/trail than Ospreys other everyday do everything packs. It has pole attachments, H20 access, hip belt I can attach a pocket too later. The frame is more suitable to everyday, it isn't huge like the Paladin. It can be easily carried day in day out. The downsides; There are no pockets. The is only the main pocket and the sunglass pocket which is awkwardly deep. LIke Ospreys other bags, the sunglass pocket swings around on the inside and is unprotected. The material of the pocket is flimsy. I doubt it could hold a USB battery pack, or GPS unit. The bag material itself is also very flimsy. Osprey seems to equate light with cheap material. The front stuff it pocket isnt made of the stretchy traditional stretch mesh material which I am hugely disappointed by. This bag is not built to last at all. All i see is Osprey trying to stretch every once of profit from this bag. You can fit a small laptop in the hydration sleeve, but you would need to be careful as the sleeve does concave to meet the needs of the frame. Osprey has the best suspensions in the world, i don't know why they have to nickel and dime people with inexpensive materials and no pockets. It really gets old. I don't know if I will keep this bag becuase of the lack of the stretch mesh material on the large front pocket. For a strict day pack, a bag to bring to the pool too, I would recommend this bag. For an over all grab for a day hike, light commuting bag. I guess I would if you don't need anything fancy.

I picked this to complement my 3 Gregory packs due to the capacity I need at the moment. I'm rather disappointed as it is clear this pack was never really tested properly. I use a pack every day, this one I've used for 2 hours and the major faults are glaringly obvious. I thought at first this pack was a manufacturers 2nd however after checking a retail store I discovered they are all made faulty

I was so disappointed when the zipper on my hikelite went out. I've had it for less than a year and I have to replace it now. Compared to other packs I have had in the past, this is the lightest I've been on one. I loved this backpack and the 4-8 week turn around time for repairs is just too much :( I've always been a fan of osprey and always thought they were pretty quality.

Light weight pack was appealing but started using it and it has an annoying squeak that seems to emanate from the frame. Will try to exchange it.

Use it for day hikes. Thought it was great at first, but with each use I dislike it more. I'm constantly having to pull my shirt down, no matter what adjustment I make. The last hike ruined my $90 Patagonia hoodie after a 4 mile hike. It makes clothing pill like nobody's business.