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Best of both worlds? We review the Sumo Omni Plus
Brian Ambrozy
September 12, 2008 1:00 AM ET in Tech
A smallish box arrived at ICHQ. The FedEx guy looked kinda pissed, because despite
its size, it weighed quite a bit. Poor FedEx guy.
When I opened the box, there was a lovely blue suede covering and then the familiar hyper-compressed block of high-grade furniture stuffing – strapped tightly into a tiny block. When you cut those things, watch out. The brick expands rapidly into a big blob. If you want to, you can “break apart” the foam chunks in the bag to make it more even. You zip up the suede cover around the bag, and you are good to go. It’s exactly like the Sac.
BUT WAIT – it’s not. There are straps on the side. Curious, I snapped them together. The Omni Plus bent into a weird bean-shaped thing and then it hit me – this is how you get a bag that is essentially a mini Sac to sit upright and give you the solid back support that only the Omni can provide. Genius! Putting two sets of straps on there gives you basically the same configurability as the original Omni.
This ups the ante considerably. I couldn’t have imagined a way to complement the Sumo lineup – then they threw this one in the mix and I thought “Hey, it seems so obvious.”
That said, I think there’s still a great fit for the original Omni. The Omni is WAY lighter and easier to move. The Plus is definitely easier to move than the gargantuan Sac, but it’s heavy. To move it around, you do have to strap it together to keep it more or less “spherical” so you can get a good grip on it. You have to put more effort into finding your “spot” with the Plus (with the Sac too, for that matter) if you intend on sitting relatively upright for any length of time. However, if your intent is to flop face-down and crash out a la Keebler, then the Plus is perfect.
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